Mini Vacation

( 3 of my goofy kids, no confidence problems here)

We had a great weekend. Jim has been working a ton, then softball, not to mention teenagers, the point is we were both feeling disconnected from the kids. A perfect opportunity came along to get away for a weekend. Jim's brother Tim graduated from the fire academy in Sacramento and we wanted to be there to support him. We left at about 4:00 am on Friday to get there have a few minutes to clean up in his mom and Lindsey's room, grab a bite to eat and get to the graduation. It was great! We are all so proud of Timmy.

We had decided to leave Sacramento and get to San Jose to spend the night then move on to Santa Cruz to play at the beach on Saturday and head home. We got to San Jose where I got a smokin deal on a 4 star hotel room, Jim checked us in and got us all free breakfast ticket for $100. Really I have no idea how he does it. Before we headed to Sana Cruz I saw an add for this huge flea market. We ended up going, nobody would bargain so we left. By the time we had checked out, eaten and went to the flea market drove to Sana Cruz it was 5:00. The pier rides were closed and it was freezing cold. So we had Samis laptop found a hot spot and booked a nice hotel there in Sana Cruz.

(This was the Sana Cruz pier at night)
Again, Jim checked in and got us an upgrade to a 2 bedroom Suit. We were in a nice area but something in the hotel across the street had lots of action, ALL NIGHT LONG. There were 2 ambulances taking off with their lights on. About 20 cops up and down the road, then walking around looking for something. I saw this car pull up next to the crime scene and 2 guys jump out run over to a car on the backside of the hotel parking lot and both cars took off. Then about 20 minutes later the officer was searching the ground around where the car was parked. Weird huh?

(the hotel with all the action, the next morning)

Ok, so the kids were a little freaked from all the police and helicopter. Alex helped Jim sneak out of the room where he found the hotel phone and called our room, disguised his voice. I put it on speaker phone and he said, "we are just letting our guests know there may be a possible evacuation because of an intruder in the hotel, we will let you know". Thanks to Alex he snuck back in the room unnoticed. He had the kids really going, had them all get their stuff together just in case we had to leave. He finally told them when Sami started having a panic attack. It was a late night. We were woken up very early 7:30 but time had changed, so it felt way earlier, by a fire alarm. After getting dressed quickly we evacuated only to find out there was a malfunction in the system.

So it's Sunday, we went to get some cash out to finish off the trip. My card has been shut off because of some fraud and I haven't received my new card yet. Jim went to get the cash and Wells Fargo had shut off his card even though he had let the bank know we would be out of town for the weekend. After an hour on the phone fighting with the bank to get it turned on, they fixed it. Whew!


We head back to the beach. Jim took me to the beach for the first time in January right before we got married. I absolutely LOVE the beach. To me it's the ONLY great thing about California. After some persuading on Jimis part she got me in the water, which was extremely freezing. We went out about 300 yards and attempted to body surf. We did ok. We did have one wave come and tear us up, slam us in the sand and hurt like... When we got out we were freezing so we went to change and for about 2 hours Jimi and I couldn't move our hands and it was really hard to talk, we weren't cold anymore but our muscles must have been. It was a really strange feeling. After a long day at the beach we headed home. We got home about 1am and the kids were only a few minutes late for school the next morning. It was so worth it!

(after being in the water way too long)

(Jim said Alex would love this picture because it shows off his abs)

( never too old to play in the sand)

(Jimi and I heading out, Sami almost came with us but it was too cold for her)
Jimi and I had decided about a month ago that we both wanted to learn to surf. I have ALWAYS wanted to and I think I need too before I get too old. This summer we are going surfing.