My Babies SIX: Arriving in California!

****Disclaimer.....I took way too many pictures to just do 1 or 2 CA posts. So it will likely be a compilation of several posts rather than just a few. I am going to order this so the first day is at the top of the blog roll...hopefully that makes it easier to read and eventually edit into a blog book!

July 9th: Our California vacation starts today, and you could feel the excitement in the air as we got the kids up and they packed their own backpacks and blankets for the 6 hour drive to the San Diego area! It is so uncommon for us to take a big family vacation like this....we are great with camping and day trips up north, but a trip like this-4 days/3 nights, out of state, major theme park-they just don't happen often with our large family. We really hope to do this more often, perhaps on a yearly basis. This trip will be very telling in terms of what we are able to do together. I'm excited!

We took off around 10am, right on schedule. We got to the outskirts of the Phoenix metro area when we started noticing a loud vibration sound anytime we got over 70mph. Odd. We played around with the speeds, followed truckers, and came to the conclusion it was related to the wind.....the wind was somehow zipping through some part of the front grill and causing this vibration sound. We resigned ourselves to going under 70 and kept going. Another 30-45 minutes later and it was anything above 60 and the vibrations would start. When I say they were loud, they were LOUD-like cover your ears loud. They would start once Jared slowed down or we got behind a trucker, so again, we were sure it was related to the wind. We pulled into a gas station, bought some zip ties, and tied down a part of the grate that seemed a bit loose. Unfortunately that didn't work. Going less than 60 the whole way was not going to work for us, so we decided to keep going a little longer, and if it stayed that bad, we would get off and look for a mechanic. Sure enough, we were pulling our hair out after another half hour passed, so I got on the GPS and tracked down an Auto Zone in Blythe fairly quickly. Jared went in there to ask about local mechanics while I got the kids a quick lunch in the van. The guys at Auto Zone gave us the names of 4 nearby mechanics, with one just a mile down the road. We got there easily with the GPS and they were able to assess the car right away. Jared and I were honestly super nervous. We were really afraid it was something major, and what do we do if that's the case? The mechanic had a teeny tiny office where the kids literally took up every chair-and a good art of the floor. We had access to a bathroom thankfully, but not much else to do but sit and wait for the verdict. We tried to keep things positive for them. I brought out a pack of sour patch kids and started giving them to the kids for good behavior and staying engaged in the activities they had brought. I tried not to let the stress show.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the mechanic came back out and told us the problem was minimal: the weather strip above the windshield was loose, and wind was catching it as it flapped in the breeze...that was causing the enormously loud vibrations. He said he could either tape it really well (quick fix), or do the whole shebang, which would take about 2 hours. He assured us the tape would hold really well, so we went with that option. It took him another 45 minutes to get the tape from Auto Zone, fix the window, and test drive it to make sure it was okay. We were supposed to pay 65 dollars for the initial consult and then whatever labor/parts cost. He only charged us about 32 dollars for the tape and labor, which was really, really kind of him. The receptionist told us she has never seen so many kids so well behaved-another lady in the waiting room told us the same thing. We laughed and apologized for taking up all the chairs. I think we were just seriously relieved we had so many kind people helping, and that it was nothing major. We were back on the road less than two hours later, and true to the mechanics word, no more noise. Yea!

The one negative that I will briefly mention....I took Jackson out to just walk around the building when he started getting fussy while waiting in the mechanic's office. Jared told me Blythe wasn't a good area, but I didn't get it.....I figured, I'm just a few steps in front of the building ,what's the harm of that? Jackson was just wandering around in front of the store, when a car drove past. The passenger yelled something at me/us, and then threw something at us, which slammed into the wall behind me and created a huge bang. I literally screamed, grabbed Jackson with one hand, and ducked down over him, covering my head with the other. So, that was an overreaction, but I literally thought in that moment he had fired a gun at us. Turns out, he threw a can of beer that had exploded upon hitting the wall behind us. I was admittedly shaking, and learned the hard way that Blythe is not a city to mess around with.

All right, so moving on! We ended up getting to our hotel around 6 instead of 4 as we anticipated. We realized we would not have time to go to the beach as we had planned, so we decided to just get checked into the hotel, order pizza, and have fun exploring the hotel room and hanging out before our big day at Seaworld. The kids did SO well on the car ride-I was super impressed. We got checked in at the Welks Resort, which is actually a time share-they just advertise the rooms that don't have a buyer for that week as a normal hotel room. Our room was a 2 bed/2 bath suite with a full kitchen, laundry, private patio, dining room, and family room. It was, by far, the best room we have ever stayed in, and we will return anytime we visit southern CA. The furnishings were beautiful, and the layout would work really well for our large family. The kitchen was true to description-fridge, oven, stove, all cooking utensils, cleaning supplies-the whole entire thing. We would end up eating every possible meal in our room because we could-saved so much money that way! I even ran a load of laundry when I needed to wash out swim towels before our last day. Just awesome. The bathrooms were beautiful-a shower I would put in my own house, and a deep garden tub that made me realize how much I missed having a soaking tub like that. JD, Jordan, and James settled in one bedroom with two full beds, and Sara and Karianna took over the family room on a pull out queen bed. Jackson slept in the closet in mine and Jared's room, which worked out very well. All in all, it was a fantastic area, and we were super, super pleased with it!

The private patio-the doors behind lead to the boys' bedroom.

The main entrance to the patio-you can see all the way into the kitchen, and the entire wall of the family room was shutters that opened up to the patio.