We once again headed to California for the Thanksgiving weekend. We left as soon as the boys got home from school. And we, again, ran into lots of traffic. Bobby had been so excited and helping me pack that he fell asleep long before we even made it onto the freeway.
After slow going in traffic for so long, we stopped at an IHop for dinner. Can’t go wrong with the IHop!
We had reservations at a hotel in Cedar City and ended up getting there in pretty good time, considering the earlier traffic. The next morning we were on our way nice and early and thought we were making good time … until more traffic. Ah, the joy of driving on a big holiday weekend! But we did make it to Grandpa and Grandma’s house and the boys were happy to see family and to be out of the suburban!
We do enjoy our weekend with just Grandpa Brent, Grandma Jeanne, Aunt Wendi, and Aunt Sheri.
The boys had written a play that they performed and we played “Heads Up” on the phones and we ate good food.
Kevin carved that turkey like a pro!
Friday. Friday is our Beach Friday. This year we went to the beach at Corona del Mar and I loved it!
It isn’t a huge beach and while there were people there, there wasn’t a big crowd.
I loved watching the boys love the ocean!
Ricky was daring and went out farther than I liked, but he’s a good swimmer and was just fine (I did make Kevin go in after him a couple times, just to be safe).
Tommy got some beach ball time in …
that boy moves and moves and rarely stops!
Rusty probably likes the water least, but he loves the sand and digging and finding shells!
When Billy decided to bury himself in the sand, Bobby was right there to help him.
Where did Billy go?
One of my favorite parts of this beach is that a short walk down the shore there are tide pools to explore. Ricky and the boys decided to make their own tide pool.
They built up the walls and even supplied it with seaweed!
The seagulls were brave and approached us several times. I even had to shoo one off the blanket as I was sitting on it! Bobby found great pleasure in chasing them and calling them “seagull chickens!”
The tide pools were awesome this year! We were there at a super low tide time and found lots of crabs and little fish and anemone type things. The most exciting was this black octopus. He was hard to photograph, but you can see his head just off center to the left. He may have made me squeal every time he reached a big old tentacle out of the water! He wasn’t just little, his head was bigger than a dinner plate!
We crawled over rocks and looked in pools …
And climbed over more rocks and looked in more pools …
And stopped to watch things crawl and scurry …
There was a cave to crawl through that would be totally under water during high tide (that hole behind Rusty)
It was a fabulous time for exploring!
Beach Friday is always a good day! (look at that view behind us!)
And Beach Friday is even better because Aunt Wendi comes with us!
I do love Beach Friday!!
When I was Tommy’s age, my teacher asked what our favorite part of Thanksgiving was. She shared my response with me years and years later because she’d never forgotten. I told her my favorite part of Thanksgiving was “getting to sleep in as late as you want!”
Sleeping in as late as you want isn’t so easy with this crowd …
We went over to Aunt Sheri’s new house and played games and hung some pictures on the wall for her.
It is a really cute house!
We watched some old home videos that I had digitalized a few years ago and we actually found Kevin in the swim meet one. I hadn’t been able to do that on my own. It was a lot of fun watching him swim the 500, even if he was wearing a speedo (they always make me cringe).
And before we knew it, the weekend was over and it was time to head back home.
Good-byes are always hard.
We got an early start on Sunday and made excellent time!
Traffic heading to Utah was pretty light, the weather good, and the boys perfect travelers!
Our goal was to get past Beaver before it got dark. We did it and thought we were going to have smooth sailing the rest of the way home. We were even on target to be home before 8 pm, which never happens!
Then we hit Holden.
Google Maps told us there was a major slow down on the freeway and that by taking the frontage road, we could save over an hour. We’ve taken that road more than once, so we trusted the app and got off the freeway.
It was correct. The freeway was very backed up, the snow was starting to stick some, and we were pretty much alone on the frontage road. It was a good call. As we got close to where we normally get on the freeway, we could tell there were still taillights for miles and the app encouraged us to continue on the frontage road. We had never taken that section, but there were other cars getting off the freeway to take it, so we decided to try. That was probably NOT the best decision we made that night.
For over an hour, we sat, not moving, on that frontage road. We could see that the freeway wasn’t really moving either and that the south bound lanes of the freeway were closed. The road was slick and people were not being smart. And we were just stopped.
Some people got out of their cars and walked up the line of stopped vehicles. At other times we saw cars turn around and go back to the freeway or into Holden. We just wanted to get to Scipio, the next biggish town. The word finally came back that we were stuck because the semis ahead of us couldn’t go anywhere and the frontage road was for 4×4 vehicles only. We had 4 wheel drive, so we passed the semis and went on. The instruction should have been “4x4s with chains and a death wish only.”
It was slick. It was snowy. It was dark. It was steep. It was dangerous. There were cars tipped over in the ditches with their wheels in the air! We were in constant danger of going off the road and the stress of it got to Kevin. He felt the pressure of getting us through the ordeal safely and his body acted adversely. He had a panic attack that I had to talk him through because we were in no way able to pull over and take a deep breath or change drivers. Once we got through that most dangerous part, we pulled over and he walked around outside and was fine, but it was freaky. The boys were oblivious. They had just gotten permission to play video games before we got onto this frontage road, so they were happily playing and just knew that their parents weren’t really happy about the driving conditions right then.
As we continued on to Scipio, past the cars in ditches, we had a sedan approach us. It was just sliding and not really in control. We stopped him and told him to turn around, that he’d never make it. Thankfully, he took our advice and followed us back out. It took us more than 2 hours to go the 15 miles from Holden to Scipio. A lot of prayers went out during that time. We only had patchy cell service, but we had friends back home and family in California praying for us and we definitely felt those prayers.
I’d stayed strong for Kevin while we were driving along that horrible road, but once we reached the city streets in Scipio, I couldn’t hold back the tears. My eyes just leaked and leaked! I was just so thankful we’d made it through safely!!
The rest of the drive home was smooth and easy. Just those 2+ hours of rottenness. But what good is a vacation without a great story to tell!
We got home to snow just starting to fall but by the time we got up the next morning, we were facing a winter wonderland …
It was a far, far cry from Beach Friday!
And that was our Thanksgiving in California!