CALIFORNICATION PHOTOS

I'm a woman of my word (usually that is) so here are the pictures. First off I must explain that we vacationed with ghosts. Yup...GHOSTS. We stayed in Cory's (Clayton's cousin) house in San Clemente. Cory lives in a super nice house that is right off of the beach. His house is also haunted. People have seen and heard strange things there. I can't remember the reason it is haunted...I think that some girl fell down the stairs and died, but I'm not sure. Anyway last time we were there nothing spooky happened. This time was a different story... We got to the house about 1230pm and went to bed. A couple of minutes later we both heard noises up above. I mentioned to Clayton that it sounded like someone was upstairs and he said, "except for that there isn't an upstairs." The part of the house that we were staying is did not have an upstairs. Crazy, huh. Things got even spookier a couple of nights later when I heard someone in the room next to ours. Cory was at his house at Palm Springs so we were in the house alone. It was really late and Clayton was asleep. I woke him up so he could hear the noises. It sounded like someone was opening and closing drawers and moving things around, but there was no light on and no one was in the room. Creeped me out a bit. But hey you can't beat vacationing in a free multimillion dollar house even if you are sharing it with ghosts.

We planned to go to the beach every single day, but Friday was rainy, windy and cold. So we drove up the PCH and went shopping. This is the day where we fell in love with Sprinkles cup cakes.
Saturday we finally were able to go to the beach even though I kept my sweatshirt on and covered my legs in a towel. I'm a wuss when it comes to the cold. I think my body temperature is 30 degrees colder than normal people. Later that night we went to the Newport Beach Temple. We did a session at the San Diego Temple a few years ago and wanted to go to a new Temple...just to see if they all are true. Just kidding. Clayton mentioned that we have almost done more sessions in the California Temples than the Utah Temples. The NB Temple is gorgeous on the outside and inside. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend you go.
They grounds are absolutely amazing. They even have these wild bunny rabbits all over the place.
Sunday, we went to church and heard talks about nutrition and planes. Later we drove down to La Jolla to see the seals and the coves.

On the coves there are really small mussel like shells that cling to the rocks called Opihi. They are really hard to get off unless you have a knife or a trusty set of HHR keys. Clayton told me that they are a delicacy in Hawaii. He pealed two off of the rocks, opened up the shell and we ate them (that's for you Jodi). I don't know how safe it was we washed the Opihi out in the stagnant water in the holes on the rocks and the rocks were crawling with un-potty trained little kids. But we are still alive. You can learn more about Opihi here




Monday and Tuesday we hit the beach. I don't know how anyone can get in the Pacific Ocean on the California coast without a wetsuit. That water is always cold no matter what month you go. Bear Lake is warmer that the ocean on the Cali coast and that is saying a lot. I did brave my wussiness and did get in...even though it was only for a few minutes
How I wish life was a constant vacation. I loved our endless Gelato trips, morning runs on the beach (to work off the Gelato), loved the sound and smell of the ocean, relaxing in the sun and finding awesome deals at stores. But what I loved most about our trip was being with Clayton all day and doing whatever we want, whenever we want.