The Rest of the Trip

The remainder of our trip to California was slow paced. We relaxed and didn't feel like we needed to rush around. My dad recommended going to the Ronald Reagen Library, which we did. In the picture below you can see the kids standing in front of one of the cars that were in the procession when Ronald Reagen was shot. It was worth the money to walk through the different rooms and learn more about his life.

We spent time on the beach relaxing and playing in the sand. I forget how nice the sand is at the beach. It is so soft and warm. The kids had a blast.

We rented this family bike car and rode it up and down a beach in Santa Barbara. It was fun!

We visited with my California cousins and Aunt Jan. It was great to see everyone again. It had been 18 years since we last saw some of them.

Everything was going great, and then I started to get sick. It began with a sore throat on the second day of the trip. By the time we got home I couldn't stop coughing and felt very run down. As soon as we got home, Rick started getting sick. Gabriela had it the week prior to the trip. This is classic of our family. We always seem to have some illness or major car breakdown on every vacation. I'm not sure why it is that way, but no matter how hard we try not to be sick, at least one of us is ill.

I had fun seeing my old elementary school that I attended more than 30 years ago, and seeing the old houses my family used to live in. It was a good trip, but we were glad to come home again.

My New Blog!

Here we are. The lucky 7. Rick, Laura, Gabriela, Braden, Jesse, Daniel, and Kevin! All of us are lucky to be in a great family together as we go through life. Rick and I are truly blessed to have come from two wonderful families, and join together to grow our own. In this blog, I hope to share some of our adventures of life with you, in hopes that I will be able connect with my friends and family more often.

Our most recent adventure consisted of vacationing in Southeren California. We recently returned from eight nights and nine days of beaches, hotels, catching up with my California relatives, and of course, driving! We broke up the drive there into two days, stopping in Las Vegas the first night. The kids were pretty well behaved in the car with their nintendos, I-pods, and DVD player. My how the times have changed! I don't remember having anything but cards and a magnetic checker board to play with when my parents drove me to California in the '80's.

Oh well, if it keeps them quiet for the 700 mile drive, then I'm all for it.

We woke up early (4:30 a.m.) to get out of Las Vegas and back on the road- hoping to get to Six Flags Magic Mountain by the 10 a.m. opening time. We made good time and arrived just after opening. Rick, Gabriela, and Braden are the rollar coaster people in the family. Jesse, Daniel, Kevin, and I are not. The four of us spent the day in kiddie land, while the other three rode the big stuff. I was impressed with the helpful staff at the amusement park. It was also clean, and best of all, the lines in kiddie land were short! The boys would get off a ride, then right back on to do it again. The weather was cool, but not too cool. All in all, it was a good day.