Vacation, 1

Thursday June 2 we left our house at 5:00 in the morning for Gallup, New Mexico. We went to breakfast at McDonald's and lunch at Subway. We also went to many gas stations for bathroom breaks, gas, and some snacks. In the car we listened to Raising Dragons, an audio book from the library, talked, slept, or did whatever. That night we arrived in Gallup around 7:30 New Mexico time. We finally found our hotel, a seedy place with a small pool. Everyone except my mother went swimming. The water was really cold, and the weather was overcast. After a ten o'clock meal at Wendy's, we crashed in the two-star motel.

The next day was pretty much the same only we ate lunch somewhere else and In-n-Out for early dinner. The place was packed, but the food was great. We reached my Grandma and Grandpa Coxes 'round four. Got to see my grandparents, ate a great dinner, and relaxed.

Sunday morning we went to Granada for church and saw some of our family, but before church my father took us on a tour of some of his history in Whittier after watching some of Glory of Zion webcast earlier in the morning. Keith talked about homelands and we were in our homeland. We saw some of the places he used to live and go to school, plus where some of his friends lived.

That afternoon, we went to a block party for a Fourth of July celebration at my great uncles' house. There was a blow up water slide that all the kids loved (I didn't get in, but it was fun to watch.), lots of food, and a roll of 4,000 firecrackers that we set off in the street! Later that night we had sparklers and lots of fun fireworks. (See my mom's blog for all the details.) Then we drove from there to Palmdale, where my other grandparents live.

We're back at my Grandma Coxes now but we had a GREAT 4-1/2 days with the DeHart grandparents. Here's some of what we did there: we played croquet in the yard, played cards, went to the Dollar Tree and spent some money, we went to the tidepools with my aunt Jesse (we didn't see too much because of a high storm tide), and we went to a park which had a fun play place. To get to the park we drove on a song road... a road with bumps that, when you drive over them, it makes notes that you can hear in your car. We also had a get together on Tuesday night with some of our old friends from church. It was fun to see everybody. So, all together it was a very fun experience.

Last night my aunt Gretchen and her son Anders came over for dinner while my dad and Grandpa went to a special steak fry. We also went to a frozen yogurt place called Golden Spoon; I had chocolate malt and cake batter yogurt with three toppings. We sat by a nice fountain till we went home. Everyone was saying to bring a jacket though I didn't want to. I brought it and it turns out I needed since the weather is pretty cool here at night, plus with the yogurt.

Today my dad took us to Seal Beach with cousin Anders. The weather was overcast so the water was colder, in the middle of July. I mainly went into the ocean and stood there or collected shells. That whole time my feet were sore from the broken shells and rough sand, even though it was fun. My dad tried out Abby's boogie board, but the waves weren't really good for it, so that only lasted a few minutes. Anders was scared of the water so he only stayed on the sand and I brought him a bucket of water to play with.

Changing out of our wet clothes with only a towel (held by my sister) covering me was tedious. To get sand off our bodies we used baby powder. An excellent solution for removing it gently.

Tonight we're probably going to go see Toy Story 3 with my Grandpa and I'm really excited. Tomorrow we're going to my aunt Gretchen and Uncle Chris's church and we're going to spend the day with them. They live in Calabassas, which is near Malibu.

I'll try to keep you updated on my vacation, as we go along and later I'll try to get some pictures!