California!!!

For Mother's Day Rachael, Olivia, Walt, and I drove to California to surprise my mom. It was perfect. She was so surprised and we had a blast! It started a week before the trip. Michael reminded me he was going to be out of town and I realized that I didn't want to be home alone with the kids, not that I couldn't handle it but that it would be lonely and I woundnt get a break... And I hate being home at night without Michael I scare myself too much. My sister was at my house and I said let's go to California!

We left on Tuesday after Rachael got out of school and drove to mesquite and stayed the night in a nice hotel. I'm really glad we broke the trip up into 2 days. It was a lot easier on Olivia and Walt.

On Wednesday we planned all day morning how we were going to surprised her. We finally decided to make a video. We videoed Olivia saying we are going to come visit grandma. When we got to Bakersfield we emailed it to her and as she finished watching it we rang the doorbell. She was so excited!!!

We stopped in Provo and saw my old roommate Sarah. I hadn't seen her in 3 years! Naturally it felt like we were together just yesterday.

Olivia watched a few movies and played with toys and did great! 

Walt slept the whole ride and only got upset a few times.

On Thursday we went swimming at an old friends house. Olivia loved it after she got use to the cold water. 

Olivia was afraid of uncle Dallin at first but warmed up. We also got to meet Deanna, Dallin's girlfriend. She is so sweet and so good to Dallin.

Before the trip I gave Olivia a picture of Opa and she held on to it and talked about Opa a lot. These too have something special. My dad is so sweet to Olivia.

Walt loves Opa too. He gets held all day and that is all Walt wants.

Olivia really liked Deanna.

We took Olivia and Walt to the beach for the first time. It was a lot of fun. Walt wasn't feeling well most of the trip (after we got back to Idaho the dr told us he must of has bronchitis while we were in California). 

Olivia's hair was AMAZING at the beach. Her curls are always really tight but there were even tighter at the beach. She burned her feet on the sand when we first got there and after that she didn't want to touch it. She stayed on the blanket till we convinced her it wasn't hot any more. Then we took her to the water and she didn't like it. It took her a while for her to be ok with wet sand and cold water. By the end she was playing everywhere.

We were sad Michael missed the kids first beach trip. Hopefully in August we can go again.

Her curls really are amazing!

After sitting in LA traffic for an hour we decided to take a break and go to the Los Angeles temple. This picture melts my heart. Olivia loves Jesus.

Our friends had cut puppies we for to play with. We were thinking about getting a dog but I'm not sure we are ready yet.

Olivia got cute summer shoes.

Olivia loves Austin and Austin plays great with Olivia. They are so cute together!

It was a short trip but a good one. It was nice to be home and see my family and Dallin got to meet Walter. I love my family and reay struggle with being so far away from them. Till next time!