Last Randoms from the Trip

 Here's the last of the pictures from the trip. While staying at Grandpa's apartment, there were lots of light saber duels. Snow White even got in on the action.

 We also "celebrated" Paul's birthday. :) We found a small candle for him to blow out and shared a yummy ice cream cake.  We also had delicious seafood for his dinner right on the bay.

 One of Paul's favorite places- Ruby's Diner. A balloon guy came over to give the kids their own creations. I love how my boys usually choose a sword or a light saber when they could have their choice of anything.

 Nora wanted a butterfly.

 Peter's light saber was  green and black and Benjamin's was blue and silver. We came back to Ruby's again the last day we were there, and were humbled to find out that the older couple sitting near us (who had left shortly after our arrival) had paid for our meal without our knowing. There really is so much good in the world!

 Another mandatory stop, In-N-Out. Nora wanted to learn how to do her own top buckles on our way out. Now she does it every time we get in the car!

 How do I explain this one? Peter just started saying "Soy baby! Soy BABY!!" one day and would ask us what it meant. We just shrugged at his non-nonsensical phrase, but the boys latched onto it and soon became "soy babies."  The concept evolved into Soy Baby Heroes.  And these are their poses:

 We drove by the Newport Beach temple numerous times, but also wanted to see the L.A. temple and visitors center. We drove up on Sunday afternoon as the sun was setting, and got to see the Christmas lights turn on while we were there.

 I love the L.A. temple. Especially the inside.

 I was also impressed with the visitor's center right by it. There were lots of interactive things for the kids to do, and a pretty decent sized creche exhibit.

We loved driving along the Pacific Coast Highway whenever we could. We even spotted a rainbow, although it was hard to capture.

The kids enjoyed the bus ride to and from the airport to the car rental place. When we first got into our rental car though, Peter flat out refused to get in. He kept saying it wasn't our car and that we needed to go back and get ours.

The kids loved having their own suitcases to pull around at the airport.

Nora felt so grown up.

Flying home on New Years Eve was fun. We had a quick layover in Arizona, and landed back home at about 11:30. There was a 100 year old woman celebrating her birthday that night on the plane, and as we came out there was snow falling, with an inch or two on the ground. It was a memorable way to ring in the New Year!

I felt like this was a good trip for our family. I think with the dynamics of different ages and stages and the impending arrival of another little one, it was good for our little family to reconnect and build on our relationships. We're incredibly grateful that we could do it!