Last Day in California

On Saturday we got to go to the San Diego temple to see Bailey and Jamie and their boys get sealed.  It was an awesome experience in one of the most beautiful temples I've ever been inside.

We had to wait much longer than expected for the sealing and poor Quincy and Tracy had all nine kids in the RV for about two hours.   Needless to say, they all went a little crazy when we finally came out.

Declan was knackered after a long morning...

...and stayed asleep for a long time!

We stayed at a really cool hotel with a courtyard pool - this picture was taken from our room.  The kids loved swimming!

My sister Madi's mission call came while we were there and she had her roommate fax it to the hotel so she could read it to all of us.  Almost everyone was gathered at the pool and hot tub, so the rest of us met there to hear her read it.  There was a teenage girl and an older man in the hot tub as all 25 of us started to gather around.  I probably would have left if I were them, but they stayed with the group - in fact, the man got out and sat down next to Madi.  I still can't get over the memory of all of us gathered around Madi and her mission call, sitting in a pool chair beside a middle-aged man with a Heineken.  Cait and I got the giggles pretty hard!  But the important part of this story is that Madi leaves August 5 to serve in Porto, Portugal!  Congratulations, Madi!  We are so excited for you!

Saturday evening we took a trip down to (appropriately named!) Mission Beach.  It was cold and windy and starting to rain, but of course Garreth could not resist the allure of the sea.

The kids were amazed that this beach had so much sand and no rocks... unlike our beaches at home!  They loved playing in the waves, something else we don't have a lot of, since we live in a bay.  They got nearly as wet as Garreth and it was a cold, sandy ride back to the hotel, but the fun they had made it worth the mess!

And in case you haven't seen enough of shirtless Garreth lately:

And a random picture of Declan and Trip at the hotel!

We flew out of LA Sunday afternoon after a really perfect vacation.  Thanks so much, Mom and Dad!  You guys are the best!  We love you!

Sea World

On Friday we all loaded into the RV and headed to San Diego for a great day at Sea World.

We went to four shows and loved every one - Shamu, the dolphins, the pet show, and the sea lions.  The big kids loved sitting in the "splash zone,"  but Declan... not so much.  We tried it at the dolphin show, thinking that dolphins couldn't possibly spray as much as the orcas had.  Then they brought out some other huge whale to splash the crowd with salt water.  Declan, Tegan, and Halle freaked out crying and Nana just got up and left for higher ground!

I love Sea World and I LOVE San Diego!  I'm already planning a future family vacation back there! 

Disneyland

This is going to be a very long post... and I only used about half the pictures I took!  

We had such a blast at Disneyland.  Garreth and I were worried that it would be hard to coordinate 25 people and still get to do everything we wanted to do, but it turned out to be not a problem at all.  It was so much fun being all together!  It was also great to have helpers around to watch the smaller kids so we could ride things with the older kids.  (Thank heavens for pregnant Cait and motion-sickness-prone Tom!  We owe you guys!)  

We all got around in a big RV driven by Papa, which the kids loved.  Here they are on the way to Disneyland in their "Bambi's-mom's-murderer-hunter-orange" matching T-shirts, which was Nana's great idea.  It made our kids easy to spot and you could always pick our group out in a crowd!  Thanks, Nana!

And on the tram...

We started out the day at California Adventures.

LOVED the new 3-D Toy Story ride.

 Tegan and Declan were pumped to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater.

After a few hours at California Adventures, we headed over to Disneyland.  Sam got very excited about the characters walking around, even though he didn't recognize a lot of them!  He wanted to meet them all, but we settled for Donald...

...and Pluto.

Declan was a great navigator.

Here we are on "It's a Small World."  I don't know why this ride gets such a bad rap.  Yeah, the song gets a little annoying, but nothing feels better in the heat of the day to ride in those air-conditioned boats.  I am a big fan of this ride, just like my grandpa...

When he found out months ago that we were going to Disneyland, all Liam cared about was going on Indiana Jones.  We got Fastpasses and walked about 2 miles into the huge cavernous line before he started having second thoughts.  Then he turned frantic, crying that he didn't want to go anymore.  The only problem was that the rest of us were super-excited for the ride and nobody wanted to turn back.  So mean mom that I am, I made him go on it and covered his eyes the entire time.  He seems unscarred.

On the jungle river cruise. 

Cousins on the Jazzy.

One of my favorite things about the trip was having Grandpa and Grandma there.  They were so much fun and such great sports.  I love you guys!

Waiting for the parade.

Grandpa gettin' down in the disabled section!

The parade was awesome, but I liked watching my kids' faces more!

It was a great day to be a Beckstead in the Magic Kingdom.  The weather was great, the lines not too bad (love those Fastpasses), and the company was the best.  

One more highlight of the day:  celebrity sighting!  Tracy and I were taking Sam and Iris to the bathroom when we passed John Stamos (that's right, Uncle Jesse!) and 3 friends posing for a picture in a teacup.  Tracy was quick to react and snapped a picture.  I'm a little ashamed about how excited I got - what's up with that?  Over John Stamos?  My favorite part was that after they took the picture, a worker escorted them to the front of the line for Alice in Wonderland.  Four adults with all-access celebrity privileges and they go on Alice in Wonderland?

Tulip Festival

We are back from a GREAT vacation!  

We flew out of Seattle on Wednesday afternoon, so we took advantage of the day off work and school and left early in the morning so we could stop in La Conner for the tulip festival.  I love the tulip festival!  It is absolutely breathtaking to see the miles and miles of tulip fields, and the smell!  I wish I could bottle it! 

We walked around for about an hour, enjoying the flowers and letting the kids burn off some energy before they got on the plane.  

But of course, we couldn't leave without taking the traditional "Garreth calendar pose" picture.

We had some lunch in Mt Vernon at a great little bakery/cafe on the riverfront, then headed to the airport.  We had a great flight.  Virgin America is our new favorite airline EVER.  It seriously rocks.  We walked onto the plane to the beat of club-vibe music with hot-pink track lighting.  The black leather and white plastic seats were very hip and IKEA-ish, but the best part of all was the TV/radio/movie/video game consoles built into the back of every seat.  We plugged the kids into some earphones and enjoyed a very peaceful flight to LAX!