Family Vacation Recap

 Well as most of you know we never made it to Pensacola :( :( :( . We were flying as "stand-by's" which means you get on if there are open seats, if not........tough. And boy was it tough to fly like that with Gregory and Gracie, Park the car, tons of luggage and not enough arms to carry kids and bags, checking in, waiting in line, security, waiting for the flight, not making it, baggage claim to get our bags, and throw in a couple of tantrums and me literally screaming Gregory's name across the entire baggage claim at midnight because he just ran off into a sea of people, well you get the point. After two days of that we were EXHAUSTED, I didn't even have a second to take a picture of all the madness but its okay I will spare you the messed up hair and bags under the eyes, uh oh wait that's normal for me. ---Moral of the story, my patience grew tremendously and communication with my husband was kicked up a couple of notches from that experience.


Since we were now twiddling our thumbs and Adam had officially taken a week off work we had a dilemma on our hands, what to do now? We threw around a couple of ideas but ultimately we stayed local and made the best of it, here is what we did:


Day 1- Park!

We had a family outing to a local park to fly an awesome kite we had.

Then we had a visit from Papa, he received a running welcome!

Off she goes!

Day 2- Road Trip!

We went on a road trip up to Santa Barbara with Adam's parents to visit Uncle Henry who was hospitalized. It was very comforting to see him smiling and joking in the hospital bed, I felt like he was going to be home in no time. And praise God he is home! After seeing him we went to lunch at Palazzio, a little Italian place I used to work at while living in SB.

Best lunch I have ever had with my in laws due to the fact I think it is the most I have ever laughed with them!

Looking just like Daddy

Day 3- Magic Mountain!

What can I say, these pictures pretty much sum it up, we had a great time~and I realized I wasn't young anymore=broken back. :) :)

The Finale-


 The rest of our vacation was spent in our back yard fixing it up. Most of you probably wouldn't classify that as vacation but spending time with my husband and kids for a whole week was pure bliss. We were on a mission to get the backyard looking nice for the summer and we did it~and the kids helped too!

                                                                        
                                                                    Before-nothing but dirt

                                            After- avocado, lime, lemon, tangelo, and peach trees

                                                                        

                                                            Before-empty garden and weeds

                                  After-nice compost and a happy garden full of fruits and veggies

We had some amazing helpers along the way and the best part of it was they worked for free!!!

"Papas truck" according to Gregory.
It was actually Adam's truck from when he was a kid.
Special thanks to Papa for letting us borrow his actual truck to make all of this happen. 

Taking a break

Making a run to Lowes

Look at the wonder in his eyes as he looks at his Dad.

 As if the dirt wasn't heavy enough Gregory thought he might help.

After the week was up we felt very accomplished and pleased with the finished product. It was a great time and a wonderful vacation.