California Trip!

Chase and the kids showing off their muscles with Hercules

We are currently in CA for a much needed vacation. Already we have done so much and I want to write about all of it, but I will probably have to write about it in spurts. I'm getting ahead of myself here, because I still have so much previous to our vacation that I wanted to post as well. It may not all be in order, but I will hopefully get it all done.

We left Sat. for Apple Valley and made pretty good time considering traveling with 4 kids under the age of 8. Emery was actually pretty good, as long as we kept her supplied with plenty of drinks and fruit snacks. At one point she got a little cranky and I found a bracelet in the car she had come home with a couple weeks ago. I'm still not sure if she was meant to keep it, because the nursery worker handed her to me with her wearing it. Anyway, I put the bracelet on her and she calmed down. A little while later she holds up her arm and says, "I so pretty!". That was pretty good for a sentence.

We stopped for gas in St. George and I took the 3 older kids in for a potty break. When I came out Chase had changed Emery who was completely soaked through from all of her drinks. I was greeted by a happy, but naked baby who needed new pants. We ended up stopping a total of 4 times. Once for gas and the potty, twice for spanks for naughty kids, and once for eating at the Mad Greek in Baker.

Before we got rid of our cable we were big fans of Foodnetwork. We watched "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" and finally saw a place we could try out on our way to CA sometime. So, we finally actually stopped at the Mad Greek. It was a bit pricy, but the food was pretty good. I wish I had ordered what Chase got though. I was trying to play it safe by getting a Greek salad, but was disappointed. It had purple olives with pits that were very bitter, some sort of rice wrapped in spinach or something, and was covered in too much dressing which was very strong and acidic. Chase got a gyro which was really good. It had beef and lamb which was very tender and had some sort of yogurt sauce seasoned with dill. The pita bread was also excellent and was the only thing I ordered and really liked. Also, we got the kids strawberry shakes and they were fabulous. The kids mostly liked the umbrellas that came with them. Chase and I kept stealing tastes from the kids. The whole time we were there they played Greek music which Emery danced to the whole time. We tried to get a good video of her dancing with the camera and I'm going to try to put it on if we get the software to do it. All in all it was a pleasant drive for the most part and we made it in one piece and at a decent hour.