Vamos A La Playa

As I mentioned, when we left Bakersfield for a few days in L.A., we stayed in the temple apartments. This was lovely. What a place to live for a few days. Scott and I were both able to do sessions and other work in the temple. Even though we have temples very close to us at home, this made it so easy to get to. And living in an apartment is much better for our family now than a hotel room. It was a wonderful.

Same tree we took our wedding pictures at - a lot can happen in 8 years!

Only thing that wasn't wonderful was that we didn't bring utensils. We got to the apartment tired and hungry and this kid wanted his mac n' cheese. I searched for anything to act as a spoon and ended up with the plastic connector thing on the lemon juice bottles. It worked.

 In pajamas and ready for bed.

Because it was cloudy and chilly on our first "beach day" we went over to The Grove - a fancy shopping center that Laura loves. Brie and Ava loved it too because we found The American Girl Doll store there. Wow. They were quite impressed and now have their complete Christmas list planned out for Santa.

Most exciting to Scott and I was that we came upon a new found treasure called "The Farmers Market". It was awesome. We can't wait to go back. There was every kind of food imaginable offered outdoors at umbrella covered little tables. Our kind of place - we will be back.

The last day before we started our drive home I was walking over to the temple and saw the clouds clear and the sun come out. So afterwards we packed up and went to the beach. We had a windy, but sunny day playing in the sand and water.

Started off with a little Diddy Riese for lunch. Delicious. . . . and then again for snack and late night snack and then lunch the next day. Their cookies are soooooo good. Yes, I am doing Weight Watchers, thank you.

 Beach dude.

 Building a sand castle  . . . that Zachary just waited anxiously to stomp on.

 Loving the sun.

 Buried alive.

Zachary attempted to bury Brie like daddy did. Ended up with him just throwing sand on her face over and over. Fun in the sun!

 Ava, once again, did not like the beach at all. There was just too much sand for her. It got in her eyes and mouth and she spent a lot of the time completely covered and huddled under a towel to avoid it all. Until "Lady" the lady bug came along. She loved this bug and was so happy that Lady never left her. We thought Lady must have really loved her too. Until she started saying things like, "Lady has crumpled up legs." and "Lady's wing is broken." Well, it gave her something to do at the beach.

 My beach fun was spent just trying to keep Kate out of the wind, sun and sand. Oh and taking the pictures.

 Ended it all with dinner at Bubba Gumps and then started our drive to St. George at 7pm. It was all worth it. It was a good day.

 After sleeping at Grandma's house in St. George, we continued on the next morning to home. This is how things go for the youngest of four I guess. She was crying and fussing, but we were packing up. You can see the little tear in her eye. Poor baby. We were all glad to be home again later that day.