This was the van-selfie I took after we were able to all settle down after the "leaving the hotel" ordeal.
If you are wondering what "ordeal" I am referring to, well, then, it's a good thing you're reading this post because I'm about to tell you...
I know.
The suspense in intense.
Tee hee!
That rhymed!
OK, sorry. I need to get back to the "ordeal."
So we were anxious to get moving in the morning as the traffic on a Saturday between Vegas and California isn't exactly the greatest or fastest moving.
I was quite proud of Marc and I for gathering all the kids, *all their things, and all our things. As I closed the door I also remembered how proud of myself that I got the marker from Sister's artwork gone awry out of the bright white bedsheets.
Success.
Sister even kept her freak-out of heights down to a manageable, yet annoying, whimper for the long, hot, and seemingly mile-long walk to the parking garage.
Jessie and Joel started packing their things in the car.
We packed our things in the car.
We were ready to head out and then Brother started whimpering.
It started off small, I believe, because I didn't notice it at first, so by the time I realized he was upset about something it had completely escalated to his howling and crocodile tears explosion.
It took me a few minutes to finally pull out of him why he was falling apart and he finally blubbered to me that he had left his Kindle in the hotel room.
*sigh*
At first we thought, "whelp! it's gone now..." but then I thought to call the hotel and ask them if it was possible that no one had come to clean out our room yet. They transferred me to Security and they were able to help work it out for Marc and Joel to head back to the room and see if they could find the tablet.
Even though Marc had gone to get the tablet Brother wasn't calming down because he was sad about not having the tablet and disappointed in himself for not remembering to grab it. So we endured his constant whimpering until 30 minutes later Marc and Joel showed up with Brother's tablet and it was as if Marc had a Superman Cape on as he walked through the heat-drenched parking garage. There's just something so handsome about a dad who does these kinds of things for his kids.
So, although Marc had been a superhero for those few moments, we dealt with the aftermath of Brother's meltdown for a good hour.
Brother was no longer the struggle, it was the reactions of the girls that added stress to the long drive ahead of us.
Sister was crying because she was so worried about Brother and then the next second she was screaming at all of us for various reasons. While Baby would just start to randomly break into tears and hide underneath her blanket.
Overall, they did pretty well considering that our drive was slowed down significantly by traffic and construction.
We made a half-way stop to get lunch and it was decided we would check out this BBQ place that we found on our phones.
When we walked into the restaurant it radiated the smell of good ol' BBQ and even looked the part of an old BBQ house until a lady who was not exactly what I'd call a cowgirl started to "nicely" yell at us in a very thick and hard to understand accent, "YOU HAVE TO GET IN LINE. DA LINE IS RIGHT HEERAH. PLEASE NO TOUCH FOUNTAIN. YOU WANT TO ORDAH IN LINE. YOU CAN GO OUTSIDE TO EAT."
We laughed about that part of our BBQ experience for a while afterwards. Especially the part when Brother was standing on the the bench of the picnic table outside in order to see the train that was passing by, "YOU GETS YO SON DOWAN PEAS. TANK YOU. PEAS. TANK YOU. NO WANT HIM TO GET HUT." I was just grateful that Jessie could understand all that she said.
The food was fantastic, but between trying to keep our non-cowgirl at a low simmer, keep Baby from diving into the decorative pond inside the restaurant, and Brother from falling over the fence and off the picnic tables I was working up a sweat and ready to get outta Dodge!
So after some more wrestling, a diaper change and some delayed potty breaks we were packed back into the van and headed to our final destination of the day—San Luis Obispo.
We got to the Ramada Inn there in San Luis Obispo to unload our stuff and head out to the beach before it got to dark and maybe catch the sunset. I was disappointed that the toilet seat in our hotel bathroom wasn't capable of staying on the bowl... I mean, I didn't even know it was possible to slide off a toilet... I went to the hotel lobby to make my quick complaint expecting it to be fixed when we got back from our trip to the beach.
One of the first beaches I ever visited when I first came to California was Montana de Oro. It's a bit of a special place for Marc and his family and our family because it is just tradition to go there when we can.
The sky was cloudy so there was no beautiful sunset, but the you'll see in the shots that it was still beautiful there and adding to the beauty of it all was seeing LittleMissB and MrT seeing the ocean for their first time ever!
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| These two photos above and below is my favorite shot that I got of Baby while at the beach that afternoon. In color or black and white, it is enchanting. |
I really love Montana de Oro because it has the beach, the mountain side, the wade pools and rocks, it makes for a variety of ways to have fun!
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| I love photobombing Marc! |
We started heading out so we wouldn't be stuck there in the dark because you have to take a little hike to get to the beach, so there's a that same hike out from the beach.
It's a cute little tradition that Marc's dad seems to keep alive to take a picture at this cool tree at the top of the hiking trail so we didn't want to fail tradition and made sure we all got a chance at the tree.
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| Sister wanted to take their picture and we were all happy to oblige and I was happy to see she did a great job. |
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| Marc, as a dad, melts my heart. I love that he loves our children and he loves to be part of their special memories. |
We grabbed some dinner before heading back to the hotel.
We had been out for a while so, of course, I had to make a run to the bathroom when we got back to our hotel room at the Ramada Inn.
When you are in a hurry to sit on the toilet you aren't really thinking about having to balance yourself perfectly on the seat... well, I guess they didn't take my complaint too seriously and it wasn't pretty how I was swept off my feet...
I was too tired to worry about the seat being fixed and just made sure to warn everyone else of the slippery toilet seat and get us all to bed after a long day... let's not forget to mention that Sister wasn't exactly taking the wiggly, slippery toilet seat news well and it got me a little more motivated to go complain again.
So I did.
Again, they said they would fix it, but this time it would have to wait till morning.
I felt like sending Sister down to sleep in the lobby and see if it might inspire them to move a little quicker on getting the toilet fixed.
*sigh*
