Vacation Re-Cap Part II...finally

Man little did I know when I typed up Part I what would happen the next day. So I decided to hurry and do the final re-cap while I am feeling halfway decent and will have to go into the hospital again tomorrow and then feel crappy again for a couple days. So here it goes...

Thursday

Erika and I got to go to the beach for the first time today! My Dad usually uses the time everyone is at the beach to catch up on reading the back of his eyelids but we dragged him down with us. Erika had fun playing in the sand with her Papa and Nanny...She was scared to death of the water and at first wasn't too sure of getting dirty playing in the sand but she soon got over that! If you can't tell she has a total death grip on my Dad's arm when he tried to take her to the water!
That night Trent and my two oldest brothers flew in to San Jose...let me tell you it was fun to be on vacation but I really missed my husband and it was so good to see him! I think the drive to the San Jose airport was the longest 30 minutes of my life!

Friday

Trent and I and my brothers woke up bright and early so that we could be the first in line for the Annual Memorial Day O'Neil store sale. They have amazing deals on expensive name brand stuff and we save our pennies for months so that we can go all out! Trent and I both got a new pair of sunglasses. I got a sweet new purse and wallet, a hoodie, and a cute pair of shoes. Trent got 2 new pairs of shoes and a backpack. Okay so I got a little spoiled apparently! We also got a bunch of free handouts like stickers, lanyards...etc

Here are Trent's sunglasses: And here are mine:Here is the new purse:

And the new wallet:When we got back we went to the beach again but this time the whole family went down. The beach was packed a little more with friends and family so it was fun...and once again we talked my Dad into going down...2 days in one year its a total miracle! Here are some pictures of this beach trip. My brothers dug this huge pit and would put Erika inside of it and she couldn't get out. It got to the point where you could barely see Mike's head when he stood up in it...it was crazy! Erika also had fun playing with my cousin Kathryn this time at the beach. She loved having another girl about her age to play with!That night we just hung out with family around the campfire and of course...fed our faces with junk food galore! Here is Brad teaching Erika how to open and enjoy pistachios!
Saturday

We woke up to the weather being really overcast and not so warm so we decided to spend the day playing around the campground and going on bike rides instead of going to the beach. That night we followed with tradition and went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Erika was freaked out at first and cried everytime we tried to put her on a ride and by the end of the night we couldn't pull her off the rides! She would keep saying "S'more" and "Again". She was being such a ham and would wave to us and give us the silliest looks! She was in heaven!
At about 9 o'clock when she was getting sleepy my parents graciously offered to take her home so that Trent and I could ride a bunch of big kid rides. We caught up with my brothers and hung out with them. It was fun to run around and ride the rides until we felt like we were going to puke! We ended up riding the merry-go-round for about 30 minutes before we went home just to unwind!

Sunday

So since for forever everyone that goes camping also has the tradition of attending a local ward on Sunday and its fun to see everyone all dressed up for church and smelling like lovely campfire smoke! Erika was good...for the most part. My Dad used her as an excuse to take her on a nature walk and attend Primary with her instead of going to Sunday School and Priesthood.

After church we started packing up camp. It is so sad to pack up knowing that it is all over until another year. I look forward to this for months to come and it goes by way to quickly! After dinner we had some family and friends over to help celebrate my birthday. My Mom made my favorite strawberry pie and Kathryn and Erika helped me blow out the candles! I got to open presents too while I was there. It was fun to be able to spend it with my family as I usually don't get to see them on my birthday.



Erika was being a total goof ball again and was standing on chairs and singing at the top of her lungs and acting like she was leading the music..It was hilarious. She randomly started singing the Happy Birthday song while we were in California and would sing it all the time. When we would ask her whose birthday it was she would reply "Erika's" it was way cute. Oh and the other pictures are of Trent taking Erika and Kathryn on a ride around the empty campground on the tarp. They were both laughing their heads off and had a hard time hanging on to their suckers while being whipped around!

After we were all cleaned up we drove back to Rocklin so that we could take off 3 hours of the drive back home and also get showered and sleep in a nice comfortable bed before the long drive home!

Monday

We got up some what early and ate breakfast and then headed off. It was sad to say goodbye! It was so much fun to hang out with everyone for a couple days and I was sad to go back to reality. As we were driving we got talking about In-N-Out and so I made a call and found out that the one in Reno opens up at 10:30. Well we just happened to plan it just right and pulled into the parking lot at 10:32 to find it already packed! We thought we were the only crazy ones to want a hamburger that early in the morning! It was good though and will have to last until we get back!

The drive went by pretty quickly and uneventful thankfully. Mike and Brad came with us and we dropped them off at their car in SLC so that they could drive back to Idaho. They had fun teasing Erika to death and watching her movies!

Thanks Mom and Dad for everything. It was fun to be able to get together as a family and do all the fun things we did! It always makes for great memories!