The Best Spring Break Ever.

Every year, I beg Jeremy to take the the whole week of spring break off of work
so we take a nice long vacation.
But he has never been brave enough to leave his employees
in charge of things for so long, especially during the busiest season of the year.

Somehow I talked him into it.
Well, I talked him into taking 3 days off.
Then, once we were there and he was all relaxed,
I talked him into the other two.
I'm learning after 19 years how to work with this guy. :)  

We were sad that Landon couldn't come with us. 

He's the stage manager at school and he had to stay for 

rehearsals for their musical. 

He ended up staying at his friend, Kyle's house the whole week.

 Between that and work at the golf course, he stayed really busy while we were gone. 

We sure missed him, though.

Day 1: St. George

G&G Hinton loaned us their motor home. 

We drove to St. George Friday night in our car,

 then packed up the RV and left for Cali the next day.

My brother, Darin and his family (from Grand Junction, CO)  

happened to be in St. George for their spring break, 

so we got to see them for a couple of hours Friday night.

The boys slept at the Awerkamps and partied with their cousins. 

They only get to do this once or twice a year. 

Cousin time is the best! 

We're looking forward to the Hinton Reunion this summer.

Sadie stayed the night with Darin's family. 

Man, these kids are growing up!

Day 2: The Drive

The kids were so excited for our adventure in the motor home the next day. 

It took Jeremy a few hours to get used to driving the tall, 30' long machine. 

He couldn't take his eyes off the road for a second. 

It was windy much of the way there. 

Jeremy had to grip the wheel the whole time because the tall RV swayed a lot. 

A bit nerve-wracking for our brave driver, but he handled it like a pro.

Passing through Sin City

Grandma packed some toys, games and coloring books 

and I brought some play dough, new markers and coloring books as well.

 But what did the kiddos do about 80% of the time?

You guessed it...Stared at electronics.

Just keeping it real. ;)

Of course the drive was 8 hours long. So that wasn't all they did. 

Some slept.

And we all ate. Lots. :)

Our one stop along the way was somewhere around the California State line at a rest stop.  

 The whole trip from St. George took about 8 hours. 

I will admit, it was a bit scary knowing we weren't all in seatbelts. 

I'm usually a Nazi when it comes to buckling up. But it wasn't an option in this rig. 

We just prayed for the best and took the risk. 

The good thing is that we're pretty much the biggest vehicle around

(except the semi's.) So everyone watches out for us.

It takes a while getting used to all the rattling around of things, 

and how slowly you have to take turns, etc. 

But we LOVED it!

The last RV trip we took was 2.5 years ago when we rented one and drove to Yellowstone.

Eli and Anya were both toddlers, so it was more stressful.

We're finally getting to the point that road trips are actually fun. 

(At least most of the time.)

YAY!

Sigh. We're bored. At least we're not stuck in car seats.

We spent the first night with some friends. 

Katrina is a friend I made through the Reece's Rainbow community. 

They were in the process of adopting Natasha, one of Anya's 

baby house friends from St. Petersburg, Russia when the adoption ban happened. 

(Bleh. Don't even get me started.)

Anyway....they we were planning to leave Hazel with them for the night 

so that we could go to Knottsberry Farm the next day without her,

 but we ended up deciding to take her with us so we wouldn't have to drive so much.

We parked our motor home down the street from their house (where it was level) 

and slept there for the night.

Day 3: Doheny State Beach 

The next morning, we watched the Sunday morning session of 

our church's Semi-annual General Conference with them on TV. 

Inspiring, uplifting, incredible...as always.

Sunday after conference, we drove down to Dana Point,
where we had a reservation at Doheny State Beach Campground.
Awesome place! The water was chilly, but the 80 degree weather made it bearable.
The kids had fun playing chase with the waves and building
sand castles for several hours.
Dad set up the tent so we could spread out a little bit at night.
He slept out there with Eli and Anya, which they thought was pretty cool.

Mom and Dad take a beach selfie. We look related, don't we? ;)

Day 4: Knottsberry Farm

We decided to hit Knottsberry Farm instead of Disneyland because, 

with an eBay discount that we scored, the tickets were only $26 and $32 

as opposed to $100+ each for Disney. 

The place was practically empty! 

The longest line that we waited in was probably 10 minutes. 

Knottsberry is a great place to go with kids older than 10ish, 

and younger than about 7. Bennett (our typical 8 year old) was a little bugged 

because there wasn't much there for a kid who isn't ready for 

big scary roller coasters yet, and is too old for the kiddie rides. 

Jeremy and I didn't get to hit any roller coasters ourselves 

because our "triplets" take two people to manage. 

But we aren't complaining much. It's all about the kids, right?

Hazel tried to make friends with the can-can lady. :)

Waiting for big brother and sister. This ride is too spinny for Hazel and Mom's tastes.

The $40 treat break. Gotta love those.

That night, we ate dinner at a cheap Mexican restaurant. 

After dinner, we drove south to Oceanside. 

We had a hard time deciding where to stay that night because 

we didn't have reservations at any campgrounds and we weren't 

brave enough to just park somewhere like Wal-Mart. 

I remembered that we had a free Marriott stay coming, 

which would be a great way to spread out a little 

and take some nice, roomy showers. 

We stayed at the Residence Inn in Oceanside. 

They even upgraded our free room to a 2-room suite! 

The kids had fun swimming in the pool right before bed.

Day 5: The San Diego Temple and La Jolla Beach

The next morning, we all gorged ourselves with the free breakfast, 

then relaxed at the hotel, doing a little laundry and getting ourselves ready for the day. 

It felt like luxury after being cramped in the RV for a few days. :)

We've always wanted to see the San Diego temple. 

It's one of the most beautiful of the 142 temples our church has, in my opinion. 

So we set aside some time to go see it. 

If you drive down I-5 toward San Diego, you can't miss this temple! 

It's huge and majestic, right off the freeway. 

When we were driving up to it, Anya kept saying "castle!" 

She had been watching Frozen so much, 

I think she was pretty sure Queen Elsa lived inside. 

Jeremy, Sadie and Max went inside.

A really neat thing happened while they were sitting in the temple. 

The temple president came up to them and talked to them for a while. 

He did a little devotional with just the three of them. 

He recited some scriptures to them, bore his testimony of how important and sacred

 the work is that we do there, and even had Max say a prayer. 

Jeremy said the spirit was so sweet, and so strong. 

This is an experience they will always remember! 

I wish I could have gone inside with them, 

but I had to stay outside with the little ones who weren't old enough. 

While we waited, (almost 2 hours!) I took them on a short walk 

around the grounds, then we just played in the shade next to the RV.

"This is taking tooooo long, " says Eli.

After we left the temple, we drove right down to the beach 

and enjoyed an afternoon splashing in the waves at La Jolla. 

This beach was more crowded than the one at Dana Point, 

but we loved the small waves 

and how far out the water stayed shallow. 

Perfect for kids!

We met up with our friends, the Glenns, 

who live in our old neighborhood in AF. Sadie and Abbie are best friends. 

We hung out with them for a few hours, then had pizza in the park that's right next to the beach. 

Abbie and Sadie soaking in the sun. Modest is hottest, y'all.

That night, we drove south to Chula Vista and stayed in an RV park there. 

It was a huge contrast to the state beach where we had stayed a few nights earlier.

 Super quiet and nice. Mostly retired people. 

But we loved the nice, clean shower rooms and the big pool and hot tub that we 

had practically to ourselves right before bedtime. 

We'll definitely stay there if we do this trip again in a motor home!

Day 6: Sea World 

My friend, Katrina who lives there, set up a "homeschooler field trip" 

at sea world and invited us and some of our friends who were also there

 for spring break, as well as some RR friends, to join us as well. 

Apparently, you don't have to be a homeschooler to actually go on these field trips. :) 

She was so nice to do this! It made our admissions into the park really cheap. 

And it turned out to be a great day to go! Perfect weather and no long lines. Yay!

The RR crew. Katrina and Neveah Morriss, The Fillmore's (that's us!) and the Quinn family (from So. California)

We loved meeting the Quinn's who brought Cammie home Russia right after we brought Hazel home. 

I have known Sherry and Ashley for a couple of years on Facebook. 

Cammie is the one that David (in the blue shirt--Ashley's fiance') is holding in the back.

The Utah Crew- The Buckner's, Glenns and Fillmore's (The Heiner's came later.)

The girls LOVED watching the little penguins that were outside.

We spent most of the time with the Glenn's.
They were a big help in keeping track of our little's.

Eric singing Hazel her song, "Hurray for Hazel." She loved it.

A&H posing with the Quinn girls during lunch. 3 Russians and one sleepy American. :)

As we were leaving the park, we noticed a water feature

 where people were putting their hands in the water. 

They were little fish that eat dead skin. 

Have you ever seen how people use these fish to exfoliate their feet? 

Ewww, this was a weird feeling! 

I left my hand in there for 30 seconds or so. Didn't notice them being softer. :) 

It probably takes much longer than that. 

After Sea World, we followed the Buckner's and Heiner's down toward the beach 

to eat at an amazing hole-in-the-wall hamburger joint called Hodad's. 

That was quite the experience. Haha. 

We all had our big families and we had to weave through all the 

 night-life folks to get there. We got some looks. :) 

The restaurant played loud rock music....not exactly a family atmosphere. 

But the food was amazing and it made for a memorable experience!

After dinner, we parted ways, then our family drove 

to a campground in Mission Bay called Campland. 

This is a huge RV park that has pools, it's own little beach, a game room, 

a restaurant, a store, activities 

planned for the kids throughout the day....lots of fun stuff. 

We only stayed the night, then left at about 2 pm the next day for home. 

It would be a fun place to go with a group of people. Wish we had taken some pictures.

The ride home was long.

Or at least it was for Jeremy.

Most of us slept the last 3-4 hours. 

We arrived in St. George at 1:00 am.

Day 7&8: St. George Again

and back home!

We stayed in St. George for the last 2 days so we could spend time

with G&G Hinton and the Awerkamps.  

The first morning, we cleaned up the rig

so we could turn it back over to it's owners the next day.

Bennett had the job of  scrubbing off all the dead bugs.  

I took the 3 olders to the outlets

while Jeremy took the 3 youngers to a fun splash pad. 

Then we hung out at the Awerkamps (cousins) at night.

The kids played while the adults and teens sat around and talked.

I just love those kinds of nights.

Sure wish we lived closer so we could have more of them.

Anya found the dress-ups. She came out and pretended to be a mean Zorro guy, facial expressions and all.

We parked the RV in front of their house for the night. 

Some of the boys slept on the trampoline (the same one I used to sleep on as a kid!)

Some slept inside on the floor

I slept in a real bed. :)

And Jeremy stayed out in the RV with the girls.

Cutest little cousins eating breakfast.

Later that morning, we drug the kids out for a hike near Dammeron Valley.

As always, they belly-ached the whole way

but had a blast once we were there.

Haha, isn't that how hikes always go?

Dixie hikes are always fun. What kid doesn't love jumping across big rocks?

Good thing this was a short hike! We had to carry the girls over much of the rocky terrain.

We rewarded the kids with a creamy and a dip in the Grandparents' pool.

Hazel and I had a nap on Grandma and Grandpa's bed. 

It was heavenly.

Miss Anya is ALWAYS in the mood for a swim.

We left that afternoon for our 3.5 hour drive back to our home. 

What a trip. We will always remember this one. 

So many fabulous memories.

Now, we're back to school, work, and all that responsibility stuff.

Bummer.

But good to not have to entertain the kids every second of the day.

It's exhausting! 

It sure feels good to be home.

I love home.