This week I went to California.  :)

I invited Kevin to go with me and he consented to come along!  Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik asked if they could PLEASE have the eight kids over for an extended four-day, three-night stay at their house.  We said, "Sure!  That sounds great!"  (Okay, it may not have happened exactly like that, but it was pretty close!)

We dropped the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's on Monday morning and drove off through the snowflakes, headed south.  Approximately six hours later we were in Las Vegas at my parents' home to have a delicious dinner shared with my siblings and their spouses who live in Las Vegas.  It was so fun to see all of them and visit for a few hours before they needed to get home to get their little ones to bed.  It was so great!  Kevin and I settled for staying up until Utah's New Year at 11pm.  It's a good thing we made it that late because we got some text messages from home wishing me a Happy Birthday!

The next morning we drove the rest of the way to California and checked in at Crystal Cove Beach Cottages in Newport Beach.  Can I just tell you?  This place was beautiful!  It was just exactly like a place taken out of time complete with quiet and seclusion and spectacular surroundings.  It was heaven!

This was our bedroom!  Check out the view!

This is the other side of the window where we stepped onto our incredible patio!

This is also the view from our patio looking the other direction.

We went down to the beach after getting things settled in our room.  We walked around the tide pools for a little while and played with the sea anemones, then we wrote our names in the sand.  After the sun went down we walked over to the restaurant on the beach which could only be reached by walking on the sand and had a lovely birthday dinner while listening to old time big band music under the Christmas lights of the restaurant.  Wow!  To be in such a place!

Kevin taking pictures at the tide pools.

The next day dawned incredibly clear!  It was beautiful!  Our neighbors came out to show us the dolphins leaping in the sea.  Catalina island looked so close that it looked like you could just swim right over.  Kevin and I went for an early morning jog along the beach which extends two miles north of the cottages and a mile south.  We only passed about two other joggers.  We felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves!

We did leave for a little while.  We went to find some harbor shops along the sea where we could find some little gifts to bring home and where we had some fish and chips eating outdoors in the wonderful sunshine!  When we got back to our paradise, we went back down to the beach, this time to fly our kite.  The wind was perfect.  But then, you know by now, everything about this vacation was perfect!

That night we drove out to visit Mike and Sanae and their family in Rancho Palos Verdes, which is just a mouthful, don't you think?  It was great fun to see them and see their house with its beautiful views.  We had to make our visit short, though, because our parking lot closed at 10pm.  (You walked across the highway and across the bluffs to get to the cottages.  When we checked in, they issued us keys and flashlights.  Flashlights!  How awesome is that??)

The next morning we took one final walk.  It was a fabulous way to celebrate forty years of life.

We spent all of that day driving home.  As we neared home, we started to get updates from the kids about their basketball games.  Grandma and Grandpa took Mariah to her game on Wednesday, and then on Thursday went to Sarah's game, Megan's game, and the twins' game.  They did so great stepping in for us while we were gone!

By all accounts, the kids and the grandparents had a fun four days, too.  They stayed up for New Year's, went to Chuck a Rama, watched movies, played games and had a good time together.  Grandma said my kids were so good!  They really are.  I'm lucky to have them and truth be told, I'm not at all sad to come back home to be with them again.

. . . . even though we left 67 degree weather, and Springville has been favoring us with the single digits-- BRRRRR!

One final note, on Sunday Grandma Mary and cousin Jordan stopped by on their way back from a visit to St. George.  It was so fun to see them!  And guess what?  It was Christmas again!

It was a great week!