R + L 2012

We will be celebrating 10 wonderful, married years in May! It's amazing. So much has happened in the decade we've been a family.

Since our baby girl is also coming in May, we decided to sneak away for an Anniversary trip before I'm too uncomfortable to enjoy waddling around anymore. Thanks to Rob's generous and courageous mom taking on our four rambunctious, precious kids we were able to enjoy a five day trip to the coast, and it was the best trip we've ever had!

A few weeks ago I asked Rob if he thought we had a song that was 'our song.' He said, "We have lots of songs." So, I put together three CD's of over 30 songs for him for Valentine's day titled, "Our Songs." We listened to them as we drove and it was so fun to reminisce and laugh about our decade together.
I am forever grateful Robert was crazy enough to ask me to marry him!

We were planning on starting our trip with a session at the Newport Beach temple, but we didn't know it was closed for cleaning until we were on our way. Without any pressures or time constraints, we just jumped on another freeway and went to the

San Diego Temple instead.

Neither of us had been there before, and it was a precious experience.

It is absolutely gorgeous, and the weather was perfect as well. 

We were able to take time to enjoy the beauty of the Celestial room,

and also the atrium of live flowers in the middle of the Sealing rooms in between the spires.

What an amazing, sacred place!

It was breathtaking and inspiring. It was the perfect start to our trip. We ate lunch outside at Rubio's (a favorite restaurant from our Arizona days we haven't been to in years) across the street after our Temple Session, and we had a great view of the temple while we ate.

We then headed up the California coast for one hour to the hotel at

Dana Point 

where we would be staying for three days.
Then we headed out for a walk on the beach and to watch the sunset.

We had fun setting the timer on our camera for some silhouette pictures.

Below is my favorite. :)

The sunset was gorgeous, and we were trying to remember the last time we just sat together and watched the sun set. We couldn't think of a time.

We went out for Thai food Friday night, and it was amazing. Rob got Curry and I got Shrimp and Mushroom Tom Yum Soup. I love eating things I love to eat but I don't make often because my family doesn't care for them while I'm on vacation. We picked up the movie, 'Courageous' at a Redbox (we'd recommend it) along with some microwave popcorn on our way back.

Saturday morning we found a hike down to

San Onofre Beach
which happened to be where all the surfers hang out.
It was awesome to watch them surfing on such a perfect, beautiful day.

After our hike, we went up to

San Juan Capistrano

to check it out. There was a lot more there than I had expected, and we enjoyed walking through the parks and shops. We tried some Mediterranean food at The Hummingbird Cafe. There really were hummingbirds to watch, and the plants were awesome. We loved eating outside.

That afternoon we played Word Feud (our new favorite game) on Rob's phone and my Kindle, and it was quite a momentous occasion because I finally beat Rob! He's become quite the word feud guru, and he's won every time we've played so far. But, it was my weekend because I won him AGAIN on Sunday. :)

Sunday was a spectacular day. So quiet and peaceful, with ample time to read and talk. We took a long walk on the beach, and it was wonderful to have time just to be us.

We met a super, funny guy at church who told us about his Scout camp adventures on Catalina Island. He said years ago they brought over a bunch of wild boar to the island so they would eat the rattlesnakes. They did eliminate the rattlesnakes, but now there are tons of wild boar on the island. The scouts would put food in the middle of camp and turn off all the flashlights. Then they would wait until the boars came to eat the food and turn on their lights, yell, and pounce on the pigs! They would grab them and throw them at each other! So funny.

Rob took a maternity picture of me on the beach.

Only 13 weeks to go! At our house that feels like 13 days.
She'll be here before we know it.

Monday morning we packed up and headed out to the dock to ride the

Catalina Express out to

Catalina Island

for our last two days. The hour ride out there was the worst for me. It was a cloudy day, and the water was choppy. I don't know if being pregnant influenced it, but I spent most the ride loosing my breakfast in the bathroom, and the other half trying to get some fresh air on the back deck of the boat and getting hit on by lesbians. Gross all around.

Once we made it there wetook some time to regroup so my stomach could stop flopping around.  Gratefully I was feeling better in time for our scheduled

Dolphin and Sea Lion Tour.
The Groupon I bought for the tour included free sunglasses. :) Rob said when I bought it,
"I'm sure they'll be sweet lookin' if they're free!" and...they were.

The island was beautiful, and we were grateful it didn't rain even thought it was cloudy.

We were on a small boat with one other couple for the Tour.

We got the back seat and they were in the front.

I was worried about getting sick again, but gratefully the small boat rode completely different on the water than the big one and I was totally fine.

We were off! Headed out to the open sea!

I felt pretty safe until our driver said that there were Great White Shark's around the island, then the boat seemed pretty small....gratefully they were not included in the tour.

We loved watching the Pelican's diving for fish as we headed around to Sea Lion Beach.

Driving away from Avalon, the city we were staying in.

We got to see a large pod of wild dolphins! They were awesome, but hard to catch in a picture. They were jumping out of the water on both sides of the boat.

It was a little windy... :)

The Sea Lions were hilarious to watch.

This is a group of them sleeping in the water together. They sleep together so the sharks are less prone to attack.

Most of the old ones liked to hang out on the beach and make a lot of noise, but the young ones swam over to check us out.

It was our own, private, wild marine show!

 We headed back to Avalon, grateful we got to see dolphins as well as the Sea Lions (they don't always see the dolphins). We were also grateful the trip wasn't more eventful with rain, sickness or sharks. :)

 It turned out to be a great experience all around!

 We'll have to Parasail, Kayak, and Zipline another time when baby girl doesn't tag along with us on our trip. There were so many things to do on the island! It was a really cool place.

 Monday night we went out to check out the nightlife on the island and find a good Italian Restaurant. Surprisingly, almost all the shops were closed, and everything was really quiet. We did find a good Restaurant, and Rob had fish and chips (you have to have those on an island) and I had Shrimp Manicotti. Yum! When we got back Rob was tired of loosing at Word Feud so I taught him how to play Sudoku instead. We got better and faster at it, and found out we make a good team in yet another way.

Tuesday, our last day of our trip, we woke up to perfect weather.

It was one of those really great days.

I loved the mosaics on this fountain, and all around the boardwalk.

 Check out these guys paddling barefoot on their surfboards.

We'll have to try that next time too. :)

We found a good place to rent a golf cart and headed out to see the sights of island Grandpa style. We almost rented motorcycles, but we weren't sure how baby would take the bumps on the dirt roads.

 We headed strait up the canyon, and enjoyed the mountains.

 It was truly a spectacular day

and an amazing scenic drive!

I love this man. :)

Check out how bright and brilliant these flowers are!

 Revin' up the Golf Cart.

 After grabbing some yummy Chinese grub for lunch and buying some souvenirs to take home to Grandma and the kids, we decided to enjoy the weather from the
Miniature Golf Course
(and give Rob a chance to win something this weekend ;)

Win he did!

 The last hour we went on a walk down the to the Theatre on the Corner. It was nice to get out of the hustle and bustle (the people who came off the cruise ship kind of crowded the main street) and have some quiet time on the other side of the island.

 The boat ride back to Dana Point was much calmer, gratefully. We played Hangman, of all things, on my kindle and since Rob won Miniature Golf, I couldn't let him win Hangman too. (Am I really as competitive as I sound? Don't answer that Rob).
As we walked to the car to drive home to our kids and busy lives, this amazingly, brilliant sunset off of Dana Point was like a cherry on top to a spectacular weekend.

The trip was such a wonderful, much needed stress reliever for both of us!
But, we were ready to come home too. We felt very grateful to be right were we are, and for these amazing, precious kids we have the privilege to enjoy and raise in our home. They were so fun to come home to! Sterling was so excited, and he just talked and talked and kept hugging me. It was absolutely precious. We gave them their souvenirs and showed them pictures of our trip. They surprised us with a piano recital that they had practiced with our wonderful Grandma Soulier. We loved it! 

 Thank you again, Grandma, for taking care of our kiddos so we could enjoy a beautiful weekend!

Here's to the next 10 wonderful years. :)