CALIFORNIA!!!!

William and I spent a glorious 10 days in the lovely weather of Southern California during the beginning of April. It was a much needed vacation and visit with my dear friends Richard and Karin Mallard. Unfortunately, work prevented Tyler to join us on this trip, and I tell you what, I hope to never travel by myself with an infant again! We also celebrated William's first birthday on this trip at the beach. I also don't recommend taking a child who puts EVERYTHING in his mouth to the beach. He ate several "SANDwiches" while we were there.

This was the beginning of one of our long walks. I've found California is NOT a big believer in sidewalks...so we spent a lot of time dodging cars on the side of the road. William put a lot of miles into this stroller on the trip.


We spent a lot of time outside, and it was fun to see William and baby Ezri interact with nature. You can get a good picture of how big the Mallard's english mastiff dog Grizzly is. He is a great dog!


Look how precious Ezri is, she just turned 4 months. William and Ezri are betrothed to be married when they are 39 (if they are both single).


We saw a TON of Peacocks on one of our walks. They are free roamers in the city of Arcadia (city bird) and you can get a hefty fine if you hit one. Fitting we saw one on the "stop" zone of the road. : )


William got a short ride on Grizzly, he really enjoyed that.


Karin and I did some temple work at the Los Angeles temple while Richard hung out with the kids. It was a gorgeous visit, and William enjoyed tasting some "holy" grass.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM! We had fun at the beach, and I let William put his feet in the ocean. It was pretty cold, but he liked the wet sand. He also got his first Happy Meal today (mainly for the toy) and loved the french fries and apple juice! I love his one tooth, but he does have another one starting to peep through.


William loved exploring every aspect of the sandy beach. You can still see traces of sand on his face. 3 handfuls of sand made their way to his mouth, and he would crawl in the sand and dunk his head to get sand all over his face. He thought it was funny...


This is what happens when you travel alone. I had William in a front backpack carrier, my diaper bag on my left shoulder, dragging my check on back and carrying William's car seat in my right hand. The winter weather made me late to the airport and I literally had to run through the airport to catch my flight. Luckily I don't remember getting these bruises because of the adrenaline, but they were a pretty stark battle scar of the day's events.


I thoroughly enjoyed this vacation and look forward to doing it again some day, only Tyler will join us!