California Dreamin'

All the streets are brown and the skies are gray, California dreamin' on a winter's day....

I found myself humming this song as I shoveled snow this morning. Amidst the peace of the slowly falling flakes and the quiet of the out of doors I could hear my kids fighting inside. Perhaps screaming is a better word than fighting. No, maybe it was more of a wail.... Anyway,

Suffice it to say that after a week and a half of family time we are, quite frankly, sick of each other.

I know that it's Christmas. I know that I should be grateful that we are together and healthy.

I'm not.

 I have a paper chain in my bedroom that is counting the days until the kids go back to school. Seriously.

I quickly realized that if I didn't get us out of the house today we had a very high probability of ending up on the 5 o'clock news.

"Housewife and mother of six goes crazy and strangles children with a strand of Christmas lights..story at 5"

We took refuge at the West Valley Fitness Center where for a couple of hours we found freedom from our winter parkas and snow boots and my California dream became a reality.

 

We climbed the face of the famous  

San Gabriel Mountains.

 

We were street performers on the

 Santa Monica Pier.

 

 

We reveled in the excitement of rafting on the

 Kern River.

 

 

 

We dipped our toes (and the rest of us) in the

 Pacific Ocean.

 

 

We shopped on

 Rodeo Drive.

 

A three hour vacation. A time to get away and forget daily life. It was just what we needed.