Jet Ski at Ririe Reservoir

Our friends the Allens were kind enough to invite us to go jet skiing with them at Ririe Reservoir last Saturday. Turns out we live about an hour away from this giant man-made lake and we had no idea! We met up with them for a lunch and then all took turns on the jet skis. The girls loved playing in the water but weren't too keen to be on the loud machine. :) Oh well, maybe next time!

Wedding!

Our ward had some exciting events! We had three baptisms and a wedding--all within a week! It was super busy but also really fun. It was wonderful participating in the wedding and baptism of Victoria and Andrew, especially. Clark was asked to be a witness for both and we were asked to give short talks at the baptism. It was really nice to take time to prepare a talk about why these steps are so important in our lives.

California - Day Eight

Saturday morning started bright and early because we needed to make sure we got on the road with enough time to get to our hotel in Elko. However, Randi was evil and tempted me with a fresh blueberry patch somewhere "near" their home, so of course we had to load everything up and head over there first. Azucena didn't understand the concept of only picking "the blue or purple ones" and picked everything but those. Adelaide at least understood that what we were doing was tasty and ate a lot. :)

 

 The picking farm we went to even had a cute little playground, tractor, and photo op location for the little ones. As you can tell, Rowan did NOT want to share the tractor. Poor dear.

 

 Clark made sure that the hotel we got had a pool because every single other place was either closed for the season or re-filling or re-cleaning or whatever other excuses there are to have an indoor pool closed. So I enjoyed sticking my feet in the hot tub for twenty minutes while Clark played with the girls in the pool :D Hooray for vacations!

California - Day Seven

Our last Friday in California, we went to Monterey Bay to enjoy the aquarium and Ghirardelli's. We were able to be with Janette, Steve and Kyle for a bit and the Hammari family was able to come down, too. We were so happy to see them! The aquarium had some really fun exhibits, including one called "The Jellies Experience" which was pretty hilarious to be in since they played a lot of psychedelic sixties music. :)

Turns out there's a Ghirardelli location in Monterey and it was worth not getting it while we were in the city. No line, quick service, delicious ice cream. MAN I need to live closer to a location so I can spend $10 on a sundae every week. :D

California - Day Six

Janette was kind enough to take Thursday off and drive us around California a little. We headed up to Big Basin State Park (where they're about to celebrate their sesquicentennial!) to show the girls the "giant trees."

 

We also got a tour of the city of the town of Los Gatos (that's the official name with the state, yeesh) and had dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant down there (thanks again, Janette!).

California - Day Five

Our fifth day in California was fairly relaxed as far as traveling and sight-seeing goes. It was SUPER STRESSFUL as far as the fact that we were suddenly supposed to sign and fax about thirty pages of documents to continue the process of buying house. We'd been promised by everyone that even if something did come up, we wouldn't need to worry about anything time-sensitive so it was just fine that we were taking off for ten days. LIES.

Ahem. But it's all in the past now.

Wednesday I asked Clark to please let us go about and have the girls see where my grandparents lived (and, therefore, where their grandfather was raised). We visited my grandparents' grave site and left some flowers for them.

After the cemetery, we headed over to my grandparents' house. I was really scared that a lot of it would be different, and while there were obvious changes (new door, the ramp for my grandfather's wheelchair was gone, the garage door had been painted, etc.) lots of things were the same. Including the bench that sat between the front yard and the sidewalk. Since I didn't technically have permission to be there (I was too nervous to actually go up and knock and talk to the current tenants), I got the girls to quickly sit on the bench and snapped a quick photo of each so they could have pictures similar to mine from my own childhood.

Lastly, I had Clark drive up the road so we could drive by the chapel my grandfather helped to build and then Clark insisted we eat lunch at the KFC I worked at while I lived there. :) He tried the double down, which still sounds like a nasty concept. Ugh.

California - Day Four

Tuesday morning we slept in a little and then made our way into town. We went to Fisherman's Wharf first thing so we could enjoy being outside without dying. (The forecast had changed from a balmy 70 degrees to a high of the mid-90s. Ick.) The girls LOVED seeing the sea lions. I think we stood there listening to and watching them for about fifteen minutes. I even took video of them so that now that we're away, they can still hear all those crazy sea lion conversations!

 Turns out there's one of those musical staircases at Pier 39 (you know, the ones that are there to trick you into "having fun" so you'll take the stairs instead of using an escalator or elevator?) but the joke's on THEM because I had a coupon for Ben & Jerry's and we bought sundaes to counteract all the calories lost! :D (But, yes, the girls did play on those stairs for another fifteen minutes. Traitors.)

 After leaving the Pier, we headed to the Cable Car Museum (which is free) to get tickets to ride a cable car (which I've never done). Turns out it's $6/per person/each way. No matter the age. So, yeah. We didn't have $50 to just throw out of a bus window (almost literally), so we nixed that idea and trudged back to our car.

(Not pictured.) On our drive out of town, I asked Clark if we could please stop by the Books, Inc. location we'd seen on our way into town, because I needed books to make up for my lack of cable car rides. He said sure and we swung by the office we'd seen. Turned out it was just that--an office. Oops. Strike two. BUT! The nice lady at the front desk said that this happened at least a few times a month and wouldn't we step into the next office and pick up some free books for the kids since it was National Children's Book Week? And a free bag? And maybe a toy each, too? And since we were there and waiting for her to find an address for the next closest location, a free adult book, too?

YEAH.

That bookstore chain is now pretty much my favorite. :D

We found the next location and had a lot of fun looking through their selections and I found a new series that I will be getting for my kids! (We purchased Emma.)

The rest of the night was spent at my cousin's Little League (?) baseball game cheering and catching up with Janette. Oh, and trying to get a fax machine to work.

Have I mentioned we're trying to buy a house?

California - Day Three

The next stop on our California trip was Oakland and San Francisco! We were so excited to be able to visit both. Our first stop was the Oakland temple were my parents were sealed for time and all eternity over 30 years ago. The girls loved the Christus statue and looking at all the flowers on the grounds. And, true to form, they were doing construction at the temple, so the water was turned off and we had to be careful about the angles we took pictures from. :D

 After leaving the temple, we swung by M5 Industries to get a quick "we've been there!" shot. (Due to insurance reasons, you can't actually go inside or tour or interact with the good folks of Mythbusters, lol.) It was fun and I think it made Clark feel a little better about leaving home for a whole week. ;)

We then visited the Golden Gate. I love that bridge so much! Unfortunately, Azucena has never liked loud crowds so she cried almost the entire time. We have a great shot on Clark's phone of her just crying her eyes out while we're on the bridge. Oh well. Maybe next time she'll appreciate the beauty of the Golden Gate. :)

 Last but not least, we went to AT&T park for the Giants v Braves game. This was the entire reason we went on this week. Clark's favorite team growing up was the Braves. Unfortunately, his favorite player retired last year, but he still got to see some great plays--including Colvin's out-of-the-park home run at his first at-bat! Crazy!

California - Day Two

Our second day in California was Mother's Day! Clark and I took the girls to the Petaluma ward and really enjoyed the talks that were shared. Then we came back to Gwen's house where I got a quick Mother's Day picture with the girls.

Joyce and Chuck came over and we all packed up and headed to the beach to enjoy the warm weather. Funnily enough, it got reeeeeaaaaally windy while we were out so even though the sand was warm and the beaches were completely full, it was a bit chilly to be out there, so we only stayed long enough for Azucena to "touch the ocean!" and build a quick sandcastle.

 All the traveling and hanging out with family wore the girls out, so they took a nice nap while we got dinner ready. It was nice to catch up with Gwen, Joyce, and Chuck. All in all, it was a really great way to celebrate Mother's Day!

California - Day One

Our first day in California involved passing through Sacramento which, of course, meant that we needed to visit the temple there. It was beautiful! The girls loved seeing a temple and had fun walking around the grounds and admiring the fountains. The rest of the day was spent driving to Petaluma. The girls were great on the car drive!

Vacation Preview

These are just some of the exciting things we were able to do while we were away on vacation. Can't wait to share more!