Sunny (and Humid) California

For the last week and a half, I was in Southern California with my sister and her children. It was mostly fun, but I have never quite enjoyed living by myself quite so much as the couple of days after we returned home...
We did a little park-hopping while we were in LA with my parents. I think I went to 3 different parks and my sister went to even more! I opted out one afternoon to take a nap... shocking, isn't it?!? Who wouldn't want to spend time with these cute kids? I think that I look like my mom, but everyone says that I also look my sister (who looks like my dad). How is that possible? Oh well... This stranger came by at one park and asked if all three of us wanted our picture taken because we looked so much alike! As you can see, my sister declined...

On Thursday my dad was finally able to spend some time with us to go to the LA Zoo (He is serving as mission president for the Los Angeles Mission). It was all I could do to force the boys to take this picture. They only agreed because they could climb on top of the "art".For those of you who know me, you should be impressed that I am even in the petting zoo. I petted one animal and left, but the rest of the day, all I could feel was the dirt on my shoes from this encounter. Maybe next time I will remember...

We spent some time walking around the Los Angeles Temple wasting time while my dad was in another meeting. I try and guilt the children into taking pictures with me - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. At least one child couldn't complain :)

Before we left LA we went miniature golfing. The kids surely enjoyed it, but I spent most of the time trying to not have an anxiety attack or yell at the boys to get off the green! Not exactly relaxing, but at least we went to IHOP afterwards :)
After LA we went down to San Diego to visit my grandpa. While there my sister went to Sea World for two days. Since I thought I would kill the children at this point, I opted to stay home and help my grandpa one day and go with them the second day.

It's a good thing! My sister took her oldest boy on some rides while my younger nephew and niece came with me and he didn't listen very well... To paint a picture for you - I am holding my niece, watching my nephew play, he moves over to another activity and I see him, but I keep my eye on him. All of a sudden he's not there! I stand up with my niece and start yelling his name - no response. At this point the people sitting next to me say "Do you need help? Do you want me to hold your little girl?" I'm thinking - "Heck no! I've already lost one kid, I'm not going to lose two!" So I run around frantic until I find him at another area. He doesn't seem phased by the event, but I was traumatized...

In the end it all worked out, the boys had a great time, I got to eat some funnel cake and see Shamu. Of course the drive home seemed eternally long. Did I mention that boys are SOOOO loud?!?