Vacation Part 4

We left Yuma on Wednesday the 20th and drove to San Diego. We'd neglected to make hotel reservations there...BIG MISTAKE!!!!! We ended up staying in a very overpriced hotel right by the beach...totally blew our vacation budget (which we'd been doing awesome on until this point). One of the reasons we hadn't made reservations before we'd left on our trip was because we weren't sure how long we'd be staying in Yuma - dependent on how the rambunctious boys were for the great-grandparents. We should've called from Yuma, but just never got around to it. We will NOT make this mistake again!

We'd been planning on going to the San Diego Zoo. Brian surprised us with tickets to Sea World. I was less than thrilled with that at first...I'd told him repeatedly that we didn't need to go to Sea World...I was worried about it all being too much for Nathaniel. Well...it all worked out fine. Nathaniel did fine...Joshua loved it (he loves Shouka the killer whale at Marine World in Vallejo, so was absolutely thrilled with Shamu and the other 3 killer whales...in fact, he's decided that he wants to be a trainer when he grows up, so he's really planning on learning how to swim this summer.) And as we were all enjoying our time in San Diego, I was happier with it all.

After we went to Sea World on Thursday, we went down to the beach for about 20 minutes as the sun was going down. Nathaniel wasn't too sure about the water that came rushing up to our feet (the tide was coming in). He would look out at all that water and then look up at all that sky and then wrap his arms around my neck very tightly. Joshua wanted to build a sand castle...I love this picture of him trying to catch some water as the tide came in.

The grin on Nathaniel's face in this picture is priceless...it's become one of my favorites!

On Friday we went to the Zoo. That was a lot of fun. Nathaniel liked the animals a little more than he'd liked the whales (he was kind of frightened of them) We were lucky and he fell asleep for part of the time and that made him a much happier little boy. Joshua, of course, loved it all.

Our cute boys...Nathaniel was demonstrating the activity level of the hippo!

Nathaniel wasn't too sure about the "lion" - Joshua told him it was just a person in a costume, but for some reason, that didn't make much difference to Nathaniel!

We left around 7 or so that night to head part way home. Nathaniel was out before we hit the freeway and Joshua hung on by his fingernails until we drove past the San Diego Temple because he wanted to see it - he didn't really remember it from when we were down there for Tim and Elisha's wedding two years ago. He was asleep within minutes of passing that.

Traffic through L.A. was horrible, but it could've been worse, and we got to our hotel in Castaic shortly before 10. Yes, if you ever must stay in Castaic, Calif. do not stay at the Rodeway Inn...YUCK! But we were too tired to do anything about it, so we pulled the top sheet up and slept on that instead of the bottom one that some stray hairs were on (ICK, ICK, ICK!) We got home Saturday afternoon and boy were we glad to be back. Nathaniel especially since he hadn't been able to cruise around much in our last hotel since it was so nasty and not kid friendly. This was our first big trip in two years and Nathaniel's first of any kind and we did enjoy it, but I'm always glad to get home.

Vacation Part 3

On Father's Day we arrived in Yuma. The day before, Grandpa Ken had been moved into a nursing home for some rehabilitation to strength his legs so that he can use his walker and have some mobility. He'd been in the hospital the week before. So we went straight to their house to see Grandma Donna. Joshua was so excited to be there - it's been almost three years since we last were able to go and visit. This was the first time that Nathaniel had seen these great-grandparents. As usual, it took him a few minutes to decide if he was going to be friendly with these new people. And as usual, he was quickly laughing and smiling and refusing to leave Great-Grandma Donna's lap to go back to Mommy. Grandma took us over to the nursing home and we got to visit with Grandpa a little bit. (yes, this is how the picture is supposed to be!)He has decided that he's going to call Nathaniel "Kenny" since one of his middle names in Kenneth (in honor of this great-grandpa and uncles on both sides of the family). Joshua thought that was funny and now calls Nathaniel Kenny every once in awhile. Grandpa looked pretty beat up - that's not a result of the care at the nursing home! He'd fallen a few days before at home and ended up with quite the black eye as well as a banged up arm.
We were in Yuma until Wednesday afternoon. Each day we went and visited Grandpa a couple of times. We ran a few errands and tried to find things to help Grandma with around the house. On Tuesday, Brian and Joshua went to a park and watched some Marine helicopter manuevers. A lot of practice, etc. for troops heading to the Middle East goes on in the desert area there because of similarities to conditions in the Middle East. Brian was pretty excited because they got to see several Chinook helicopters (the ones with two propellers on top). Joshua got his picture taken with a Marine...and got corrected by said Marine when asked if he was an Army guy...the Marine was quick to tell him that he was a Marine NOT an Army guy. The "highlight" for Joshua was getting bitten by red ants. Brian has told him stories about getting bitten by little red ants when he was a kid visiting HIS grandparents in Eastern Arizona...well, some large red ants discovered their feet while watching the helicopters and had a few nibbles! So now Joshua has his own red ant story to tell his children some day :)
Nathaniel seemed to really enjoy meeting his great-grandparents. He was fascinated with Great-Grandpa's mustache. From the looks of this old picture of me, it looks like I was pretty entranced by it, too, as a child.

Nathaniel with Great-Grandpa Ken Hurlbut - June 2007 - about 9.5 months old

Beth with Grandpa Ken Hurlbut - April 1974 - 9 months old










It was sad to leave...Joshua didn't want to...he wanted to stay longer. We all did. We so hope it isn't another 2 1/2 years until we visit again. Especially not with Grandpa being 79 and in poor health and Grandma turning 81 later this year. Somehow we'll have to try and make it down a little closer to sooner than later. But we definitely plan to make that trip in the fall or winter and NOT summer!

Vacation Part 2

Saturday morning came quickly and it was already hot (have I mentioned that it gets really hot in Phoenix)...we had a nice, free continental breakfast at our hotel (they had make your own waffles - Joshua loved it!) got our stuff ready and went back over to the siblings Marriott and went swimming for an hour or so before it was time to head back to our hotel (they were only about 5 minute apart) to get ready for the wedding. We got to the Mesa Temple around 1:15 because Brian's dad had wanted him there early to help him...the wedding wasn't until 2:15 and the rest of the family was getting there at 1:45. Both boys were asleep in the car by the time we'd driven the fifteen minutes from our hotel to the temple. Nathaniel woke up and I fed him - while sitting in the air conditioned car. When he was finished I woke Joshua up and got out the stroller for Nathaniel and we walked around and looked at the temple for a few minutes...we saw Brian's brothers and sisters as they arrived and went in and then the boys and I went into the visitor's center. Joshua was thrilled because there was a large statue of the Christus just like at the Oakland Temple's visitor's center. He wanted me to take a picture of him in front of it...I did and was hoping it was a good one because I only took one, but it's a little blurry (thanks to Little Brother's help as I was juggling him and the camera). Joshua also was glad because they had the miniature layout of Jerusalem that you could push buttons on the display case and certain places would light up and then you would hear a brief narrative about the significance of that building or area during the time of Christ...he could do that over and over.

After being in the visitor's center for over an hour, we'd all finally had it and even though it was 140 outside (okay, that's probably a slight exaggeration...I think it was only about 107 or so) we went back outside and stood in the shade under a tree. It only felt like 103 there. Luckily, we saw everyone coming out within about 5-10 minutes of our being outside. We took a few pictures of our little family, found out that they weren't taking any wedding pictures (or so we heard), and left. We swung by Carl's Jr. and got milkshakes (because I demanded one...two hours of juggling the boys in the heat had not only made me hot, but had made me cranky) We went back to the hotel and crashed with our shakes (Brian found that drinking a whole milkshake does not do well with his digestive system right now) under the air conditioner vent and then went to the reception. It was nice to meet some of Brian's relatives that I never had before - some of them had only been name on family groups sheets as I worked on family history. We met his great-aunts Charlotte and Laura (who are both in their mid to early 80s) and his great-uncle Arden who also is in his 80s.

We took a picture of Val and Sue with all their children...it's a good thing that all the kids are grown and gone on both sides or they'd have a full house...there are 6 kids in each family - three boys and three girls. Once the reception was over and we'd helped clean up, we went back to the sibling's hotel and went swimming (Brian and Joshua did...Nathaniel was sleeping again). We got back to our hotel around midnight.

Father's Day was our day to travel to Yuma. We met Brian's siblings, Dad and Sue at Claim Jumper for brunch. We'd already eaten at our hotel (we stuck with our free breakfast) so just had lemonade and chatted. We left around 11 or 12 and headed to Yuma...not that far - but a pretty boring drive across the desert.

Vacation Part 1

Well, we began our week plus vacation on June 14th and drove to Indio, Calif. Over half-way to our first destination - Phoenix/Tempe/Mesa, Arizona. This was Nathaniel's first major car trip...he did pretty well. Joshua's an old pro at these, though we haven't taken one for a couple of years and now he's in the "Are we there yet?" and "How much farther is it?" stage. Do to LA area traffic and a couple of stops (it takes longer to fill up the car with gas when you also have to fill up a baby's tummy) we reached our first hotel a little past dinner time. We slept (it was hot and the air conditioner vent was over the closet and didn't blow towards the beds - it blew towards the foot of the beds...no help for us!) and then got up and ate breakfast (free continental) and got on the road to Arizona. We only had a few hours to drive, so it wasn't too bad. There sure isn't much out there in the desert. Lots of cactus...Joshua liked that. He was disappointed however to not see any Joshua trees. Lots of dirt and sand...and the mountains and hills were very different from what we see around here or up north when we visit Grandma Lorrayne and Grandpa Bruce. We arrived at our hotel in Tempe, checked in and unloaded the car and then went over to the hotel where Brian's siblings were all staying and went swimming in the very cool (in every sense of the word) pools at the Marriott they were at. Later that evening we got to meet Sue, Brian's dad's fiancee, and all went to dinner. After the dinner we went back to our hotel and put the kids to bed and went to sleep ourselves so we'd be ready for the big day on Saturday...the wedding.

My Little Pirates

Joshua loves pirates - that's what he was for Halloween last year. Well, with all the promos for the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, he's back on a pirate kick (not to mention the fact that we recently watched the first two movies). So he drug out his cutlass and dagger from wherever he had them stashed and he's been teaching Nathaniel how to battle. Yes, the five year old is already teaching the 9 1/2 month old how to fight. I thought I'd stopped this the other day, but yesterday, as I was doing something else in the house and had plopped Nathaniel in the crib for a few minutes, it began again. I heard Joshua saying, "Okay, you're Will Turner and I'm Jack Sparrow, let's battle!" When I went into their room this is what I found:


When I asked them what they were doing, this is the response I got:


Gotta' love boys! Today they are playing with all of Joshua's cars - this is actually something they've been doing for the past several days. Unfortunately, Nathaniel has a cold or something right now and this afternoon Joshua is going to get a bucket of soapy water and get to go outside and have a huge carwash and wash all the slobber and snot off of the cars. Hopefully whatever this is that Nathaniel has goes away quickly...next Thursday is when we head off on our big trip to Arizona for Brian's dad's wedding and then on to visit my grandparents (hopefully my grandpa will be out of the hospital by then!) Travelling that far with the boys isn't going to be fun, but if either of them are sick it's going to be even less fun!

Memorial Day

**warning - long & lots of pictures!

Okay, so I'm a few days late...but here's our Memorial Day! We went up to Etna and the Valley for the weekend. We left kind of early Saturday morning. We'd originally planned to go Friday after Brian was done with work, but then remembered that I was in charge of a scrapbook night at Church for Enrichment that Friday night. Well, no one showed up for that (family crisises and holiday weekend), but it was just as well because Brian was exhausted and the boys would've been more than he could've handled. He was in bed and asleep by 930, I was falling asleep reading a book by 930, Joshua was out by 830 and Nathaniel was in bed by quarter to ten. We left around 8 or so, I think, and were in Etna by noon. We listened to the book "Eragon" on CD most of the way and Joshua watched Aladdin.

On Saturday Joshua helped Grandpa build a flower bed in the driveway.


Last year, when we went up for Joshua's birthday, he helped Grandpa build a similar wall for a flower bed in the front yard.

After working in the driveway, Joshua helped Grandma & Grandpa in the garden. They planted zucchini & green beans. Nathaniel even got in on the action a little bit!





Nathaniel loved playing in the dirt and playing in the backyard. He tried to eat the little twigs from the maple tree...and also tried to eat the rocks in the garden. He was less than thrilled when I took him inside and gave him a bath!

Sunday we went to Sacrament Meeting (where Grandma & Grandpa were the speakers) and Sunday School. Then we went home & changed and loaded stuff in the car so that we could go pick up Great-Grandma Darlene. Grandpa Bruce is in the American Legion and was part of the 21 Gun Salute out at the Living Memorial Garden in Shasta Valley. It was a little warm out there and the boys started to get bored, but it was neat to see the memorial wall (where we showed Joshua his Great-Grandpa Elwood's name (he served in the Navy in WW II), his Grandpa Bruce (who was in the Coast Guard in the Pacific during the Vietnam War), his Great-Uncle Ken (who was in the Army for 20 years from the late 70s to the late 90s) and another uncle who was in the Korean War. There were songs and a speaker and all, but Joshua most enjoyed the shooting of the 21 Gun Salute and collecting the shells afterwards.

When the ceremony was over, we ate a picnic lunch and then drove & walked through the sculpture area of the gardens...they were very interesting and
made you reflect on the service done by so many for our country. Here's the Prisoner of War sculpture:


On Monday, Joshua went with Grandpa & Grandma to the Callahan cemetery for the service there. Brian & I stayed home with Nathaniel and loaded the car. When they got back we went to the service at the Etna Cemetery. Then we went headed to Fort Jones for the service at the cemetery there (with a quick side trip to Dotty's for ice cream cones for everyone but me - I had my favorite & traditional blackberry shake). By the time we were done with the service at the Ft. Jones cemetery, Joshua was done with it all...he'd been to three that morning!

He was most impressed with the little girl that sang the National Anthem at all three. I think my mom said she was 10. Turns out her dad was someone from my class in high school. Anyway, Joshua went up to her after the last service and told her he really liked how she sang the song. We went to the part of the cemetery where my Grandpa Elwood is buried and had a moment there. Joshua said he wishes he could've seen him here, but guesses he'll just have to wait until he gets to heaven and see him there someday.