California Trip: Part 1

We've been counting down for our big trip since Christmas!  Finally the day had come.  Our bags were packed and all of the arrangements to be gone for a week had been taken care of.
Excitement was in the air!

Our flight being delayed a half hour was only a slight blip in our plans.  Having our car loaded and a friend here to pick us up only to find out that our flight was being delayed another 3 hours was a huge bummer.  She graciously agreed to come back rather than take us to the airport so early, we accepted her kind gesture and tried to find things to do to make the time pass quickly, but it didn't. Those were the longest 3 hours.  We thought that was bad until we got to the airport and things only got worse.

Jared sensed right away that something was wrong when he noticed that there was no one checking in for our flight.  He had called before we left, they told him that our flight was no longer stopping in Oakland and would now be a direct flight to L.A.  We learned at the front desk that our flight was actually going to Oakland and stopping there.  The flight from Oakland to L.A. had been cancelled. There we were stranded at the airport with 4 kids, 6 suitcases, and a flight that had been cancelled. Not the greatest start to our trip.

Oh, and Austin had a fever.  Awesome.

The lady at the front desk was very kind.  She felt terrible and promised us vouchers to use for another trip.  We were grateful, but at the time it hardly seemed worth it.  She offered to get 3 of us out Sunday afternoon, and the other 3 out later Sunday evening, or all of us on the same flight Monday morning.  Neither seemed like an ideal situation.  Finally she offered that we could take our original flight to Oakland, and fly out from there the next morning, arriving in L.A. later Sunday afternoon. It wasn't what we had planned, but we went for it.  We were going to California that night if we had to walk!!

So, while the kids played UNO, Jared frantically got on the phone to cancel our hotel reservation that night in LA (unfortunately it was too late to get a refund), and change our car rental reservation to Sunday.  It was at this point that he discovered that he'd made a few mistakes in our reservations which only added to an already stressful situation.  Thankfully everything was able to be resolved and we found ourselves spending less overall than we had originally planned, we hoped this was the last of our bad news.   Jared looked at me during the worst of it and simply said, "We are never travelling with our kids again!"

It wasn't that bad.  At least I can say that now.  We made it to Oakland and quickly decided we couldn't sleep in the airport.  We found a shuttle to a hotel close by and slept for a few short hours, took a flight out Sunday morning and arrived in L.A. in time for a delicious lunch at In-N-Out Burger.  From here on out, things only got better.

No one had slept well the night before, thankfully all our kids were able to sleep while we drove to San Diego.  Everyone woke up to see the beautiful temple except Austin.  We tried, but he was out.

Our next stop was Old Town, and a visit to the Mormon Battalion church historic site.  It was pretty amazing and we were glad that we made the effort to check it out.

Panning for gold was Austin's favorite part!

We stayed with this cute family.  Eric Oh was one of Jared's favorite buddies from the BYU Rugby team back in the glory days.  He made an extra effort to come out to our wedding and we've kept in touch with them over the years.  It was fun to spend time with them and their adorable kids.

Emma and Mia hit it off right away and were instant buddies.

Cute little Bodee is giving Jared some attention here, but he spent most of his time following Linsey around and had no problem admitting that he had a crush on her.  Apparently he has a thing for blondes.  

It was a gorgeous day at Mission Beach!

We stayed until the sunset.