San Diego

We made it safe & sound to Trek's parents house in Canyon Country, CA.  It was really nice being with family again.  The kids were loving their "cousin time."

We decided to take a trip down to San Diego.  Trek & I hadn't been back since our wedding day & the kids had never been, so we loaded everyone up in the cars & started driving.

Along our way, we stopped at every house that Trek lived in as a child in Southern CA.  He hadn't been back to those houses since he was maybe 9 or 10 years old, so it was really fun to visit them & have him tell the kids stories about when he was a kid.  It's really funny how big/little things were to you as a kid & how you view them as adults.  He couldn't believe how SMALL some of those houses were.  When he was a kid, they were huge.  It was fun for me to see where he grew up.  After exploring we headed all the way down to San Diego.

Our first stop in San Diego was the Mormon Batallion museum.  We had packed some lunches so we sat on the grass behind the museum & had some lunch.  Then we explored the museum itself.  It was fantastic.  I wish more people knew about this museum.  It's completely free & a TON of fun for kids.  There's an interactive tour where the kids can dress up, see cannons, look up things on a computer, pan for gold, wash clothes with a washboard, & take an old time photo.  We learned a lot about the mormon batallion too.  We all loved it.  It was the highlight of our trip down there.

Old Towne San Diego is such a fun place too.  There were SO many flowers in bloom & everything was just beautiful.  The kids enjoyed the freedom to run around & do what they wanted.  We explored all afternoon.

Dad got the most amazing tamale off a street cart there.  It was the best tamale I'd ever eaten.  (Yes, I kind of ate part of dad's tamale.  It was SO good.)

Panning for gold was a blast.  The kids loved it.

And Bladen & Craiger got really into washing the rags.  Bladen said it was hard to pump the water.

The cousins all wanted a picture in front of the cousins candy shop.  

Trek & I haven't been to San Diego in 17 years.  17 years & still in love.

After exploring most of San Diego, we took the kids to the temple.  This was the temple Trek & I were married/sealed in.  This is my castle.  This is my happily ever after.

I couldn't wait to show the kids where our story began.

17 years & even more in love than we ever were 17 years ago.  I wouldn't trade this guy for anything in the world.  He is my world.

THIS is what eternity looks like.  THIS is my eternal family.  THIS is what Trek & I have built together.  THIS is what makes life worth living.

Families can be together forever & this is my forever family.

After visiting San Diego & the temple, we met Trek's brother Talon at Tito's Tacos.  I don't know how their family discovered this place, but it's the Potter place to be.  We always have to eat there when we visit.  And it's as delicious as it was when we first met.

It was a LONG day, but we had a ton of fun.  I'm going to miss CA.

Moving . . .

Moving is so hard.  It really is.  I will admit, I love relocating myself & making new friends & discovering new places, but the actual "act" of moving is terrible.  I get nervous watching people touch my things, not knowing what condition they'll be in when they arrive at the new house.  I hate the feeling of displacement & "nothingness."  But it all works out eventually.

This move was a complete nightmare.  I'm not going to lie.  First they entered in our weight wrong thinking they were packing up 1600 pounds when it should have been 16000 pounds.  Trek called both TMO & the moving companies (there were 7 involved) every day for over 2 months trying to figure out why someone hadn't come for a pre-inspection.  When someone FINALLY answered the week before we were supposed to be packed up, they realized their mistake & it was too late to fix it. We were supposed to have our house packed up on a Mon-Wed, but because they were planning on 1600 pounds instead of 16000 pounds, they were NOT prepared.  They pushed our packout to Thurs-Saturday.  We were supposed to turn over the keys to the house on Friday.  It was literally the biggest mess I've ever dealt with.

Because the moving company messed up, they desperately found whoever they could to pack us up Thurs-Saturday which meant the last pick of all the movers in Northern CA.  And there was a reason they were the last pick.  They were AWFUL.  Not only did I feel like I had to babysit them. . . but they were extremely disrespectful to us & our belongings.  I caught them in the garage playing with my son's drumset, combing through our Halloween costume buckets & even caught them TRYING ON MY COSTUMES.  They broke my Plinko board right off the bat & watching them pack & wrap my stuff gave me anxiety attacks because of how poorly it was done.  When they "finished" & got ready to leave, I found 3 drawers, 1 cupboard, & entire area of stuff they "forgot" to pack up.  

Tylee stopped by for one last good-bye dinner.  We are sure going to miss living so close to her.  We love her so much.

During the entire packing process, the poor kids had to hide out in the bathroom so they didn't bother the movers.  They crammed in there & watched movies on our laptops & iPads.  Poor things.

These movers refused to take apart ANYTHING.  So Trek & I were frantically taking apart furniture & things around the house so they'd pack it up.  As we took apart our small shed in the backyard, we found a treasure trove of Black Widow spiders.  Our house here in CA was crawling with black widows all the time, but this was the mother load.  There were probably 8 large black widows & 5 egg sacks under this shelf.  Ugh.  We killed them all & washed the shed so it would be ready to pack up.

As a last hoorah before I left, I took my 2 really close friends to Alex's Patesserie for some french desserts.  They were absolutely beautiful & tasted like a dream.  I'm going to miss the fancy food you can get in CA.  I love the little shops on Castro St.  They are so fun.  I'm going to miss my friends so much.

FINALLY, we were ready to take off.  The moving truck was loaded, our stuff was gone, we turned in our house keys, & we headed to Los Angeles for 3 days to say good-bye to Trek's family.  We were officially moving.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best dad I know.  I love this guy & all the wonderful daddy skills he has for our kids.  He really is the best dad in the world.

Since the movers were coming the day after Father's Day, we had a very low-key fathers day.  I made his favorite breakfast & dinner & we opened some presents, then finished up the house so it would be ready to pack up & move the next day.

For Father's Day, Trek really needed some new t-shirts, so the kids each picked one out for him.  I love how they picked their "favorite things" for him.

Canyon picked out a Mario shirt

Craiger always says his dad is Captain America
so a Cap shirt is what he got.

Bladen is my Star Wars kid, so Darth Vader was
his choice.

Taya loves everything Harry Potter, so she
picked out a Gryffindor Quidditch shirt for him.

Lo & Trek love watching Jurassic Park together.
She knew he'd been wanting an OLD original
Jurassic Park t-shirt & she found one for him.

Cadence & Trek love the show "Stranger Things."
I hate it.  It scared me so I stopped watching
after 4 episodes.  But they love watching it
together.  She found a weird Stranger Things
shirt for him.

Nancy, of course, sent him a bunch of new snacks & shirts.
They are beautiful spring colors.

And I ended up buying Trek 2 new hammocks for camping.  We are hoping we can hang them in the trees behind our house in Alabama!

Happy Father's Day Trek.  You really truly are the best father I know.