Dayton California Vacation - July 27 - August 4

Well, I may not have taken 4-month pictures of Grey but hopefully, I made up for it a little with all the pictures I took of our annual Dayton family vacation. I've already posted these photos on facebook to share with family because I knew it would be a while before I actually posted this but I always like to add a little commentary so we can remember the details along with the pictures.

We left on a Friday afternoon with Brandon's dad in the Blaster (nickname for their Ford Expedition). We were supposed to caravan or carpool with Brandon's brothers, Damian and Ethan but they ended up having to work late and drove together in a separate vehicle several hours later. After a quick stop at Wendy's for lunch, we made our way down to St. George for the first leg of our trip. Both kids did great on the way down and we arrived at Liz and Lyman's house with adequate time to chat with all of their family who was visiting for their own family reunion. We stayed up way past our kids' bedtimes (and our own) and probably finally hit the sack around midnight.

Because Liz & Lyman were entertaining their own family in their home, sleeping accommodations were a little more limited than usual and we ended up at Grandma Doty's house in a room with two twin beds. Even though we started the night with Grey in his Pack n' Play, Lucy on the floor, and me and Brandon in each of the twin beds, we woke up to Lucy in my twin bed and me and Grey on the floor. Lucy, of course, wet the bed that morning which jolted us all out of our slumber. This was a harbinger of crappy sleep throughout the whole rest of the vacation.

Saturday morning, we drove the rest of the way to our final vacation destination. For our 2012 Dayton California vacation, my dad happened to be visiting Utah from Japan so Lucy and I flew to California separately several days into the vacation while Brandon drove with his family down and then we all drove back to Utah together. I was also in the throes of my first trimester of pregnancy with Grey. How different things are just a year later! All things considered, the kids did really great traveling but it was still exhausting doing a road trip like that as an adult, and even more so with an infant and preschooler, even at their best. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the drive home.

We stayed in a rental house in Mission Beach at 818/820 Isthmus Court, San Diego. While this vacation home was closer to the beach (within walking distance a few blocks away), it was not quite as spacious or nice as our previous vacation rentals. By far, my favorite family vacation rental was the Bear Lake house we stayed in in 2011. But since a beach house in California is much more expensive, it would be difficult to find something as nice as that within the budget (we have been extremely fortunate that Brandon's dad foots the bill!). We had 8 adults and 7 children - Merril, Cameron (with kids, Olivia, Owen & Morgan), Damian, me & Brandon with Lucy & Grey, Adrian & Natalie with Taylor & Zeke, and Ethan.

Saturday night dinner

By Saturday evening, everyone had arrived and we ordered pizza, did a little food shopping, and went to bed. Brandon and I were fortunate to get one of the larger, nicer rooms with our own bathroom for our brood. We tossed a coin with Adrian & Natalie since we are both in the same boat with children about the same age but we won. So we got two queen beds in the room and also had a Pack n' Play for Grey. But Grey ended up in bed with me and Brandon each night so now that I look back, it probably would have been more comfortable for Brandon to sleep with Lucy in one bed and for me to sleep with Grey in another but I think I was paranoid about Grey falling off the bed so suffered on a sliver of mattress while he slept in between me and Brandon. The major downfall of the room was that the only working washer & dryer were in our bathroom so I ended up doing a lot of laundry, especially beach towels. But at least this year, unlike last year, there were plenty of beach towels so we didn't have to use our bath towels and then wash a bunch of towels multiple times a day.

Like in previous years, we split up meal responsibilities so Brandon and I were responsible for Sunday's meals. We took it real easy and did cereal for breakfast and after church, several roasts with roasted sweet potatoes and salad. I always have grand ambitions to have a really phenomenal meal for the family but end up getting really tired and not planning very well for shopping (and it was a little tough considering we didn't have a ton of time to shop the night before). I think the secret I have learned is to simplify, simplify, simplify when it comes to food.

The rest of the trip is all kind of a blur. I wish I kept better track of what we did. But at least I have pictures.

I just had to document this boy's eyes. I wasn't sure if he was going to keep the color (literally gray) but it appears he will.

There was a lot of television watching. I think everyone was having fruit & yogurt parfaits for Monday morning breakfast that Natalie and Adrian prepared.

Plenty of computering...

More tv watching...

And more tv watching. Good thing we had two televisions. Unfortunately, not a ton of comfy seats but maybe that was a good thing so we didn't spend our entire vacation watching tv. Sometimes I wish that we could have a vacation completely unplugged of all electronics related to media consumption but I know that is not very realistic in this family.

There was plenty of Grandpa time for Grey...

...and Lucy. And look, we finally made it to the beach!

In some ways, I'm pretty glad that Grey wasn't really mobile during this trip. He seemed content just to be held and look around.

We, of course, dressed Grey and Zeke the same.

Just making sure those boys get plenty of Vitamin D!

Some views to the right of us...

And the view to the left.

This must have been day 2 at the beach because Grey is wearing a new outfit.

Lucy was pretty much in heaven. This is her favorite bathing suit that she received from her Baba from Japan. It says Princess Cherry on it. She did however, get a sunburn on a strip of her skin on her back where we didn't quite reach the sunscreen far enough down her swimsuit.

I just love how the kids could play in the sand for literally, hours.

There was of course, some burying in the sand.

Despite how this picture looks, Lucy love it.

When we weren't at the beach and the kids weren't watching television, they were watching or playing something on the iPad. Even though this picture is really blurry (it was quite dark), I love how Lucy is just one of the guys hanging out without her shirt on.

One Wednesday, instead of taking a right and walking to the beach, we took a left and walked in the other direction to this little lagoon. The weather was a little more overcast but that didn't stop the kids from playing.

Another great Japanese swimsuit from Baba reading "Potato Chip".

We realized that we never got any cute cousin pictures of Grey and Zeke together so had a little photo shoot. I wish we dressed the boys the same but we were too lazy. Although Zeke is two months older than Grey, they are about the same size.

We did another photo shoot on Friday with the whole family in t-shirts that Ethan ordered which said "Is everyone happy?" on the front and "Yes sir!" on the back. Some family motto that was before my time...

Cameron's yummy huevos rancheros.

Dinner at Chinese restaurant

Other highlights of the trip include the food - mostly because after Sunday, I didn't have to do any cooking besides making sandwiches for lunch! Natalie and Adrian took care of Monday, Damian had Tuesday, Wednesday belonged to Cameron, Thursday was Merril's day (we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant that night) and Ethan provided us with German pancakes (sans butter and baked in a giant pot cause he couldn't find the 9x13 Pyrex pans at first - just slightly disastrous and a good learning experience for Ethan) and sloppy joes on Friday.

We, of course, had a family "talent" show night (on Wednesday, I think), which I hate participating in. Brandon and I are such wet blankets. Our family pulled out all the stops [insert sarcasm] and danced (quite poorly) to Robin's Call Your Girlfriend. Someday, I will actually prepare something ahead of time that will be more notable and maybe we will record it and post it on the blog. For now, I will just post a blurry picture that Cameron took on his cell phone.

Adrian also arranged for a fire pit and chairs to be brought to the beach in the evening so the family could roast s'mores and chat. I missed out on most of it so I could put Grey to bed but I'm glad all the Dayton men were able to spend that time together.

Dayton Handshake

Saturday morning was a frenzy to get everything cleaned up and on our way back home. Merril flew out of California so it was just us in the Blaster on the way home. We were very tempted to drive straight through to California but ended up stopping over night in St. George because it was just too much with the kids. Damian and Ethan ended up driving all the way to Utah but not after Ethan did some major vomiting in Damian's car. Apparently, he had eaten his sloppy joe's on Saturday morning after they had been left out all night, unrefrigerated! He explained to us, "But I covered them!". Not the same thing. Funny the little details you remember half a year later. Ahhh, memories!

For 2014, we will be doing the Dayton family vacation in Bear Lake instead of California. I couldn't be happier. I don't think I want to do a road trip to California with an infant ever again!