Our California Adventure - Continued...

We stayed in a cute condo in Long Beach.  It was close enough to walk to the ocean, and the beach there was really pretty.  Kori got close to some of the locals, or at least they had some compliments for her.  "Hola!  Nice legs!"  I think was the actual quote.  Our first full day in California, we rented some surfboards and headed to Sunset Beach!

It was a gorgeous day, if a bit cool.  Hardly anyone was at the beach.

So pretty.  I could just sit here and listen to the ocean all day every day.

Good thing we brought the wetsuits.  The water was COLD!

Clint stayed in the water longer than anyone.

Colton liked surfing, but he didn't last long in that COLD water!!  He is the California boy after all!

Kierstin had fun too.  

Cute beach houses.  One of these was for sale!!  How fun would that be?

Mom's feet.  This is as close as I got to the water.

Wes caught a good one here.

Whee!

Clint dug to China.

Clint had some good rides.

 

After playing at the beach, we cleaned up and headed inland to Colton's mission for a dinner appointment.  We got there a little early, so Colton drove us around and showed us where he lived and where he went to church.  When we pulled up to the Covina Stake Center, there was a whole zone of missionaries there having a P-Day cookout!  They watched us pulling in with puzzled looks on their faces, and when Colton jumped out of the car they all yelled "Thompson!"  It was awesome for Colton to hear some mission news and see some of the guys he worked with.  We went to dinner that night with a really sweet lady named Jenny.  She was a recent convert, but was kind of a "mission mom."  All the missionaries loved her and she took good care of them.  It was easy to see why they loved her, she was a lot of fun.  She took us to a delicious Mexican restaurant and then back to her house for dessert.  A very good day!  Here are some more quotes from our first full day:

Mom:  "I feel very caucasian."

Clint:  "Are there lots of twins in California?"

Kori:  "I like how if you take the R out of my name, I'm a Koi."

Mom:  "If there were penguins here, they would eat the Koi."

Mom:  "Colton hasn't said anything for the quote book yet."
Colton:  "Maybe I just don't want to be in the quote book!"

Our California Adventure - Getting There!

Spring Break 2012 was spent in California!  This will take several posts, so I'll start out with our drive.
Nice things about our drive:
1. The Suburban that we rented was loaded, we had plenty of room and a DVD player!
2. Being all together in the same place at the same time!
3. We drove through 4 states and saw some amazing scenery.
4. Sirius XM radio!  We listened to all of General Conference, and lots of oldies.
  Dad: "Oh, this song is so overplayed!"  It was Foreigner's Double Vision.
  Mom: "It's 2012, it's not overplayed!"
Not so nice things about our drive:
1. It was long.
2. We had to spend the first night in a seedy hotel in Las Vegas.

Ready to head out!  We took Kori's friend Kierstin with us to California because she took Kori with her a couple of months ago.  You'll see her in lots of our pics.

Our hotel was in an old part of town squeezed in between several wedding chapels.  The kids thought  it was hilarious entertainment.  I said "I want to go to the hotel, lock the door and read my scriptures."  Nope, I'm not really a Vegas fan.

After surviving Vegas, we proceeded to Pomona, California, which was Colton's last area.  He spent nearly half of his mission in Pomona!  We were happy to get out of the car, stretch our legs and see some palm trees!  Plus we had some authentic yummy Mexican food!

Catching some ZZZZZZZ's in the car.

Kori found out that palm trees can be rough and difficult to climb!