California for Christmas

I realize it’s very unlike me to not blog for more than a week, but we recently returned from our trip to California and it’s taken me a few days to get back on my feet. Traveling with young children is always an experience. The flight to Oakland did not go as smoothly as I had hoped—Charlie was tired but never fell asleep, so he just ramped up into overtired mode, being as squirmy/active as possible. And fussing plenty too, which was stressful.

We survived with the help of our portable DVD player and the iPod nano Ben gave me for Christmas. I loaded the nano up with a few kids’ shows before we left, and oh what a lifesaver. At one point Charlie was sitting in Eli’s car seat with the dvd player on his lap, watching Baby Mozart, and Eli was sitting on Ben’s lap, watching a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode on the nano. What would we do without technology?? :)

But the flight was all worth it, because we got to see Ben’s entire immediate family on this trip! 18 adults (me and Ben, his siblings, their spouses, and Ben’s parents) + 21 children, all age 12 and under. Ben’s family has two girls (the oldest and the youngest) with six boys in the middle.

The amazing thing to me is how happy everyone is together—it’s a great bunch to be with because everyone is nice, fun, and has unique personalities but they all mesh together in a comfortable way. I like seeing the cousins together and the contrast in physical differences – we have Peruvian and Taiwanese in the mix, along with my Greek and others’ Portuguese, English, Norwegian, Scandinavian, etc. roots… there are blondies with blue eyes and beautiful dark brown-eyed kiddos too.

Ben’s sister Danielle (on the left in a black shirt) has a house not too far from Ben’s parents (they live in Fremont, she lives in Newark), so three families were at her house and the rest were at Ben’s parents’ house. But for the most part, during the day we were all together in Fremont – just imagine this brood of kids running around together!! It was pretty crazy at times.

Eli had a blast seeing his cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents again after being together in Yellowstone last summer. He had never been to Fremont, but he ran right up to Cheryl (Ben’s mom) and gave her a big hug. He calls her “New Grandma,” which is funny because my niece Amanda started calling her that when she was about his age and lived near one set of grandparents, so the other set was the “new grandparents.”

I love looking at this picture of the big group. Eli and Charlie have the same expression too!!

We took that group picture on the day that the adults all went to the LDS Oakland Temple together. Oh yes, we left all 21 kids at one house with multiple babysitters. They were still alive when we got back. The Oakland Temple is so unique – I love the palm trees, the five spires, the beautiful grounds. (The picture was lifted from ldstemples.com – when we were there, the grounds were beautifully decorated for Christmas)

Here we are, with a view of Oakland in the background: