Rodeo Break visit to Grandpa in California

To "celebrate" the end of my chemo treatments we took a road trip to CA during Rodeo Break (end of Feb) to visit Ammon's grandpa. We love going there. As soon as we arrived, Connor got out of the car and said "it smells like California!...it smells like grandpa's house!...it smells like grandpa's grass!" I think he's right- California has a distinct smell. It smells like the ocean and palm trees and grass (which we lack in AZ) and we love it!

We headed down to the beach early one morning. Ammon ran along the boardwalk, Connor went in the ocean and Amelia and I just watched from a blanket.

Connor was irritated that I didn't bring his swim trunks (I didn't think he'd want to get in the freezing water in February) so I suggested he go in his jammies and we'd wash them after. He definitely took me up on that suggestion and was soaked from head to toe! I'm sure he was quite cold. The water was frigid evidenced by the die-hard surfers all wearing their wet suits (all the black dots in the water are surfers in the picture above this one).

After we returned from the beach, we were told by Ron, grandpa's helper, that one of us had left the back door open and while we were gone, a squirrel had run into the house! Ron spent about an hour trying to chase the thing back out! He didn't appreciate that very much. It wasn't all bad, we all had a good laugh talking about it and I'm sure it also got his heart pumping. Besides, it's fun to have a little adventure in your life. ;)

Connor enjoyed making Angry Birds out of great-grandpa's legos.

Great-grandpa Maughan wanted to get a picture with each kid to put in their copy of his life history "A Glorious Struggle".

I love this picture

Kissing through the glass. Grandpa has an enormous front window that begs to be...kissed.

Connor's turn

Oh no, mommy caught me kissing boys!

A favorite father-child interaction is to play "tick-tock". Each kid loves to take their turn. Check out their videos below.

I love grandpa. I think of him like my own.

Grandpa likes to spoil us by taking us out to eat when we visit.

We love you grandpa!! We're so glad we were able to come see you!

Eventful trip to California

Well, our trip to CA was quite eventful last week. We started out very early on our drive. Everyone was asleep (except me, thank goodness) when I smelled something. I knew Miss Amelia must have had another poopy diaper. She has had diarrhea for a couple weeks now- finally cut two more teeth to let us know what that was about. All I had on my mind was getting to the next rest area to change her. Turned out it was a total blowout. I had to give her a bath in the sink, wash her clothes out and clean out the seat - DISGUSTING!! So, my focus wasn't really on how much gas we had- minor detail, right?... Well, I remember seeing the "last services" sign before the rest stop but naturally wasn't on my mind once the blowout happened. I kept driving and realized the gas station wasn't the 50 or so miles away I thought I remembered the sign saying. So, you guessed it, we ran out of gas. Thankfully it was early (about 7 am) so not hot yet. I immediately called AAA to come help us. While I was on the phone, Ammon started walking with the kids to the next sign to see where we were. Before I knew it, someone had pulled over offering to take Ammon to get gas and bring him back. While still on the phone, he took off. I was like "should I cancel AAA" and he said "yes" as he was leaving. So, I trusted our fate to some strangers I didn't even know or had even seen and off they took Ammon. 

[Hmmmm, this was strangely reminiscent of our trip TO Arizona for a job interview over Thanksgiving 4 years before when our transmission went out. Ammon hopped in the car with some strangers then too who took him to the airport to rent a car so he could make it to his interviews (good because he got one of those jobs) AND leaving myself, Connor and my brother Jason, who was traveling with us- and vies never to do so again, can't blame him, - to fend for ourselves (very bad because we were stranded).]

I still am irritated at Ammon about that situation to this day. But, that's my man--he's got to "DO" something about our problem and darn the consequences to the waiting family. Thankfully, this time, we weren't stranded all day. We were very lucky the people that picked him up weren't murderers or crazies. In fact, they were quite nice (I did meet them once they brought Ammon back 30 minutes later). They said they saw Ammon walking along the road with his kids and knew he was safe (they had 5 kids in the car themselves). So, we got gas--2 little 1-gallon each cans at $11 each (yeah, these middle-of-nowhere gas stations can get away with robbing you when you're desperate) and filled up the tank enough to get us to that same very expensive gas station to fill up the rest of the way.

Thankfully, because we left so early, this mishap didn't put us too far behind schedule and we made it to grandpa's house just after lunch. 

Ammon's grandpa lives out in Palos Verdes Estates in the same house for the past 50 years. Such a beautiful location right near the beach and smack dab at the top of the mountain with a perfect view of the beach, ocean and city lights. We love being there and especially enjoy visiting with grandpa. He is 88 years old and we keep dreading each visit may be our last. We would love and hope to have him around for many years to come.

Out to dinner

First, third and fourth generations

Shopping for Sunday dinner. We had a yummy pot roast.

In the living room where, through that wall of windows behind Ammon, you can see the gorgeous view.

Over Connor's shoulder you can kindof make out the ocean, beach and city.

Little builder

Stack master

Walking out of Church with grandpa (great-grandpa)

Take 2

All together now

Times 2

Cold ocean early Monday morning. We were out there with the surfers. Ammon went running.

Thankfully I had my sweater in the car and put Connor's sweatshirt on Amelia. Connor is like his daddy- doesn't get cold.

 

Good morning!

Feeling the sand between our toes

Great-grandpa's visit

We were so privileged to have Ammon's grandpa visit for Amelia's blessing. He brought her a copy of his published life history called "Glorious Struggle". He read the inscription to her that he wrote inside the front cover. He has been traveling around to all of the great-grandchildren's blessings in the past few years. What a legacy he is leaving for us all.

We so love you Great-grandpa Gordon!!

California Dreamin'

We've just returned from California for an unofficial family reunion. Unofficial because not everyone in Ammon's family were there but, nonetheless, there was a huge gathering. All of us out-of-towners stayed at grandma and grandpa Maughan's house in Palos Verdes. All the beds and couches were taken by the time we arrived so we just pulled up some floor. Talk about a full house!

Dolphins
We really enjoyed being on the beach this particular morning. Ammon and his brother Ricky went running (I went too but not with them- I'm way too slow for them) while Connor played in the ocean with his aunts Amy and Sarah. While in the water, the kids saw what they feared were sharks but what thankfully turned out to be dolphins swimming very near them.
Once we were ready to leave, we went up to this overlook (nicknamed "dolphin point"). We could see those dolphins still very clearly go up and down the shoreline. There were about 6 of them. Way cool!

Here's Connor on the dolphin statue. He really liked the tail. So much so that he decided to take a "nap" on it. He jumped down to get our beach towels, carefully folded one into a pillow and had us drape the other one over him like a blanket. Too cute!

Check out the sweaty (and not too sweet-smelling) brothers after their run ;)

Temple
Early Saturday morning, before all our projects got started, we adults headed to the Los Angeles Temple to do sealings. It was a wonderful and spiritually-bonding experience. My heart took a picture. :)

Projects

Most everyone that didn't live nearby had come out to California for a week. We, unfortunately, were only able to be there for a 3-day weekend. It was quite a crammed schedule while we were there.

Before we arrived many of the family had done some yard work, organization projects, and had torn the carpet from grandma's bathroom. Yet to do were several projects that we were able to help with. The mega project was to put in a new floor in the bathroom. Friday had us at the hardware store checking out vinyl floors. Saturday we were shopping for new bathroom and household items. We also food shopped for the large family dinner on Sunday.

Late Saturday evening found several of the family members figuring out the vinyl floor. Ammon and I stayed up really late actually laying the floor and putting the toilet back on. Sacrificing a little sleep was worth it to serve Ammon's grandparents and to learn some kickin' new "skills"! We were quite happy with the results, even though we didn't have time to get the baseboard on.
Ammon also had his dad give him a haircut. I usually give him his haircuts so I was grateful for the break. Besides, his dad does a much better job in half the time!

Enjoying ourselves
In addition to the hard work, we had time for some good play.

Here's Connor enjoying his big Uncle Ricky on the stairs.
Connor is inside this sleeping bag that Aunt Amy is carrying. He had so much fun playing with this bag. He hatched out of it like it was a dinosaur egg, he used it as a slide to go down the stairs shown above, he made himself into a worm and even a genie inside it...so creative.

Sweet Aunt Liza, Uncle Mark's wife.
Grandpa taking a snooze while dinner is getting ready. If you look closely, you can see the amazing view of the ocean, beach and city they have from their front windows. At night, they call it their treasure box because all the lights twinkle and sparkle. Just beautiful.
One evening we went out to the beach to see the sunset. As you can see, we didn't quite make it.
Maughan parents with their four children. The one on the right is Ammon's mom. l to r: Sue (youngest), Marilyn (oldest daughter), Mark (oldest), Gwendolyn (middle daughter).
Ammon's sweet grandparents