Okay. Let me see if I can highlight the details of our very fun vacation in California. Day 1: Flight in and first visit to the beach (closest one - not known as "the beach you want to go to")... umm, can you say "which one (or in our case 5) is not like the others?" Not exactly feeling at home at this beach. Elizabeth got tumbled by a wave and quickly decided she was not a beach fan.

Day 2: Needed a break from the beach (1 hour was just too much) - animal park to the rescue! Loads of fun but not much to say about that. We also went to church at Saddleback - awesome.

Day 3: Another effort at a beach - this one was better - had lunch on a cliff where para gliders were jumping off to glide over the ocean below.

Day 4: Sea World! This was amazing and loads of fun! Fed and touched dolphins; watched dolphins and whales in shows; paid what felt like thousands of dollars for tickets and food but totally worth it; felt an earthquake while sitting in grandstands before the Shamu show; learned forest fires were on the edge of Yosemite where we were planning to visit later.

Day 5: Back to the beach, and this time we did it right! Coronado Island was by far our best beach experience! Note to self: don't use wax-based sunscreen stick while visiting a beach. Check out Caroline's face!

Day 6: Traveled about 6 hours to Sequoia National Park - it was so worth the drive! David, Madison, & Caroline hiked to the top of a very scary granite "mountain". Elizabeth and I conquered our fear of cliffs by hiking "as far as the sunshine" (a little break in the rock where the sun was visible). This was a MAJOR accomplishment - I'm sorry to say she apparently has inherited my fear of cliffs. We sat in the sunshine and prayed that my other two kids and husband would come down safely.

Day 7-8: Walked around Sequoia and Yosemite with our jaws to the ground at God's amazing ability to create. How is it possible that I have not seen this until now??? As a side note, at some point during day 7 or 8, we had a reservation (very hard to come by, I might add) to CAMP in something called a tent/cabin (i.e. 3 walls and the floor are cement and one wall and the ceiling are tent. We arrive eager to "make some memories" with the kids! Mind you, we had reservations for 2 nights to camp. On first look, we're a little unsure as to how we'll fit in with this "camping crowd" as we notice they all have tablecloths, candles, carpet for the floor, plastic bins for the food, etc. We, on the other hand, have almost nothing. Everyone checks us out as we pull in at night in the dark to unpack our SUV with three little kids in tow. Of course, we have no lantern so we're struggling to get unpacked with the little light in our tent. We manage but don't get much sleep as I'm awakened in the middle of the night terrified that a bear is outside our tent munching on something only to realize it is Caroline chomping on something in her sleep. The next morning, I get our food out of the bear bin to make some sandwiches after having gone to the bathroom to use toilet paper and water to wipe off our picnic table (a tablecloth would have been nice). While the bread is out, a squirrel grabs it and eats about half of the loaf so I have to throw it away. We have some old, smashed bread so I start to make sandwiches out of that when I realize we don't have a knife. The neighbors get a real kick out of watching the girl next door made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the cardboard from the granola bar box and some jam taken from the breakfast buffet that morning. I take a nice shower in the community shower house surrounded by long, black (I have to say, disgusting) hair up and down the shower walls. I have the sneaking suspicion my flip flops are just not enough protection. Upon describing the shower to David, he exclaims, "We're out of here!" and we're off. David manages to get a refund for the second night, we throw all of our gear back into the SUV and head for the hills, literally. We planned this great picnic in the wilderness of Yosemite surrounded by God's amazing artwork. After driving about 2 hours (and stopping to get more bread, of course) to get to "the perfect spot", it is now about 2:00, and we are STARVING! We park, get out of the car, and realize we didn't get the food out of the bear box when repacking to leave the campsite so quickly! We have the loaf of bread we purchased to replace the squirrel-loaf so we just start handing out bread for lunch. I'm pretty sure I hammered about 4 slices before we realized there might be a concession stand at the look-out we were walking toward. Yea! There was - so we supplemented the kids' bread lunch with ice cream and beef jerkey! Wish you were there? It was great. By the way, we saw bears twice in the wild and deer constantly (even in our camp)

Day 9-10: spent in San Franscisco doing all of the touristy stuff to do in SanFran. We hope you liked the synopsis. Definitely breaks records for me in terms of journaling!

Somehow, the pictures ended up in reverse order so you'll have to start at the bottom of this entry and work back if you're interested in order. These deer were in our campsite at Yosemite.
Mountain Massage!


These are TREES with the girls and our SUV!


















This is Elizabeth after her tumble in the waves. Check out all of the sand in her hair!