Hotel California

So, I need to back up a little bit and journal about our time in San Diego.  Looking back at these memories we made there, I was surprised at my response.  We survived and thrived!  I feel like we made it a month to remember.  

Our hotel room was surprisingly very spacious.  It did seem to get smaller and smaller each day we were there, but we had some space to stretch out a bit.  

Here's the "living area".  Jason and I slept on the fold out couch.  

Here's a view into the kitchen.  We had all we needed, just no oven.  We had lots of stir-fry, tacos, and hamburger helper.  

Here's the kiddos room.  Lucy had the big bed and the boys slept on the bunks.  

Benny and Graham made a lot of friends while we were there.  It seemed there was usually somebody to play with at the little park in the common area of the hotel.  

Graham and Benny loved balancing along this border.  We made up and I timed them on many obstacle courses that included this ledge.  

Many evenings were spent out playing soccer or "smash ball" or frisbee.

One evening we had hot dogs and s'mores on the beach.  Made for a sandy dinner, but we had a good time.  We are going through a slightly annoying but very consistent "must put bunny ears on someone" phase.  

We figured out early on that without an oven we couldn't make cookies, but we solved that problem by making "fudges" or no-bake cookies a few different times.  

This picture was actually taken at the hotel in Phoenix.  I love my little family. 

The beach!  Our hotel was right on the beach.  We spent HOURS there.  The first week we would make our way to the beach around 11:00 am and I would have to drag the kids back to the hotel room around 6 pm.  The second week it was more like 4 hours a day.  The third week, 3-4 hours.  By the last week, we would go for a few hours and they'd be ready to go.

We had to buy boogie boards while we were there.  We had some when we lived in Oxnard, but they were stolen.  The kids picked it right back up again.  They got really good!  We also got a skim board that Graham tried to master.  

Benny had a little boogie board, too.  He would get on and I would drag him around in the water.  By the last week he was getting the timing down and was able to catch some great waves.  

Many o' Ray child were buried on that beach.  

Back in Phoenix, the kids all slept on the pull out couch for the couple nights we were there.  Lucy read them a couple stories from the Friend before they went to sleep.  

Notice the missing window from our van.  This is how the punks got our stuff and took off with our documents.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.....