Thanksgiving break!

Saturday, November 21st
I heard footsteps in the hall, then the door creaked open. Oh no, time for cougar fight song (Dad sings it every morning to wake us up). FINALLY the fight song was over. Dad said he was planning to take us to Waypoint cafe and then he would take us to the church so I could practice basketball - my first game starts in 1 month. Elle and I got up and got dressed and headed out the door. When got to Waypoint cafe the first we saw was a big airplane. Then a woman asked if we wanted to color a picture while we were waiting for our food. We all said yes. Then we got our seat and we started to color. It took a while until we got our food. I ordered a pancake and Elle and Cal got a waffle.

After we were full of our food dad headed to the church so I could practice. I shot 3 hoops and dad and I practiced dribbling and passing. Then we headed home and did our BORING jobs. When we were just finishing our jobs mom got home from the temple. Dad started the BYU football game and he taught me how a football game worked so I could have a good time watching it. BYU won! Then we all went to the ''red ant park''we called it. We decided we would stop by Boppi and Grandpa Als house. Grandpa Al jumped us on the trampoline while dad and Boppi talked. We came home at 5:00 (altho it was so dark it seemed like 9:00). I had some popcorn chicken and pop pops. Elle and I watched a Magic School bus while mom did curlers in my hair for stake conference the next day. It had been a long day and finally we went to bed.

Sunday, November 22nd
The next day I got up, got some breakfast and I got my baptism dress on. We were leaving early for stake conference. We all got in the car and headed for the stake center. Elle and I drew in our packets and listened to the talks while Calvin munched on candy. We got home at 12pm and mom and dad set the table for the missionaries. When the missionaries arrived we started to eat. We had banana cream pie for dessert. They gave us a little message and left. Mom and dad let us stay up a little while longer after the missionaries left and then we went to bed.

Monday, November 23rd
The next morning we played for a while and then went to the park with our friend Ava. We scooted around on our bikes and then we went to the library and got some books. On our way home mom called gram on the phone and they decided we would go camping in the trailer tomorrow. We came home and started packing. After, mom said if we got our piano done we could watch a movie so Elle and I got our piano done and then we got to watch a movie. Then we all rode our bikes outside and then we had dinner and went to bed.

Tuesday, November 24th
The next morning mom gave us a bowl of cereal and we were on our way to gram and papa's trailer. When we got to the  trailer gram served lasagna soup and fresh rolls.

Since gram and papa wouldn't be at our house for Christmas we opened our Christmas presents. Elle wouldn't be getting a present because she got an American girl doll for her birthday and American girl dolls cost a lot of money it is worth birthday AND Christmas. Before we opened our presents gram read us a Christmas story and then we sang  ''Picture a Christmas''. Then Calvin opened his present, PETE! He screamed, now I don't have to give it back to gram. We all laughed. He also found 3 new pete the cat books. 

Then it was my turn.

We took a few pictures and then I carefully ripped open the rapping paper. I looked at the end of the box, it said... Caroline Abbot! YES I shouted, thats the American girl I been wishing for! "When did you get it''? I wondered "I thought it went in the archives" " Gram replied I got it when Elle got hers" "Wow, where did you put it all that time""In the attic" said gram "THANK YOU"   I said "This is the best present EVER" I said.

Then gram tucked us into our sleeping beds and read us a story THE WIZARD or OZ from ENCHANTED STORYS. 

When she was finished we all went to bed (except Calvin and Elle couldn't stop talking).

Wednesday, November 25th
I rolled over in my sleeping bag. Then I see the sun coming threw the window. "It must be morning'', I said to myself. I think that no one is awake, but then I hear a wrestling in mom and dad's bed. Maybe someone is awake. Right away I think Calvin is the one that's awake because he's always the first one awake (even when I wake up at 6am). 30 minutes later Elle woke up and Gram turned on a Wild Krats for Elle, Cal, and I.

Once Wild Krats was finished, we got dressed and ate breakfast and then went to a few stores like Old Navy for Elle to get a new pair of shoes.  I stayed in the truck with Gram and played on her phone. Then we went to Costco and got ice cream!
After shopping we headed to the aquarium but on our way we saw a cool park and decided to stop and play.

After we got out all our energy we headed for the aquarium. When we got to the aquarium the first thing we saw was the escalator that took us upstairs. We looked straight and saw a ton of fish swimming around in circles. Then something else caught our attention - we saw lots of jellyfish, swimming in different tanks. After checking that out, we went to the open sea and saw sharks and one big school of fish, My favorite animal in the big tank was the tuna fish. He was big and had sharp spikes on his back.

Finally papa said we had to go so we headed back to our camp. We played until it was dinner and then gram read us railroad children from enchanted stories and then gram, mom, Elle, Calvin, and I went to the bathroom to brush our teeth and then headed back to the trailer to go to bed. It had been a exiting day and we finally went to bed.

Thursday, November 26th
"Happy thanksgiving I heard someone call! "Wake up, wake up!" Papa and Elle called, "breakfast time. " We all woke up. We had eggs and toast for breakfast and then we watched the Thanksgiving parade on TV. Then we decided to take another trip to the aquarium so we could see more animals because yesterday we didn't have enough time to see a lot of animals, but before we went to the aquarium we stopped by Dennis the Menace. I was an awesome park. It had a huge slide, a stick maze and a gate maze, 3 different play structures, deep tunnel, a zip line, and much, much more.

Then we arrived at the aquarium we split up, Elle, gram, mom, and Cal went to see the animals and their moves while papa, dad, and I went to study the animals.

After a hour or so we met up and explored altogether. For 30min we explored and then headed back to the trailer.

For a few hours Elle and I played with our American girl dolls and then we heard papa call dinner time so we ran outside. Gram was carrying her dessert and we walked to the club house where we would have dinner. We walked into the room, it was filled with tables. Then I looked to the right and saw a table filled with delicious food, there was a TON of Turkey and soup.

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After we had finished our food I had apple and pumpkin pie. Then we walked back to the trailer to make plans. When we got to the trailer we decided to walk to the beach and fly kites.

It took a while to get walk to the beach but we finally got there. 

Once we got there Elle and I flew kites. After, we made a sandcastle and covered up the holes in the ground. 

Then we heard mom call and she decided we would go back to the trailer. 

Finally we got home and I did my family home evening lesson and then we watched Enchanted for popcorn movie night and read stories. It was a busy night and then we went to bed. 

Friday, November 27th
The next day I got up and quickly ate breakfast, we were going to see the butterflies.

On our way Elle and I talked in the car. Once we got to the butterflies we saw really big trees with millions of monarch  butterflies. Then we looked through a telescope and we saw more butterflies!

It was a little hard to see the butterflies because they blended into the tree so much the butterflies looked if they were part of the tree. Then we walked down the trail and saw some more butterflies and then found our way back to our car.  After seeing the butterflies we went on a 17 mile drive along the coast. We saw seals and lots of beautiful trees. There were people from Japan who wanted to take our picture. So we let them.

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Once we got home Elle, Calvin, and I went to the park to play, and met some camping friends. They were playing a game that looked interesting to us so we asked if we could play with them and they said yes. Then we asked how to play. They told us someone would hide and we would all look for them. Then if you find them don't tell and go hide somewhere else. The last one to find them would hide next. We played for a while and then we heard mom call dinner and we walked back to the trailer. For dinner we ate hot dogs and roasted marshmallows. Then we finally finished dinner and went to bed.

Saturday, November 28th
Today was the last day of our camping trip. Elle and I watched Lion Guard in the morning, then ate breakfast, and played while the grown-ups packed up.

I watched Papa and Daddy latch the trailer back onto Papa's truck. We said goodbye to Gram and Papa and then drove home.

Tide pools

The van door opened. Out came Calvin ( who always has to be out first ) then came Elle swinging her bucket up and down, which only means one thing... she's exited and a bit scared. Last came me, I had nothing in my hand because I knew that at tide pools you could slip and fall and its easier to balance if you have nothing in your hands and so we all hopped out of the car and started walking down the trail when we looked down and saw not only how high up we were but the beautiful sight of all the caves, the rocks and the ocean. I  could see how fun it was going to be!

I had fun climbing the rocks! I saw many cool creatures including a slug, a hermit crab, and some sea anemones.   

The rocks were big and a bit hard to climb. We all had fun trying to see who could get to the next cave first (it was harder than you think).

We saw 2 or 3 caves. The first one was deep and too dark to go to the end.

 The next cave was like a tunnel.

Mommy and I were the first to come in the cave. (Elle was too busy making sure ALL her shells were here and Calvin was crying because the rocks were TOO steep.

Once we had gone through the cave I spotted a small hole in the rocks. Dad told me it was were you would sleep if you had no home. 

After we had explored all the caves dad could remember since he was young we found our way back and decided we would quickly run up the sand hill to have a smooth climb to end our trip.  

Trip to the Anaheim Marriott

As mom pulled up in the driveway my eyes widened . . . in the parking lot we parked in I saw a beautiful water park. I couldn't wait to go on that awesome water slide. When we brought our suitcases in and found our room we all begged to go to the water park. At first mom said "well we're going to a restaurant with the Gertschs and I  don't want to get our hair wet" but then she said we could go but we couldn't go under water. So we got on our swimsuits and we went down to level one.We opened the door and there we saw a beautiful water park.

      

We had a great time at Surfside waterpark. I accidentally got my hair wet. Mom asked if if I wanted to go down the waterslides, I said ''didn't you say that we shouldn't get our hair wet?"

Mom replied ''well you already got it wet. Go ahead. I'll be down at the bottom'' 

''Ok'', I said quietly unsure if it would be fun. 

When I got to the top I got the courage to go down the slide.  

I LOVED IT, so I did it 5 more times, then mom said it was time to go. So we all hurried and got on our cloths and hopped in the car. ''We are going to see the Gerches so be on your best behavior'' Mom said, ''we will'' we said in unison . When we arrived at the restaurant I ordered a corn dog and Elle had a girl cheese sandwich. While we were waiting dads hands flew up, ''hi friends'' he shouted. Finally the Gerches were here. A minute later our food came. I loved my corn dog.

When we came home at 8:00 mom told us that Elle and I would be babysitting Calvin while mom and dad were going to talk to the Gerches for a hour or so. It wasn't exactly new to us because we did it 2 or 3 times before. Once mom and dad put Calvin to bed  they told us we could talk for 10 min. but then we had to go to bed. When mom and dad left we got up in bed and told some adventure stories before we fell asleep.

Everyone was awake by 6:30 in the morning so mom turned on a Sophia the First while mom got ready to go to the gym.   

After the movie was over we got dressed and headed down to the gym. I had a great time teaching yoga to Elle and Cal (mostly Elle because Cal was a bit distracted )  

It was 9:00am now and the pool had opened so we headed up and got our swimsuits on. When we got down I decided I would try the big blue dark slide, so I told mom to take a picture. I climbed the stairs and when I got to the top I had courage to go down.

It actually wasn't so bad, but it was dark. A hour later mom went down with me. Calvin screamed a lot (if you know Calvin, you can't leave him). Elle and I also found some strings hanging from a bar. We LOVED using those as swings.

We played for about 2 or 3 hours and then we we walked back to our room to get in the shower, soon we were going home. When everything was packed up we headed down to level 1. The 2 men outside carried our suitcase to our car while we stayed in the front of the the Marriott. Then he drove our car over to us and loaded our suitcases in the trunk. 

Then we headed home. I had a great trip and always would keep it in mind.