Californ-I-A

At the rate I'm going, a year will have passed before I blog about our vacation. I need to get a move on! I'm going to have to break it up or it will be a marathon post. I have tons of pictures, and of course the majority of them just have to go on the post.

Let's start off with day ONE (well, and the night before our official first day):

Since we had a 7 hour drive, we decided to break up the first leg a bit and stay the night in Barstow. All went well until we walked into the restaurant to get some dinner and Jacob had to hurry and rush out before he lost his cookies. Yep, Jacob got sick our first night. The girls and Ty had some sort of a 24 hour bug earlier in the week and they ended up sharing the love. THANK HEAVENS the kiddos were mostly over it. The exception was Ty man who still had some pretty loose blow-outs in his diaper, but he was acting just fine. So we took Jacob and Ty back to the hotel (it was fortunately late enough and Ty was ready for bed) and then the girls and I enjoyed a rousing evening at the local....drumroll please....McDonald's. Followed up by a trip to the local WalMart to get some medicine for the sick and afflicted. Little note to self: the Barstow McDonald's and WalMart aren't exactly places I care to frequent. Especially with small children. Oy!

At least we all slept well and got up the next morning ready to OFFICIALLY start our vacation. And fortune smiled upon us as Jacob was slowly feeling better by the hour.

Are you ready to come out of your cage, Ty? Dear hotel, thank you for the accommodation.



The girls are ready to go play!


Kenna and Allie just loved the sliding doors to the closet in the hotel room. Kenna called it the "elevator" and was having a blast pretending to go to different places in it. Before we left, she and Allie hopped in, closed the doors, and came down to the right floor so we could go.



And of course the first of many lift-out-your-arm-as-far-as-you-can-to-take-a-self-portrait pictures. Many attempts didn't get too much more out of Kenna who thought she was absolutely hilarious and loved to look at the different faces she would pull.


See ya later cockroaches, we are off!


Seatbelts...check. Movie started...check. Ty has his blanket...check.


This is CLASSIC Ty. He absolutely loves his blankets. Not just any blanket, however. It has to be a blanket with a tag on it. I have no idea where this came from, but he finds the tag on the blanket and holds it up to his nose. It's not complete, however, until he has two fingers from his left hand in his mouth. Always the same fingers, same hand.


Fingers:


And the tag:


Now we're all set! "Ooooh," I said. "Look at that handsome fella driving out on those wild California roads!" Of course I had to take a picture. Jacob LOVES it when I do this. Loves it.


Then he said it was only fair if I took one of myself too. Ah, what the heck, we're on vacation. Smile Britt!


It only took less than two hours and we were at our destination: Huntington Beach, California. Aaah, we could smell that fresh, humid sea air. Huntington Beach was a pretty area. Here we are waiting to meet up with our friends, Bob and Wendy. They are a couple who live in California, but have a ranch just down the street from us a bit that we help take care of. In a crazy twist of events, we have come to know them very well over the past few years and they have become good friends. They are leaving on a humanitarian mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (how cool is that?!), so we came down to hear them speak in Sacrament and make a California vacation out of it.

We drove over to Wendy's daughter, AnnMarie's house and met up with the grandkids. From there, Jacob and Bob decided to go do some manly stuff which included taking a stroll in Bob's beautifully restored 1937 Ford hot rod. Jacob even got a chance to get behind the wheel for a bit. He loved it! I was so sad we never got a picture of it. The kids and I followed AnnMarie and her 4 kids to an Aquarium in Long Beach. The 30 minute drive was beautiful, and it was so fun to catch glimpses of the ocean on the way.

The Aquarium was awesome and we saw some really cool creatures. Walking up to start our aquarium adventure:



Kenna really wanted to see some sharks, and was so happy to find this exhibit:


She was slightly upset they didn't have the really BIG sharks (yikes!), but they got to touch some of the smaller ones.




These are big enough for me! They were also in with some huge rays of some type.






What do you think Ty? Will you remember any of this? Will you remember that you and the stroller had some quality bonding time on this trip?


They also got to touch some starfish, anemones, and some ugly gooey giant sea slug-type thing that Allie was really fascinated with. I just decided to be the cheerleader and keep my hands out of the water.



We saw some really big jellyfish:


And got to touch the little safe jellyfish. I am proud to say I finally decided to reach in and touch the jellyfish too.


Don't forget the really big crabs. Anyone bring the melted butter and fresh lemon?


They had giant tanks full of different kinds of fish. In some of the tanks, scuba divers who are hooked up to a microphone dive into the tank and do a little interactive show for the audience. It was really neat. Ty loved being in a place where he could get out of the stroller for a bit and crawl around.

We also got to see seahorses, shark eggs, coral, seals and sea lions, and whatever else I've forgotten. After we saw all the interesting sea creatures we could handle for the afternoon, we all headed back to Huntington Beach and met up at Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner. Oh my was it ever a HIT! The girls absolutely loved it. It really is a perfect set up. The entrance and exit are both monitored, and kids can't leave without matching hand stamps with their parents. So, the girls loved the freedom of running around to the different games and just stopping in every so often to get more coins.




Kenna especially fell in love with a little booth where it takes a black and white picture of you sitting in a little car next to a statue of Chuck-E-Cheese. She kept trying to come up with different faces she could pull at the camera, then would run back to us giggling and show us the picture. We ended up with quite a few of them!

Let us not forget little Ty who was able to get some more crawl time in. On the gross dirty carpet of Chuck-E-Cheese. Sigh. Who needs to walk when you can crawl in all the filth, really? Someday our little munch will start to walk. Someday.



Then, off to the hotel to get some sleep for day two of vacation.

FOUR!

*sidenote: this post is actually happened before the first day of school post but I can't figure out how to get them in order. Oh well.

After much anticipation and excitement, Miss Allie Rae is officially a 4 year-old. And oh my is it ever wonderful to be 4. On the morning of her birthday she looked up at me sort of perplexed and, with such wonder that it made me giggle, said, "Am I 4 today? Am I really 4?" It was as though she had been bestowed with some mystical super power.

Allie LOVED her day. She actually ended up going to a birthday party of a little primary friend who had turned 4 just the day before. But, she seemed perfectly fine with it and had a ball. They had rented a large inflatable slide that they hooked up to a hose so it was a giant water slide. Needless to say, the kids were in heaven. Kenna was MORE than relieved to find out after the party was over she could come and slide on it for a bit too. Let's just say Kenna had a bit of a hard day letting Allie have all the limelight. Really hard. Apparently my prima donna doesn't like to share the spotlight. It was good for her to let her sister shine for the day. Now we frequently hear her ask how long it is until her birthday.

Allie decided that for her birthday she wanted to go swimming as a family at the aquatic center. We ended up having a really good time. Even Ty loved swimming. We grabbed a hamburger on the way home, then got home just in time to get on jammies, have a quick piece of cake, open gifts then get to bed.

Here is her cake. We decided to make a rainbow cake. Eh, it works. She's still young and easy to impress. Which is really beneficial for her mother who is just not cake decorating savvy.


And of course the presents. Take note of Kenna who is trying her darndest not to rip in and open them all herself.


She got a snuggie blanket just like her sister did on her last birthday. It was a perfect choice, she loved it. Really, life is just not complete if you can't snuggle up to a fleecey delight of Tinkerbell every night.


Happy Birthday to ME!


Time to make a wish and blow out the candles- I think it may have ended up being Kenna who actually blew them out. Once again, she struggled with the whole not-her-day thing.

Happy Happy Birthday to our Allie Gal! Our family is so blessed to have the sweetest little 4 year-old in our home.

FIRST

It's the time of year for school to start, and this is our year to join the ranks! Our FIRST official day entering the school system.

Kenna was SO excited for school. My alarm went off in the morning, and soon I could hear Kenna rustling out of her covers in the top bunk and she quickly made her way down the ladder and in to my room. She jumped on my bed and asked, "Are we going to be late?" I assured her we had plenty of time. It made me think of the scene in Finding Nemo when Nemo is flopping up and down on his dad yelling, "First day of school, first day of school, get up dad, get UP!"

Still not sure where the past 5 1/2 years have gone- but here we are, the first day of KINDERGARTEN! Here's the cutey patutey right before hopping in the van to head off. She said, "Here mom, this will be cute." Aaah, yes it is.

I, the devoted and loving mother that I am, have been really anticipating this first day of school. Mostly for the fact that my little lady is ready. I am ready. Her father, however, is NOT. He has been agonizing over this day for months. His first baby girl is "leaving the nest," as he puts it- Entering the world and there's no turning back according to him. It has come much too fast for daddy. He made sure to wait to go into work until we had her safe and sound in the school for her first day. The night before he sat down with the girls to give them some sweet snuggles and then gave them both a Father's blessing to help them on their new schooling adventure. (Stay tuned for Allie's first day of preschool. Let us not forget it is of EQUAL importance to our little 4 year-old). They LOVED it. These girls are blessed to have such a great father.

Here we are dropping her off at school. I ended up enrolling her at a Montessori school we have down here, so I hope it works out well. The school has quite a system in place where the parents pull up to the curb and there is someone waiting to gather up the little kiddos and take them into class. So we gave her some loves and sent her on her way into the school. Way to go Kenna D!

Another milestone down for the record books! It is so incredibly enjoyable as a parent to watch my little ones grow and progress. I try to just enjoy every little step we take and make the most of the moments we have. Sometimes I do much better at this than others, but her daddy is right- in a mere moment our little ones won't be so little anymore and will really be leaving the nest. Guess I'll just keep them tucked under my feathers for as long as I can. And just for the record, I may or may not have had to push back a tear or two. You'll just have to wonder.

And to leave you with a smile, here is another little bit of sheer enjoyment:

Otte Family Reunion

It was nearly a 7 hour one-way trek, but every mile was worth it to spend a few days up at my Grandma and Grandpa Otte's house for a family reunion. I have so many wonderful memories from their house while I was growing up, and it is almost nostalgic for me to go back there. It is so fun to see my children playing and running around at Grandma's house. The Otte crew consists of Grandma and Grandpa, their two sons (one being my dad) and then all the grand- and great-grand kids.

We all met on a Friday night and set up camp. Most of us stayed out in tents in Grandma's backyard, and it turned out pretty good.

Here are the girls playing in the tent with cousin Claire:

Ty found this little net on the ground and was in heaven toting it all over the grass:



Grandma and Grandpa live on the outskirts of town, and behind their house is a huge field of sugar beets. The Otte's love a good round of target shooting! I am proud to say I hit my fair share of clay pigeons. Ya, me and the old 12-gauge are good buddies. Here are Uncle Matt and Grandpa, with Christian and Blake checking out the action:


The lineup of spectators. A wild, rousing crowd. Jacob, Aunt Steph, Kenna, and Cousin Olivia:


And here is Mr. Sharpshooter himself- Jacob. He's actually a pretty good shot, I must say. I think he gets it from me.

My Grandparents have a wall of pictures of all their grandkids as they were growing up. I LOVE this, especially as it hasn't changed one bit from what I remember as a little girl. Even the wallpaper hasn't changed! Oh so many good memories:


In the living room, there are two of these lamps that hang from the ceiling. When they are turned on, little beads of oil flow down the diagonal metal pieces. I would stare at these as a little girl and loved to watch the oil drip down.

We had such a fun time catching up on everyone's lives, and of course sitting and laughing well into the night. Even Grandma Donna stayed up late with a few of us chatting. I could sit and visit with my Grandparents for hours. They truly are two of my heroes, and I love to hear their stories and perspective on life. They are such down-to-earth, good people and have taught me so many lessons over the years.

The next day was spent playing and laughing. It is SO fun to watch all the kids play together! Here they are loving the pool and slip-n-slide. Grandma Shelly even cracked out the snow cone machine!









Here the girls are with cousin Ethan writing on the chalkboard at Grandma's house. This is the very chalkboard I would sit in front of and write on for hours when I was little. It was so fun to see my girls do the same thing. Allie wanted to make sure I got a picture of her name she wrote, too.



And of course we had to get a picture of all the great-grandkids. We weren't missing any of them, it was so fun! (Except for Ty who is MIA- a nap was imminent and couldn't be put off any longer).

Everyone else stayed one more night until Sunday, but since we live so blinkin' far away (and much to my teary dismay), we decided it would be best to go to Logan on Saturday night, then finish the trek on Sunday. And, many thanks to my over-achiever as a husband, we also had to venture an extra hour and a half over to Blackfoot, Idaho to pick up some cattle before our said trip to Logan. To be perfectly honest, adding live animals into the mix had me less than pleased. I'm quite sure a grumpy wife had Jacob less than pleased. But, alas, we managed to get the blessed creatures after a much-longer-than-expected layover in Blackfoot and rolled into Logan around 12:30. That is a.m, mind you. Sometime in the venture Saturday night, we also learned that Jacob unexpectedly needed to be back for a church meeting Sunday afternoon, so we got up and headed right home. We made it just in time for Jacob to shower, throw on his suit and head to church. I'm tired again just writing this.

All in all it was a great weekend with family. We even got to stop in for a bit to visit the Israelsen's too before we headed up to the reunion. They are always so very good to us. We learned once again how incredible family is, and also that family reunions and extracurricular farm adventures really don't mix. I suppose you live and you learn, eh?

Oh, I must mention also: On the way up, we got to stop in and visit Jacob's sister and her husband and cute little girls who are just a half hour-ish away from my grandparents. It was so good to stop and visit seeing as though we don't get to see them very often. She let us borrow the CD's of the book The Undaunted which is about the hole-in-the-rock pioneers from Southern Utah. Jacob and I are still listening to them and are absolutely hooked. It is such an amazing story. We lay in bed at nights and listen for a bit before going to sleep. We did the same thing a year or so ago with the story Fire of the Covenant, about the Willie and Martin handcart companies. They are both by Gerald N. Lund. He is an incredible author and brings those pioneer stories to life. It brings a whole new depth and appreciation to all they went through while trying to cross the plains and establish settlements in Utah. If you need a good read (or a good listen) I highly recommend them!