StayCation Overload!

WARNING!
This post has a massive amount of pictures!

Who says you have to leave your home for vacation? Let's face it, after buying our home, we're broke and probably will be broke for a few years or so...unless that lottery ticket pulls through for us (insert sarcasm happy face here ;-) Because any extra money we have goes straight into the house or yard or whatever it is we need that week, we decided to do another "Stay"Cation! Honestly, that's the way I prefer my vacation. If I can sleep in my own bed every night, It's all good!

Last weekend began with Patrick taking off to Tahoe for RAMP, "Rowdy A$$ Men's Weekend". He obviously didn't come up with that name, because we don't talk like that. We'll blame that on my older brother Jason who started this weekend 3 years ago. All my brothers, cousins, brother in law, brother in law's dad, my dad, uncle, Patrick, and his brother head up for a weekend without the ladies! They do whatever they want. Patrick hiked all weekend. I don't hike, so he enjoyed something he loves without the whiny wife tagging along.

TUESDAY, JULY 27TH

We headed down to Monterey and hit the Monterey Bay Aquarium.



*Note to self, always ask someone with a "real" camera to take your family photo because they may actually be able to take a decent photo)

I was so glad that I brought my "real " camera. I got soooo many awesome shots. I was actually impressed with myself.













To give you an idea of how big these jelly fish were, check out the picture of Patrick next to one of them. They are about as big as Patrick's head, and we all know Patrick has a big head!



Ethan enjoyed touching Spongebob and Mr. Crabs:



Carly had no fear either:



We got to see some penguins:



And pretend like we were penguins ready to hatch:



We had some happy moments:



And some not so happy moments:



We also had some crazy moments:



But all in all, we really enjoyed seeing these beautiful creatures God has put on the earth, most importantly, we were glad that we could enjoy them while they swam BEHIND the glass!

After the aquarium, we traveled a few miles to the Marina ocean entrance. *Note to self, when you head down to Monterey, always bring your kids' swimsuits even if you've already asked your husband about needing them and he tells you "no" and that you aren't going to make a quick trip to the ocean. It's so much easier to have them "just in case".



I love the ocean. I love the sound the waves make as they fold into the shore. It's so peaceful and so relaxing....unless you have kids playing in them and you wonder if one of those kids are going to get sucked out to sea because their curious brain went a little too far into the water. I'd love to go down there by myself and just lay on the beach...all day long!

We told the kids not to get soaking wet. That lasted a whole 5 minutes:









We played in the sand:





and hoped we wouldn't fall off of a sand cliff:



We relaxed:



and did I mention, we got wet?



The ocean was amazing! I'm ready to go back....alone.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28TH

Patrick and the girls spent all day working in the yard...There was a lot of stuff done, but the yard still is in major need of some TLC. (I don't have any photos, because I am just too ashamed...ok, not really, just lazy and don't want to search the database for one...there will be a full post on our house and all the happenings that will include these photos soon enough).

FRIDAY, JULY 30TH

We headed to our local water park...Sunsplash! I think Malia asked about Sunsplash every day for two weeks before we actually went. I was able to trade some photography with a friend who is part owner in Sunsplash for free tickets. Patrick's sister Jennifer and her daughter Katy drove all the way out from Illinois to go with us (okay, maybe that's not the only reason why they came out here, but we are that cool!)

Katy really enjoyed the $3 ice cream cone:



She also enjoyed the water slides...well, sort of:



My mommy came too! I had a lot of help with the kiddos. I was only responsible for one child at any given moment. I gotta say, that's the way to go to Sunsplash! We let Raya and Malia venture off alone to do this:



and this:



While Patrick, my mom, and I took the little one's to do this:





Smiles like these:



made the sunburn on my face well worth it!

The girls went down the "Taco Slide (the Stealth). It's basically a straight shot down and you feel like you are falling only to slide up the other side of the "Taco" I think it's the most popular slide at Sunsplash because you have to wait half the day just to go on it (okay, maybe not half of the day, but it sure did feel like it). This is them coming out after they went on it. Their smiles are priceless:



All of us enjoyed playing in the various pools:





and enjoyed having grandma with us:



as well as Katy and Jennifer!

Ethan was finally tall enough to go on some "grown up" slides:



His favorite was Master Blaster! He also enjoyed getting flushed down a toilet (Revolution) and sliding face first down the Six Shooter!

Thanks Jen for all the wonderful pictures you took to help us remember our fun day!







SATURDAY, JULY 31ST

We started off with a baptism of Malia's friend Hannah Holtry.

After that we headed to Temple to try REALLY hard to get a family picture done...Patrick just didn't get my creative and artistic brain + the sun was right over head which isn't photographer friendly. So we tried and got this:



Patrick left with the kids, and I stayed to take photos of Patrick's cousin Erik who got married there:







I got home, loaded up the pictures from the temple to my computer, and then we headed up to Chico for the Ring Ceremony/Reception where I was also the "official photographer". Let's just say that I will never want to be a wedding photographer...ever! It's not like totally bad or anything, just stressful, and I'm all about being stress free these days (I keep telling myself that...maybe it will actually come true one of these days).

Reception ends around 9:30pm and I'm thinking..."cool, let's go home", but NOOOOOOOO(said with a slight fluctuation in the voice)! Patrick wants to hang out with cousin Tim:



We decide to leave Chico at midnightish and we don't arrive home until 2am. I just can't go crawl into bed without uploading the massive amount of pictures I took from Erik and Ashley's wedding...and check my email, and facebook...and ummm, watch some of my new addiction Legend of the Seeker:



SUNDAY, AUGUST 1ST

We all know that Sunday is a day of rest...except when Mike Howton is in town with his 5 kids and Pawel Twardecki joins in since he's related to Mike in a married kind of way...BBQing it up and feeding a total of 10 kids, 3 grown men, and myself, before I retire to my room while those 10 kids destroy what I worked so hard to clean. The boys got to catch up with each other's lives while I caught up with my fellow bloggers...

It was a great week. I really enjoyed our Staycation. It was full of fun and the best part was that I got to sleep in my own bed every night! This Tuesday I get to go and get a new Stereo system that my iPod will hook up to in my car. I guess that's what happens when your husband has to drive your van around and the CD player skips while listening to HIS music. He spent like $250, but I'm not complaining or anything!