So Cal 2010 pt 1

We started our trip to Southern California on Sunday July 4th. We drove to Kettleman City in the evening and stayed at a hotel that one of my sister Kelly's clients owns. We didn't really know what to expect from the hotel--it wasn't really a looker on the outside--but it turned out to be pretty cool. Right away the kids saw an opportunity for fun when they saw the two queen sized beds about 3 feet apart. Here's a couple of pictures of the mayhem:

That weird blur in the bottom right hand corner is Meghan.

In the morning I had Meghan back the car up to make loading it up easier. We were able to fix most of the damage.

We were staying in Oceanside for the next couple of days, but our first stop was San Diego. This is us in a parking garage. Getting around with the whole gang was . . . interesting.

The kids were ready to eat. I wanted Mexican food--we were close to border. I don't think Meghan was too excited while waiting for her meal. By the way, that's Abby in the back behind Meghan's right shoulder.

The main reason that we were going to San Diego was to visit the Mormon Battalion museum that had been renovated fairly recently. I believe it was my mom's idea. I wasn't really excited about it, but it actually turned out to be extremely cool.

Lennon lines up a shot

Isn't that a cute pioneer family?

A couple of old timers relax on the porch

While the kids were relaxing I was put to work (typical).

Meghan allowed me to take a water break and was even kind enough to pump the water herself

Don't be fooled. Unlike me, Abby is only pretending to work while posing for a photo opp. Another example of the bourgeousie tendency to find entertainment in the life of the proletariat.

Meghan is panning for gold nuggets

Eureka! Lennon and Jake strike it rich. Josh may have something also.

One of the major objectives of this trip was to help Abby with her"California Project," which is a project that 4th graders in her school do in which they are supposed to get collect pictures of different things relating to California and its history. For some things, she gets extra credit if she is in the picture with the California related thing, so being the dad I am, I took a lot of pictures of her that I hoped she could use. I wasn't sure exactly what thing she needed pictures of, so I decided to be thorough. You'll get a little sample of the pictures in the next few blog posts, here's the first one:

What are you looking at the caption for? All the information you need is in the picture.

This next picture has nothing to do with Abby's California project and everything to do with the fact that Nacho Libre is currently my all time favorite movie. I also downloaded the Nacho Libre Soundtrack right before our trip began, so it was pretty much the soundtrack of our trip. So when we came across this, I knew it was meant to be. And when I saw the price tag, I knew it was meant to be photographed and not purchased.

"Yes, it's true. I am a luchador. Perhaps you have seen me on television"

Meghan wanted a little piece of the action, to see what it tastes like.

                            

It's never to early to introduce your children to prisons. I expect this to be the first of many such pictures.

This was the first courthouse in San Diego, and it was built by members of the Mormon Battalion.

Lennon of the present meets Lennon of the future?

My nephew Jace with an enormous jawbreaker in his mouth. Nana bought all the kids a treat at the old time candy store. I think Jace is still sucking on that thing. Either that or his cheek has never recovered from being so stretched out.

Here's Meghan leading a wagon across the prairie.

Here she is parked across from the hotel. Guess what she chose at the candy store.

I think Rachel and I make a great pioneer couple

I'm not sure if Lennon is having a reaction to the sugar in the lollipop or singing a Metallica song.

My girls (2/3rds of them, anyway, or 4/5ths, Meghan's pretty small):

After Old Town San Diego we drove to Escondido and stopped at this park that Kelly (my sister) heard about. It was pretty interesting

props to my sister in law Liz for instructing me in the ways of the picassa photo collage

My dad gets a real kick out of visiting different Costco's in different places. I think this was the highlight of our trip for him. You'll no doubt notice the boogie board. I also managed to put a foam surfboard in the cart and my dad was going for it, but then I felt this weird feeling inside (Rachel says it's called guilt and comes from something called a conscience) that I believe was the direct result of trying to take advantage of my dad's generosity--although I've taken advantage of his generosity numerous times over the course of my life without this unpleasant side effect--and I decided to put the surfboard back. Now all I feel is sadness that I still don't own a surfboard. Dumb conscience!

After this we headed back to Oceanside, and if memory serves me right, for dinner that night we had some fish and chips along with some crab legs and washed it all down with some Jamba Juice. Good stuff.