Trip to Costa Mesa!

Reed and I were fortunate enough to go to California over the weekend and spend time with the Streiff Family. It was nice to see Carly, Craig, & Elliott and spend time with Josh & his wife Janae. We were also fortunate enough to see Shelly and her clan. They are getting so big! Reed and Elliott bonded very quickly and I guess Elliott must have overheard me because he told Reed; “You’re my new B.F.F”. I love Elliott so much and loved watching him interact. It’s so nice to see a family that is so close and enjoys every moment they are given together. The little things they say and do for one another are so wonderful. It was nice to vacation in a home so clearly filled with love. We arrived on Thursday around 8 PM, no thanks to Garmin. It was clear to us she felt we should vacation in San Diego. We are hoping to make her dreams come true over spring break. Knowing our luck, she’ll try to send us to Costa Mesa. Once we arrived, it was a little late and Elliott had already gone to bed but he snuck down to say hello anyway. We just talked and got caught up with one another. Since Josh & Janae were spending the summer, we spent our time on the surprisingly comfortable hand-me-down Rose hide-a-bed. The next morning we headed off to the back bay nature center. We met up with Shelly and her kids and another mother from the ward. Carly had warned me that having that many kids together was like having the circus in town, she downplayed it. It was fun to chase the little ones and see all the different items there were to see. One thing that stuck out in my mind was a blue crab they had in an aquarium there. Blue crabs are not indigenous to California, and they found this one hanging out on the runway at the John Wayne Airport. They figure the crab must have found his way out of a shipment of crabs heading to a restaurant in the local area. There was a fish in the aquarium with him and whenever the fish would get near it, the crab would start snapping and moving back and forth. The fish seamed to careless. It left me to wonder, how long had the crab been snapping and the fish caring less? We then went to a favorite fresh mex joint in Costa Mesa. Once we got home the guys all headed off to the fathers & sons camp out with the ward. Elliott made sure I understood, I was a girl and wouldn’t be going. After the guys were gone we watched some TV and went out to the California Pizza Kitchen. The next morning Carly took full advantage of the lack of a child and slept in and so we had a late start that day and by the time we got ready, the guys were home. We waited for the guys to get clean and then headed off to Craig’s best friends birthday party. We drove to Crestline, CA for the party. It was a crazy drive. We followed the freeway to San Bernardino and then climbed the mountains for quite a while and then when I swore we were at the top, boom, Crestline. It was nice to spend time there. Such a cute town and it was so different than the areas of California I knew. It was how I imagined a little village in the Alps would be! Craig’s friend & his family were so accommodating and friendly. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them and how nice to let us attend their party with The Streiff’s. After the party we came home and retrieved Elliott who had been spending time with his Grandma Streiff. We then spent that night watching “Quantum of Solace” Reed and I, thinking of our drive the next day, didn’t last long and decided to head off to bed. Sunday we said our goodbyes, hit Jamba Juice and headed home. We stopped for lunch in Quartzite and we were behind a woman in line who was the poster child for impatience and intolerance. There was a deaf school in line placing an order and she could not fathom why McDonalds would help them. Why did the deaf school not have someone with them who wasn’t deaf? What was taking McDonalds so long? Did they not realize she had been in line for 20 minutes?! Reed and I couldn’t stand her. I felt like saying something to her but held my tongue. Once we had finally placed our order and got back to the drive a stupid woman jaywalking cost me 2 nuggets and nearly got sweet and sour sauce on my seat. Once we got home it was nice to see our dogs and know how much we were missed. Reed’s mom had left us treasures. I now have a plaque from Reed’s tennis days in High School and his C.A.C. Graduation photo. He was so young! Not the man I married. I am sorry it has been so long since I blogged. I keep forgetting to take my camera fishing with me. I remembered to take the camera to California but never managed to take any photos. Hopefully if we get back to California again over fall break, I will be better with the photos.