California or Bust!

Well, I guess I am writing this over a month after our big family trip to California:( Considering all that is going on, I'm going to count that as a success:) Let's see how short and sweet I can make this....hahahaha..  Here is the link to the photo album if you just want a summary in pictures:)

Friday, May 16th, we were finishing packing up, loading the car and heading to the Twin Cities to stay with my aunt and uncle, Bob and Shelley. It was a wonderfully crazy day as we had some garage door repairs being done, a landscaping quote being done and my Dad came up to actually do some electrical work for our association:) Luckily, Dave got home nice and early and we were able to make it all work! We were packed, house and dog taken care of (house/dog sitter for the week), said goodbye to Dad on the way out of the neighborhood and happily hit the interstate. 

5 minutes into the drive to the Cities:)

We made good time, stopped to eat in Woodbury:) and then got to Bob and Shelley's house. I love it there, so peaceful and so much to see. We unloaded and figured out how our sleeping arrangements would be (often a puzzle to figure out what configuration works best) and soon Kate was playing Barbies with Shell, Dave was working on getting Collin asleep and I was watching the Twins with Bob and catching up. Since we had an early flight, we hit the hay early and prayed Collin would sleep well:) (he did!) 

Bob was our chauffeur in the morning and after finally getting the car seats out of the van, we said goodbye to Bob at the curb and headed into the airport! We did great, here is what we had with us: Three large checked bags, two backpacks, Kate's rolling carry-on, one stroller, two carseats, one purse and of course Kate and Collin! I think that was all. We could get everything up to the counter because Kate could push one of the large rolling bags. Collin stayed in his car seat in the stroller as well. We flew through check-in and started heading to our gate. We were pretty proud of ourselves, and it was rather adorable seeing Kate rolling her little bag through the airport:) 

She was a pro!

Getting through security was trickier, there was just so much stuff. We had gone over everything with Kate ahead of time, so that helped, though they said she didn't need to take off her shoes. So glad I battled her with her shoe choice cuz I thought they had to come off! Our bags went through and then they grabbed our big stuff (car seats and stroller) and hand checked them off the side, and then they let us go through the regular metal detector thing, not the big one. Kate went through fine and Collin actually thought it was fun and walked through himself (Dave and I and the nice TSA workers thought it was adorable:) Of course, it took us awhile to regroup and get everything back how we needed it, but again, pretty smooth! Our gate was right there, not long treks anywhere. Dave took off to get us some coffee!! and I stayed with the kids and watched the plane at the gate. Pretty fun and we tried to let Collin run around as much as possible. One trip to the potty, one diaper change and we were boarding. I was anticipating glares from other passengers but surprisingly most were really sweet. 

Daddy splurged and got her a hot chocolate.
You can stop looking so grown up anytime, Kate. 

Learning what happens to get a plane ready

We didn't pay for a seat for Collin, he was technically a lap baby, however, Southwest allows you to bring his car seat and give him a free seat if the plane is not full and our first flight was actually quite empty! What a great way to start the trip. Car seats have to be in a window seat, so Collin was by a window, in his car seat with Dave next to him and an empty seat next to Dave. Kate was in her car seat directly behind Collin (window) with me next to her and an empty seat next to me! Plenty of space, Kate was excited about flying, Collin fell asleep. Sweet! We are amazing! Where else should we jet off to? :) 

The flight was short and sweet, soon we arrived in Kansas City. It did take us awhile to unlatch the car seats, get our bags together and get back through the aisles, but we were in no hurry. At the end of the gangway, there was Gma Bobbi! Pretty fun to run up and see her there. She helped us make our way down to our next gate. Gpa Ron was there, reinforcements! We grabbed some food, let the kids run (probably the best use of having grandparents, having a person to just follow Collin, keep him safe but let him move). It wasn't long before we were boarding again and of course, right as we are gathering our stuff to move, Collin has an epic diaper. Dave just put him down right there and changed it. Sorry people at the gate waiting to board, but seriously, you didn't want us changing that on the plane:) 

Fresh and clean, we boarded and filled up two rows, this flight was full, so Collin's car seat was checked at the gate and he was on laps. We had Ron, Bobbi, Dave and Collin in one row with Kate and I behind, and another man next to me. I had packed multiple surprises...toys, treats to bring out slowly to try and keep them occupied. They were in Kate's new rolling bag and she wasn't allowed to look inside - how cruel! Bobbi had done some as well and it worked for most of the trip! Collin did get tired again and we weren't able to get him to fall asleep and so.....yup. Meltdown. Screaming, flailing, not happy. It was pretty awful for us, we felt bad, we couldn't help him. Dave was good and just tried to hold him and keep him calm. The people didn't seem to be too agitated, though obviously this is their worst nightmare. Many were parents and understood a bit, here's a tip = always pack your headphones!!  :) Kate did have to go to the bathroom and Dave also won the chance to take her to do that. I love you, Dave.  :)

But we did finally arrive in San Diego! Aunt Becky met us at baggage claim and Laurie too! The kids once again were pretty antsy and wanted to move. Dave went off to get the rental van and eventually we headed up to Temecula in two cars. We had both kiddos and they almost immediately fell asleep. Perfect! 

Ron and Bobbi had rented an amazing house in the hills around Temecula. It was very beautiful and fun to see the avocado groves and all the citrus trees growing, but I will say that I did not enjoy the super curvy, hilly road we had to take to get there! I spent the majority of the trip in the third row of the van and...uff da:) Anyway, the house was amazing. I didn't take any pics of the house when we arrived, I was pretty excited to get our stuff inside and get things set up so we could feel at home. 

Collin and Daddy checking out the backyard

The "backyard!" Hot tub, pool...gorgeous!

It didn't take long and we had family arriving to hang out! Aunt Becky was so amazing and brought up all kinds of groceries and supplies for us throughout the whole week. I won't be able to write up all the days in detail but here is the general way things went: 

We've arrived, Laurie and the kids get to playing and catching up...

The Super Aunts with a couple kids:)

Saturday (the day we arrived) almost all the family was able to come up and hang out. Becky and the cousins had brought up some toys so we had lots of fun things for the kids to play with. David, Carolyn, Julia and Anna Willett were able to stay with us that first night, and on Sunday, even more family arrived to visit. Sunday was the nicest day and it was the only time that anyone got in the pool! And the only ones brave enough to do that were Alexander and Kate:)  and poor Tim who was elected as the responsible adult to join them:)

Oh, I'd better give the rundown on who we were visiting or who was visiting us! 

Aunt Becky (Bobbi's twin sister!) and Martin Stahl live in Temecula. Their four daughters and their families all spent time with us: Katie, Dale and Paige (2yrs) Brech live in Arizona; Carolyn, David, Julia (3yrs), and Anna (8 months) Willett live in Orange, California; Kristin, Tim, Alex (5yrs), and Thomas (15 months and born the exact same day as Collin:) Woods live in Temecula; And Kellyn Stahl whole lives in Temecula! Whew! We also saw Bobbi's uncle, Irv and her cousin Mike. 

We managed a whole family photo!

Monday we went to Disneyland!!! Ron and Bobbi agreed to stay back and watch Collin. Aunt Becky came up to the house and watched Thomas there as well. It sounds like they had a pretty great time! Thank you grandparents! It is always fun to get some special one-on-one (or I guess one-on-two) time with your kiddos and I was so excited to have this whole day for Kate. Laurie joined us to see Disneyland through her 4-year-old niece's eyes:) 

We met up with Tim, Kristin, Alex, Kellyn, Carolyn, David & Julia at Disneyland. Quite the crew! Our first stop was Space Mountain:) and then we needed to get Kate to the castle, she could see it and it was killing her not to go there right away. She loved the castle and Aurora's story (we haven't watched it yet). Aurora was also the only princess we spotted walking around the park. At the castle, Dave noticed the Bibbity Boppity Boutique, and was hooked. Honestly, Kate wasn't really sure what it was, but Dave decided his princess was going to experience being a princess! So, we bought a dress and then had her go back with her "Fairy Godmother-In-Training" to become a princess:) She was pretty apprehensive about it and wasn't sure about all the attention. She broke down a bit right at the end, the big reveal! But once we got back outside and we were headed for the teacups, she perked up. While we were riding the teacups, she lit up and we saw the magic of Disney in our child's face:) Amazing. 

One of our favorite moments.
Would have been a little better if Dave wasn't spinning it so fast. In my opinion:)

We rode the teacups (twice), the carousel, Dumbo and Casey Jr. train. It was a Monday and the lines weren't too bad, but there were a lot of school buses and what looked like end of the year school trips there. Another highlight was meeting up with David, Carolyn and Julia (and the Woods') at a little restaurant place near the kid rides. They happened to be sitting at a table that was right next to the exit for the Anna and Elsa meet and greet. Oh. My. God. We could wait in a four hour line to meet them (and hope she would do it and not panic or get too shy. And I think they actually closed the line cuz it was too long) or we could sit comfortably and see them when the curtain was pulled back as someone exited. What Kate spotted them, she lit up again! I was very careful not to make it so blatant that we were trying to see them (I didn't want to get in trouble or have them adjust it so we couldn't see) but amazingly, the curtain was held back extra long once or twice and Anna and Elsa looked over and saw Kate and Julia standing/sitting there and they smiled/waved/said hello to them! The Disney worker guy was even smiling and seemed like they thought it was cute. Oh my gosh, what an unexpected treat:) I was thrilled. Then another mother noticed and brought her kid over, practically blocked the exit and was blatantly trying to have her kid do the same. She got in trouble:) 

Teacups!

Kate did really well during the whole day, we actually didn't purchase anything while we were there - food or souvenir, besides the princess stuff at the beginning! We stuck around for the parade and it was totally worth it. Kate was up on Dave's shoulders and she was able to see all the princesses, Mickey and Minnie...so fun to see her smile and scream out the character's name she was seeing next. After the parade, we left to find some very late supper. The Willett's decided to join us and we went to a Mexican place on the way home. Kate and I passed out on the ride back to Temecula:) A wonderful day and a lifelong memory!

ps - this dress was a glitter bomb. We are still finding glitter everywhere. 

On Tuesday, Katie, Dale and Paige came up to visit since Paige had been sick and missed the days before. It was a wonderful, relaxing day with good conversation and some fun out picking oranges from the trees in the front yard. Bobbi had picked some grapefruit earlier in the week and made fresh grapefruit juice, Laurie and I had hiked around and picked some oranges another morning, but this morning we went down at got some oranges and some Cuties! Yes, they had a Cutie tree. So fun. 

Kate and Gpa with quite the harvest!

On Wednesday,  Ron, Bobbi, Dave, Collin, Kate and I went down to Temecula for some breakfast and strolling around Old Town. After that, we met up with Woods' and Brech's for some time at a park. We split up and Ron, Bobbi and Laurie hit some wineries while Dave and I and the kids did a maintenance stop at Target:)  We grabbed some frozen yogurt and then drove out to Temecula's wine country and visited Miramonte Winery - a favorite of Tony, Tara and Mom and Dad's. After coming back home and dropping the kids, Dave and I had a date that night!  

On Thursday, Laurie, Dave and I finally got our butts up to the Santa Rosa Plateau and started on a hike. Well, we didn't make it far before Dave hurt his ankle. There was a loop in the trail and he took off running, we heard him fall/yell/swear and ran back to find him. Sprawled on the trail and very much hurt. The rest of that day Dave, Ron and I spent in the new and very nice Temecula Valley Hospital:) That evening Kristin hosted us all (everyone!) at her lovely house. A yummy meal and fun time playing outside for the kids.   

We visited the beautiful Temecula E.R., don't miss it on your next stop in California!

Katie entertaining the kids at Kristin's

Friday was beach day!! (And my birthday:) we loaded up and headed down to Camp Pendleton near San Diego.  Del Mar Beach is this wonderful place for members of the military and their families (Martin is a retired Navy chaplain). I was excited to go for many reasons, one of which was this was where Tony worked prior to Okinawa and I hadn't been able to visit him there. 

My "big kids" at the beach:)

It turned out to be a really nice day out there (I was a bit cold, but I always am) we had rented some cabanas and so that was really nice, especially with all the kiddos and my handicapped husband (on crutches). We were also close to bathrooms and our cars! We had a great time and it was topped off with very special homemade cupcakes for my birthday made by pastry chef extraordinaire Kristin. Yummy.....

The drive home from the beach was....an adventure. But we finally made it:) and we had to pack up. Since Dave was lame:) I had to tackle it all myself. Well, that might have happened anyway;) It took me quite awhile to pack up, but Kristin popped in to talk while I was holed up in the bedrooms packing, thanks Cousin!

Saturday was for packing, cleaning and goodbyes. Kristin came up and picked up Laurie earlier in the morning and the rest of us went down to Becky's for a quick visit/goodbyes/some doughnuts:) 

Let's just say it was a very, very, very, very long travel day back to Wisconsin. I didn't feel well, Dave was on crutches, we had Ron and Bobbi's help as far as Denver, and we got home around 1:30 am. Another thank you to my Uncle Bob for picking us up at the airport late on a Saturday!  That was a huge help. It was so nice to be back in our van:) Collin did NOT sleep much in that ride back ?!?!? and had a rough night adjusting back (thus I did too:) but the next night he figured it out. 

Thank goodness we had Memorial Day weekend to help us slowly transition back to reality, we definitely needed it! It was also a happy surprise that spring/summer had arrived in Wisconsin while we were gone. It was warm! A slight bummer was departing the Midwest which was pretty consistently stuck in the 50/60's, California was cool for us (high 60's, low 70s) and back home it was in the 80's! Oh well, that wasn't the true purpose of the trip:) and it has stayed warm ever since we got back.


A week of memories and quality time with family - what a treat! For many more additional photos....click HERE! There are actually even more, I need to get some off of Dave's phone and I haven't yet downloaded pics from Ron's camera....good grief! I think we took about 500 photos during the week between us all:)