First Week of our Trip.

We left Gabe's birthday party last Tuesday night, about 8:45pm, to set out on our long drive. A stop at Paradise Cafe & Bakery in Bountiful eased our growling stomachs. If you haven't eaten their, try it next time your in that area, it's amazing! We had changed the boys into PJs back at the Layton Classic Fun Center, so we were ready to drive all night long. Braxton and Gabe settled in nicely, but we soon realized that again Tristan was not going to let this trip be easy. Every time we stopped to switch drivers or get gas, he woke up and screamed until about 5 minutes before our next stop. The two older boys found a way to sleep through it, Colby listened to his iPod, and I found a set of earplugs that I bought on a whim before we left North Ogden, smart move on my part. Colby finally decided that he was going to drive the majority of the trip, just to avoid waking the little bugger up again. This was one reason I was happy for Colby's weird sleeping habits, he was wide awake all the way until about 5am. Do you know what is so wonderful about having all boys? When you have passed a bathroom stop, or the gas station restroom is broken and all locked up, you can just pull over inconspicuously and let them drop their drawers. It's such a relief! We arrived in Simi Valley at 7:20am their time. A car full of sweaty, cranky and sleepy people, just to find out that the hotel messed up and didn't have our room reserved for Tuesday so that we could check-in Wednesday morning, like they told us they would. Nope, we had to hang out until 2pm before we could unpack the car and shower. So, we crashed in on our friends the Toones' just as they were getting ready to leave for their last day of school. They left and we napped on their couches until the Hotel called Colby to say our room was ready. What a day! I ended up dropping him off at work, then coming back to get settled into our home away from home for the next two weeks.

That evening I had a dinner date planned with some friends from my previous ward. We were all in the Young Women's presidency together before I moved, and we have a tradition that we follow when I come in town. We find sitters and hit my favorite Mongolian BBQ called Wok-n-South, after we gorge ourselves there we head to the Cheesecake Factory in The Oaks mall for some dessert. It was a fun night, though I have to apologize to my girls, I was so tired. I kinda just stared off into space and listened to their chatter.

Thursday me and the boys hit the beach. We met our friend MaryAnn there and soaked up the sun and surf. We had so much fun, and had a seagull try to take off with our ENTIRE bag of giant Cheetos. Tristan had left a couple of unattended cheetos on our beach blanket and the gull gulped them down quickly. He decided that those were heavenly and waited until we were down by the water for his next venture. He actually got off the ground with the bag in his beak as I chased after him. I ended up just trashing it, he had pecked a bunch of holes into it, trying to get to the cheesy good stuff. We all had a good chuckle over it and Tristan kept chasing any gull saying, "Naughty, naughty." Braxton and Tristan fell asleep on the way back from Malibu, but Gabe just chattered on talking about his day and the 3 tunnels we drive through on the way. We stopped in Thousand Oaks to drop off some money to a teenager that watched my kids a ton for me last August. She was here to attend high school for a year, and was heading back to Mexico the next day. Tristan loves his dear Allejandra, and she was so surprised to see him walking and so big.

Friday we loitered around the room, did some shopping, and then hit the pool after nap time. Pretty easy going.

Saturday we headed off to the Underwood Family Farm in Moorpark after we dropped Colby off at work. It was the busiest we had ever seen it. Tristan was glad to be somewhere that he could walk everywhere. He is also my animal lover, so he was in heaven. Braxton and Gabe were excited to ride the Cow Train and the large electric train that they have there. The cow train was actually fun for all of us though. They took us on a tour of the farm behind a tractor. We saw all sorts of fields of berries, and fruit trees. There was this great wall of sunflowers too. It started lightly raining as we were playing at the playground so I loaded the kids up in the car with a movie while I bought some fresh produce to make our lunch with. We always look forward to fresh fruits and veggies after the farm. We napped again after lunch and then I dropped them off at the Toone home while I went to attend a stamp camp. This was something I looked forward to monthly when I was selling Stampin' Up! A bunch of ladies get together to stamp projects that are prepared already, eat and chat with each other. It's a blast, although the name is a bit corny. Braxton was invited to sleep over at the Toone's home with his friend Lucas, so when I was done stamping I just took the other two back to the hotel and tucked them in.

Father's Day we slept in a bit, since our breakfast at the hotel is served until 10am on this day of the week. We also got Colby all to ourselves finally, he had been going to work between 9-9:30am every day(including Saturday) and coming home anywhere between 10pm and midnight. That is a heavy work week for him. We went to pick up B after we ate, and gave Colby his Father's Day gifts there. Then we visited with Rob and Eliza and kids until we all decided to head to the Thousand Oaks mall for some lunch and checking out the renovations made since our last visit. It's gigantic and gorgeous. Back at the hotel we got in the pool again.

So far today, I have washed dishes, gone to the laundromat, hit Costco, and cleaned up all the crap scattered all over our room. It's an easy going day of recovery from a week of chaos. I will post again when there is more to talk about.