Family Vacation

Just got home a couple of days ago from our little vacation. We had such a good time (well except the day of the funeral anyways).
We actually ended up leaving Tuesday night after my husband got off work and we drove the 8 hours to my moms house, slept for about 3 hours and then was up again to head to California. VERY VERY SLEEPY.
We stopped at this little place basically so my nephew could see the dinosaurs because my girls have all been there before called Prehistoric Gardens

It was such a beautiful day to drive down the coast too, here it was 75 degrees and there was not a cloud in sight.

We made our usual stop at Mattie's Pancake House. My oldest Madyson we call her Mattie said maybe we should tell them I am the owner so I can get my meal free. Silly girl she is.

We made a million stops on the way down there is seemed for bathroom breaks, which really boggles me because my kids can usually go most of the 8 hour drive without having to stop and yet here we are on a 6 hour drive and 2 hours into it we have already made 3 stops.

Next was the Trees of Mystery again we have been here a million times but I had my nephew with me and he has never seen it before and it always make for a nice break from the car. And who doesn't want to hear Paul Bunyon talking to you lol.

Sorry couldn't get all of him in the picture

Now to get to our destination. 3 hours later we finally made it. Enjoyed visiting and introducing Jaedyn to our relatives we hadn't seen in 2 years.
Friday we decided to go to the River and enjoy the trees at Avenue of the Giants. If you ever go to California you have got to drive this road, the trees are massive in size.

We swam in the river for quite awhile and then little Miss Jaedyn decided she was ready to get out of there, so since she is in charge that's what we did.

We also got to enjoy family night at the local rodeo, it was filled with different things to watch. Madyson and Lyndze both participated in the Animal Scramble,

My little Lyndze is the one in the back in a blue t-shirt

which basically they round up all the kids take them out to the arena area and let loose a bunch of animals ranging from chickens all the way to calves, and if a kids catches one they get to take it home. Now at first I was like if either one of them get one they are going to have to give it away but then I decided if they got one I would have to purchase an animal carrier to bring it home because that would be a huge disappointment to them but LUCKILY neither one caught anything. Next they did ATV barrel races,

we only got to see one good wreck on that, and then there was calve dressing and then there was Quadiators

which is 2 people on one quad one with a bat and a balloon tied on the top of their helmet and them driving trying to break the other peoples balloons I believe there was 30 teams and this was a big deal because the winner won $600 so there was a ton of cops in case there were fights and of course there were.

Saturday we had to say goodbye and stuff our kids back into the car and head back to Oregon. So we decided we would take a different way home and take the kids to the Wildlife Safari which I was super excited about because I wanted to get my car washed by elephants. This place is so cool, you drive through it and they have tons of different animals. One spot there was a buffalo in the road and he was trying to scrap your car with his horn,

we got to see bears fighting in the water, a giraffe close enough to touch

oh I could go on and on about all of the animals there and of course the one thing I wanted to do was already shut down for the day. The drive through the safari lasted about an hour so the drive on Saturday was 9 hours. I am so glad my kids do really good in the car even the baby.
That night we enjoyed hanging out with our friends
Sunday my husband turned 32 and boy was he in a bad mood. We also had to go to a birthday party for my friends son who turned 3. Man my husband was in a bad mood this day lol.
Monday errands in town and off to see my husbands grandma, the last time she had seen the kids was in December so she was shocked at how big Jaedyn already was.
Tuesday HOME HOME HOME.
You know my vacations never actually seem like a vacation, I mean not 1 day did we do nothing and just relax we are like the energizer bunny when we go down there. I guess that is what happens when you move away from everyone, when you visit you have to try and visit everyone.
So I am at home now until Wednesday and then I head back to Oregon again.
I feel like I just wrote a book, sorry it was so long.