Last day of vacation - mixed feelings.

I think mostly I'm ready to go home. Jake & the kids decided that they wanted to see the Earthquakes play (Major League Soccer) so we are now in Santa Clara. Tate & I are at the hotel & the rest of the group are at Buck Shaw Stadium. I'm sure it's totally fun but I wasn't prepared to be that cold & Tate would have just been a grump anyway. He's happy vegging out in front of the tv. We will be off for home in the morning & a couple of hours in the car is a much easier thing to stomach than the whole drive in one day. The car is FULL. Overflowing full. Tanner's been keeping home ready for us & it'll be nice to see Tanner & the laundry room & my pillow. Not that vacation wasn't awesome, it really was.

We picked up Chase and Matt from EFY today. They've spent since Monday with a large group of LDS kids on the UC Santa Barbara campus. Both of them have raved about it since we picked them up. They liked their groups, had tons of fun, met a lot of girls (less important are the guys they met) and also had some spiritual moments. I'm so glad that family helped us to be able to send Chase & that he got to go with his favorite cousin. Not far behind in what I'm glad for is that we got to spend the week in Santa Barbara, too. I mean, seriously, what's not to love about that?

We had some craziness. Losing wetsuits out of the pod while driving. Changing hotels unexpectedly. Tate had a splinter incident. The splinter incident was today. I was in the car & the kids had walked down the pier. First, Jake comes and reports that Kaleb is missing and he goes off on the search. Seconds after finding Kaleb, Chloe calls me and says that Tate had gotten a splinter, saw blood and seemed like he was going to pass out. Great big sister that she is, she reported the incident and carried the little guy back to the car (Jake met the part way out). Of course, all color had drained out of his face & he was in a cold sweat. I put a bandage over the splinter since we didn't want a full-scale pass out/seizure looking thing on the boardwalk in SB. Never a dull moment, right?

Travelling with Jake lends itself to me having to let go a little. He likes to see where the day or road takes us rather than make a plan ahead of time. Today we were going to take Matt and Chase to the beach & spend the day there then drive part of the way home. Instead we did a small amount of SB sightseeing/shopping & then hit the road. Partially with the idea that we would stop farther north at the beach. Until he got the idea that we could take 101 home and hit the Earthquakes game on the way home. Way in that sentence should have finger quotes. Or real quotes.

It's ok because after tomorrow morning, we have to go back to real life. Back to bill paying, school doing, kid driving, dinner cooking, soccer game watching, church attending, house cleaning real life. For a whole week we've gotten to have vacation life & it's been a blessing.

Not a day to cheer about.

I should just be grateful that I'm in Santa Barbara & not at home in the sweating heat worrying about solar jobs & Josh's office which seems to be how most of my family spent the week. I should. But, oh, what a day this has been, what a bad mood I'm in! First of all, sleeping with Tate is like sleeping with a whirling dervish. How he stays on his little bed at home is beyond me! So, I was groggy this morning even though I "slept in". Then we sat around & waited for Jake to do a bunch of school stuff & the internet at the hotel was SLOW. When he had had enough of that, we headed out. Jake wanted to check out a couple of places so we basically did a sightseeing from the car trip. As we headed up a hill, there was a clunking sound on top of the car. I queried about the sound and was assured that it was just the boogie/skim boards clanking around inside of the pod. About 5 minutes later, I watched stuff fly out of the pod onto the side of the road. Yep, the pod was open & the wetsuits flew out. Stop, U-turn & then stop again in a NO PARKING ANYTIME zone. Perfect. Watch as Jake darts out into the road (55 mph & curvy-ish)) to retrieve the stranded wetsuits. Luckily, we realized that the cooler with lunch in it had been left at the hotel so we drove back there for lunch instead of picnicing. This was lucky because we get there only to find that the hotel thought that we were checking out today, not tomorrow. First I talked to the lady & then Jake talked to the lady. Although he had changed our reservation online and then again when he checked in, apparently they didn't record any changes and we were welcome to stay the night but it would cost us an extra $90. No apology. No give on the price. Really was not a very nice conversation. So much for customer service. At first we were going to stay because she said that we had to be out in 30 minutes but she made us mad so we loaded all of our stuff in the car & left. Not a well organized exit. And I didn't even get to eat my lunch. We are now at the Best Western which for about the same price as the other place would have been, has a shower that Jake doesn't have to duck to stand in. Jake worked on some more school until we were all starving. Off we go to find a place to eat. Except the place we chose (via google) didn't exist when we got there thus causing a 60 minute driving around exbitition to find a place to eat. Super. Anybody like to hang out with me when I'm past hungry? We went to a Chinese rest. Chloe wanted Chinese & I can eat it if they use white meat. Only Kaleb would be hungry after we left. Except that the orange chicken was like fried chicken skin in sauce that was weird, too. So I was also still hungry when we left. Tate has decided that he doesn't have to listen to a word I say & when I talk to him in a mean voice he says "that's so funny" and laughs. Then he fake laughs & says "I can't stop laughing" which clearly he could. It's very annoying. Finally, he is asleep. Kaleb seems to be quiet now. (not a common occurrence) & I think that I might be able to sleep. Early pick up for Chase & Tate means an early morning. Yipee. Hope tomorrow is a good last day of vacation. Cross fingers for me!

Sand & Sunburn

Today's big plan was hit the beach for the day. Jake did recon online to pick a beach with bathrooms and showers. First up - Leadbetter. We went, parked and lugged all of our stuff out to the beach. Bags of food, coolers, beach toys, towels, umbrella, chairs, wetsuits, boards. Having set up all of the stuff, Chloe & Kaleb put on wetsuits and went in the water. And then the flies started buzzing. Jake didn't like the flies but Tate, of course, had a bit of a meltdown and it was clear that the flies had killed any chance of a peaceful day with Tate. We loaded all of the stuff back in the car, Chloe & Kaleb jumped in in their wetsuits and we headed south hoping to find both better waves & no flies. Carpenteria was the next stop. We parked, lugged all of our stuff over a sand dune only to find a beach PACKED full of people but seemingly most of the people were kids from a day camp or something. SO, Jake insists that we lug all of our stuff down the beach to a less populated area. Thankfully, we found a spot & it was virtually fly free otherwise he was threatening to drive down to Rincon. Chloe & Kaleb had a great time in the ocean. The wetsuits were awesome to have. Kaleb spent most of his time boogie boarding but when the crowd lessened somewhat he broke out the skim board & seemed like he got the hang of it. It was a beautiful day. Warm but not hot. A lovely breeze & a little overcast. Chloe & Kaleb are both a bit pink in spots but will be brown tomorrow & so far I've succeeded in keeping myself from burning. I do seem to have about 1000 new freckles, though. Chase & Matt checked in at bedtime (via text of course) and reported that they are having fun & "today was awesome". Given that today was the churchiest day of the week - dress clothes all day & testimony meeting, from what I understand - I'm a pretty happy Mom to hear that they loved today!
High point of the day - Closing my eyes & hearing ocean noises - waves, seagulls and squealing happy kids.
Low point of the day - Hard to think of one except missing my boys that aren't with us.

Day 4 - My feet hurt.

I'm not sure that we did much of interest today. Jake had a bunch of school stuff to take care of before we could leave the wifi. After he finished (or got sick of the slow wifi), we went downtown & walked around. Blocks & blocks & blocks of shops. Shops normally found in malls, tourist shops, consignment shops, wacky shops, hippie shops - all kinds of shops. We wandered in and out of some, grabbed some lunch & then rested our feet in a movie theater and watched Transformers 3. Tate has been wanting to go & see it. What did he do most of the time? "Is it over yet?" "Can we go now?" 2 trips to the bathroom. The 2 loud, stinking drunk (literally) guys behaved better during the movie than he did. *sigh* On the way back to the car, he spent half the time crying because he wanted the black and white volcom shirt that he had seen at the volcom store. Didn't really matter that he called it the volcom shirt, the vans shirt & the folsom shirt. He then spent awhile on my back as we walked. Following dinner Chloe & I walked to the mall that is close to the hotel. As we were walking away, Tate's yelling "Mom, MOM, MOOOMMMM. Where are you going? Where? Where are you going?!" Chloe got a few clothing items with EFY in mind & I got a break from Tate. On the way back to the hotel we hit the Whole Foods for some dessert & soy milk. The hotel was a welcome site for my feet. Lots of walking today in sandals wore them out. Time to put them up & plan the day tomorrow. Already working on day 5!
High point - Girl's shopping trip.
Low point - Several blocks of listening to Tate cry about a $15 volcom shirt. I seriously should have just spent the stupid $15.

Day 3 - Taking it easy

Tate decided what the plan should be today. He wanted to go to the zoo, come back and swim at the hotel and then go and see Transformers 3. He got 2 out of 3. Santa Barbara zoo is a very beautiful but small zoo. The animal enclosures are very well done & it overlooks the ocean. There is a very cool play area which Tate didn't want to leave. After the zoo, we had lunch and were going to go to the beach but we were TIRED. While Tate, Jake and I took a nap, Chloe and Kaleb swam and sat in the hot tub. Jake had some school stuff to do on the computer so he did that while the kids watched tv. Eventually, Tate got to swim in the pool. Tanner and Chase have both checked in via text & who knows what we will do tomorrow.
High point - Tate & Kaleb feeding the giraffes.
Low point - Tate crying that he "wants to go home because he misses Tanner".

Vacation Log - Day 2 (Independence Day)

We started today by getting Chase and Matt checked in at EFY on the UC Santa Barbara campus. The poor boys will have to spend the whole week in dorms located about 100 yds (or less) from the Pacific. We waved goodbye and left them standing in a long line of like-minded teens. And then had to return an hour or so later after Chase realized that he forgot towels. Apparently, they had already had kisses blown to them by a girl. I think that they will have an ok week. We then hit the grocery store & Big 5. Forgetting Tate's new love - his life jacket - was a No No so we had to get one. Love it when not being on top of packing costs us an extra $20.

The weather was perfect. About 80 degrees & sunny. After dragging all of our stuff to the beach & setting it up, we relaxed for the day. Most of the time. Travelling with Tate can be interesting. Actually, living with Tate is interesting. I do have to say, though, that he did well. He let the ocean water touch his feet. He only freaked out about the sand a few times. Chloe and Kaleb took the boogie board and hit what waves they could find. Too many people to experiment with the skim board so that'll have to wait for another day.

As evening set in we loaded all of our stuff back in the car and found a spot to watch the fireworks. Although there were a lot of people, it wasn't really crowded where we were. As we waited for it to get dark, we enjoyed the view of the water, the wharf, the palm trees and red, white and blue in many different forms. The fireworks were awesome but scared and/or were too loud/too close for Tatie so he and I made our way to the car a bit earlier than everyone else.

Tate is snoring next to me all snuggled up in the hotel bed - exhausted from a long day of play. Gotta get sleep so we can hit the ground running again in the morning!

High point of the day - Chloe & Kaleb sharing some laughs & experiences. (Unusual combo for our family.)
Low point of the day - Missing Tanner & Chase.

Vacation Log - Day 1

We made it. That is all I can say at this point. We left this morning & got to Santa Barbara late this afternoon. Checked in to the hotel, unloaded tons of stuff from the car & pod & then went to dinner. How can riding in a car all day be exhausting? By the time we were eating at Outback, I wanted to pull out my hair. It's my own problem. The kids were very good & most of them are big so it's not like there was a lot of the work of travelling with little kids or babies. Tate was pretty patient. He had his binder with maps, road trip games and coloring pages. He had my laptop and a new pair of headphones. We only heard "how many more minutes?" several times. Jake doesn't make us get in the car and go until our bladders explode so we stopped several times along the way - a couple of rest stops and gas stations along I-5. Tate was very glad to see that there were no flies in the bathroom at Jamba Juice as he was unable to pee at the rest stop with lots of flies. (Jake took him to a tree behind the rest stop so that he could pee fly free.) My problem is that the enclosed space of a car for 8 hours is not the best place for someone who overstimulates and then doesn't naturally re-set. At Outback, there were two boys kicking me repeatedly under the table, three boys tap, tap, tapping out various rhthyms on the table, one boy whining that it was taking too long for them to bring his food & a grown up 'man' chucking the cardboard coasters at the children. After the car ride & without time to decompress, I had had it. Luckily, we are at a hotel that has two rooms - Jake & Tate are in one & I'm in the other one. The other kids are in the hot tub. Now I get to re-set my meter & get ready to settle the masses in for the night. (I'll be sharing my toothbrush since I forgot to bring Tate's.)  Tomorrow we will be dropping Matt & Chase off at UC Santa Barbara for EFY for the week, hitting the grocery store & celebrating our Independence.
Downside of the day: Driving on I-5 - what a long, boring road. Ick.
Upside of the day: It smells like the ocean outside.