A Visit with Dawn and Ed in Yuba City

This summer the Hastings family finally cashed in on Mamo and Pod's silent-auction purchase of a week at the Salinas ranch of their good friends, the Barlockers. Jim and I decided to take the girls all the way up to Yuba City to spend a couple days with Dawn and Ed before the Salinas reunion.

I went to work in L.A. on Wednesday, July 26. Jim worked a half day and then loaded the girls into Big Blue and came up to get me. The plan was for him to bring the girls up to my office, but things weren't going well on the road. They'd been stuck in nightmare traffic that at least doubled the drive time, and girls were melting down. Ever thought she'd gotten something stuck up her nose and was freaking out. Jim texted and told me to meet them out front. Ever was fine by the time I joined them. (False alarm, apparently.) We changed diapers and hit the road, feeding the girls in the car. It was not easy, but we finally made it to the hotel in Santa Maria that Jim had booked for the night. The girls didn't get to sleep until after midnight, thus beginning the severe sleep deprivation.

We had breakfast at the hotel Thursday morning.

Twice that morning, Wren locked the bathroom door and then exited the bathroom and closed the door. We had to call the front desk and have somebody unlock our bathroom door twice within about an hour. Rascal.

We took the girls to Hearst Castle and did the recommended tour, which includes the dining room and movie theater. (They charge a lot of money for tours that cover a very small portion of the place.) I realized too late that Ever probably would have enjoyed a different tour that included some fancy bedrooms more than the one we did. Oh, well. On the bus up the hill:

In the dining room, the girls spontaneously became incredibly affectionate. 

It was probably the cutest thing anyone's ever seen. There was lots of patting and stroking. Jim got a little video.

We desperately wanted to swim in the luxurious indoor pool and discussed how much money we'd pay for the right to do so.

After the tour, we got ice cream treats at the visitors center.

They look happy in the above pic, but I think a fight broke out and people got in trouble shortly after that. 

Jim booked a guest house in Sacramento on Airbnb for that night. Even with Hearst Castle's being our only stop, we didn't get to the guest house until super late. We wished we'd been able to use the pool and enjoy the place. But alas, it was another midnight night.

We detoured for a bagel place Friday morning and then drove to Dawn and Ed's in Yuba City. Ed had taken the day off for us, and we didn't get there until close to the time he would have gotten off work. We felt terrible about that. We decided that afternoon would be the best time to go to Bridgeport. We'd forgotten to bring Wren's floaty, and Jim wanted to stop at Walmart to buy floaties for her and Tiny. I was worried about the time and didn't really remember what a giant swimming pool the place is, so I voted we forego floaties and hurry to Bridgeport. Man, was that a bad decision. The littles would have loved floating around by themselves in there. As it was, two of us had to hold a baby at all times. Wren thinks she can swim and wanted to jump and swim around on her own. Jim was still in his boot for the Achilles tear. He took it off to get in the water but couldn't walk at all without it on, so he couldn't really hold a kid in the water. It was tough times. 

It took her a while to muster the courage, but Ever jumped off one of the big rocks a couple of times. Mid-air (look closely):

Jim, Tiny, Ed, and Dawn relaxing:

Wrenny didn't want to be held. I held her hand and let her play around in the shallow part, but I had to keep reining her in lest she drown.

She was so tired.

Saturday morning Ed had doughnuts for us when we awoke. We rafted down the Yuba River that day. Dawn and Ed had to do some scouting to find a safe place for us to raft with the littles. We hung out on the beach while Dawn and Ed dropped a car downriver.

For most of the trip, Dawn and Ed had Ever in their raft, and Jim and I took the babies. Tyna's giant vest immobilized her, which was good, but she seemed uncomfortable and very unhappy most of the time. The river was lovely and very cold. I jumped out to swim a couple times but didn't stay in long. 

I tried to keep Tiny happy with snacks.

Dawn and Ever rode briefly on an inner tube, but they had a hard time getting comfortable.

We weren't exactly sure where the take-out spot was. The signage wasn't very clear. Jim and I were ahead of Dawn and Ed, so we had problems. We never really saw where we were supposed to get out, but we saw Dawn and Ed stop behind us and knew we'd passed it. We tried frantically to get out. I was holding Tiny. Jim tried to hop out and stop the boat, but he couldn't walk since he was missing an Achilles. It was especially bad on the rocky bottom. So I left Tiny in the boat and got out to try to pull it ashore. A group of middle Eastern men called out to us from shore, "Do you need help?" Jim answered something like, "Yeah, maybe." The guys ran down by the shore and out into the water to help us. They hauled the boat in, and Jim crawled on his hands and knees over the rocky bottom to shore, where he then sat and put on his boot. We were pretty pathetic. The men were so nice. They even pulled our boat up the steep cliff by where we got out. 

Ever really wanted to get all the way in the water, but she was scared of the cold. While others were dealing with boats and cars, she tricked Dawn into dunking herself by saying she'd do it, too, but she chickened out. Ed, Dawn, and I went down to the water with her for one last chance to dunk before we left. She wanted to so badly but was so scared. She kept balking. Ed gave up and headed back to the car. I finally got her in baptism-by-immersion style in the nick of time. She was proud and happy that she did it, and so was I. I told her about how, for the longest time, I wanted to dive from the pilings in the Kawaihae Harbor but couldn't get up the courage and would cry because I'd get so frustrated with myself. I was so happy when I finally did it. There's nothing like the pride and satisfaction that come with overcoming those little mental blocks.

All in all, it was a successful rafting trip. 

Ed made us a feast for dinner that night that included fish he'd caught. Sunday morning he made us biscuits and gravy and other yummies, and then we all went to church together at Dawn and Ed's church. We said goodbye there and headed to Salinas. 

Dawn and Ed were such generous and kind hosts. Ever was so excited about spending time with them. Dawn had spent a day with us in June when she was on her way back from her mission trip to Mexico, and they had started reading a book together then. (It was a book Jim's dad had sent us that used to be a favorite of Dawn's.) Ever refused to let us finish it with her, instead taking it up to Yuba City with us so Dawn could read it to her when we visited. It was very cute. We'll have to get back up there again soon.