Quick weekend getaway!

I thought I would start out with the beautiful beach picture because of course who doesn't want to get away to relax at the beach...even if for only an hour or two. We decided to go visit my Grandpa and Grandma in Fallbrook a few weekends ago. It was a quick drive to their house and surprisingly a bit warmer than AZ! We saw lots of places where the wildfires had come through town and how random the fire had been. When we first arrived, we went and saw an old friend of mine from BYU, Kimber and her twin boys. It was lots of fun catching up (or at least starting on the catching up part, because girls can talk for hours when they haven't seen each other in awhile). Then we drove back to Fallbrook so Sydney could run around outside and play. Her favorite part is picking oranges and lemons and grapefruits off Grandpa's trees. On Saturday morning, Mark went out and picked lots of ripe oranges and made fresh OJ to go with Grandpa's traditional hot cakes, bacon and eggs breakfast! Yummy...and of course he made Sydney a hot cake in the shape of an S. Then after breakfast we headed over to the beach to let Sydney collect about a million seashells.
When we first got there, a seal was lurking under the pier and we had fun watching it play.
Sydney and I thought the seal was cute and wanted to take it home for a pet! I know it is really common for seals and sea lions to swim onto the beach...but we were all so excited to see a wild seal up close. The only wildlife that roam around Phoenix are pigeons, an occasional lizard and LOTS of crickets.
Saturday night most of my aunts and uncles and some of my cousins came down for dinner. It was lots of fun to see them and Sydney had fun chasing my cousin Conner all over the house! Then next day we went to church with my Grandparents and then drove back to Phoenix. We had a great trip! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for letting us come stay!

I should probably leave things at that but these past two weeks (since California) have been interesting. It all started Monday night...Sophie got sick with an awful cold/flu. She spent the rest of the week fussing and NOT SLEEPING, of course, because she was not feeling well. In fact she didn't go to bed until about 5:45 am in the morning. Then she would sleep until about 8:00 (I crashed as well) and then things would begin all over again. Later in the week we discovered that she had cut two teeth so not only was she sick but she was also crabby about that. Sydney came down with flu on Friday morning and then Mark got it by about Friday night. And of course that meant that they were also up most of the night. It is now Wednesday and Sophie and Mark are starting to feel better. I am hoping Sydney will be done with this by tomorrow! And guess who didn't get sick at all...yup...me! I hope it is due to the large quantities of raspberries, blackberries, and vegetables I have been eating, probably not, but I would like to think so. I have been thinking that once everyone is well, I may skip out of town by myself to some remote island and lay under a tiki hut and sleep in the nice warm sun! Sounds like a vacation to me. Did I mention I have several days worth of sleep I still need to catch up on!