Coast to Coast 2012: West Coast Edition

Last Friday night, I was carrying Karis into our hotel after dinner and told her to give me a kiss.  She did and promptly declared, "I love you!" (Okay, so it sounded more like "I yuck you!" but we all know what she really meant).  It was the first time she said it without me saying it first and my heart just about burst and I teared up a little bit because it was all such perfect timing.  It was the end of our very last day in California, we'd just spent the afternoon running into waves along the beach, our bellies were full of carnitas with green chili and it was like she was saying, "thanks for the great vacation, Mom and Dad!" 

It really was a great vacation.  I know people thought we were crazy when we announced we were going to drive cross country with four kids.  Some people even TOLD us we were crazy.  I myself KNEW we were crazy.  The kids were going to fight.  Jaidan was never going to stop talking.  Karis was going to get carsick.  Eddie and I were going to be tired and pissy with each other.  But you know what?  It was a great trip.  Sure, there were bumps in the road.  The kids did fight.  Jaidan did go into full on chatterbox mode.  Kyan got sick when we were in Vegas and we ended up not going to the Strip (seriously, though, folks -- after the East Coast trip's Barfapalooza 2012, I'm JUST FINE with only one puke incident).  Eddie and I were tired and we did have our moments when we were pissy with each other.  But all that was totally worth the fun we had and the sights we saw.

We ended up doing a total of about 5,000 miles.  We went to Disneyland and California Adventure.  The kids dipped their toes into the Pacific for the first time.  We visited family and spent the Fourth with friends.  We drove the kids through Vegas and saw the Hoover Dam and took in the Grand Canyon.  We made our way through eight states, saw parts of the country so much different than where we live, nearly melted in the desert, fell in love with the California weather (70's! In July!), and ate our weight in Mexican food.  Seriously.  Great family vacation.  And now that we know we can do it -- and come home and still LIKE (love, "yuck") each other -- you know we're going to do it again!

Pictures and stories to come -- I'm still too tired to put together too many coherent thoughts about the trip!