Cali Time & Family Time

Our Cali trip with the Cannons was so much fun. They were so sweet to let us come play with them for a few days, and we sure did play! 

Sunday was laid back and fun to celebrate Anthon's birthday. 

On Monday we did Harry Potter world and a lot of the rest of Universal Studios with Shelley and Clayton. I loved watching Camden watch the animal show, holding Westin's hand on the Harry Potter ride, trying all three temperatures of butter beer, seeing Bennett use a "real wand," watching Bennett + Clayton + Westin hold hands and have fun together, and chatting with Shelley. Also I'll never forget Camden on the Studio Tour as he tried to sort out what was real and what wasn't, and Bennett's scream on the dinosaur ride when Michael said, "Whoa, there's a real one!" Haha they are so much fun.

On Tuesday we did the beach with Quinn, Shelley, and Clayton. Michael took the boys out on a kayak ride first thing, and Shelley and Quinn and Clay saw some dolphins on their ride! We ate donuts and snacked and played in the waves, and I'll never forget when Michael decided to go help a guy who was trying to fill a bottle with ocean water without getting his shoes wet and it turned out to be our good friend Christian from Jerusalem. The most joyful coincidental moment that was no coincidence. We tried to get the kayak out one more time and I failed at getting on through the waves... next time! Asher LOVED sand. Ate it. Laid in it. Stuck his face in it. Crawled all around in it. He crawled straight for the water so many times and I feel like if we didn't intervene he would have just crawled on in and tried to swim straight on toward the horizon. I also keep laughing remembering when Camden asked me where daddy was, and I said playing football (behind us). Next thing we know, our clingy-water afraid-daddy's boy-never far away from us-kiddo is full on sprinting down the beach while I'm nursing Asher. Shelley and I pause our chat and watch him thinking, what is he doing? I felt sure he'd come back because Camden NEVER strays far. But he ran, and ran, and ran, and Shelley got up and ran after him. Then I noticed a guy playing football with a dog WAY down the beach and realized Camden was thinking that guy was Michael. Then when he realized Shelley was chasing after him, he only ran faster, yelling, "Not you! Daddy!!!" It was free entertainment for everyone along the beach, and Shelley did manage to make him understand where exactly Michael was, and he came back to the people who love him. Kids are wild.

Then Wednesday we did one more walk past the busy freeway bridge where trucks honk for the kiddos, to feed the horses some carrots, past the fire station, then home to load up and hit the airport. We got to sit together on our flight home and it was a smooth travel day back to Denver then Fort Collins. Such a good trip and we are grateful to have family that we love being with so much.

We got the boys back in school for a couple days and then Friday we picked up Grandma and Grandpa from the airport! We had the best weekend with them. We grilled burgers Friday night and ate outside during the last warmish week of fall. Then Saturday we toured the Noosa dairy with them, watched the BYU football game (yikes), the boys rode bikes to Sprouts with Grandma and Grandpa, then we hit a pumpkin patch where the boys loved shooting a corn cob cannon and running through a corn maze. 

Sunday the boys did a great job in their primary program, then we rushed down to Katie's and had fun celebrating Jack at his birthday party. It's always so fun to see our 7 little boys together!

Our week was full of fun and family and we just felt lucky to get all that time in with people we love.

Showing his parents how fun the Wordle, Quordle, and Worldle are.
We each do all three of those every day and our kids love watching them.