Vacation!

We were able to fly out to California this past weekend to look at neighborhoods and it was so much fun! The airport was a fun experience for the kids.

Em was so cute putting her arm around Caleb. And El was so cute putting her arm around her unicorn.

Jake was not as cute as he was cool.

Fun for the kids; a little stressful for me and Joseph, since we missed our scheduled flight(!) and had to hurry and re-book, this time to San Francisco instead of San Jose.

Aah. Here we are at last, spread out along all six seats at the very back of the plane.

Jake (and all the kids) were fascinated by the view out the window.

We rented a minivan in San Francisco and drove down to Mountain View, and after many hours of traveling, were finally able to relax and have lunch/dinner at Panera Breads.

After eating we checked into our hotel. Lately we have been using Residence Inns and they have been so nice. It makes such a difference to have bedrooms with doors that close when you're traveling with young kids. Having a full kitchen is also a plus.

The kids all got a kick out of having physical scriptures to leaf through (we've been using the Kindle lately at home). Elinor kept announcing that she was going to read the WHOLE Book of Mormon in one day. Here they look a little like they are looking for comforting words at Caleb's funeral.

Jake loves to keep up with the big kids, but so often does his own thing.

We went on an area tour with a realtor hired by Google that took up most of Saturday, but were able to visit a few parks in our spare time.

First stop: Cooper Park.

And... hmm... we visited Cuesta Park the next day, but this is the only picture we have:

Not very descriptive. But, we did run into three other LDS couples with their kids there. One of the guys was a tech nerd like Joseph and I'm pretty sure Joseph was in heaven for the hour or so that they chatted.

We headed out to Half Moon Bay on Sunday afternoon. It was warm and sunny in Mountain View, but overcast and a little chilly at the beach. The kids still had a blast. I envisioned us walking along the shore, maybe dipping our toes in the water... of course, all the kids ended up drenched. Over-the-moon excited, but drenched.

To wrap up our trip, we walked through the townhouse we'll be moving into, and stopped for donuts (which we ate on the sidewalk outside the townhouse).

This might have been the kids' favorite part of the whole trip!

The flight home was uneventful, and I think we are all happy to be sleeping in our own beds again.