Vacation Extended

We brought our niece McKyla home with us from Idaho after our trip, and we spent the next week galavanting about central California with her, so it really didn't feel like our vacation had truly ended.We took a day trip to San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay. San Luis is a really chic town that I'd love to go back and explore without toting kids around. This picture, however, is in front of the really disgusting "gum wall" there. Just an entire alley decoratedly stuffed with people's chewing gum. The photo doesn't do the gross-ness of it justice.Nora's addition.
The rest of the day was spent exploring the beach, because our 11-year-old niece had NEVER BEEN TO THE BEACH BEFORE. Outrageous! She loved it and especially had fun collecting seashells.






We ended the day with a stop on the boardwalk for some traditional fish and chips. Our children were by far the noisiest thing in that restaurant, but at least they were happy.

Later on in the week, we headed to Sequoia National Park/Forest?, home of the giant sequoia trees. We had actually never been though, so McKyla's visit gave us a great excuse to check it out. The trees were pretty amazing and it was nice to do a little hiking.






So now vacation is officially over and its back to normal, whatever that means!

July Vacation

We took a two week vacation in July to get out of the Visalia heat and visit some of our loved ones. We did a enormous amount of driving but it was worth it to hang out with all the family. We started by heading over to Denver, with pit stops in Las Vegas and Loa, Utah (thanks for the visit, Grammy and Grandpa!). We had a blast spending a few days with Stepharter and their kids. Nora and Reese got a long SO well this time and I would love for them to be able to play more often.
Emery and Ike actually did pretty well together too, with Emery teaching her little cuz how to crawl.

We arrived on Nora's 3rd birthday and Steph had decorated her place with balloons and streamers in her honor, as well as baked really cool cupcake ice cream cones. (Thanks Steph - that was awesome!)


The view from Steph and Carter's backyard. Fantastic! We LOVED the cool summer weather there. Even the summer showers were a welcome change to our heat waves at home.

Steph and Carter also very graciously offered to babysit our munchkins while we explored downtown Denver together. This larger-than-life cleaning sculpture is in front of the museum of art. Although I still need to visit CO in the snowy months to be sure, we have pretty much decided that the Denver area will probably be our "settling place" in a few years. We've already got Steph there, Bri is almost certain to come back there with he CO native hubby, and if we move there, Mom and Dad may eventually follow. We'll have the majority there, so that means that's where they'll want to be, right? :) We'll see how it all works out.




After Denver, we headed for Branden's parents' home in Smithfield, Utah. Nora got to spend a week with her cousin Audrey who was visiting from New York.


We took a quick side trip to visit my sister Briana and have dinner at Gandolfo's with her cute family.

We ended the week with a birthday celebration at Grandma's with a majority of the Utah/Idaho clan joining us.
Ike with his great-Grandma Nelson. I think she is 94 this year.

Throughout our vacation of endless driving and assorted and many stresses, my husband was a champ. I love him like crazy and I am so glad he's mine forever!