We just had the best weekend in California! At the very last minute on Friday we decided to head down to my brother’s homes in San Clemente to play with cousins. After we got Chloe, the dog, situated in a doggie daycare place on Friday we cut loose and skipped town. I was trying to think of the last time I went out of town and realized that I hadn’t gone anywhere for a very long time. The end of last summer was the last time I ventured out of town. That was a week at the cabin to escape the heat. But then I had an increasingly difficult time being on the mountain because of the altitude making my pregnant body work extra hard to get oxygen! So my choice was stay inside an air-conditioned Vegas home and let my kids swim in the backyard more and walk my dog on the treadmill or stay in my Adirondack chair on the porch of the cabin all day and watch my kids play out front and let the dog roam the meadow. I stayed on the mountain as long as I could and eventually made my way home reluctantly. So from August to January I stayed home.
We also had a crazy holiday break. It was extra good in so many ways. With Sam’s surgery and the next week us all getting stomach flu we didn’t have a typical holiday break. We did what was most important and got to experience the real meaning of Christmas in so many tender ways. But at the beginning of this last week I knew the boys had school off on Monday and I couldn’t shake the desire to head to the coast.
Sam is two months old and doing great! I knew he would be easy enough to travel with in the car. He just sleeps the entire time. Jack and Morgan were off school and so were their cousins which meant they could spend a long weekend together. Rod was able to get off work on Monday and so we drove down to San Clemente on Friday night and returned Monday night. We always have the best time with family down in SC.
This trip we took a morning walk along the beach trail watching the trains pass by and played at the beach park. We ate yummy Indian food as adults with our children being babysat by a friend’s daughter (love that Vegas connection down in San Clemente! Thanks Sophie Zobrist!) Our boys played for hours outside with their cousins in their neighborhood. When they were asked to come in we had to direct them straight to the showers because they looked like they had rolled around in the dirt! I got a tiny bit sad at that moment—wishing my boys could play like that so much more often at our own home. My brother’s cul-de-sac and neighborhood is just so quiet and full of children! They are up against the hills on San Clemente and neighbors have built a tree swing on one of the large live oak trees. There are twin boys who live next door to our cousins and more boys down the adjoining street. My boys were in complete heaven with Berk, Stella and Charlotte as well as the neighborhood friends playing outside all afternoon without the worry of a speeding car or the restrictions of a small backyard. Morgan came in the house just dirty everywhere. I even took photos of his face and neck to document how dirty he was. It was as if he'd been rolling in the street having the time of his life playing.
When I see how happy they are playing free like that it reminds me of my own childhood and I ache for them to have more of that in their childhood. So visiting their cousins and allowing them those freedoms is important to me.
On Sunday we got to enjoy a fabulous Sunday School class taught by my youngest brother. He is such a great teacher! I was so impressed with his thoughts and instruction. Each of my brothers are teachers. They each are gifted with the ability to preach God’s word. And for the women’s group meeting we had a very talented convert to the church teach. She was inspiring with her words and her personal conversion story.
It is joy to sit at either of my brother’s homes and hear the children. One of my favorite people in the world was visiting my sister-in-law. Elizabeth’s sister, Traci, is just one of those people you find inspiring. She is accomplished in so many areas and has travelled the world. She teaches special needs children in high school. She has taught and directed Especially for Youth conferences (church sponsored week-long camps for teens). She lives a meaningful life—a purpose driven life. She challenges herself to experience personal growth and when she is set back a bit or discouraged she has the ability to slowly move through the discouragement but not get stuck in it. That is why I just love that woman! She was down visiting Morgan and Elizabeth so we got to spend time with her as well. It was just the added bonus. She is an example of the extra layer of the family you get to have when you get married. With my brother marrying Elizabeth we get to have Traci and her others siblings as family and their parents. Those extended family members make up a web of people we feel a strong connection to and we love to associate with them! Those same great people are in each of our brother and sister-in-laws family.
Our little Sam did so well this trip. He is a joy to have! My favorite time is when he wakes up in the morning. He is happy and talkative. After he eats he is usually happy and interactive. He smiles often and coos and laughs. It is the best to hear and experience these stages again. I think there is nothing better for parents than to see a two-year-old baby recognize their voice and respond with joy at it. He has so many gleeful moments lately. It makes me continually grateful for modern medical procedures and medical know-how.
We took the children ice skating on Monday. I was so proud of my boys. Jack was terrified this time because he knew what it felt like to fall (last time he went he fell hard!) But he kept trying with me encouraging him and for that I was so proud of him. I know he was terrified but the only way to get over that scare is to slowly keeping at a thing till one gets it. Morgan kept his balance really well and went around the rink with his cousin Berkeley a number of times. I skated with each of the boys and my nieces and nephew. We had a short time to skate but it was just long enough considering they were all really new at it. After ice skating we were able to get lunch and return to Darren and Nikki’s home for hot tub time. The children all spent a few hours playing in the hot tub outback. I love sitting in Nikki’s family room talking and watching out back as the cousins play. Darren and Nikki have a beautiful home! It is so great to have them close to Morgan and Elizabeth. We go between the two homes with ease. Our boys get a kick out of sleeping at Aunt Nikki’s home because they sleep in a set of twin beds that my twin brother’s slept in as young boys. The headboards and footboards have labels on them with my boy’s uncles names! It is just funny to see Jack and Morgan climb in to what once was Stephen and Darren’s old furniture. It is just great when we stay there because across the hall from Jack and Morgan in Stephen and Darren’s old beds is Darren’s twins, Hank and Lily. Darren and Nikki’s babies are now almost two years old! I love that these two parents can talk “twin life” with us. I know how long some of Nikki’s days at home with the twins can get. But she is such a good mom and has handled life with two at once better than most do! I’m always amazed at her and wonder how I did it myself. I’ve forgotten much of how I did it.
Being in California with my brother’s families rejuvenates me. The beauty of California’s coastal areas makes me happy. I might be one of the only people to notice beautiful and unusual plants along the roadside as we drive around San Clemente. Coming from the desert does that to me. It means I am entertained by the variation of green alone! I was so thrilled this trip when my little Morgan was with me driving back to Darren’s home from the grocery store. We were leaving the shopping center and there was the most unusual plant in the median. Morgan chirped up and said, “Mom, just look at that unusual plant over there! Isn’t it cool?” It as unusual and I had noticed it the day before and commented on it myself. I was just proud as could be that Morgan took note of it as well. I had hoped someday a result of us traveling would be to teach my children that there are really amazing things out in the world to see. This plant was a small example of that. He gets it. I’m glad he is developing his ability to “see” new things and enjoy the discovery of them.
I feel like I have been babbling. I am writing in such a stream of consciousness. I don’t have time to edit this. I don’t have much of a care to either. At some point I fee like just getting my thoughts on paper is most important and the roughness with which they comes is going to have to be overlooked and excused by any reader. Time moves so fast and I have resigned myself to simply write more and worry less about the construction of the writing. In Sunday school on Sunday in my brother’s lesson he talked about the importance of journals and books in perpetuating culture and knowledge from generation to generation. It will be interesting someday to see if any of my writings have any influence or affect my children’s choices. I hope something good comes of my babblings.
For now, I return to the desert renewed and happy for the time we had with family in Southern California.
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