California Day 1 and 2: Driving and Newport Beach

So this past week we were in California. (I am sure Debbie and Helmut have noticed my absence with no blogging on LiveStrong) We left Utah on May 13. The 10 hour drive was better than it could have been since our new car has a DVD player in it. The girls watched movies while Martin and I listened to The Host by Stephenie Meyer on CD. Martin drove most of the way but I did put in a little driving time. I drove from St. George to Primm, Nevada. I mostly drove because I had to. Around Las Vegas, Martin had to call in to the judge for a drivers license hearing.

On Thursday we decided to go to the beach. The girls were so anxious to get there but Martin had certain things he wanted to do first. We had to wash the car, go to the bank for quarters(in order to pay for parking at the beach) and since we were in the area we went to see the house he grew up in. The house looks completely different. You can tell that he feels no more ownership to it since it does not resemble the house he remembers. We finally got to the beach. We decided not to go swimming because the water was a little cold. The girls and Martin went "wading" instead. Somehow, the girls both fell over and got their clothes completely soaked. I saw Ashlynn go down and it was completely funny. The wave knocked her over and she just could not get back up on her own. She looked like a crab on its back.

Most of their time was spent collecting seashells. They were not really picky about shape, color or even if the shell was whole. Some of them came home with us but a lot of them Ashlynn used for white windows for her castle.

Since they did not have enough sand everywhere on their really wet clothes...Martin had to bury them in the sand. I think it must be tradition to bury someone when you are at the beach. Ashlynn seemed a little nervous but Alex was ready to please her dad.


After the beach we had lunch and then went swimming in the hotel heated pool and hot tub. We did a pretty good job covering our bodies with sunscreen except for both Martin's and my feet. His were bright red, while mine just had stripes from my fingers...Oh, well.