It's a Cali Thing

Dean and Barbara are so wonderful and are always up for fun . It seems like their family motto is fun first work later . They definitely make spending time together as a family having fun a top priority and I am not sure how I got to be so lucky to marry into such a GREAT family. This particular trip we decided to go to California and spend a couple days at Lego Land. Boy the kids loved it and enjoyed spending time together with their cousins. David and I chose to make it a little family vacation as well and stayed a few extra days longer then everyone else. While in California we went to Lego Land , the beach, and Sea World. It was a lot of fun and a much needed vacation!

On our way home from California Stratton started complaining that his hands and feet were itching . They progressively got worse and so did his whining and crying and then right near Yuma he broke out in a dotted rash all over his hands , feet and I started seeing some spots on his mouth. I knew right away that it was hand , foot and mouth virus. I however, didn't know the severity of the strain he got . Poor guy was miserable all of the way home and with a little Benedryl and a lot of massaging of his hands we finally were able to make it back to Chandler. David was a little doubtful of how bad Stratton's hands and feet were itching and was often telling him to try and relax and quit crying .  Fast forward three days and David woke up with itchy palms and feet and the same rash . He was swollen and it was breaking out all over his body. The got the same exact thing as Stratton and I think all of the sudden became very sympathetic. It was such a nasty virus and went through several different stages where the rash was first , swelling , peeling off of all the skin and then several of Stratton's toenails and fingernails actually came completely off . It was pretty intense and took a couple weeks to fully recuperate .

Also several weeks after we got home we were preparing to go camping and received a phone call from our credit card company .  They asked if the charges on my card were accurate and they thought possibly my business American express card was stolen . Panicky I looked through my wallet and saw my card was in there yet all of the charges to Starbucks and Jamba Juice and several others were not charged by me . What had happened was somebody at the hotel we were staying at found my American Express and scanned it and made their own  copy of my card . They had quite the spending spree with racking up close to 3000 dollars . Lucky enough  we have really good protection on this particular card and had no trouble with getting back the money that was spent .

 We stopped at the Yuma Territorial Prison and took a tour with Dean. Dean's grandfather was actually in this prison for polygamy. It was interesting and the kids loved it !

 This is not Dean's grandfather ! Just a guy with the same name as David :)

 We spent 2 days at Lego Land in California . Here are the kids trying to get the people on the ride wetter then they already are . This wasn't just fun for the kids I think the adults actually enjoyed it just as much if not more.

 Neither of my boys are very daring and did not want to go on this ride . We dragged them through the line and Emerson backed out at the last minute . Stratton is still upset that we made him go on this ride because he got soaked.

I think it is so funny to see the difference between Stratton and then Duane and Angie's kids .

Look at their faces . Kalvin and Tristen couldn't get enough of this ride and Stratton is so mad that we made ride it . I feel like mean parents !!!

 

 I can not tell you how many pictures I have that would have made a GREAT shot until Justin photo bombed it  ... :)

 A rough conclusion to our California vacation .

California was fun but we definitely had lingering effects from this vacation :)