Vacation and Staycation

Victoria and Karissa got to go on one of the best vacations that they have ever been on. Why? Because they flew by themselves to Southern California to visit my dad and stepmom with the other girl cousins that are just older than them. Mary Lou and my dad have been having these "cousin reunions" for a long time now (some of their grandchildren are in their mid-20s) and I've always enjoyed hearing about the different groups of cousins that get together to be spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa Anderson. Well, my girls were finally old enough. They met Mariah 14 and Natalie 12 (my sister's kids) and Francesca 15 and Audrey 10 (daughters of two different step brothers of mine). Since I wasn't there, I don't have all the group shots on my phone, though I did save all the pics I was texted, but for some reason I can't get those in the right place to put on my computer. I have some that Victoria took with her phone, but an 11-year-old doesn't take too many group shots...

They went to the science center, the beach, tide pools, and swam in the pool, a lot! They also got to see the temple, pick fruit from the orchard, do facials, manis and pedis, water balloon fight, and eat lots of yummy food.

Excited to leave!

A familiar site to me

The Pacific Ocean!

Meanwhile, I got to experience life with just boys. Let me just say that halving the amount of children you're with for 5 days makes a big difference! I made sure to do many fun activities with the boys which was easy and so fun! Normally with the four of them, there's always someone who doesn't want to do what I have planned. With the younger boys, I had no complaining! We went to Jungle Java, got frozen yogurt, played at the park, went to the splash pad, rode our bikes, played with friends, went to the $ movie, went to the $ store, went to the hands on museum and enjoyed quiet times at home. Since I was able to dedicate a lot of time to the two of them, I also had more free time to myself and with Jason. We started to miss the girls by the end of the week, though. On Saturday Austin woke up and asked if they were back yet, it was cute. They came home that night.

Thanks Dad and Mary Lou for letting my girls experience that! We all benefitted from it!!