Hales Reunion in California

In early July we headed to LA for the Hales Family Reunion! We left on a Thursday and the whole week leading up to our departure Kate was SO sick. She was hardly able to hold anything down other than water. I kept thinking she'd for SURE be better that night, or the next morning, etc, but she had some nasty bug that kept her sick for 5 days! Poor girl. Anyway, we left on a Thursday morning and I didn't really let Kate eat much other than Pedialyte and crackers because I was trying to avoid her getting sick in the car. Luckily the drive was pretty uneventful. We kept shows on and got there as fast as we could. She seemed to be on the mend, though definitely tired.

And we were so happy to get there! The kids ran around happily and played with cousins. It is always SO nice to be able to go somewhere where we can be outside during the summer. :-)

Kate DID (sadly) throw up one more time (outside, thank heavens) that evening but recovered in no time and was totally better after that.

Friday we went to the beach with the Wirthlins and Grandma and Papa. (The Hales got there that evening.) We were so happy to be there! Matthew surprised me by playing in the waves - this was the first time that he wasn't scared! Nervous for a few minutes, sure, but he definitely warmed up to it quickly.

Joshua would've liked the ocean a lot better if it had been warm. He prefers water to be bath-warm. Haha. He did enjoy playing in the sand though, and even tolerated the ocean on his feet if I held him.

Kate was pretty anti-the ocean this trip, but I didn't mind. She'll learn to love it soon enough and was perfectly content to dig in the sand.

Oh, and she and Sadie had matching swimming suits. Aren't these cousins the cutest??

Friday night was Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium. My mom was nice enough to babysit so that me and Michael could go. It was so fun! Even though admittedly the Diamondbacks have a better stadium, I still love the Dodgers the best. :-)

On Saturday we all went down to Newport Beach. I wasn't expecting to play in the ocean so I didn't dress my kids in their swimming suits, but we decided to eat lunch on the beach which turned into some of the kids heading for the water... including Matthew. His shorts were falling off and as a result he was showing the whole world half of his bum.... So funny. But he was having the time of his life!

Then we did some shopping and I finally tried a chocolate dipped cheesecake, which I've always thought looked amazing but had never tried. Umm, not that amazing. Haha. At least now I know.

And then some people rode the carousel on the pier. Matthew went with Papa and Kate went with Grandma. They both loved it.

A couple nights Michael played Risk with the people who can tolerate that game. ;-) It got pretty intense which the rest of us found hilarious.

My parents put this slide out front and Joshua could've lived on it. It was probably one of his favorite parts of the reunion, after the family and the food.

Also, at some point I walked out to find Joshua in this. Hahaha! Apparently he'd brought it to Michael so Michael put it on him... though not very well. Michael's not so good with girls swimming suits. ;-)

Sunday morning the kids got to go on a treasure hunt. There was a clue specifically for each grandchild leading to the next clue. They all loved it, and especially loved that it led to a shark pinata. Matthew talked about that shark pinata for a few weeks afterwards.

Side note: I love that my kids have cousins their age! Matthew bonded with Benjamin over a mutual love of looking for rolie polies, (sp?) and Kate liked playing with Sadie. And the older grandkids are so good about playing with the younger ones too. I have the best family.

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent at church and just kinda hanging out. Monday was the 4th of July! It's fun being in CA for it, and this was the second year in a row that we were there. We started off the day at the Manhattan Beach Ward pancake breakfast. The food was delicious and my kids liked stuffing their faces and running around.

Looking for bugs, as usual.

Then we went back to the beach. I even finally got in and went boogie boarding. :)

Kate talked Emma into turning her into a mermaid. :-)

And then we ate dinner and headed to El Segundo for fireworks. Matthew and Kate loved it (and Kate wasn't scared this year! Yay!) and Joshua liked it okay but couldn't sit still. (As usual, ha.) At least he wasn't scared and screaming!

We had to leave the next day so that Michael could get back to work.... though he ended up finding out that he got a new job on the drive back to AZ. Ha! I was a little bummed that we couldn't stay one more day but oh well. The kids were too - look at this sad pic of Matthew I took once it hit him that we really were leaving -

At least we'll be back in September! We had so much fun!