A Trip to California and the 4th of July

We headed to California for the Fourth of July weekend again this year.  We spent most of our time there at the beach.  Skyler is the only one young enough to still want to spend his time there digging with the sand toys.  The older three kids have really taken to the body boarding.  They would stay for hours and never want to leave.  It was perfect beach weather while we were there but crowded with the holiday weekend.

We were planning on running the Surf City 5K on the morning of the 4th.  Kaitlyn and Jared decided to run the 5K this year instead of the children's race.  Jason pushed Skyler in the stroller so we could all participate. The stroller race started 15 minutes after the rest of us started the 5K.  Jason was worried about getting the stroller through all the walkers but got a police escort to clear the way since he was leading the race.  The course was an out and back so we all got to pass each other.  Kaitlyn and Jared loved seeing Skyler and Jason pass in the stroller (twice since he caught up to them before the end.)  Jason won the stroller race in 18:35.  I won the women's race in 17:56, only my second time breaking 18 minutes for the 5K.  It's not very often Jason and I get excited about trophies but the awards (for first place only) were these awesome '49 Woody model cars with surf boards on top.  Skyler loved the cars and was a little disappointed when Jason didn't let him play with it.

Andrew ran a great race and got a new PR.  He finished in 19:26, his first time breaking 20 minutes!  He was sixth in his age group, behind mostly older runners.  Kaitlyn and Jared walked most of the 5K so it took awhile.  Jared was pretty miserable from a rash he had gotten at the beach the day before but he made it to the end anyway.  Kaitlyn took her time until the end but was excited to sprint to the finish around the last corner.

Here are all the happy and not so happy finishers.  I'm not sure Jared loves running as much as the rest of us!

We stayed to watch part of the parade.  Skyler loved the horses, cars and fire trucks.  When we got to a big break in the parade he was getting tired and we went back to my parents' house to watch the Brazil World Cup game and let Skyler try to nap through all the cheering. 

My brother Spencer and his girlfriend came over for a barbecue.  Then we headed down to the beach for more body boarding and stayed until dark for fireworks.

Saturday evening we went to the Angels game.  It was hat night and the kids were all excited about the free flat brim baseball caps they were giving out.  Jason kept trying to get his to bend and the boys were laughing at him.  Jared was interested in the rally monkey the boy in front of us was holding so I bought him one.  Apparantly he didn't like the one I got him though because he handed it back to the lady working at the store after I bought it for him.  It was an exciting game with the Angels rallying late and batting around in the 7th inning.  We also got to enjoy a firework show after the game.

All too the weekend was over and it was time to go home but we had a lot of fun!

4th of July in California

Our summer was already full of vacations but I decided we needed to go visit my parents while the kids were out of school so we took advantage of a long weekend off work for Jason and went to California for the 4th of July.  We arrived late at night on the 3rd after a long day in the car with too many stops for the kids.  Andrew, Jason and I were up early the next morning to run the Surf City 5K in Huntington Beach.  I wasn't expecting too much out of the race since I had done a hard workout Tuesday evening and then spent all day Wednesday in the car.  I forget how nice it is to run at sea level on a flat course and it was quite a bit cooler than the summertime heat in Utah.  I was hoping to be able to keep up around a 6 minute mile pace but I felt great running the first mile in 5:50 and just hoped I wouldn't die.  A 5K really feels like a sprint to me now compared to all the longer races I've run.  I kept my pace pretty steady and was thrilled to finish in 18:15 in third place for the women.  That is only 13 seconds slower than I was running in college!  I won my age group and Jason placed third in his.  Jared and Kaitlyn ran the mile after we finished our race.

Then we stayed to watch the parade at our friends, the Taylor's, house.  It was a nice morning for a parade although our kids were slightly disappointed to find out Huntington Beach doesn't throw any candy in their parade.

After a barbecue with the Taylors, we headed to the beach in the evening for fireworks.  It was such a fun place to watch fireworks.  They lit up the pier and the ocean.

 We were happy to meet Spencer's girlfriend, Janelle.

As always, Jason had to catch a baseball game.  The Angels were playing the Red Socks.  It was a great game although the Angels ended up losing.  The kids didn't mind too much.  There were fireworks at the end of the game and the highlight of the night is when the rally monkey came out and the kids were shown on the jumbo tron!

At the end of the weekend, Jason flew home to get back to work and I stayed with the kids a few more days.  We took several trips to the beach.  The kids decided this year they were more interested in body boarding than building sand castles.  Skyler loved the water.  It was a little cool the last few afternoons that we were there but that didn't stop him from wanting to be in the water.  When he was up on the sand he would scoot on his bottom down to the water.

Jared and Andrew digging a hole to China

One afternoon we went to Hollywood to the Griffith Observatory.  I think the kids were most excited about seeing the Hollywood sign on the mountain although the observatory was fun and had a lot of neat exhibits.  The kids really liked the ones that had a scale that told them how much they weighed on different planets.  They were excited to see a moon rock and get to hold an asteroid.

In front of the observatory at Griffith Park

Kaitlyn would weigh about 9 pounds on the moon.

Jared and Einstein

It would be a beautiful view of LA if you could get there on a clear day.  Maybe after a rain storm...

We finished at the planetarium just in time to hit rush hour in LA.  So instead of sitting on the freeway going nowhere, we found a Roscoe's in Hollywood to get dinner.  Jared had been dying to introduce us to this fried chicken and waffles place that my brother, Spencer, took him to in June.  The good thing about Roscoe's is that it was only a couple miles from where we were.  The bad thing is that in that couple miles we drove out of the really nice part of LA into the part you really don't want to be in.  We felt safe enough during the daylight though and everyone enjoyed their meal.

After dinner we realized that we had parked the car near the walk of stars and decided the kids would have fun looking at the sidewalk.  We told the kids to stay close since it isn't the safest part of town.  The kids liked finding stars that they knew.  They were determined to find Johnny Cash.  I had no idea how they knew who he was or why they wanted to find him.  (Since I'm not a country fan, I didn't even know who he was.)  Luckily for the kids we stumbled across his star.  They were thrilled!

We wanted to make it to the Chinese Theater where the hand prints and Star Wars actors are.  Unfortunately we had no idea how long the sidewalk went and how far we were from there.  Dad got tired and we ended up leaving him on a park bench to rest.  We kept going thinking, it must be the next block.  Two miles later the kids legs were awfully tired and we finally made it only to find that part of the sidewalk blocked off for construction.  The worst part was that it was starting to get dark, all the people were disappearing and we had a long walk back to the car.    I had to almost drag Kaitlyn to try to get her to hurry back.  The later it got the scarier it got and I started to panic.  My dad was sitting on a park bench, ALONE, (later he told me he was fine since he had his cane) and my mom and I were walking through a scary part of LA with the four kids.  I was never so glad to get back to the car.

It was a great week.  All too soon it was time to go home.  I was a little nervous about the drive home but the kids were fantastic and it wasn't bad.  In fact, they do much better in the car when we are there all day than when they get in for 10 minutes to drive across town.

4th of July, ect.

By the 4th of July I was feeling like I wanted to get out of the house a little and the kids were really ready to get out and have some fun.  Jason got up at the crack of dawn to take his new wheels for a spin up at Snowbasin with some friends.  His Father's day present was a fancy new mountain bike.  Later that morning he took the older three kids up to Middle Fork Canyon east of Huntsville to fish and hike.  I packed a picnic and headed to Huntsville with Skyler.  Alright, packing a picnic actually ended up being a stop at Kentucky Fried Chicken but it still counts, right?  This was Skyler's first trip outside of Ogden and he spent the entire exciting trip...sleeping.  It was fun to go celebrate the holiday as a family.  I should have taken some pictures but I guess all I was up to was stopping at KFC so you'll have to take my word for it!

After lunch, Kaitlyn came home with Skyler and me and the boys went back up to Snowbasin for some more mountain biking on some easier trails.  Jason came through on a picture here.

Later that evening we had a barbecue and went down to Riverdale to watch the firework show.  Skyler didn't like all the noise from the fireworks too much. It probably wasn't our most exciting 4th of July but everyone had a fun day. 

It's been a hot summer in Utah this year and the kids have been enjoying the pool trying to stay cool.

The kids finished off their season with the track club.  Here are pictures of Jared and Kaitlyn.  I didn't actually get any pictures of Andrew.  I'm obviously not doing a very good job of juggling a camera and a baby at the same time.  Andrew ran a 6:05 mile this year!  That's impressive for a 6th grader considering the amount of training he has been doing and that it was run in the heat!