Thanksgiving Away

For Thanksgiving this year, Tim and Amber (aka: “Timber” - my siblings-in-law) invited us to go to Newport Beach. We’ve taken several vacations to Newport Beach with Timber in the past, including one for their beach wedding four years ago. It’s always fun to get to go out of town, so of course, we accepted the offer! “Why, yes! We would love to crash your anniversary vacation with our four kids!”

Timber went down a few days before us while we finished up with Cinderella, and then we drove down on Tuesday. We left  just before 6:00 a.m. and hit Vegas around 11:00 for lunch. Scotty wanted to try a place called Sayulitas: Home of the Big Ass Burrito! 

Sayulitas

This photo doesn’t adequately portray the size of the burritos. They were about the size of my forearm.

Loaded fries

Let’s just say that two big ass burritos, three quesadillas, five rolled tacos, and a plate of loaded fries were way beyond the threshold of “too much food” for 6 people. 

The drive from Vegas to Newport is always kind of miserable for me. This time was no exception. Gas in Baker was nearly $7 a gallon (luckily we didn’t need any. We stopped for bathrooms, though, and I just really hate Baker). We always hit traffic after Victorville, and that happened right on cue. Our kids fought for the last three hours straight and had us daydreaming that we could just Uber them to the coast. Or back home. 

But we made it safely, and our van didn’t collapse into a heap of junk yard donations, so we can’t complain!

In Newport, we kept our activities pretty low-key since we’re all still broke from Florida. We hung out at the pool, went to a couple of beaches, enjoyed some feasting opportunities (Thanksgiving dinner included), and played games at the condo. Our kids were turds. They fought everywhere we went - all day, everyday. 

Newport Beach

There were a lot of pelicans 

Nicky doing handstands at low tide

(Those are seashells under his hands. Ew)

Crystal Cove on Thanksgiving morning

Crystal Cove

Thanksgiving table at the condo

Post-turkey swimming session

Post-turkey Super Scrabble session

(Amber won)

We ended our Thanksgiving sitting poolside by the fire, and topped things off with a rowdy round of Heads Up.

(Imagine Scotty and Nicky simultaneously trying to get Tim to guess “Shakira” by swiveling their hips, which do not lie).

Unfortunately we had to check out on Friday morning. Tim and Amber moved to another hotel for their anniversary and then flew home Saturday. Our family left at 8:00 a.m. and drove to Henderson for the night. The kids fought the entire time.

We stopped at a wetlands reserve and walked a couple of miles. We didn’t see anything too exciting - just a few small birds, two cranes, a couple of rabbits, and a ton of scat. 

And the kids fought.

From there we headed to the cactus garden at Ethel M’s chocolate factory to see the Christmas lights.

And the kids fought.

We stopped at Smith’s and bought some food to take to the hotel for dinner. 

And the kids fought. 

But eventually, they also slept for a while before they woke up and fought some more.

We were going to stop in Saint George on the way home for some activities, but we decided we just needed to get our kids home where they could be separated onto different floors for family vacation rehabilitation. 

Despite the fighting, it was fun to get away with Tim and Amber. Luckily they got along much better than our kids!