2 coasts in 2 weeks

Matt also has a job offer in So. California, so we went last weekend to check it out. It was a last-minute idea and a quick trip, so it was a little crazy, but that's our life right now.

We braved the long drive with the kiddos. On the way there, they did great!

We stopped for ice cream at the Big Red Barn and Zach was in heaven. He also got ice cream everywhere!

They were so excited to finally get to the hotel. And the next morning they were so excited to wear shorts and sandals.

On Saturday, we dropped the kids off at my awesome Auntie Ginxie's house so we could go check out some areas. We passed a candy store just before 9 a.m. and there was this line of people outside the store. I guess that's what happens on Valentine's Day. Ha!

The kids had a ball with Auntie Ginx going to the park and swimming and making cookies. She was so awesome to watch them for the whole day! We drove up to Redlands to check it out. The Redlands temple was nice. There were areas that were nice and areas that were not so nice. In the same vicinity. And the houses are so expensive there! I'm still so confused as to what we should do though.

We promised the kids we would take them to the beach, so Saturday afternoon/evening we fulfilled the promise.

They LOVED the beach so much!

Since it was evening, we didn't get them in their swimsuits, but they played in the water anyway! We watched the lovely sunset...it was beautiful.

And then the disaster hit. There were no hotels anywhere within 80 miles of where we were. I guess because it was Valentine's Day, but seriously EVERYTHING was full. So we ended up having to drive all the way back to freaking Barstow to stay in a crappy Mexi-hotel full of partyers for the night. We thought we were going to die. We almost just kept on driving home.

But the next morning we decided to go back and check out the wards and more of the area. Poor Zach fell asleep 10 min before we go to church.

Probably the best and most beautiful part of Redlands was the tons and tons of citrus trees everywhere. They were so gorgeous and smelled so good. If we move there, I'm planting some in our yard!

I even snuck in and picked an orange and a grapefruit. :) They were delicious!

We found a better hotel that night that was closer to where we were looking. The kiddos loved swimming in the pool!

And Emmy LOVED having her own big bed. She went to bed better at the hotels than she does at home. And she kept saying good night to everyone for about 10 minutes. It was pretty cute. And she ate about 10 pieces of bacon for breakfast.

We also went to dinner at some people in the ward's house on Sunday night. It was SO nice of them to have us over and we picked their brains about everything. The kids were turkeys at their house though, and it was embarrassing.

The drive home was pretty bad. The kids were done and so were we. They were pretty whiney for quite awhile. They finally fell asleep about when we hit Fillmore.

Anyway, now we've really got to decide what to do. I wish someone would just tell us what would be the best option. Emmy does keep asking when we can go back to the beach....and when we can have a grapefruit tree in our yard....