From LA to SA

A bittersweet post ahead! I mentioned in my last post that the older kids went with Sam's parents back to Albuquerque while we headed back to Los Angeles to pack up and move. My parents flew in to help pack and drive Sam's car back. We were worried about our household not fitting in the truck, but my parents and Sam succeeded in their Tetris game! We also had the missionaries come and help, so the truck was loaded up quickly. 

That night we treated my parents to some Gelato at Century City Mall. I was soaking in as much of the atmosphere as possible since I didn't know the next time we would be able to be back to visit.

Look at this cute place!

Since the older kids were still in Albuquerque, we split up the next day. Sam and my dad drove all the way to San Antonio while my mom, Noah, and I would head to Albuquerque. My mom and I stayed back a little longer to also clean the house some, then we headed back later that day. When we got to Albuqerque, I noticed our older frogs dried out! I didn't hydrate them as much as I thought and two of them died. I was pretty upset with myself, but we still had the baby frogs. I decided not to travel with them anymore after that sad experience. 

My mom was still taking care of my Grandma, so another part of coming to Albuquerque was to resume that role for a few days. I remember how hard it was for my mom to go anywhere and it was always an ordeal to find care for Grandma if she wanted to see me. I'm so grateful to have a mom with such a big heart for caring for Grandma and making efforts to still help me when I need her.

Noah with his twin cousins.

While we were in Albuquerque, Sam and my dad, along with the help of our current ward, moved everything into our house. They even set up all the beds and unpacked a lot of things before we even got to San Antonio! That was so nice of them!

We drove back the day before Eden's birthday, so we immediately celebrated the next day. Eden got donuts for breakfast, a cake from HEB, presents, and a trip to Build-a-Bear.

Happy 5th birthday!

Eden's choice of cake.

Stuffed animals, her absolute favorite things to get!

Putting a heart into her new Stitch.

Her choices: Stitch and Toothless.

The kids had a great time!

Our Primary in our ward had a Pioneer Day activity. I was really shocked how much the primary shrunk since we came back. Still, the kids had some fun.

Three-legged race.

Wheel-barrow race.

Sack race.

I coincidentally was called to be the new Primary President not long after and got to know all these kids really well! 

As sad as it was to leave Los Angeles, I still love our house in San Antonio and we settled in quickly. I missed our huge tub, and bath time is definitely more fun here than our last house! Joseph also has his own room now and he is loving it. 

What was hard coming back to was the weather! It was over a hundred degrees for what felt like weeks! It was the hottest summer in recorded history. So, yes, I miss my beautiful SoCal weather. I felt pangs for weeks just thinking of California, but we are at the point here in San Antonio where I feel very settled and I like it here, too. We'll go back and visit someday, but meanwhile we are enjoying our day to day here in Texas and soaking in our family time.

Last Days in LA

July was filled with many trips, but we still had a little life left to live in Los Angeles! 

My dad drove back with us from Mexico (so nice of him!) and we decided to go to the Getty Museum since we never went yet. It's a cool place, but I don't know if I would consider it "kid-friendly". Lots of nudity in the art, oh well.

Simon of Trent, the Boy Martyr. Sad story behind this little guy!

Irises by Van Gogh,

Beautiful gardens! The succulents in Los Angeles have always ben unreal.

Our garden baby.

Old and intricate chess set.

Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom.

More in the garden.

Our ward held weekly barbecues in the summer every year and it was the best way to get to know people. It was also the best way to say goodbye 😭. 

Playing on the baseball field behind the church.

Eden and her sweet friends.

I mean, how cute are they??

Elijah had one last test in Kung Fu. That was a hard goodbye too. He made so much progress and I think it created a good foundation for him.

Sam had his 34th birthday! I made him a Texas sheet cake and then we went to Golf n' Stuff to celebrate. This is the amusement park they filmed in the original Karate Kid.

Sam's request every year!

Go Karts were the favorite!

Noah got to ride along too!

A sweet sister in our ward came to say goodbye and got a picture of our family. Looks about right!

And that's that. We went to Jared and Jenny's cabin in Utah then moved right after that. It took a while for the pangs of sadness to go away when thinking about California. It was such a special time for our family. We loved the people, the schools, Sam's job, the weather, the places, the shops, the plants and "wildlife", and our neighborhood. What I don't miss is anything having to do with cars (driving, parking, cost of gas, cost of parking, etc.) and the cost of living. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! We were able to do a lot more than I originally thought and we had some really wonderful experiences. Until next time, California!

Mexico 2023

Beginning of July 2023 I took the kids to Puerto Peñasco to hang out with my family. Even though Sam graduated, he still had to work, plus being in the Air Force sometimes makes it hard to get permission to leave the country. My reasoning is that once we are back in Texas going to Mexico is not very feasible, so we might as well do it while we can! We met my family in Arizona and drove down with them the next day.

Joseph playing with Hudson in the hotel room

Once we arrived and took all our things in we headed out to the porch and enjoyed the view.

I love the whole vibe of the beach house.

Very happy to be here!

Time to walk the beach.

The next day we explored the tidepools and enjoyed finding little creatures!
 

Someone caught a fish in their bucket of clams.

Crabs are common but still so fun to find.

Look how pretty!

This pelican took advantage of the tide pool for some breakfast.

Sea urchin.

Noah loves to build with not only magnet tiles but with couch cushions too.

While on our way into town, we saw this massive fire.
I found out later that it was a controlled fire lit on purpose.

The next day Eli wanted to try boogie boarding. The waves were right against the house so the steps led right into the ocean. Devery was so nice in helping him.

Even staying at a beach house the kids would be glued to screens if we let them.

Meanwhile, Sam decided to do something awesome without us too, and went to the Hollywood Bowl for a wonderful concert featuring Gustavo Dudamel as the conductor. I was really bummed not to go but I'm glad one of us got to. They played awesome pieces like Night on Bald Mountain, Mother Goose Suite, and Sorcerer's Apprentice. Sam said he got to move up as the concert went on and eventually landed a good seat. I think the Hollywood Bowl was still the most magical thing we've got to experience in Los Angeles. 10/10 would recommend!

Seriously making me miss California looking at these photos.

Glad he got to have fun while we were away.

Last photos of the day enjoying an evening on the beach.

 

 

The twins found a nice pool of water right by the beach house.

My sister Kristy organized a group to go zip-lining, something we hadn't done in Mexico before. Eli and I went ahead and joined in on the fun. The instructor was absolutely hilarious and definitely kept us all at ease. After getting our gear on we all piled onto the back of a pick-up truck to head to the top point. That might have been just as scary as the zip-lining itself. 

Eli ready to get the harness on.

Excited to go!

We got to pet some horses while everyone else suited up.

Maybe we should go horse back riding after this!

Eli with the older girls.

And with his mama.

It was getting hot...

There he goes!

We of course had to get a mango from the mango man. And we celebrated birthdays as well.

Sweet beach baby girl.

Grandma out with Eden.

Time for birthday cake.

And we had to have a piñata in Mexico! 

Birthday girl's turn.

Oh, Elijah!

 

Fish would get caught in this little area at the beach house when the tide got too high. The kids had fun catching them and releasing them back in the ocean.

 

One of the best times of the day on the beach.

 

It's a tradition now that we eat melted ice cream at La Michoacana. Yum!

 

Perfect for hot weather.

We ended our trip by walking on the beach after dark to find fun creatures.

Look at that needle-nosed fish.

Elijah having a blast!

Devery brought her dog Penny along.

A beached fish.

I woke up in the morning to find Noah fell off the bed and was asleep like this next to Joseph. Cute!

Other notable things on this trip:

-Little Hudson growled at Noah when he was not happy at him and Noah started growling back thinking it was a game. This made Hudson afraid of Noah and they ended up growling back and forth at each other. One was mad/scared while the other was having fun and totally oblivious!

-Uncle Matt offered Joseph an orange Fanta and Joseph was hooked! It's now his all-time favorite soda and will babysit for a Fanta. I should turn that into a t-shirt.

-We got the green room which was the first time I stayed there. I think I stayed in every room in the house at some point (except the garage they converted into a room recently).

I'm not sure when we will be back, but it's a long drive to the beach house from Texas so it might not be until we leave San Antonio when we will be back. Who knows though!