A little getaway to California

Since every member of my family has had such a busy busy schedule this summer we could not find a week in the summer where we could all take off to go on a vacation. Chaz had been busy with all-stars all Summer and C.J. had been taking classes at BYU all summer and I was working. So we had NO idea when we were all going to be able to go! Finally we sat down and all looked at our schedules and found a weekend that would work for all of us. But where would we go?? Well since we were planning on going over Chaz's birthday we decided that we would go to Six Flags since he had never been there before. No child's life is complete without six flags! I was stoked! I had not been there in years and six flags is my absolute FAVORITE! :)

The days leading up to leaving were crazy busy for me! The weekend that we chose to go was the weekend before I was moving back to St george... SO guess what that meant?? Yep haha I had to pack everything up BEFORE the vacation. If you know me well you know that I hate packing and I am a procrastinater ha put those two things together and you get NO BUENO! I was stressing out that I wouldn't be able to get everything packed before we left and I didn't but at least most of it was packed right?!

Finally the day came to leave! We were all in high spirits that morning when we woke up bright and early but those high spirits soon dwindled as a tragic accident occured at the Taylor house. So as we are getting ready to leave (by now it is 11:30 when we were planning on leaving by 9:00 haha mormon standard time) my dad wanted me to park my car  in the garage but the garage door was broken from a few weeks ago when a girl named Lashea accidentally shut the garage door string in the car door and caused the car to crush the garage door. OOOOPPSSS!! My dad was not too happy! So he tried to open the garge door himself. He was successful in getting it open but unfortunately it all went downhill when he tried to close it. I leaned over to my mom and said he is going to break that garage door completely and low and behold the whole garage door broke. The wheels came off the tracks so it was almost impossible to shut! So let me paint the picture of this in your mind. We are all waiting in the car for my dad and the garage door completely brakes! We were all in shock! Finally after what seemed like forever.... we were able to get the garage door closed completely. My dad was not too happy haha but when we were all finally in the car ready to go we all busted up laughing! Of course that would hapen to us right before we leave! Here is a picture of the damage that was done. Bad news bears....


Our lovely slanted garage door :)

We slammed it shut and finally we were off to California!! :) Thank heavens! Our drive was about a seven and a half hour drive. It actually wasn't too bad! It was fun having all of us kids back together since we hadn't seen CJ all summer and this was the first vacation we had been on with him since he has been back home from his mission.

Our first night in Califonia we only had time to go to dinner. There are so many different places to eat it was hard to choose! We finally decided that we would eat at this restraunt called Buca. It was a great Italian food place!

So glad to be back with my brothers!



Our lovely parentals! Love them :)

 With full bellies and smiles on our faces we went to bed and awaited the next day when we would be going to SIX FLAGS!!! :) We thought that the gates opened at 9:30 so we rushed and rushed to get there. We got there by 9:15 and it turns out the gates didn't open for another hour and 15 minutes! This was a first for our family haha to arrive and hour before the opening?! WHAT?! We were one of the first families at the gate which was great!

GOLIATH! Such a fun ride!

Poor Ceej got cut out of the picture! I loved this ride (Batman)! :)

The rides were great! The lines weren't too terrible long but the weather was dreadfully hot! Literally everyone of us was drenched in sweat! It looked like we had just gotten out of the pool by the middle of the day. It was miserable!

Our poor little selves! SOOOO HOT!!!



Our birthday boy :) I can't believe he is getting to be so old!
He is getting to be so big!

And this just about sums up our exerience at Six Flags. It was so much fun!

After such a fun day at the park we were tired, sweaty and very hungry! Chaz got to pick where we ate that night since it was his birthday and of course he chose Chinese food. We stopped at Pei Wei on the way back to the hotel.

Chaz man. Can't believe he's 12!

The next day entaled a whole day at the beach! It was great! I don't have any of the pictures on my computer, my mom has all of them so sorry that there are no pictures of our last day! We went to Valencia beach and caught some rays all day long. The boys did some body surfing and got pretty banged up. Dad got the worst of it. A huge wave came and just demolished him! He got slammed against the ground and had a huge bump on his head and some major road rash on his shoulders. haha. Poor guy! After being at the beach for about five hours we headed back to the motel. We were a so worn out we headed to bed. We woke up early the next morning so that we could get back in time to go to the last ward meeting in Cottonwood and to also get back for Chaz's ordination.

His ordination was so great. Scott and Nat's family came along with both grandpas and grandma. He is getting to be so grown up I can't believe it. He is such an awesome boy and I have loved watching him grow and also spending so much time with him this summer. I love him to death!

Although it was a short weekend trip it was a great getaway with the family. I love my family so much! And I am so glad that we are all so close and together for eternity :)