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California here we come!!!!!

As promised we have been busy busy! We finished off July with a trip up to Cheyenne to visit the Fournier's and Cheyenne Frontier Days. Becky Cody and I had a great time going to see Darius Rucker in concert, no fainting for me this time (unlike my last CFD concert of Taylor Swift when I was pregnant and I did pass out) and then we all had a great time at the pancake breakfast. Luckily, Shyler did not drop her pancakes, unlike last year and Adam and Finn got to indulge on some as well! All in all it was a great time! A tradition to continue for many more years, especially since it's been 4 already!!!

Watching Kevin Costner and Modern West getting ready for Darius Rucker! FYI He is really good in concert and does little dance moves while he's singing, a little hip swinging and such.

Shyler loving her pancakes, she ate 2 big ones!

Adam also ate 2 big ones!

Let the real vacation begin...

Last week we returned home from a 6 day trip to the Central California coast. It was another great time! We spent a lot of time with my brother and his kids and enjoyed the cool coastal weather. Tim and I especially enjoyed a weekend getaway to Santa Barbara to celebrate our anniversary! (See other post)

Adam got to sit with me and Nana for the flight and was so good! He just fell asleep before we even took off! Tim did a great job running them around before our flight. He slept for the first hour and then enjoyed watching the drink cart and the yummy cookie cart for another chunk then played nicely. Shyer didn't behave as well, but was still pretty good. She enjoyed her daddy time as they sat 2 rows behind us and read some of her new books daddy bought her and of course enjoyed the ipad!

Once we were in CA our first stop was IN-n-Out. Some may not understand our family obsession with a hamburger, but we love them! My mom has had 6 double doubles since our trip to Nevada and CA! They just taste so good! Plus we can't have them so we have to indulge when we can because we never know when the next time will be. Plus if you are gonna eat fast food, why not something so delicious! Plus the strawberry shakes are so good. I think I might have to start getting Shyler her own, she drank half of mine!!!

Then it was play time! We spent a couple days just playing around with the cousins. We played with blocks waiting for the marine layer to burn off...

...we played at the park

...we had a picnic, and we had fun! My brother's oldest daughter was also there and we had fun seeing her for the first time in a long time! It was fun playing and if you notice they are wearing plants and long sleeves... yes it is California and yes it is the middle of August, but something I forgot and had a hard time believing was how the temp stays the same all year. By the end of our trip it got up into the mid-70's and it was hot for there!

We spent one morning driving up the coast. We decided to visit Morro Bay. It was a cute little town on the coast with lots of boats in the harbor and of course a chilly beach.

There is a random huge rock right on the coast

Shyler was so excited to build a sand castle on the beach but first Tim tried to convince her to get her feet a little wet. She's like her mom and not a fan of things that make her cold, so she didn't get in too much and preferred to play in the sand and try to build a castle.

Adam started out very cautious of the giant mass of water rolling in and out of the beach, but after a little convincing he went in with Tim and LOVED it!!! His poor little toes were so red but he didn't even care! Luckily I was smart enough to bring a change of clothes for both of them!

The main event!

So the real reason for a trip to CA was to congratulate and support my brother on his 21 years he served our US military in the Air Force. I am so proud of him and all of the work he has done and the sacrifices he has made. I am thankful also to my sister-in-law who supports him as well in this part of his life. They both have given so much to serve our country and I can't even comprehend all that they have done and that every military member does do each and every day for us. I was so sad Steph couldn't be there, but she was busy sacrificing for our country halfway across the world. Thank you!!!

Matt was presented with a shadow box that he designed. It was also so sweet to see him give each of his 3 children a set of his dog tags as he hung them up for good.

My mom got the girls matching shirts and my Aunt got crowns for them to wear too! Of course the only way to get the 5 of them to sit still was to turn on the tv... and I still didn't get a good one of them all.

Before Tim and I left for our weekend we went to an event on base called, "Touch a Truck". Hearing the name, it sounded so weird to me, but it was really cool. The kids were invited to come and see an assortment of cars, trucks, rescue vehicles and heavy machinery. They got to climb inside and check them out.

Taylor enjoying the jet ski

Shyler and Jordan modeling the fire truck for us

Adam trying to stop the bulldozer

While we were gone the kids got to enjoy the beach one more time with their cousins. I think the attempt may have been a little better because Matt was there with the magic word, 1-2-3... Boogers!

We also went swimming and I enjoyed being in the water more than out because it was surprisingly warmer in there... then I ran home as fast as I could to get warm, because I tried to shower off but the water was not warm... Have I mentioned how I don't like to be cold?

The flight home was pretty good and I got to try to entertain for almost the whole flight. The flight attendant was brilliant though and handed me a stack of cups to give him and that was very helpful. The chocolate chip cookie was of course a nice treat again as well. Then after I kept him busy for the whole flight he sat on my mom's lap to look out the window during our landing and... fell asleep!!!!

We are back home and trying hard to re-adjust to life at home and all of its craziness. Adam has been having a hard time, but tonight he finally put himself to sleep. Much better than Wednesday night when he screamed for an hour and a half and never wanted me to put him down. Yikes that was hard!!! But, we are doing alright now. My sister has been staying here and got a job so it has been nice to have the extra help and another adult to talk to! I'm not sure how long she'll be around, but I will keep enjoying having a babysitter on hand and someone to talk to while it lasts :-)

Before our trip to California we booked the days we would be going to Ohio. I tried hard not to plan that trip before I planned and enjoyed our California trip, but while my brother was driving us to the airport Tim and I started planning. We are super excited to get to see Niagara Falls and some historical sites for our church! It will be another great vacation. I hope it won't be too early in the season to see some of the fall leaves. I also really have to enjoy this one since I have been told we are going to try not to travel for at least a year or more... That's a good idea, but it's just so fun!! We still might take a road trip somewhere ;-)

A weekend away!

Our weekend in Santa Barbara was amazing and so relaxing. It included walking... a lot, relaxing, eating and just enjoying some quality time together! We walked up and down the beach, the harbor and the pier. We also borrowed bikes from our hotel and rode up to the Mission. Sort of a funny story with that... The lady checking the bikes out to us looked at me like we were crazy for wanting to bike the 3 miles to the mission. It was mostly an uphill ride but for 2/3 of it we rode our beach cruisers like normal and then had to stand up to push ourselves the rest of the way. Mostly I wanted to prove the lady wrong so I was determined to make it feel like no big deal, even when we arrived a little sweaty... The ride home wasn't too bad considering it was all downhill, it was only slightly scary having only the brakes be pushing the pedals back, so we rode slow even though it was downhill. Overall it wasn't that hard of a thing to do and was fun! Mostly it makes me laugh at how crazy she thought I was for wanting to bike instead of hop on the freeway and drive... silly. But another funny detail is that I seriously almost fell off the bike when I first got on. It was hard getting used to the positioning. Lucky for Tim those are the bikes he gets to ride around his plant when he needs to go check stuff out so he was a pro.

There are so many boats in the harbor

Enjoying the beautiful flower garden outside of the mission. And wishing I had a camera that would let me manually focus on what I want!

Our super cool cruiser bikes! They even matched!

The mission. This fountain was built as part of the original mission in 1808. The mission has had to be re built a couple times for various reasons such as good old California earthquakes.

Some of the "few"palm trees. They were everywhere! Such an interesting tree. How do they not blow over?

I found it so crazy that you could drive onto the pier and eat at one of the many restaurants. I guess I haven't been on too many big piers. But this person, driving their super cool Tesla, knew! Tim was pretty excited to see such a cool car and didn't feel so dumb having me snap a picture because we weren't the only ones! I didn't know this, but this is one of the first and maybe only fully electric sports cars. It is made in California and there are a limited number and as you can guess is pretty pricey.

Loving life!!!

The pier is pretty long and has a great view of the beach. You can see the restaurant we ate at just behind the flagpole with my friend Brittany from high school. She is such a great friend, we don't see each other much, but I know that she is there and I can always count on her!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!

We enjoyed our first night in Santa Barbara celebrating our anniversary. We picked this small Italian restaurant on State Street, the big popular street with everything on it. We also walked up and down and looked at all of the fun shops, and once we knew that there was a yogurtland we made sure we saved room for dessert!!!

I LOVE YOU TIM!!!!

Thanks for being my best friend, husband and the father of my children! I am so lucky to have you for eternity!!!