Jesse and Marissa: This past week or so of vacation and holidays

This past week was one busy and exhausting..but very fun week! and I think it will continue for a few more days...

I am in the Young Womens as a Laurel advisor and we had girls camp last week up in Bear Lake but I was only able to go for a day and a half because we had our family reunion in California. I got up early Wednesday morning and drove some of the girls up to Bear Lake. We stayed in a really nice air conditioned cabin--roughin it for the girls. The first day we were there we mostly unpacked and relaxed and we went to the little town of Paris to see the Tabernacle there. That night we did the skits which are always fun..I had to dress up like a Chinese person and just basically make a fool of myself. That night even though the leaders didn't have to sleep by the young women I ended up still staying up late just chatting. So after going to bed really late I got woken up at 4 am because one of the leaders who is diabetic had a low blood sugar episode..so we were up for about an hour taking care of her. So my night of maybe 3-4 hours of sleep is what started my week of exhaustion. We went to Minnetoka cake in the morning which was awesome..I think caves are so amazing. After that I sadly had to rush home to leave to Cali and I wasn't able to stay with the girls..I even missed the water day there! But I am glad I was able to be there for the little time I was..It would have been hard to be away from Corbin for that long!

So Thursday evening we started our trip to California. My dad rented a couple vans and my sisters and their families and my dad, his girlfriend, and my brother matt all went. We stopped in Vegas around 1am and spent the night and got up and drove the rest of the way. Corbin does not like the car..he hates being in a car seat which makes a road trip a bit difficult especially when I have never met a kid that fights sleep more than he does. I must say I have trained him well so he sleeps in his own bed quite nicely but anywhere else he is not so great at. It took us about 12 hours to get there and he slept for maybe a little over an hour--of the whole 12 hours. Yeah..

Friday night was the start of the family reunion which we meant at a church and had dinner and played games and got to know each other a bit. Corbin mostly played in the nursery-which worked out well I guess. Saturday they had a softball game in the morning that we missed most of because I stayed in the car while Corbin slept...definitely was not going to wake him! He actually fell asleep eating...which was hilarious looking! He has never done that before and I kind of felt bad for him cause that meant he was really exhausted. I wasn't too sad about missing the softball game because it was so hot!! We went swimming in one of the relatives pools and had a BBQ and hung out at there house the rest of the day. It actually overall was a good family reunion..you know how they have a bad rap..

( I didn't bring my camera, so my phone was all I had to take pictures with the whole time)

cooking in the nursery

when he fell asleep eating

swimming at the reunion and releasing balloons

My Dad and uncles

Sunday we went to church and meant some of our extended family at the San Clemente beach...where my mom used to take us when we were young. And funny thing a few of us got pooped on by a bird..it was nasty! Brown spots all over me..but thankfully we could laugh about it even though it had quite the unpleasant smell...and I was still in my church clothes because we were planning on going back to church for one of Candace's friends farewell.. it was coincidently the same week we were there.

Yes, I take a picture basically anytime my child is sleeping..because its a miracle. ha

These two enjoy playing with each other!

Monday we went to Huntington beach and hung out there most the day. Corbin enjoyed the beach for the most part just playing in the sand most of the time. I would take him to the water and play in the waves but he made sure I was holding on to him real tight the whole time. And you gotta love changing a poopy swim diaper with a kid covered in wet sand...after attempting to clean him the best I could I went and did a final rinse in the ocean. (He pooped quite a few times in his swim suit and made not only his swimsuit stink but many other things stink) Finally he was once again so exhausted by the afternoon I was able to lay him down to take a nap on the beach. I thought he looks so cute just sleeping there...but anytime he takes a nap not in his bed its usually no more than 30 minutes. That evening we went and ate dinner, got some gelato, then walked the pier! So pretty!

bad pictures..sad that pictures never show how beautiful it really was..especially phone pictures..

Tuesday the plans were to drive all the way home. Tuesday was my birthday and I was not going to spend it driving 12+ hours in the car so I booked a flight home with Corbin. Even though he fought sleep on the plane and had a little screaming episode, it was much better than spending my birthday in the car. We had to wake up at 5:30am (4:30 utah time) to get to our plane by 7. We were able to meet Jesse for a brunch which was way nice to see him after our 6 days away from each other! After Corbin and I came home and crashed..but he only slept for about 40 minutes. I was still so exhausted I knew I had to lay down at least for a while...so I grabbed my pillow and took Corbin out of his crib and just laid there on his bedroom floor half alive. He sat there and crawled all over me, pulling my hair and poking at my eyes like "come on mom!" I honestly could not do a thing and thankfully he gave up and fell asleep on the floor next to me..even though he stole my pillow. Not the best nap for me but I wasn't going to complain..at least he fell back asleep!

Corbin pooped right as we got on the plane..this was the changing table right above the toilet..basically his head fit on it..

I looked the same exhausted laying on the floor

Jesse had to work late so he didn't get home till around 8:30 but then we were able to go out to dinner and get sushi! It was half off on Tuesdays..and I thought "That's great, we wont spend as much on sushi" (since it can get pricey) but Jesse thoughts were "That's great, now we can get twice as much sushi!!" I liked Jesse's thinking!! :) so we got A LOT of sushi! And it was delightful. (besides the TNT--my mouth was on fire) Then we topped it off with some ice cream from Cold Stone. :)

Jesse is always so good about making me feel special! He knows I love boating so he planned a little boating trip on Wednesday for me with his family! So we spent the morning at Pineview enjoying the Lake! ( I was even able to get Corbin to take a little nap on the beach again)

sleeping on Megan in the boat

We came home and took a great nap, went to a little BBQ at our friends, then Jesse surprised me with being able to get tickets to the Real soccer game! We had a great date night just the two of us and even enjoyed the firework show after the game! feeling patriotic with the music blaring! :)

For the 4th of July we actually didn't do anything too exciting but it was perfect for us for now. I woke up and went and ran the 5k with my mom and sister Courtney. My mom and Courtney both placed 1st in their division and ran it in 25 minutes or so. My division was 18-24 so I had the fast girls...ha! I was actually the 5th girl overall it said though. I ran it in 22:55. I am pretty sure that is the fastest I have ran that race which I pushed myself and I am happy about.

After the race I came home to Corbin and Jesse in the shower together...it was the cutest thing to walk into..wish I could have taken a picture....haha! Corbin enjoys taking showers now and pretty much insists on getting in and playing in the water. We put Corbin down for a nap and took a nap ourselves-which was much needed for me. We went and meant my mom and sister Brooke over at the splash pad for a bit-which was during the parade so there was like 3 other people there which was great. We went out to lunch with our friends Kirk and Ashley and I came back and put Corbin down for a nap and Jesse went to the movies with them. We went over to my moms house after and played games and had a BBQ. We hung out with Jesse's parent that night and did a few fireworks then came home before the good big ones started and laid in bed and listen to them..ha I know we are lame. But since we saw a good firework show at the game we weren't too disappointed we missed out.