California

We went to the beach late on Saturday after having driven from Saint George. 

Sam wanted to be buried because he was cold. Never mind that he was also wet all over.

Karen and Verl told us when we were last at their place about a restaurant (for which we were sadly underdressed) that had good clam chowder. Adam, Anna, and Sam were dismally not excited until they found a woman's dog to borrow. 

Fast forward about 24 hours. Then we got frozen bananas and hiked around Balboa Island.  I lost my sunglasses in the canal. After hearing my quick intake of breath and the splash, they thought that it was a) a person, or b) a cell phone, both of which are less easily replaced than a pair of sunglasses, although I had only had them for around two days.

After an exciting bedtime for Anna, Adam and Dad chilled in the hotel pool.

On Wednesday, Adam refused to get wet. Or to get sandy. In fact, the only thing he really wanted to do was go to 'BP' a.k.a. batting practice. He would have been satisfied to stand outside of the gates at Angels Stadium for six hours prior to the two hours of batting practice prior to the game's beginning.

While the boys were catching balls from the likes of Mike Trout, the females explored the Crystal Cathedral. Anna was not excited until I pointed out to her that the more time we spent taking "glamour shots" the less time we had to spend at the game. There were no more complaints.

For dinner, the boys got pizza at the stadium. Anna got Taco Bell because she didn't like "fancy food" that Mom and I were eating. Not fancy exactly, but delicious.

To finish the day, we assisted in the making of a new Guinness World Record: the largest gathering of people  wearing Santa hats. We all put them on to watch the game. By the end, Sam was extended across three seats trying to fall asleep. He also was gifted a tub of popcorn larger than his head by the man in front of us on the escalator. 

June 10, 2014

Yeah it's been awhile.

Chillin' with Bonus Cousins in Saint George

Anna's Fancy Nancy Birthday Party in March

At The Swan Lake in January

Mesa Verde, CO: Spring Break

Easter Egg Hunt

(twinners)

A walk by the river with cousins

Sam's Manwich

At the Symphony

Hiking to Stewart Falls

Weeding the sandbox

Emma at Goblin Valley

Have a great summer!

August 2013

vvv

We woke up and went to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful, and kind of amazing that they could build a bridge over the "Golden Gate" since it's ridiculously deep and cold and the waters are fast.

We drove almost nine hours up the coast of California, and stopped rather briefly in Montecito for dinner. But then we got distracted by a beautiful beach-cliff thing. The funny thing about the above photo is that he doesn't know that he's standing on a big sand cave.

I walked over this. It was fun.

Right before we stopped for the night, there was a turnoff for the Chandelier Tree, which is unfortunately closed at night. But we got to see the road towards it! and also the sign with a painting of the tree!

Next morning, we ate breakfast at this inn where we were staying. I had pancakes.

We drove up the Avenue of the Giants.

It was rather exciting.

Made me feel short.

We drove all the way to Portland, getting there at 10:02, and went to sleep.

 For breakfast we got Voodoo Doughnuts because Uncle John and Aunt Crystal were kind enough to read our brains and get them for us. We had been going to go there anyways, and then they went there for us! Peanut-butter and Oreo, maple and smoked bacon, and the classic ginger-doughnut-man with red filling that you stick pretzels into. Get it? Like a voodoo doll?

 We played around the worldby Kellen's rules on their fancy Sportcourt, and then talked about Lord of the Rings while Kellen chucked flip-flops at us from the balcony.

 Then we got in the car and drove past Tacoma and into Seattle. We got stuck in some really bad traffic which you cannot see in the photo above, thank goodness.

 It was a really cool road that was all up on bridges.

 Parker and his daughter Sylvie took us to see the fish ladder, where there were some salmon going up the dam and into Lake Washington. Sadly, there were only like thirty. Parker said that there were many, many, many more in the a) middle of the day, and b) sometime closer to July fourth. Then we went to a delicious pizza place.

Road Trip 2013: Monterey, Monterey to San Francisco

The power cord for my dad's computer is broken. I really did try to post stuff, but alas.

Oh well.



We started out our day by going to Cannery Row for breakfast at this little Mexican deli place. 

Delicious hot chocolate. Although it was (as always) ridiculously hot when it arrived, and I had to wait like a HALF AN HOUR to drink it without burning my tongue off.

 Then we walked down and by the beach past this industrial wasteland kind of place, the old canning company.

 There were all these little shops.

 My dad would have bought this hand-made Turkish lamp, if it didn't cost six thousand dollars. Or something like that. Imagine my mom's face when he brought home a lamp and said, "Honey, we got you something!"
She would have been so THRILLED!!!













But we didn't. OR maybe we did. You'll just have to wait and see when we come home, mother dearest. (;

 Then we went to the aquarium. Which was big, and I wish we could have spent more time with the jellyfish, but my feet were killing me already at like noon, and our parking meter was about to run out. So we went back to this little place and got paninis within sight of where we were parked.

 There were starfish, and jellyfish, and these schools of minnows, and manta rays as big as I was, and sharks, and a sea turtle, and shrimp, and seahorses, and crabs, and sea bass four feet long. It was pretty cool.

We got into the car and drove to Carmel along the Seventeen Mile Drive which dad was really pumped about but was kind of just more beach views. We went to the Carmel mission, which really has some long Spanish name but I can't remember it.







It was gorgeous.

We ate dinner at this Mexican fast food place that wasn't Taco Bell, and there were lots of these evil-looking blackbirds around. They kept trying to steal our food.
Dad set out a plate for them, on the banister, and it fell. He did it again, and it fell again. So he put the plate on the ground and watched the evil birds fight over it. I told him that they were scary looking and next they would try to eat him like in that one Hitchcock movie, but he didn't believe me.

 We headed up to the Tickle Pink Inn, where they give you little chocolates just for coming and fold your toilet paper fancy.

We watched Skyfall and drank Martinelli's.

The view out the window was lovely. My dad spent about half an hour peering through the complimentary binoculars not at the dolphins and seals but into the richie-rich people's houses on the other side of the inlet.
I think that he wanted to watch a baseball game or something.

 Next day we woke up and went to the beach at Carmel. Sadly, it was freezing (you can't tell from the picture, but it was indeed) and you aren't supposed to actually swim in the water. Just look at it or something.
But there were really pretty sand dunes.








Then we started our drive up to San Francisco. It was long and very curvy.

 Once we arrived, we barely made it to Coit Tower before it closed, and then drove all the way up that street that you can see in the picture to a famous curvy road.

It was a rather ridiculous road.
Why would you build a road like that? It zig-zagged tightly between these people's backyards, and there were lots of German and Chinese people taking photos.









 We didn't get to see much of San Francisco, but what we did see was beautiful.