The Long Road Home

A couple of days ago when we looked in the atlas the amount of space between where we were and home was daunting. So daunting that we have decided to extend our trip by another month...

Just kidding. But we are definitely having such an awesome time that we never want it to end.

We spent a couple of more days in San Dimas. We loved our little site, it was on the end of a row, there was a large field and fire pit behind us, and the view was amazing. It overlooked a small lake with some huge houses and mountains on one side and a great view of the city down below on the other side. A couple of campfires and a whole lot of just hanging out we left on Wednesday morning.

the view from our trailer

Emilee looking all cute on the swing

JJ and Emilee going down the slide
Ty and JJ creatively getting a drink
Kellee and I being all in love

the boys watching a movie during the campfire

Kellee eating her staple of oreos and peanut butter

We decided we should start heading north, since that is the direction of Canada, so we did. We drove right up to the coast and started heading north. Our plan is drive basically right of the coast all the way home. It is not the quickest way, but we would really like to avoid snow if at all possible and the coast is the best way to do that.

Our journey north ended in Malibu where we camped on the beach for 2 days. You remember that awesome place we stopped at on the way down, we loved it so much that we stopped there again. Only this time we did 2 nights. It was fun because there was actually nothing to do. You couldn't just make yourself busy, you actually had to sit and do nothing. Although the boys and I killed a decent amount of time making a 'princess path' for Mom and Emilee that went from the trailer to the firepit. We went out and collected rocks to make the path and to make a sign that said 'The Synesaels', it took alot of rocks to do that. We had a couple of huge beach fires, I read a bunch and chopped wood. The boys did lots of bike riding and exploring, Kellee and Tyler actually saw a seal in the ocean, he swam by a couple of times and once he stopped to play. Kellee made out with me on the beach under the stars by the campfire (that was her highlight I am sure), knit and held Emilee because she is a little sick and seems to be needy (although she seems fine today). So on we woke up early Friday and hit the road, it may seem ridiculous, but we were actually packed and pulling out of our site at 8:22am. JJ has this knack of waking up at the first sign of sunlight and yelling 'It's wake up time!'

the boys helping dad set up the trailer

she being cute again!!CJ Parker to the rescue!
our 'princess path'The Synesaels
the sunset (kellee did something cool with the camera to make it those colours) Emilee and her daddy at the campfire

So we left and we drove until we hit San Francisco. We pulled into here around 4:30, got settled, got dinner, did tonnes of laundry, and are now just planning our Saturday. We are going to go and do some touristy stuff while we are here, go to church on Sunday (if anyone knows of any neat churches we should check out let us know) and then leave again.

A few people have been asking, 'What about Mexico?' Great question. We decided pretty early in our trip that we weren't going to go down there for a couple of reasons. One, because we couldn't bring the trailer down, which would mean paying to store it up here. Two, because it would have meant tacking 3 extra days of straight driving to the first leg of our trip, and the kids would have gone batty. Bigger than our desire to go to Mexico was our desire to relax, have fun, be on our own schedule, and be spontaneous. So that is what is up with Mexico.