Girl's week in California

After Columbus's worst winter in 30 years (the area made it onto this year's top 10 worst winter cities list!) - by February we were more than ready to head over to the land of eternal spring and spend a week in the sunshine with my favorite people. 

Waking the girl's up at 5:30 am wasn't exactly fun, nor was trying to keep an eye on them during a 3 hour layover in the very busy and crowded Vegas airport. However, the end was very much worth the means. 

Lily was beyond excited to have playmates around 24/7! Plus she got to sleep at the top of the bunk bed. I slept in the bottom bunk and Lucy slept in the pack 'n' play. We tried to get Lily to sleep with Laney and Cali in Eli's room, but she said she just wanted to be with me. I don't know if it was the excitement of the bunk bed or being in a new place made her a little nervous, but she stuck to her decision the whole week despite it bringing Laney and Cali to tears. It was probably for the best anyways since Lily and Lucy never really adjusted to pacific time, and woke up between 4am-5am each morning (lucky me). 

Lily couldn't get over being able to go outside in the backyard whenever she wanted! No jackets needed either! "I'm going to go play in the sunshine!" And they loved the beautiful weeds that grew along the sidewalks, they collected each and everyone they saw. 

Laney was very patient with Lily and Lucy, even letting Lily color in her frozen coloring book. 

The ride to the beach! Lily would have been happy with just the car ride. Someone to play figurines with and Tess packed them a "snack pack" - a zip lock baggie with craisens and string cheese. Not too different from the snacks that I pack her, but these were together and called "a snack pack" - she thought Tess was the best Aunt ever for doing this. After returning home Lily continued to comment at how wonderful that was and told me, "I wish you were more like Aunt Tess!". Of course she was currently in the car eating a granola bar I had packed for her in my purse, but it wasn't a "snack pack" so it wasn't cool enough. 

"Waves!"

The crew!

I was so proud of Lily - last year she cried for 30 minutes about being afraid of the moving water and had to have her back turned to the ocean for the remainder of our beach stay. This year she decided to be brave and try something new. And she found that she loved the ocean - I had to drag her away from it when I noticed that it was getting too cold from the chilly breeze. 

Lily during last year's visit

All 4 of these girls are extremely different. However, one thing they all have in common is their love for mermaids. 

Lily and her Granny!

Lucy shows her love for birds by chasing them. 

Enjoying the sunshine

The girl's after last year's visit to the farmers market

This year Eli was big enough to hold his own flower! Such a little stud!

There were moments of tears, especially since bed times were late, wake ups were early and nap times were missed. 

We were able to help celebrate Eli's 2nd birthday during our visit! A bubble gun is always a hit!

Lily and Cali helped Eli put together his new train set :)

Pre-church beauties!

Lucy loves to collect sticks and rocks. 

Granny and her ipad were quite popular

I loved loved loved spending time with Tess, her family and my mom, but we also missed Jordan who wasn't able to come with us due to being busy at work. Lily asked several times over the weeks following our visit, "why didn't we choose to live in California?" And, "when are we going back!?". 

The flight home went a little better, due to the new toys I brought for them to play with (Jake figurines and fairy figurines), along with their exhaustion and only having a 1 hour layover in the Vegas airport.