Central Coast Vaca

This week! We were all together. All week. For our own little family vacation.

This is the first time I've looked at vacation through Westin's eyes and saw the vacations I remember from growing up. And honestly, from that I just want to say, thanks for all that work you did that I never knew about, mom and dad.

Haha but seriously. I'm grateful I never knew about it and grateful my kids don't worry about it now. That's their right as kids. Backseat bliss. I can't tell you how much I LOVED riding in the backseat looking out the window growing up. Especially at the dark sky nights between Deseret and Cedar City after a trip to my grandma's house. Or red rock days on our way down I-15 as close as Zion or as far as Disneyland. When you ride in the backseat you are safe and with your people and growing and experiencing and things are taken care of and you are taken care of. I'm so grateful for my backseat days and grateful to be making those days for our family now.

All that to say, we had lots of high highs and only a few low lows this week, and that's a vacation win!

Monday:

We drove from Fresno to San Luis Obispo and Michael went to a meeting while I took the kids to an awesome park. They had a hill there with cardboard for year-round sledding, and Westin climbed that hill countless times. It is so fun that these boys have each other to play with and explore with. I'm usually on the side nursing Camden these days (or sometimes wearing him and joining in the fun) but I love that they always have each other! After that we picked Michael up, grabbed tacos, walked around downtown and the Mission, then headed to our hotel and set up three little beds. Three! Three kids. Still hits me sometimes. I packed breakfasts and lunches for us for the week and we got settled into our time share type hotel, which had a separate room for a bedroom which makes ALL the difference with kiddos and early bedtimes. The boys went down early and Michael and I and Camden had a chill night together.

Tuesday:

Michael had to go to a time share presentation in the morning -- this guy. Because of going to that presentation and doing a quick report, we had three free nights right on Avila beach, $115 of travel money, and $100 of food money that could be used at local restaurants for our trip. Add that to our packed lunches and breakfasts and our time spent at parks and beaches, and our first half of our trip didn't cost us a dime. He's the best. The boys and I played at a park nearby our hotel, then Michael picked us up and we went to a local barn/harvest festival spot. The boys fed goats, petted dogs, played on tractors, saw cows, and picked out an olallieberry cobbler to take home (similar to blackberry, which if you know Westin, you know he was stoked about this). From there we ate lunch at our hotel, then hit the beach for a walk before driving to the pier for more walking and fish & shrimp tacos for dinner. We saw lots of seals off the pier. Michael and I could watch animals all day. I feel like our kids should be the same, but they get their fill before we do :) That night we put the boys down, then watched This Is Us with cobbler and ice cream and I was so content. Even with accidentally buying an $8.00 PINT of vanilla ice cream to go with our cobbler. (I ran in a store while Camden was crying and grabbed the first vanilla pint I saw, none of them had prices posted, and it ended up being sheep's milk lactose-free ice cream from some fancy small business and honestly, it was delicious -- but all the money perks I listed first is all that kept me from crying about $8.00 on a pint of ice cream. #residency).

Wednesday:

We woke up and drove to Montaña de Oro State Park for a coastal walk/hike. Bennett took his bike and Westin opted to walk, and we saw tons of otters and big waves. I love watching pelicans fly like fighter jets over the water and otters just snacking on their backs. It wasn't our most blissful hike in terms of kid complaints and bathroom needs BUT the scenery more than made up for it and I'm obsessed with carrying sleeping Camden in the Ergo or my wrap. From there we drove to Morro Bay, ate lunch by the water while Bennett took a nap in the car by us, then walked all together along the docks and looked at boats. Then we checked out some submarines outside the maritime museum, then dealt with some more bathroom drama. Let's just say I've been packing around extra clothes for Westin and Bennett in my diaper bag for over a year without needing them, but that was the day Bennett's outfit came through for us. That kid. Threenager life hit right on his birthday, I swear! But oh we love him. On our way home from Morro Bay I ordered pizza, Michael dropped me off to pick it up, and I met the boys two blocks away at the park by our hotel to eat dinner and play. It was the perfect way to end the day. Westin asked multiple times that day when we were going to finish the berry cobbler, so that happened when we got home. I love that kid and his grown up love for food.

Thursday:

We could have called the trip here, broken even, and headed home with a nice vacation under our belts. But we didn't want to go home. So we didn't. We drove up Highway 1 toward Monterey, our favorite spot in California. On the way we checked Hearst Castle off our bucket list and oh my goodness, I was so blown away by it. That indoor mosaic pool or the roman pool outside, his treasures from Europe and just the overall vision of the place executed by his architect Julia Morgan... it was all so fun. And can I just tell you that we left our car in the parking lot with nothing on us but three kids under 4 and a sling to carry Camden. And we then spent four hours on two shuttles, a 60-minute tour, a 40-minute movie, and a couple museum walk-throughs -- back to our car at 3:00pm. No snacks, no diaper bag, no distractions, nothing. I was so proud of my kids. The 60-minute tour had us both a little worried because once your'e in you're in and there was only one other small child in the whole big tour group. But Camden slept (with some convincing from me) and Bennett's melt downs were maintained (with some convincing from Michael) and Westin was an angel (with some convincing from his inner, older Westin that keeps blowing us all away lately). It wasn't the most fun for our kids but I am so glad we got to see that iconic castle. Maybe someday they'll remember it and they'll be glad they went once upon a time. From there we stopped at an elephant seal lookout point. That was the reward we'd been promising the kids to get them through the long castle experience, and within minutes there Westin tripped over a parking spot curb and gave himself a bloody nose and dropped his piece of leftover pizza in the dirt. And if you know Westin loves berries and cobbler you probably also know it's hard to get Westin back on track once he's off. He was inconsolable. Michael and I ended up taking turns strolling up and down the viewpoint quickly to catch the seals, then hitting the road again for the rest of our Highway 1 drive. Minutes after that, all three kids were asleep. They slept soundly the whole time until we hit Andrew Molera State Park. I opted to skip it and ride the three naps the rest of the way to Monterey but Michael felt like it was our last chance to hit that state park and that the boys would love running around some that day. He was totally right. We woke everyone up, and the boys even brought their balance bikes on the one-mile hike to the beach, so we were super speedy. Camden was a little sad to be woken up and taken straight on a hike, but I power walked to that beach and fed him by the water and all was well. Then we made it back to our car right as the park closed at sunset, even catching a glimpse of lots of bats skimming the river for bugs. Westin thought that was "just so awesome!" and Michael did too. Then we drove the rest of the way to Monterey, grabbed some Wendy's dollar menu, and went to our hotel to eat a laaaate dinner. This hotel was a typical set up of two beds in one room so I worried the boys wouldn't go to sleep as well. They did take a bit to fall asleep thanks to their late nap and being in the same room as everyone, but those nice black out shades had us all sleeping in until 8:00 the next morning.

Friday:

We ate breakfast at the hotel that morning and for some reason I love continental breakfasts. Some reason is probably free food, but it's also more than that. It just had me once again seeing this vacation through my kids eyes in the way that I remember my vacations from growing up. I was all about those hotel breakfast waffle irons growing up. Michael and I used wedding gift money from Bed Bath and Beyond to get our own twisty turny waffle iron and I have never once regretted that purchase. The boys loved having so many choices and being done with the overnight oats and cereal I had packed for the week... mom life. From there we spent the day at the Monterey Aquarium and I love that open sea exhibit so so much. The movies about Great White Sharks and Otters were also so fun to see, and Camden did so great that day. Honestly he did great through the whole trip and I'm obsessed with that baby boy. Westin had a hard time at the aquarium, but I kept trying to tell myself that it's not a four-year-old's fault for being tired -- that's a product of the week we handed him. So we rode it out as best we could, then headed to the pier for a late lunch/early dinner of fish and chips and clam chowder. From there we went to Dennis the Menace park, a playground designed by the creator of Dennis the Menace, and it's awesome. We'd all been there before except Michael and the boys loved showing it to him. We grabbed a late light dinner of Jamba Juices and went back to our hotel.

Saturday:

Another morning of sleeping in, pillow forts on the bed, breakfast again, Incredibles while we packed, and then headed to the coast to go for a walk and see some more wildlife. We were planning on going to a favorite spot of ours and then Michael suggested we do the 17-mile drive. We haven't done that yet because it's $10 (ok I feel like this post is littered with our residency lifestyle habits but we are who we are) but we're starting to be in potential bucket list mode (who knows if we'll be in California longer than this year or not at this point) so we decided to do it. I'm so glad we did! It was GORGEOUS and we stopped at Seal Rock and explored tide pools, watched otters, and saw tons of seals.... on seal rock. Oh man, our kids are happiest when we're just outdoors playing in real nature. Parks are great but even parks don't compare to just exploring nature in its natural state. From there we drove to Carmel beach and I then spent 90 of the most content minutes I've ever experienced while Camden slept on me in a beach chair, Bennett played with sand toys next to me, and Michael and Westin ran back and forth away from waves while watching dolphins that swam back and forth near the shore the whole time we were there. What??? Writing that out just felt surreal. It was all real and so good. Oh my goodness I loved this week. From there we drove to get gas, I took the boys to the bathroom and the women's bathroom was out of order. We were about to make a three-hour drive so I marched them into the men's bathroom. Um, gas station bathrooms are all disgusting but this was my first time in a MEN'S gas station bathroom and oh my goodness, I'm so glad I'm a woman. Ew. Then the boys watched a show on the drive home, Camden slept the whole way, and I made a video of our week during the whole drive and finished it right as we pulled into Fresno. We picked up Cafe Rio on the way, pulled into our driveway, and started that whole feed the kids/get them to bed/unload/unpack/do laundry/feed yourselves/feed the baby/put him to bed/keep doing laundry/keep putting things away/leave the rest for tomorrow hustle. I've never felt like I have three kids more than during the work part of this vacation. But oh the blissful parts with three kids were just really blissful.

Sunday:

Michael made oatmeal and eggs for everyone but himself because he was fasting, while I fed the baby. Have I said he's the best yet in this post? Lots of times? Well, he's the best. I set out clothes for everyone (except Michael, who dresses himself -- he's the best) then headed to meetings and Michael and the boys met me at church a little later. Today was our first run through of the primary program which was a little stressful, but it will come together. After church we had fun with Westin while the younger two slept. He missed school so much this week and is so excited to go tomorrow. He's into drawing Halloween stuff lately which is most likely because I'm lame and I have zero Halloween decorations up. I did let him pick out a costume at Costco though, so I'm a fun mom. (Lazy mom? Not sad about it.) We also baked some cookies from the freezer today and ate them while I did one of my friend Becca's quick Come Follow Me chats from her new Instagram account. I love her so much! Her mom brain works like my mom brain in so many ways and this was a super helpful, easy, manageable way to just naturally talk about a principle from Come Follow Me with literally zero prep on my part because, Becca is the best. Then we Facetimed with lots of family that we didn't talk to much this week, played together, watched some Book of Mormon and LDS Kids YouTube videos, and called it a week.

A really, really, really good week.

I'm obsessed with this song. And these boys!

Bubblegum Wall in Downtown SLO. Gross... 

So foggy our first day!

Hotel Hot Chocolate life

Ummm when did we start needing one of those cart things?
#threekids

Bats! Michael stuck around to film them but I. Was. Out of there.

I asked Westin if he wanted a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets and he said both.
So begins my life of feeding hungry boys.
I mean, that life began a while ago.
But it was one of those moments that reminds me that I am going to
make so.much.food in my life.

Baby Jellyfish!

Oh this sun fish. He just.... look at this sun fish.

My little buddy all through this trip.