California Trip

Typically we make a trip to California in the fall.  This year we went a little earlier than normal.  The girls were really excited to go to California to see their cousins and family there.  Robert and I always enjoy our visit... and look forward to the time we get to spend with family there. 

Samantha was glad to see a little greeter on the porch.  She looked in her (Samantha refered to it as a her) little bag and said, "Its enpy!" (empty)  It was pretty funny.  She also knocked "her" over and was trying to put her back up.  With the wind we have here at our house, this cute decoration would have never made it.

Samantha really liked this pumpkin girl as she refered to it.  She gave it several kisses.

This is cousin Sean and their cooky dog Duke.

Cousin Serena gave make-overs to the big girls.  Lindsey said she looked ugly, then looked at Lauren and said how pretty she looked.  I looked at both of them, and said "You LOOK the same!" 

Here is Serena doing her magical work on Lauren.

Now Lauren is complete!  Lauren was loving the make-up!

Then it was Emily's turn.

And Emily just aged about 4 years!  Time to wash it off, I am not ready for her to be that old!

This is why they call Duke a cuke!

Silly Duke!

Then it was time for the girls to do Serena's make-up!  She was a little scared. I didn't blame her, the girls were saying... where does this go?  Serena would say, that is lipstick, it goes on my lips.  I didn't get a picture of the final out come.  Serena did better at doing her own make-up then the girls did.  She re-did her make-up right away.

We visited the beach. 

 The girls were asking what the noise was, they thought it was thunder, but it was just the waves, they were crashing!



I can't remember if it was Serena's suggestion or one of my girls' for a picture here, but I think it was a good one. 



Serena was so good with the little ones.  And they loved her too!

Emily is trying to keep Amber at a safe distance from those big waves.

Lindsey found something....  someone perhaps left behind or lost.

Oh, it was just Serena's hair piece.  Serena's lots of fun!

The pictures don't really do justice for the size of the waves.  They were pretty cool to just sit and watch.

Ping Pong battles were on most the time.  I played with Amber across the table from side to side instead of end to end.  Amber was pretty coordinated really for being just 3, well almost 4.

We went out for ice cream.  Who could complain about that?  The girls were loving it!

 Then our time was over and it was time for us to come home.  We look forward to visiting them again.  Thanks to Uncle Bill, Aunt Michelle, Sean, and Serena for the fun time.  We also went to Sean's water polo game, and that was pretty amazing.  That is a tough sport!  Serena delighted us with some of her music on her Tenor sax (I hope I am right on the tenor) which we were glad to see her new saxophone she got from Christmas last year.  We will look forward to the next time we get to come visit again.  (If we do the Disney "Give a day, get a day" again, I would like to go back before Samantha turns 3 so she will still be free.)  Plans are already in the making!