Cali Vay Kay

Josh, Brittney, George, Gentry, Chase and I went to California the last weekend in July. We left our kids with the grandparents. They spent the first two days with Grandma and Grandpa Mecham and then our parents met and they traded the kids and Kenny and Con spent the last two days with Grandma and Grandpa J. I was feeling guilty for leaving the kids but they had so much fun and were given so much attention that I doubt they realized that we weren't around. McKendry would have loved Sea World but there is no way I will be taking her in the middle of the summer! We roasted but it was a great day.

Night 1: I say night one because we decided to leave Wed night and get to California late that way we would have most of Thursday to hang around. We left Utah about 7 and decided to drive to Vegas before we stopped for dinner. Gentry and I wanted to ride the rides on the Stratosphere. We got about twenty miles into the drive and we heard this loud whistling sound in the van. We rented a van because we didn't want to take two cars or cram all six of us into one car. George called Enterprise and they said we could go to the airport to trade vans so they dropped us off at the Stratosphere and went off to get a better ride. Gen and I went on all three rides and loved it. The X-Scream was fun because we were the first ones on the ride so when the ride went right over the edge and then stopped fast we could really see the ground. We saved the Big shot for last and it was a fun ride but as we were going to the elevators to go up to the ride a HUGE group of teenagers engulfed us. It was horrible. Just think of a cross between Valley Girls and Gutter Mouths and you have what we waited with for twenty minutes. They were giving us a headache but oh well. Gen and I loved the Big Shot!! We also got asked twice if we were twins. That makes me feel good because I am six years older then her! We stopped at IN and Out Burger for dinner and got to California about 1:30. The worst part was that when Britt and George went to the airport to trade vans the people told them that we could so Britt unloaded everything and then as George was about to sign the papers the guy saw the reason way we wanted to trade and told George that we couldn't because it wasn't a life threatening reason and we would have to wait until we got to California and our rent a car branch opened! George was not happy about it but ironically the whistling noise stopped on our way there.

Day 1: We got up and had banana pancakes that Shar made us and decided to go to San Clemente beach. It was a really busy day at the beach but we found a place and unloaded all our stuff. We wanted to try to go Boogie Boarding and I didn't think that it was going to be too hard. I got worked! I got hit so hard with some waves and I had no idea what I was doing. I decided I was just going to swim and get some exercise. I guess I swam too far out because I was swimming and thinking to myself that I really wasn't going anywhere and then I thought maybe I am stuck in a rip tide. I had read somewhere that if you are ever stuck in a riptide you should swim parallel to the shore until you get out of it. So as I started to swim parallel I look up and there is a life guard full on Bay Watching it towards me. I asked him if he was coming to save me and he said yes. I asked if I needed to be saved and he told me that I was stuck in a rip tide and that it was pretty strong that day. I grabbed on to his red floaty thing and we seriously only went like five feet and I could feel the sand under my feet and told him that I could just walk so he let me and swam off to rescue someone else. When I got to the beach and told everyone what happened they had no idea what I was going through and they were watching the lifeguards go after someone else! I could have drown without them even knowing for who knows how long. It was a good day at the beach and we didn't get too sunburned but George got a pretty bad burn on his back.

That night we wanted to go somewhere good for dinner and Josh wanted some good seafood. Nick and Shar recommended this place called The Beachfire Grill. It was really good but expensive. Luckily Britt decided to donate the $100 bill that she found the night before on the ground at a gas station in Baker. She has eagle eyes cause Gen and I walked right past it earlier.

Before we went to dinner we stopped at a mall so Josh could get some things to put on his glasses that would keep them on his head for the water park that we were going to go to on Sat. Gen and I have been wanting to buy ourselves a hat for awhile now and we found these at Anchor Blue. Britt bought one as well but she was sitting in the front of the car so she didn't make it into the picture.

Day 2: We got up bright and early so that we could be at Sea World when it opened. That was mostly my idea but I wanted to be sure we saw everything and made it to all the shows. Josh and I had been the only ones that had been to Sea World before and I wanted everyone to see everything. The first thing we did was ride the Journey to Atlantis roller coaster. I knew that we were going to get wet but I didn't realize how wet we were going to get. Josh and I got the worst of it but everyone got something but it was fun. After that everyone went to the Polar Bear exhibit but Josh and I stayed outside to dry off instead of going into the freezing exhibit.

We all had to have our pictures taken in the penguin board!

These are the sweet glasses that we got to wear for the 4-D show of Sesame Street.

I have to throw a picture of Shamu into the mix!

Gentry's new boyfriend.

We thought that this sea turtle was fake until it started to move and startled us pretty good.

The only thing wrong with this picture is the fact that everyone is holding the star fish out of the water! As we were leaving the tide pool area there was a big sign telling everyone to not take the star fish out of the water because they wouldn't be able to breathe! Hopefully they didn't die after we left them.

Gentry and Josh should have watched and learned from Chase.

This was us at the end of a long day of racing around to catch every show and see every exhibit.

That night we went to a Padres vs Giants game. It was nice that PetCo Park is only eight miles away from Sea World. Our seats were behind left field. It was a pretty good game complete with a dancing chicken, broken bats, ballpark hot dogs and nachos and a couple of annoying guys that yelled at the Giants left field player so of course with us being Giants fans I had to yell some encouragement to Fred Lewis. Good thing I'm not very loud though! He He..

I had to do a collage of all the pictures I took of Josh and I. I have mentioned this before but I love self portraits!!

Day 3: We went to the Wild Rivers Water park. My cousin Shar's father in law runs this water park and it is so fun. I'll call him Uncle Gregg because he hooked us up with so much free stuff. We got a little cabana were we could put all our stuff, free lunch that was delivered to us and free tube and body board rentals. I wish I would have took pictures but there was just too much stuff to do and rides to go on and I didn't want to worry about breaking my camera. They had a wave pool that you cold just ride body boards in and that was alot of fun but I still got worked by the waves. It also had a separate wave pool. My favorite rides was probably the tamest. It was a slide that had three lanes and you raced down it in a double tube. The heaviest person had to be in the front and when I went down with Chase the first time I told him to pick the first lane because it had the least amount of water at the very end and I wanted to try and make it up the ramp at the end. Of course Chase and I won and went all the way to the top of the ramp. The lifeguard at the end even seemed impressed with us and every time we went down that ride and Chase was in front and he went in the first lane then you made it up the ramp. A guy was asking Chase what his secret was. Another favorite was the Surf hill. There were seven lanes and you raced down on yoga type mats. So fun and I kicked butt. There was one ride that was called the Bombay blaster and it was basically a fast straight ride that went under ground and shot you out into the water. I had water shoot up my nose and my eye. It stung so bad and I had water leaking out my nose for the rest of the day. Chase got some serious speed because he was like three feet from hitting the edge of the pool and there was even some bleachers that people could sit on and watch you get shot out of the tube and the were once again impressed with how far Chase could go. It was so much fun to run around and act like kids and not have to worry about kids. There is also a great little kids area that I know Kendry would love so hopefully one day we can take her there before it gets torn down and we have to wait for the new one to be built. That night we got some Mexican food and went back to Shar's in-laws that we were staying at and played games. I didn't make it too long because I was falling asleep at the table. We crammed so much into the time that we had out there but it was so worth it.

Day 4: We woke up and drove home and then drove to Beaver for the big trade off. My parents met us to pick up Chase and Josh's parents met us to give us back our kids. Connor was so excited to see Josh. It was really cute and I'm glad that Kenny acted so excited to see me or I might have felt a little jealous. I still did a little bit though. We were so happy to see our kids and get to have Kendry give me as she calls them "huggzies and smoochies". I will take those any day.

Thanks so much to Shar and Nick and his parents for letting us stay at their house and for the fun times that we had. It was awesome!!!