SAND IN EVERY ORIFICE IS FUN...

I had to ask my husband how to spell orifice. He assures me that I spelled it correctly, and if he, who spends hours each day over others orifices, doesn't know how to spell it then I don't know who does... Anywho....

So we just returned from our "Ashby Family Summer Vacation" or in other words "Stacy and Todd's Excellent Adventure" or in other words "A Road Trip from Hell and Back Again" (jokes).

We left on July 11th and returned triumphant on July 18th (one day earlier than planned... don't ask).

We drove the first day to St. George and stayed with our fabulous family friends, Joann and Carl. We thoroughly enjoyed their pool and the wonderful company. Here is the family playing in the water.

The pool was quite an adventure for the little ones. They decided they wanted to cliff jump off the decorative rocks at the deep end. Both Luke and Sadie jumped off approximately 6 feet. They have started their BASE jumping hobby already. Actually, it started about a year ago when Todd made them jump off top of the fridge.

Yes, that is my precious baby boy Luke jumping off a slippery rock into the deep cold waters. Note the smile on his face.

This is Ms Sadie Grace. This is an intermediate jump. I didn't get a picture of her doing the expert jump because I was too freaked out. I had to be in the water with Todd, just in case he happened to miss her and I had to step in and save her.

So after an evening of swimming and cliff jumping we were all tuckered out so we crashed on the floor at Joanne's. This is what that looked like at 6:00 a.m. the next morning.

Luke slipping in the playpen. He insisted.

Yes, bright and early we were on the road again. We made several stops along the way, one in Primm, Nevada. We got there at about 9:00 a.m. and were saddened to see that the roller coaster didn't open until 10:00 a.m. So I snapped a photo of the kids in the parking lot and away we went...

We realized very early on that this would be an expensive trip. We averaged 7-8 miles to the gallon!! We were towing our trailer and that just did us in. We probably could have taken the entire family to Europe, first-class, for the same money it cost to fill our tank 64 times on this trip. Oh well...

We got to San Onofre at 2:45 p.m. This is a beautiful State Beach about 30 miles south of Los Angeles. We camped at San Mateo Campground, which was about 1 mile from the beach. I know, camping and going to the beach.. sounds like a lot of work...yes, you are correct. Alot of work and alot of sand/dirt in the aforementioned orifices. We did have showers, however, they were pay showers which means you insert a quarter and hurriedly wet you hair, shampoo and then before you have time to rinse your hair, it shuts off and you must enter another quarter which will get you through conditioner and 1/2 way through shaving one armpit. So a dollar later you are somewhat clean , but entirely frustrated.

Between showers for 6 people every night and fill ups, we spent approximately 6000 dollars.

Good thing I am super chill.

I will continue the narrative of our trip after a few cocktails..