So I'm walking around the room picking up garbage, wrapping paper, twisty ties...you know, all of the "stuff" you find after opening Christmas presents. Delon is sitting in the chair on his ipad...which is where I find him a lot...and all of a sudden he turns to me and says, "Tell everyone to pack their stuff, we're going to San Diego." Of course, I kind of laugh and say, "Whatever..." and then he says , "Seriously, I'm not sitting here all week. Let's do Sea World like we talked about." This is when I hear the alarms go off !!! (in my head, of course). Really?! You're just gonna throw that into the conversation while I'm standing here in my pyjamas, trying to clean up Christmas and deal with everything else that comes with this day?
If you know me, you know I have to have a plan. So I start freaking out and interrogating him with every question I can think of to make sure this is what he really wants to do. We just started Christmas Day, the kids haven't even had the chance to play with or use anything they've opened, and everything is in disarray. I will not leave on a trip with my house out of order....so after taking a few deep breaths I calmly let him know what a great idea it is as long as we take care of a few things before we leave. I'm not gonna lie, getting everything together and out of the house was a struggle. There were a few little arguments and even more chaos. But once we were on the road and the kids were settled in with a movie and a good snack, I could finally relax.
Everyone knows how road trips are, especially with 5 kids. There were obviously horrible moments where I would have thrown myself out of the moving car, but overall, we survived without killing each other....barely.
On the way we had a flat tire. It was late at night and the temperature was 0 degrees. I thought...this is a sign we should be home in our warm house in front of the fire playing games and putting together our Christmas puzzle. But with every trial comes a lesson. We had a really kind man who didn't speak English very well, but was a mechanic, who pulled over at the rest stop and helped Delon change the tire. We woke up the next morning and had new tires put on and were on our way.
So after a long night and exhausting morning, the rest of the trip seemed to fly by and once we entered San Bernardino and saw the green hills, that was all it took to be glad we were here and not back home in the single digits!
We went to Sea World and Legoland while down south. Spent some time at Coronado Beach and had some amazing seafood. Just like most of our family trips, we had some great moments and sweet moments...and then some that I like to just pretend never happened :) But I am definitely grateful that we were able to go and spend some time as a family. The weather was perfect and being on the beach was amazing...I love it there. We all really enjoyed Sea World and found out the hard way that Legoland, though very cool, is somewhat for the really young ones. There was one day we were able to take the kids to see the San Diego temple. The last time I had been there was over 17 yrs ago. It's so beautiful...another great symbol of what lies in store for us! I do know that this trip helped the kids to realize, that being at home with your family is really all you need to be happy. But these experiences help us to be closer and for that I will endure anything.
Here's to great stories to tell and even better memories!!
