Back in Cali

Our flights here went smoothly, with KayLi only getting a little anxious during our first take off. Once she understood that we would "Go slow" again, all was well. She even did great during our two hour layover in Vegas. Emily was excited to see the strip with all it's huge casinos when we landed and again on take off.

We stayed up ridiculously late catching up with my brother and sister in law. It was so fun to watch KayLi and Will play together. They tackled each other over and over, laughing each time they would fall. No one could believe how much KayLi has grown. Or how "mature" Emily has gotten. I can't figure out when Will turned into a big kid. And the baby, oh the sweetness of her.

Yesterday we tried to sleep in late and get used to the time difference. This will be the first time I have EVER looked forward to daylight savings time. It will put us only an hour out of whack!

Once we all got ready (no small task with four adults, one teenager, two kids and a two month old baby and ONE bathroom) we were off to a small zoo and then the beach for dinner at sunset.

When we got to the zoo it was kind of cool to see that scenes from the movie "Old Dogs" had been filmed there. Only in Cali! It's a small zoo with mostly monkey's, birds and a few mid-sized animals. We had a very nice time following the kids around and watching their excitement over each exhibit. They also had a play ground that the kids loved but I forgot to take any pictures. We'll all swap out pictures later but I think by then you all may be a little tired of pictures of this trip. Maybe, I'll bore you with them anyway :0)

We timed everything perfectly and left the zoo heading for the beach and Ruby's restaurant in plenty of time to get their before sunset and take some beautiful pictures. Or so we thought...

It's important to know that my brother and sister in law have two small cars and we have how many people? So we drove to the zoo and the beach in separate vehicles. Wendy, the baby (that sweet tiny thing I want to inhale), Will (my adorable nephew) and Emily (bless her baby loving heart) were in one vehicle. KayLi, Jay and I were in the other. Wendy had basic directions to the restaurant/beach were were heading towards and was following us...through Orange County traffic.

I know you guessed it...our separate vehicles got seriously separated. No problem right? Wendy has a phone. Nope. Oh well, I'll call Emily's phone. That worked...for about two minutes of very broken service. So with our limited cues as to where each other were we spent the night hour, of very precious daylight, trying to find each other. We were headed towards Ruby's restaurant on the end of the Huntington Beach pier but who would have thought that since we were last there Newport Beach had built four new piers. Three of which now have a Ruby's restaurant on the end.

Praise God for a few crazy miracles because we actually found each other again, right as Jay and I were about to give up and head home...with drive through fast food instead of the long sought after Ruby's. We ended up having a great dinner, at Ruby's woo hoo! Ah but my poor beloved beach pictures will have to wait until next time. We have bounced around a couple ideas of possibly heading back to try again. It's not looking good though. Jay has to work all but one other day while we are hear and we need two experienced California drivers.

So today we will be at the mall. A huge mall if it matters, having fun at the stores we only get to shop at when we are here. Probably spending more money than I would like to. But what the heck...when in Cali...

Thank you all for your prayers for KayLi. She is doing great! No sleep issues, she's not over whelmed, minor jealousy of her cousin and I and no major problems with sharing! She and Allie talked on the phone for a long time this morning and that went well too. So far it seems that I was concerned for no reason. Please keep praying...Disneyland is coming :0)