8/14/2011

Cali, the finale

It was bound to happen. In all the time we've been married; heck, even before that with all my road trips to AZ from college, I never had any problems with the car. Ever. Always smooth sailing. So, it had to happen eventually.
We got a flat tire. On our way back, in Cedar City. Frankly, it was the luckiest situation we could have hoped for. If you've ever taken the drive from St. George to Pleasant Grove, you will know that after Cedar City is a whole lot of nothing. If the tire would've blown 60 miles after Cedar, we wouldn't have had cell reception, etc., and it would've been a nightmare. We were right smack dab in the middle of a city. We got so lucky.

As it was, we called our insurance roadside assistance, thank you all-state, and thank you Cassie for getting the 'gold' protection plan, they said they'd be 1/2 hour, and we started at getting the spare tire on. A) I didn't even know we had a spare tire. I just assumed we did, and I had Brandon look it up in the manual. We did, and we had a jack. B) Brandon is not a handyman. We would have figured it out eventually, but it would have taken a while. It took about 20 minutes, we were getting there, but luckily "Dave" showed up and helped us with our spare.


Nice guy. Seriously. He helped us get it on, then told us that right off the exit we were at was a station that might be able to help us with our tire. It was 6:20pm. Everyone closes at 6pm. BUT, this one guy right off this exit usually stays until 7 just in case. SO LUCKY. We followed him there on the spare, probably less than a mile, he talked to the guy, (they must be friends or something), and he left. Dave, you're the best.

The guy at the tire place said our tire was beyond repair, but that he probably had a used one we could have. He found one, put it on, charged us $39 for the tire, and we were on our way again. The whole ordeal took about an hour.

I was counting our lucky stars the whole time. It could've been so much worse. The girls were good, it wasn't hot, it had just stopped raining, etc. So lucky.

The girls stayed occupied with a really nice stray cat at the tire place. They were loving it.


Good thing we started out so early on the way back. The tire was just worn. That's why it blew. I take such stinking good care of our cars. A few months ago when I got the snow tires off and the regular tires on, the guy said we would need to get new ones, but that they would probably last til November when our registration is up. So, I wasn't even paying attention to our tires and just knew we'd get new ones in November.

My bad. Now I'm going in to get them all checked and switched out if needed. Anyway, long story short, we got a WHOLE lot of help on this one. The church is true, people. :)
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8/13/2011

Cali part 14

Lex and Lane play all day together when we're at home. But at the beach, Lex would go off with her cousins, and Lane would usually stick to Brandon and I. This was one of the few times that they played together.

My kids don't sleep in the car. Little stinkers. They are GREAT sleepers at home, in their own beds, but they don't sleep in the car. Especially Lanie. Again, this is my 3-hour-nap girl. We left at 4am Monday to get to California and still have time to play a little at the beach. Do you think Lanie slept? Nope. She would take about a 20-30 minute nap sometime in the 11 hours. But that's it. She had to be pretty wasted to finally crash. Lexi wanted me to document her sleeping once.

My sweet little girl. Lexi is getting to be such a good trooper in the car.

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8/12/2011

Cali part 13

Another hole. This one was pretty awesome. In the end it was like a jacuzzi and the water would come in a fill it for all the kiddos. Granted, it was a freezing jacuzzi, but the kids loved it.
In this hole he got some help from a couple of my nieces that he calls his girlfriends.



On another note, I said earlier that Lanie was a stinker when it came to letting other people in my family hold/talk to her. My bro-in-law Dave, who I think is a sucker for little girls, eventually bribed, I mean, convinced her to cuddle with him. They were pretty good buddies toward the end of the week. :)

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8/11/2011

Cali part 12

Another great part about Cali- Cousins burying you in the sand.

Was it Kindyl that did all these mermaids? I can't remember. But these girls loved being little mermaids.



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8/10/2011

Cali part 11

The only pics of me. Yes, I was there. I'm usually behind the camera, because we all know that if it were up to our husbands, NO pictures would be taken.

Doing what I do best- reading on the beach. The best activity in all the world. This is what my heaven looks like.

Book 1 was Enna Burning. I can't help it. I love those Shannon Hale books, and particularly that series.
Book 2 is pictured here- The Wednesday Wars. LOVED it. Newbery award winner. I may or may not have cried in a few parts.
Book 3 is a sequel called Belong to Me, and I'm about 20 pages from finishing it. The first book is called Love Walked In, and I loved it too.

Do you know the BEST part about being at the beach while pregnant? You can lay on your stomach! Just hollow out a place in the sand for your tummy, and you're set. It was SO nice. AND, that hole works nicely for your big butt while laying on your back. I don't know about you, but my booty gets pretty large while prego. :)

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8/09/2011

Cali part 10

Like I said before, Brandon dug a lot of holes in Cali. But whenever there was some sport going on, he'd join in. He loves sports. LOVES. Problem is, my family is lazy on the beach. We read. A lot. Most of us. And we go in the water. But only occasionally, since it's freezing. I tried to get an action shot of him getting in on some frizbee, but this is all I got.

He was playing with my nephew Chandler and his dad. Chandler is the oldest of my nephews/nieces. He's 19 and turns his mission papers in next month. I am SO curious/excited to see where he ends up going.
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8/08/2011

Cali part 9

We've been working with Lanie on her paci. I'm not one of those moms that takes away the paci at the age of 2. I feel like it's not harming them too much to have a paci. So, both with Lexi and now with Lane, I restrict it to just bedtime and the car around 2 and a few months and then officially take it away when they're close to 3. Then the 'paci fairy' comes and gives them a toy for their old pacis. It's perfect.

At the beach, all that goes out the window. :) When she wanted to chill out for a while, she'd go and get her paci and silky and just walk around and observe. Or sit and cuddle with me. But because she was getting way less sleep than usual, I would relent and let her have her comforts. It was pretty cute, too.


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8/07/2011

Cali part 8

Another tradition-

Every year we have one night where all the adults go out to dinner. We actually put on make up, do hair, dress up at least a little, and go out to eat.

I remember being 12,13,14,15 etc. years old and stuck watching all the kids so the adults could go out to Claimjumper. I also remember being 18 and relishing in the fact that I could finally go to the 'adult' dinner. Now, those kids that I was stuck watching, watch MY kids so we can go to dinner. Now we do Outback instead of Claimjumper because it's close to the campsite, but it's still tons of fun to get out and eat together.

I don't think we ever take a group picture when we go out. This year I forced us to. We are missing 4 siblings still, but there were 7 of us with my mom and her new hubbie. See if you can pick out which are my actual Proffitt siblings and which are the spouses. :)
I'll give you a hint- my twin sister is one of the dark-haired girls. :) The other is an in-law. One of the best in-laws ever, but an in-law nonetheless. :)
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beach video

A little background-

One of Brandon's coworkers gave him a gift as kind of a 'thank you' for all his work this past conference. The gift was a flip camera. Which I quickly confiscated and started taking tons of videos. This thing is awesome because it's so... clear. And the colors are so bright. Needless to say, I took lots of videos at the beach. I thought I'd pick one that I thought was cutest. Here is Lanie playing frisbee with her dad...

8/06/2011

Cali part 7

Brandon has a thing for digging holes. I asked him why on earth he likes digging big holes at the beach, and he just said, "It's what I do, babe. You like to read, and I like digging holes."

Okay then. So anyway, The first day, he dug this super deep hole, and a tunnel connecting it to another hole. The kids had a blast playing in that thing. Unfortunately, the lifeguards came right as we were leaving and told us that it was too unsafe, and we had to tear it down. They said some kid died when a tunnel collapsed, and they don't let people do it anymore.

Then most of the other days he would build a sort of pool near the water that all the little kids could play in. The kids loved it.



We forgot our football, and I think he would've enjoyed that more than digging holes. Oh well. Maybe next year... :)
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8/05/2011

Cali part 6

Lexi's cousin Maranda was always really good about playing with with Lex and Lane.

This is always a fun trick that little kids like to play- put the boogie board in a little bit of water, stand on it, and see if the next wave will unstick it from the sand and glide a little bit. It's like surfing for toddlers.



I know- you're wondering about the goggles, right? At home in the pool, Lanie wears her goggles whenever she's in the pool. so, in her 2-year-old logic, she also needed her goggles when she went down to the water at the beach. It was pretty funny to see her playing in 2 or 3 inches of water wearing goggles. So cute.
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8/04/2011

Cali part 5

I thought these pictures were so cute. These are the 4 girls that were born the same year. Lexi would usually alternate between playing with one of them or with her older cousins. But this day, all 4 played together in the water and sand.

I didn't get a picture of her boy cousins her age also including her. They would come and ask her if she wanted to look at sand crabs. And although I have a sneaky suspicion that she couldn't care less about the sand crabs, she would go every time and look because I think she thought it was cool to be included.



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8/03/2011

Cali part 4

Lexi

Lexi had a total blast with all her cousins. I wouldn't see her all day. She'd come back when she was hungry, and then she would go back and play with her cousins.

She also loved to go on walks to the pier. If anyone was going to walk to the pier, she would ask me if she could go with them. Don't get me wrong- she played in the sand and water all day too, but she also loved the walks.

One of the great things about the walks to the pier is that there was an ice cream shop that she would get little treats at.

But funny enough, she was just as happy going and NOT getting a treat. She just loved acting like a big kid and going with her older cousins. She is getting to be such a big girl. I love her to death.
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8/02/2011

Cali part 3

I am a spoiled, spoiled mommy. Every day at home, Lanie takes a 3 hour nap. Every day. She's happy about it, too. She loves her nap. It's like her safe haven. She gladly goes to bed every day.

At the beach, it's extremely difficult to get her to nap. She's used to a crib. Not a sandy soft pad. The first day, I tried walking with her, laying down with her... nothing. But, as soon as she sat down with Daddy, she fell right to sleep.

It became a daily routine. After that first day, she would find me to get her clean and in clothes, and then she'd walk up to daddy with her paci/silky, say, "Cuddle Daddy," and fall right to sleep.

So cute. Not so fun for Brandon, I'm sure, but it was nice to have her sleep.

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8/01/2011

Cali part 2

Lanie.

Lanie had so much fun this year. She was a little punk and wouldn't let most of her cousins play with her, but she still had a blast. She had a little routine- We'd get to the beach around 10, she'd play and have a ball in the sand/water til around 12:30, then she'd want to get in her real clothes and a real diaper. She'd walk up to her dad all clean, take a nap for about an hour, then wake up and want to play some more. She'd play for an hour til about 2 or 3, want to get back in her swimsuit so she could play in the water, and she'd play and play til we left around 4:30. And she ate a lot of snacks along the way.

She's making a goofy face here, but still so cute. Behind her is my beautiful niece Dani.

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