Day 6 and 7: Madera time!!

Our last stop was for 2 days in Madera.  It was PERFECT.  The kids got to sleep at my parents' house, play with all their toys, and just BE in the house I grew up in.  They got to hang out with Grammy and Grandpa Jamie, and bonus, with BOTH sets of my grandparents!  It was pretty chill.  We played on the trampoline/with the dog outside a couple of times when the rain stopped for a little while.  We picked delicious oranges/grapefruit and both days Eric went and got lunch from our favorite Mexican food place up the road haha.  The first day we went to visit my mom at her library during her lunch.  The kids loved getting to check out books. :)  Then we went to Chowchilla to see my Hansen grandparents.  It was awesome.  Eric helped my grandparents fix their TV, and my grandpa played the harmonica for us.

They also came back to my parents' house with us for dinner and more visiting, it was perfect.

Also that night my Wallwork grandparents came, and stayed the next day too.  One of my favorite parts of that was this hour-long conversation Eric had with my grandad!  Eric got out his drone to show him, and they spent the next hour talking about it and other engineering topics.  SO cute, my Grandad is so much fun and Eric is the best. :)

The next day we went out to the farm!  I had hoped to get the kids to do some service there, but it rained the whole time and was all muddy, so we settled for exploring Grandpa Jamie's shed and taking turns going on Tractor and Gator rides. :)

Owen definitely loved it all the most!!

Well, my dad probably liked it a lot too. :)

By the end of the second day, there was more water in the yard than I can ever remember seeing!!

It was crazy, we went and parked at the neighbor's!

It was SO cute to see my kids playing with my grandparents. 

And we had a birthday dinner for Grandmom, then she and my Dad were working on a puzzle and Owen wanted to help.  He ended up having a WAY longer attention span for it than I thought he would, and he was actually pretty good at it!  So cute.

I stayed up late talking to my parents and grandparents the night before we left, and this is me when I went in to get ready for bed.  I was happy to be home, happy about the whole trip, and content and prepared to make the return trip.  So I took a picture of me with my big belly haha.

One last picture before we left to come home!

And last but not least, this random landmark on I-15 near Primm/Jean Nevada is almost EXACTLY halfway, mileage-wise between our house in Salem and my parents' house in Madera.  FYI.

We actually had the SMOOTHEST trip home we have EVER had... it was amazing!  The kids were great, we made great time.... I had tried to be super prepared with fun stuff to do, and they were used to travelling after the last week of it, and Eric had downloaded some shows on his tablet so several times Whitney sat in the back with owen and Kate to watch.But wow it still felt like a blessing.  And I wasn't too uncomfortable in my bigness. Yay!!

Day 5: Monterey and the Donny Hansen Family!

We were so excited to spend a day in Monterey with Donny, Christine, Evelyn, and Claire!  I wanted my kids to have some more memories of them before they move to Japan for at least 2 years! :)  And we had never been to Monterey, (besides my 4th grade field trip) what a cool place!  Donny and Christine really have been living in paradise. :)

We spent the night in a cheapish hotel in Monterey, then came over first thing in the morning to their apartment.  Within minutes of our arrival, this was happening!  Katelyn is such a good sport with little kids.  She and Whitney both had fun with their little cousins.

Soon we left to go to the Aquarium.  Christine had magically managed to borrow passes for all of us so we got in for free!  It was a fun place.  The kids really liked this tide pool wave simulator thing:

So cute!

Katelyn and Whitney were into petting the stingrays:

 

And Evelyn and Maris were into holding hands, adorable!  Maris's hair was doing the crazy curly thing again. :)

Oh and THIS funny thing happened:
Donny had to work for a couple of hours, so he left us at the aquarium....and took their car keys (and house keys) with him!  So here is Christine breaking into their apartment to look for the spare keys.  She couldn't find them, so we ended up just feeding the meter down at the aquarium for a few more hours until Donny came home.  But at least we could get into the apartment!

We hung out and the kids played in their cute little yard.

At one point we looked out the window and saw Owen doing this and heard him saying "ohhm.ohhm." He said he was meditating lol!  Also, check out the ocean view from their windows!!

While the 2 littlest girls slept, Christine and I took the other kids to the park.

Then Donny came home and it was time for our big tide pool exploration trip!

Owen poking the "anenomies"? with a stick to make them curl up.

More "Maris by the ocean" pictures

Cuties.

We had a great time being adventurous by the ocean!  Hiking is the best.

And thanks to Donny's long arm we all got in one picture!

I loved this starfish in one of the pools.

owen trying to pick up a rock that Eric said was one of Kristoff's troll friends, from Frozen haha.

Had to get a selfie by the beach... I love it!! 

Back at their apartment, Donny showed the kids their shell collection, Christine made a delicious dinner, we got to chat some more, and then it was time for bed so we headed for our last stop, Madera!

Sayonara Hansens and thanks for a great time.

Day 4: The Beach and coast road trip

My dreams of going to the ocean came true!

After Disney Day we slept in and enjoyed another breakfast at the hotel.  Apparently Maris was being cute and friendly at breakfast because a lady who worked in the eating area asked for her name and room number and sent her up a box full of snacks and a sweet note!  So precious!

We drove to a beach park we had looked up and it was a hit!, despite the fact that there was a slight drizzle/sprinkle of rain going on the ENTIRE time we were at the beach!

After a picnic lunch, we headed out to the water, not wearing swimsuits because we assumed we would just put our feet in and play in the sand.

Maris had never seen the ocean, she thought it was pretty cool!  

But as we were focused on her being cute, Owen went out a little too far, and as he tried to run back in to escape a wave he tripped and totally faceplanted/got covered by a wave and got a full mouth of sand!  Poor kid, one minute after we got to the water he was soaked haha.

We wrapped him up for a while and then he just ended up wearing wet pants and a dry pink raincoat the rest of the time. :)  it wasn't too cold, well it felt warm-ish to us Utahns anyway, it was just rainy!

Had to take a selfie with Eric on the beach. :)

Maris and Eric having fun...

That adorable curly hair again!  I will remind everyone again that her name means "of the sea" so I had to take lots of pictures of my little ocean girl!

Owen had fun in the sand but didn't try to play in the water again, understandably!

Maris with her rock collection. She didn't play too much in the water either, I think Owen's experience made her a little wary haha.

Me trying to be artistic and take pictures of pretty rainbow foam.

I love putting my feet in the ocean!

me and Maris

owen's creation

Yay for the beach!

Yes she does.

Meanwhile the girls did this.  For like 2 hours.

and got totally soaked and loved it!

And then we had to walk like half a mile back to our car and get everyone cleaned up, it was quite the process!

Then we spent the rest of the day driving up to Monterrey along the coast.  It was GORGEOUS!!  California has had so much rain, everything was just lush and beautiful. It was an awesome drive.

This California Girl got her beach fix and we were on to our next stop!