What a treat to leave the scorching June heat and swap it out for beautiful beach weather! Here's the story of our trip- mainly in pictures.
We left after work on Friday around 6.
We slept a short night at my mom's and then she dropped us off at the "Catalina Flyer" boat dock on Balboa bright and early.
Of course grandma made them some of her fabulous matching "jams".
(Emma was technically Holly's "buddy" for the trip)
The boat ride was freezing but we loved getting bundled up for it:)
The traditional picture right when we get off the boat:
Our cute street "Descanso".
Our check-in time wasn't until 3 and we had some time kill so we went to the beach:)
We definitely have some beach loving kids! It's those California genes of theirs.
Then we got settled and made some dinner and then wasted no time in going to get some ice cream :)
We saw this awesome sand castle someone had made for a contest on our way there.
Thanks Big Olaf!
The next day was Sunday. Dana's mom is a convert to the church and grew up Lutheran. She thought it'd be fun to take the kids to the Lutheran church there. We agreed that it'd be a neat experience for the kids to see something new.
We did alot of singing and then we really enjoyed the pastor's message.
Afterward we talked about it with the kids- like similarities and differences between our church and theirs. It was great:).
Monday snorkeling was a big hit. In fact, that was I think, the kids favorite part of the trip.
As you can see, we had perfect weather that day. Sadie really wanted to go out but was just a little too small to really get it. Plus the water was cold and she didn't want a fish to touch her.
The fish fear is valid. Dana's family has snorkeling down: they get a few loaves of bread and once those fish realize there's food to be had, every single one of them comes swimming over as fast as they can. It's intimidating even for me. They can be aggressive too and have been known to grab whole bags from people. Dana took the kids around on a raft we brought and they got an awesome show.
I didn't want to miss out on the fun so he took me on a "tour" too...minus the bag of bread:)
Later that day we headed to "Antonio's" for dinner.
I'm not sure it'd be a trip to Catalina if we didn't go there!
Did I mention Dana and I went to Catalina for our Honeymoon? Almost 16 years ago! We sang karaoke at Antonio's and gave an ear-plugging version of "Strawberry Fields Forever". That seems like a million years ago. Ok so here's the exciting part and for sure one of my favorite parts of the trip- I ATE PIZZA! Full of gluten and lots of hot, stringy cheese that made me almost pass out when it hit my taste buds. It's been a full year since I've had cheese and yes, I have missed it. I figured since I'm taking this new awesome probiotic this could be a good time to test it. In fact, isn't my duty to test it out? Yes, yes I decided, and Dana agreed. I reveled in every bite of that first piece. Then the next 4 went down a little faster. Well the 5th piece was slow again because I was overflowing with pizza by then. Anyway...it will not become a regular thing. I felt my body handled it decently but I don't think it would appreciate being bombarded by gluten and dairy once again. I will keep it as a once every long while treat:)
Another of my favorite parts was walking around Catalina at night.
It was pretty romantic. Or as romantic as it can be with your four kids and in-laws next to you :)
The next day our boat didn't go back until 4:30 so we had most of another day there. Dana's brother Dean and his family came in the morning (they stayed the rest of the week) so we went back and snorkeled at "Pebbly Beach" again. The weather was cloudy and a little windy- so it was harder to snorkel in. For some reason I took ZERO pictures of the kids with their big cousins. I guess I enjoyed talking to Kris too much. Bummer.
Finally, we packed back up, took the boat back over, and Sally was so kind to pick us up. Then we went back to my mom's where she was so nice to have a big dinner ready for us. My grandpa even went to 3 or 4 stores to find gluten-free buns for our hamburgers. We took a minute to walk around mom's glorious garden and enjoy not-so-baby James who's almost 2, then we had to drag ourselves back to the car and drive home because Dana had to work the next day.
I don't know how Dana did it, but he got us home without falling asleep once again. It was about 1 am when we finally pulled in the driveway. We basically just went from there and fell into bed. The kids were pretty confused when they woke up in the morning in their clothes and in their beds and they couldn't remember how they got there. :)
It was hard to come back to the heat and we felt pretty homesick this trip, but we really appreciate all the things we love about here too. Maybe one day we'll move back. But for now we'll enjoy visiting as much as possible.
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