Nothing Comes Close to the Golden Coast

In the last month, we have dragged our three children across the better part of the United States, boarded 4 different airplanes, and set foot in five separate states. The girls drove from Iowa to California, Luke flew from Iowa to Seattle.  I flew from Iowa to California and then to Seattle for a weekend.  Then back to California.  Then Luke flew from Seattle to California.  Then we drove to Utah and spent one night in Lehi and then Salt Lake for four nights and then we drove to Richmond Utah for a Thanksgiving feast and then we drove to Idaho Falls, Idaho and then Luke went back to Salt Lake.  

Did you get all that?

It's been madness.  But madness has never been quite so enjoyable.  

As a side-effect of the madness however, I haven't blogged a word.  Which means I now have 815 pictures, hordes of experiences, dozens of funny moments, and hilarious stories out the wazoo. 

It also means that even though there's Christmas music playing and snow on the ground, I'm about to blog about Halloween.

For some reason, I find it completely necessary to think about Halloween all year long and come up with about 12 different ideas of the cutest costumes ever, and then use none of them.  

This year, the list included: the minions from Despicable Me, Pinkalicious, Rapunzel (Brooklyn was going to be the "before" Rapunzel and Aubrey was going to be the "after" Rapunzel.), characters from the world of Dr. Seuss, garden gnomes, and so many more.  

And some how, the girls ended up as butterflies.  

But darling cute butterflies, if I do say so myself. 

If you think that the night before our ward party, I stayed up (did I mention that I had a newborn and was alone!) till all hours of the night making a Cat in the Hat hat because I'm too cheap to spend $16 on a real one, you would be sadly correct.  The result: a too small hat that had to be cut up the back in order to take one picture so that I could pretend like I had a cute costume.

In order to avoid further embarrassment, I called an audible and went as a flight attendant the next time.   

The girls were both thoroughly enjoying trick-or-treating until we happened upon a house with black ninjas and a creepy serial killer that felt the need to jump out at us and make me scream like I was in a horror movie.  Brooklyn started crying and Aubrey swore that no amount of candy would ever persuade her to go trick-or-treating ever again.  

And that is how Halloween ended. 

Sadly, on Brooklyn's birthday she was stuck in a car driving through a desert for 10 hours.  So we made sure to take good care of her the next day.  

She got a sea monster birthday cake (her one request) made by her super talented grandma, 

and more presents than she could have ever hoped for. 

 

And if you think it was the best birthday party for the sweetest girl ever, you'd be onto something. 

On our first day in sunny California, the girls pulled this little guy out of the swimming pool.

 If you think he looks nice, you are mistaken.  If you think he looks like a lizard that would bite a three year old hard enough to draw blood, you are correct. 

 And if you think that that three-year-old wanted to let the lizard go even after it bit her, you obviously have never met her.

 If you think November is not a good month to go swimming at the beach, you are dead wrong.

 Because we tried it.  And it was o-wesome.

If you think my kids couldn't be any cuter, you are correct. 

If you think that Cameron's blessing day was perfect, you're right.  If you think that Aubrey sat in her seat for the whole Primary Program and didn't start doing a synchronized swimming routine on the stage, you are very, VERY wrong. 

If you think Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, you've never been to SeaWorld with my children.

 Despite the fact that it was the coldest day in California on record, we had a whale of a good time.

 And the fact that I got to watch my kids go on the rides as I watched comfortably from the sidelines made me one very happy (and non motion-sick) mommy.

Unfortunately I couldn't escape riding in the gondola hundreds of feet over the Pacific Ocean.  Have I mentioned how much I hate heights and how I have a mortal fear of drowning?  (Yes, I was a diver.  Yes, I know that makes absolutely no sense.)  

 In order to keep me from a panic induced mental breakdown, Luke and Aubrey decided to make faces at me and help me forget that my entire family was dangling by a wire over certain death.

  Bless their hearts.

If you think Katy Perry has never made a smart comment in her entire life, you are dead wrong.  

Because, one thing is for sure. 

NOTHING comes close to the Golden Coast.