Weekend with the Kings (and the end of our trip...finally!)

 We were able to spend Friday night through Sunday morning with our good friends, the Kings. They moved away 3 years ago and we've really missed them! Unfortunately we saw them at the end of our trip when everyone was exhausted and ready to be home. We'll have to plan better next time. :)

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Newport Beach Temple. We just walked around the grounds and took some pictures. Madeline is filling in for Alyssa in our family picture.

Totally unplanned twin outfits.

Emma and Madeline

All of the kids except Alyssa

After the temple, we took advantage of the gorgeous day and went to one of the beaches in Newport Beach. It was perfect.

Matthew found lots and lots of seashells to fill his bag.

Andrew being buried

Emma and Ellie being crabs

Matthew thought he wanted to be buried, but changed his mind pretty quickly

Cute girl feeling the ocean for the first time

Later that day we rode bikes and plasma cars at the greenbelt by their house and then had a yummy barbecue with them and some friends of theirs. Jon and I were beat at this point. We were totally lame and went to bed really early. We'll just blame it on Alyssa who was in the habit of waking up every 1-2 hours all night long. We got up Sunday, packed, went to the first part of church, and then headed out.

And just because it's too funny not to share, I'll end with the story of our stolen girl scout cookies. We had packed our lunches for the drive home and put them in the fridge at the church, along with a box of girl scout cookies. When we were leaving church, Jon went to get our lunches only to discover our box of cookies laying on the counter completely empty. We thought it was more funny than anything, that somehow in the one hour we were at church in the morning, someone had found them and devoured the whole box. But word spread throughout the ward, teenage boys were questioned, and it was discovered that the bishop's son had eaten them, thinking that they were his dads. This all led to a series of phone calls, texts, and humorous emails. It was pretty entertaining.

We survived the drive home and gladly fell into our beds when we arrived. Matthew was so exhausted that when he realized we were going home he burst into tears. He sobbed uncontrollably for a long  time because we weren't going back to Legoland. Alyssa struggled at the end, wanting to get out of her car seat. But it was an otherwise quick and uneventful drive. All in all it was a fun and memorable family vacation.