What would you do?

What would you do if your 4 year old came in with a 4 inch piece of wood sticking out of her toe, and you were in the middle of making dinner, and a severe thunder storm warning was beeping on the TV every 10 minutes, and your 3 other kids were on the verge of panic b/c of said toe and storm, and your husband was in the middle of a church meeting? Well, here's what I did.

First I tried to pull the stick out; it didn't budge and she screamed bloody murder.

Then I panicked (just a little).

I ruined dinner. (Seriously, to the point of Jarom having to order Pizza Hut.)

I tried to reach Jarom; couldn't get a hold of him.

I ran next door to get my neighbor for a second opinion to see if she thought I should take Kate to the doctor. I mean lets face it, WHO wants to take their kid in for a splinter removal?

We thought about slicing the skin to get it out (I remember my dad doing this to me with his pocket knife for a sliver the length of my finger once) but then decided it was too deep.

We did end up cutting some of the length of the stick, so not quite so much was sticking out.

In the end I decided I had to take her in, princess dress and all.

There was NO way my kids were going to stay home alone with the storm warning going on and there was NO way I was taking all 4 of them to the Urgent Care. By this point Kate had calmed down and I had calmed down too and realized this was only a sliver and there was no need to panic, so we turned on the TV and waited for dad to get home.
Kate was such a brave little thing and waited patiently until we could leave for the doctor.

They ended up doing exactly what I had thought to do, cut the skin to remove the stick. It was pretty deep, but thankfully no deadening shots were needed.

Kate laid absolutely still and only whimpered a bit about it hurting.

They gave it a good cleaning with the bristle brush, and get this, she LAUGHED while they did it. SO not what I was expecting. I cried like a wussy pants when I had the cut I got in Hawaii on my foot scrubbed out. Man she's tough.

They decided it was deep enough and long enough to warrant being glued back together. So they got her closed up, put a band aid on and sent us on our way.

After all was said and done she said, "Whew! I didn't even die." I said, "No, you wouldn't die from a splinter in your toe." Then she said, "Yah, I'd only die if someone cut my head off." LOL! Her and her comments.

Well, we can now add going to the doctor to remove a sliver to our bucket list. Good grief....

Aquarium of the Pacific

For the final day of our California trip (which is taking me FOREVER to get blogged!) we decided to go to the Aquarium in Long Beach. We had thought about spending one more day at the beach, but we were all so sunburned from the day before, that the thought of hot sun on the skin was not pleasant. So Aquarium it was.

Big ol' sharks. Glad I'm not swimming with them.

Touching the little sharks and rays.

Taking a quick break.

These three rays just stayed like this for a really long time. The viewing window was up through a tube. It was so funny and a little eerie to see these alien creatures just right above us.

Halle took the camera for a while and got some fun shots. Here's the sea horses .

And the lion fish.

Although the fish were fascinating, the main attraction for my kids were these little guys.

I love both Halle's and Alyssa's faces in this picture. They LOVED holding the birds.

Happy girls.

Kate joined in the fun too. (And why I don't have a picture of Carter with the birds is beyond me, but he loved it too.)

Cameron REALLY wanted to play with the birds.

We had a great time spending the day with my brother and his family.

A quick family shot by some colorful fish and the day was done. Time to return the rental car, hit the hotel, and prepare to head back to Idaho. Even though there were some stressful times and a little bickering, I think our family trip was wonderful and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I love spending these special times with our kids and can't wait for our next adventure.

Beach Day!

Tuesday was finally warm enough for us to hit the beach. My kids were SO excited! We have never played in the ocean for the day before. I was was a nervous wreck. All I could imagine was a giant wave splashing over my non-ocean savvy kids' heads and them disappearing forever. I needn't have worried; they did great and had a blast. (Although we did see fins and the jaws tune popped into my head, but they were just dolphins, whew!)

Halle soaking up some sun.

Kate loved the sand. She was too afraid of the waves (which frankly, was fine by me) so she spent her day finding treasures in the sand.

Carter had a ball. In fact, he had such a ball, that we lost him for about 5 minutes and I thought my heart was going to come out of my throat. He had just followed the edge of the water down about 100 yards away from us and hadn't noticed how far he'd gone. He didn't really want to get in the ocean, but he LOVED to let the waves crash around his legs and then run to safety on the sand.

Alyssa, I don't think this girl has ever had so much fun. She absolutely LOVED the beach.

We were SO excited to learn that cousin Cameron and Aunt Natalie were going to join us for the day.

Cameron got a little taste of the Pacific, but decided the sand was a better idea.

Alyssa was a little nervous about the big waves at first. Run Alyssa Run!

Made it!

But she eventually got brave and had the time of her life splashing around. Aunt Natalie tried to help Alyssa get even more brave and talked her into coming out and jumping waves to get farther out. Alyssa saw a big wave coming and started high tailing it back to shore. Natalie grabbed Alyssa's hand and told it would be okay. The next thing we knew, the two of them were completely covered and hands and feet were flying. Thank goodness my nerves were gone, otherwise I might not have been able to laugh so hard my gut hurt. Oh man that was funny!

Halle spent a little time in the water, but preferred to spend her time loving on Cameron. She ADORES him and he is such a good little sport to put up with it.

Sandy babies!

This little guy probably ate his sand quota for the year. He had SO much fun crawling around, flinging, and eating sand. He was COVERED in it.

Look at that grin. He was such a happy kid playing around.

I'm so sad that Kate's eyes are closed in this picture. I think it is just the cutest thing.

We had a very great day at the beach. But all good things must come to an end. The sun was going down and it was time to get some food in our bellies.

Uncle Quin got off work and met us at the hotel while we showered and cleaned up and then it was off to dinner at Claim Jumpers. Mmmmm..... Carter was so tuckered out that he fell asleep right in the restaurant. But really, is anyone surprised by this?

Santa Monica Pier on a Monday

Monday it was too chilly to play in the ocean, so we decided we'd enjoy an ocean view while we played at Santa Monica Pier.

Ready to hit the rides.

We bought an all day pass and we played ALL day. The kids loved it. It was just the right size, nice and small, with a fun carnival feel. The crowds were small too. We had almost zero wait time. The kids think they are SO cool because on the Disney Channel, the little commercial they play between shows has shots of the Santa Monica Pier. They love seeing a place they've really been.

Kate was an adrenal junky and ONLY wanted to ride the BIG rides. (No baby airplanes for her.) Unfortunately this also meant an adult had to ride all the rides with her because of her size. Our old bodies aren't what they used to be that's for sure.

A skyline view from the top of the Ferris wheel.

And an ocean view on the opposite side. So pretty!

We took a dinner break and played on the sand toy things. I don't know what they were, but the kids had a great time climbing around on them.


We stayed until dark and had to take one final picture with the Ferris Wheel all lit up.

Aunt Janice's House

Sunday was a take-it-easy kind of day on our trip. We swam at the hotel and then visited with family. Jarom's Aunt Janice (and family) was so kind to entertain us and make dinner for us. My kids LOVED it.
The first thing Janice did when we walked in the door was hand each of my kids their very own bottle of cream soda. Does she know how to win them over or what?

My kids played Ladder Ball for hours.

Alyssa absolutely loved this game. We made sure to bring home instructions (that cousin Kayla meticulously drew) so we could build our own set of Ladder Balls.

Carter was a wild man with those balls. Everyone had to be on their toes when it was his turn to throw. Alyssa got a rhythm going and could score a 3 (the highest) on a regular basis.

While Carter and Alyssa played ball, Halle and Kate kept busy in the flower gardens. Uncle Lane has an amazing green thumb and their yard was GORGEOUS and in full bloom.

It was so nice of Lane to let the girls pick flowers for their hair.

They felt like princesses.

Too bad flowers don't stay fresh forever, I loved these ones in Halle's hair.

I handed the camera to Halle and told her to get a few shots of people and things. She got this lovely shot of Janice and about 19 million out of focus shots of Uncle Lane's flowers.

We did somehow manage to get this cute shot of Grandma and Kayla.

The night ended with Jarom getting WHOOPED by Chase on Guitar Hero. And if you know how good Jarom is (he really is pretty good at that game), that tells you how amazing Chase is at it. I've NEVER seen anything like it in my life. Man that kid (okay he's 18, not really a kid anymore) has that game mastered!

Thank you SO much Hastings for the fun evening. It was so nice for my kids to be able to run around and play and not stay cooped up in the hotel room. And dinner was DELISH!!

After time with family, we decided that rather than go hang at the hotel, we'd drive over to the LA Temple.

We tried to get a picture of just the kids, but Carter was being a bit of a terror. So we decided to do a sister picture instead. How nice is that? "Yes, we're at the temple and our family is forever, but Carter, you're OUT of the picture." LOL!