Roberts Fam'ly: CALifornIA

July 2012

It's getting late and I'm going to try and keep this short. (If Kyle were still awake he would laugh out loud at me pretending like it won't take that long) ... and then I added 30ish pictures....

We took a much anticipated and saved up for trip to California! I have been wanting to go to the beach for a long time! We went with part of Kyle's family. First, the actual driving part. Blah. I was well prepared however with 'presents' for every 100 miles. Genius idea, thanks to my friend Candace's blog! Some presents were bigger some were small. There were toys, coloring, crafty things etc. Mostly all from the dollar store. They were a big hit. I had a basket for each child and I got to pick which present they opened. After they were done, it went back in the basket. It actually wasn't too messy.

This was our snack. Fresh broccoli from the garden, yum!

We left on Saturday and drove to St. George and slept in our condo there.

Tired tired family, we all shared a bed.

In the morning I was so happy that my son reached over and wanted to hold my hand. He has always been so loving with me. We woke up, ate and went to church and then packed up and headed out.

Wow, it was a LONG drive filled with traffic, happy kids, whiny kids, and more traffic. We finally made it.

*Warning - only look and/or read the next section if you don't mind a little blood!*

We got into our room, I went straight for the bathroom and within 1 minute I hear SCREAMING from Kalel. I run out and find that he has smashed his own finger in a sliding glass door. He has popped his fingernail clean off (think under the skin clean off) I didn't even know what to do, it was gushing blood. Kyle heard it too and came back in from outside and started helping. I ran to the car to get the first aid kit, which I couldn't find because my car was FULL with suitcases etc. I found Glen who got his. I was worried Kalel was going to go into shock. He was freaking out. We gave him some tylenol. He swallowed his first ever pill like a champ.

We got him wrapped up, drugged up and turned on a movie so he could try and focus on something else. The picture on the top right is his fingernail sitting on the counter. Gross. Meanwhile we look around to find he was flipping his hand back and forth and got blood on....

-The curtains, the floor, the walls, the desk, the lampshade, the mirror, the pillow, the blankets, the carpet and his sister. - (Laylah kept showing everyone her owie which was actually just Kalel's blood on her foot) We got it cleaned up and finished unpacking. It was heartbreaking. And of course it happened within 2 minutes after arriving at our vacation. I of course loaded his finger up with 'witch doctor' things. Before we put the gauze on I LOADED it with a salve. Well the next morning the finger was healing (I think it was because of this miracle salve) and the gauze was healing with it. So it was stuck. AHHH we soaked it and finally go it off using olive oil and lemon oil. Let's just say it was a different problem each day. It got stuck more than once (for different reasons, while trying different methods) I'll just show all the finger pics now and then move on! I took them daily to see the progress and to show my nurse sister that is was ok.

Day 3 - Gauze stuck, I was slowly soaking and cutting it back. Then he accidentally hit it on the rim on the toilet and it came off. Looks pretty good!

I think these are days 5 & 6? By the end of the trip he only had on a bandaid and it looked awesome. I used a homemade salve (made by my MIL) and some DoTerra oils, Lavender & Frankincense. By the time we were home, I took off the bandaid to let it air out and he went out to play without putting a new one on! I thought he would have to protect it with at least a bandaid for weeks. Thank goodness for having access to things we can use to heal our bodies!

The next morning we woke up and headed out to check out the pool.

That Monday afternoon we went to the beach. I love playing at the beach! Poor Kalel had to have his finger all wrapped up. His Tutu (Grandma) helped us try and water proof it. The idea of salt water and sand on that thing makes me cringe and shiver. I told him he could still go in just try not to get his finger in. He loved the waves but kept his hand above his head the whole time! (picture on the bottom left) Laylah loved the sand, but not so much the huge crashing waves. She wouldn't even go close.

Our kids passed out on their bed for every nap time or bedtime, it was great!

Walking to the pool. It melts my heart when they hold hands.

Oh the pool time with Dad is always the BEST!

Sweet flips.

She was making me laugh so hard. I am not exaggerating when I say she jumped in the pool at least 100 times. And 80 of them were in a 20 minute time period. Kyle took off her floaties and let her jump to him. And she did every 5-10 seconds. I have a video but I've never been successful in uploading them..

On Wednesday we decided to go to Disneyland! I hadn't been there in around 16 years and it was almost that long for Kyle too. We were going to go for 2-3 days and with the price of tickets and chaos we decided to just do one day there. And it worked for us. Was it EXHAUSTING and a REALLY LONG DAY? Yes, yes it was. Was it a BLAST? Yes! Did I want to go back the next day? Not so much. A different time? Yes but it would take a LOT of convincing of a certain Mr.

On the bus! Kalel has no idea what's coming!

Laylah loved feeling her gloves, she just kept holding them.

This was her face on the Pirates ride. She is so great, even if she is scared she doesn't cry or complain just cuddles up to her Daddy.

Our favorite ride of the day. Splash Mountain!

This cutie was pretty bummed that he couldn't ride most of the roller coasters. He loved splash mountain the most though.

We went for a boat ride and did the Buzz game a few times.

Fairy land. Laylah was sad Tinkerbell wasn't in there.

The parade was on of my favorite parts. Wow what a production. And the performers were awesome! We loved the drummers! And here is the sad news... Here is where mine and Kyle's phones DIED. I was charging mine in the car but something wasn't hooked up right and it didn't work. Here is where the pictures end. And our form of communication. We headed over to Cars Land at California Adventure. AMAZING, amazing. Sadly we had to just try and read people to see who we dared ask if we could borrow their phone to try and call someone (who we knew wouldn't be able to hear their phone). Long story short, we eventually got a hold of Kyle's brother who was CLEAR on the OTHER SIDE of the park. We had to practically run to make sure we caught up to them. We borrowed a phone and headed out to hit up a little more action. Sadly waking up early and running around all day caught up to Kalel and he was starting to get onery. We finally got it worked out and were off. We LOVED Cars Land and did a couple of rides and Laylah danced with DJ. I'm so sad I don't have a video. Our last ride was Flyin over California. It was REALLY cool and amazingly real. We went home exhausted but happy. Kyle swears he'll never go again until the kids are all old enough to go on every ride... We will have to see!

We had fun shopping around and Kyle bought me some fudge. Yum.

We enjoyed a walk on the beach, just us and the Wilkensons. It was nice.

Meanwhile Laylah cuddled with Uncle Toddy. I love watching the Uncles with her. They will all hold her doll, pretend to talk on her phone, tell her she's pretty and play with her.