Back in September I was feeling antsy. On a whim I decided to surprise Jason with a 15 year anniversary trip. I didn't really know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do, all I knew was that I needed some time just with him, doing fun things, and eating good food - and not being on a schedule. My mom agreed to watch the kids a few days before Thanksgiving so we could go. The plan was to drive to Utah, drop the kids off, fly out of Salt Lake and then stay in Utah for Thanksgiving once we came back. Well... the best laid plans...
It all ended up working out. But it my "whim" of a vacation did not come as easily as just booking it. I won't go into everything, but basically the California Wildfires threatened our hotel and had power outages just up to a few weeks before we left, both our cars were braking down and should not have made the trip to Utah, my mom hurt her shoulder and needed surgery (she postponed it until January), we had a LOT of unexpected bills (from cars, bathroom leaks, medical) and we definitely did not need to spend a few thousand on a vacation, the day we needed to leave was a massive snowstorm in the mountains. Needless to say I said I was never planning another vacation.
However, once we battled through all of that we DID make it. And despite knowing we probably shouldn't go... we were grateful to be together and we hoped to just enjoy our time.
We went to Half Moon Bay California and stayed at The Beach House.
These are the views from our room. It was incredible. Probably one of our favorite hotel rooms we have ever stayed at.
So... here was the problem for our vacation. I was 7 weeks pregnant. I was pretty miserable the whole time AND pretty miserable to be with. I was nauseous the whole time and threw up daily. I was crazy about food - what to eat and when. I would order something and then not eat it... for example 40 dollars worth of Chinese food and then took one bite. Then I fell asleep every night at about 8:00 pm. Jason was so nice to say he is glad we did it - but it wasn't one of our best vacations.
But we did do one fun thing everyday! On our first day there (Saturday) we had an evening/night kayaking trip. We sailed out into the sunset and came back under the stars. There were sea lions swimming all around us.
We saw some GIANT waves crashing on the rocks outside the bay. It was really cool
Then we went to a fancy seafood restaurant for dinner.
Sunday morning we went to the Half Moon Beach ward. That was really fun. It is always fun to be with other Saints on vacation - it always strengthens my testimony in the gospel. We had a pretty lazy day and took a walk along the beach at sunset.
On Monday we went horse back riding along the beach and cliffs. This as our favorite activity. They wouldn't let me bring my phone (camera) - but they took some pictures of us. I am sad becasue we rode along the coolest beach and cliffs. It was so pretty and so fun to go on horseback.
After horseback riding we took a long drive down the coast. It was very pretty. On Tuesday we drove into San Palo and San Francisco and drove around before our flight back home. It wasn't the trip I envisioned - but as long as I am with Jason - it doesn't really matter. He was a trooper and I love him found on this journey with me.
