Cara's Birthday Surprise

From Mom:

I'm the worst. I should do a whole post on my awesome Cara. I know I should. Maybe I still will. But at this point it's been almost four months since this trip and I'm lucky if I remember ANYTHING at all.

I got it in my head that my little family needed some Cali time. I also got it in my head that Rachel and her girls needed Cali time and with most of the boys (minus Sam) not being able to come, it meant we could fit into ONE van and bust it down to California for some beach gloriousness. Rachel was a little reticent but desperate found a getaway too. I originally had hoped we could stay with my grandparents in Long Beach, but unfortunately my Grandma spent most of the summer battling complications of congestive heart failure that left her weak and not feeling up for company.

I persevered however and found a cheap room in Long Beach.

I didn't tell my girls the plan. In fact, I only told Siena that Rachel and her girls were coming down to St. George to surprise Cara for her birthday.

Rachel and her girls surprised Cara up in Cedar City where Pete had taken the kids for another attempt at the Green Show (mostly so Rachel's kids could also see it!) Cara was nonplussed. She liked seeing her cousins, but she wasn't totally shocked.

The next day Rachel and I loaded them up in Baymax (after I worked a quick three hours at Red Mountain) and told them that we were going to show the Preslars what fun could be had on the Vegas Strip.

The Strip ended up being quite hot and we did A LOT OF WALKING. So much walking and I foolishly did not bring a stroller. I only brought the beach wagon. MISTAKE. However we survived and we all saw a lot of the Strip. Some of which maybe we didn't want to see, but it was still fun.

Sam and Iva quickly discovered the air vents at the Bellagio and had so much fun letting it lift Iva's dress.

While eating dinner, Rachel and I "decided" to just keep going to California. We told the girls that we found a great deal and tried to make them think it was totally spontaneous. The birthday girl was actually distraught and said she did NOT want to go. She had plans at Fiesta Fun which she was not wanting to mess with. I had to promise her that we would still do that before she was happy.

Mistake number two was my cheap room in Long Beach. We pulled up to the hotel and it was a war zone. The whole outside part of the hotel was torn up. There were huge piles of debris everywhere. I went in to the lobby and was shocked to find it totally in good condition, but obviously newly remodeled. The hotel was indeed open, but this is what the hallways looked like. Totally scary. It was also freaky because you had to have your hotel room key to even get into the hallway which felt necessary because of the neighborhood.

The four kids and I shared a king size bed and despite the fact that I had weaned Sam, I found myself nursing him in desperation to get him to sleep.

The next morning, we walked to the CVS pharmacy to grab some things we forgot before heading off to church with my grandparents. We looked semi crazy with all those kids.

We also burned off a little energy at one of my favorite parks in Long Beach. It's an airplane park. So much fun.

We made it in time to enjoy an 11:00 church service with my Grandma and Grandpa. Which was so lovely. Well...so lovely for everyone else. Sam and I actually spent the majority of the time running around outside making trouble. 

After church, we had a quick picnic lunch in our hotel room. Literally.

We then loaded up the van again and headed for a whale watching tour (the biggest birthday surprise!) out of Newport. Mistake number three! Newport Beach on a Sunday afternoon. There was NO parking to be had. It was disastrous. We ended up walking two miles at a VERY FAST pace to try and make our tour. It was incredible. The kids were all happy and this time I did have the wagon to help carry the smallest kids. My feet still hurt thinking about it.

The whale watching tour was AWESOME. Except for not seeing a single whale. We DID however see about a thousand dolphins which made Emma weep with joy.

Sam was probably my personal favorite part of the tour. He absolutely LOVED every minute of the boat ride. Especially when it got bumpy. Like trying to climb up the side of the boat and jump and giggle and run and squirm. I was half convinced he was gonna go overboard which was slightly stressful, but my face hurt from grinning back at him.

Iva on the flip side hated most of the ride. She actually asked Aunt Rachel (while gripping her tightly) "are we gonna get killed??!" She did eventually see some of the dolphins and even smiled and moved around a bit, but she really spent most of it one heart attack away from a full blown panic attack. 

This awesome sea lion greeted us back at port.

We eventually made it to the beach just before sunset and the girls (and Sam) absolutely frolicked and played and reveled in the California glory.

I had to make a pit stop at the bathrooms and discovered the most perfect restaurant ( that we didn't actually eat at ) but we will have to try eventually!

Cara's actual birthday started a little slowly but we still managed to make it to the beach before the sun was out. (Coastal Fog!) This time we headed to Huntington Beach.

We were quite startled when we were suddenly overrun by lots of red bathing suits. Turned out, Huntington Lifeguards run camps which means LOTS of red bathing suits all over the beach. It was actually fun to watch them play games and learn skills. It also made me really glad I wasn't in middle school or high school anymore and happily married.

The birthday girl in all her glory. (She's so awesome. I can't believe she turned EIGHT!!!!)

Sam and Iva were mostly content to play in the sand. Iva originally went right to the water, but a wave took her out really early and she was DONE with that.

I took Sam out in to the water to really enjoy some of the bigger waves which he loved. Until THE wave. This wave took almost every single person in the water by total surprise. It knocked me over and almost drug Sam out of my arms. My head was spinning and ringing by the time we all surfaced. It was huge. And then Sam was also DONE. No more water for him.

We eventually wrapped up our beach time by walking on the pier and getting ice cream. The U.S. Open surf competition was actually happening right next to the pier and so we enjoyed watching a few surfers take a couple of runs.

 WORN OUT in the car. All but the birthday girl were sound asleep.

That night my grandparents invited us out to celebrate Cara's birthday. It was again so enjoyable EXCEPT for a certain toddler who didn't want to sit. 

The next morning we packed up our hotel room and were getting ready to head out when we really did get spontaneous and found ourselves at the Long Beach aquarium.

All my kids are great...but sheesh. She's REALLY incredible.

Do you like how Sam and Iva are fighting over the penguin and Romney is just done?

We eventually made the six hour drive back home to Utah and had one more evening with the Preslars before sending them on their way...I think. They might have gone home that night, but I don't think so. It was a magnificent trip and I'm so glad the Preslar ladies came. I'm thinking an annual girls trip might need to be a new thing.