California Dreamin'

I guess I never did say anything about spring break, so here it goes... Ben finished up with finals Feb. 24th (Wednesday), so we hit the road Thursday morning... I guess I'll just give the run down (since this dubs as the only way I can seem to keep a journal of events!

Thursday Feb. 25th- Bye Bye Valley of the Sun! Ben hadn't left Phoenix since Thanksgiving! That is so nuts! We are not homebodies, so that was a huge stretch for him going so long beating down the same path, back and forth on Union Hills, the 101 and back. Sometimes switching it up on Bell, but that's about it! I think he went to the Airport and the Temple a couple times and that pretty much sums up THREE MONTHS of his life! So, you have never met anyone so excited to take the drive between Phoenix and LA! This day of driving took us all the way to Bakersfield, CA where I got a sweet deal on a hotel at the Marriot. We LOVED exploring a new part of the country! California is beautiful, if but broke. At least she'll always have her good looks! Anyway, I have to tell a funny story... We decided to pack a lunch for Thurs (just call me thrifty... we took lots of packed breakfast/lunch options...) Anyway, we didn't know where we'd end up at that time, so as we were traveling along the desert we FINALLY found a town called Blythe, CA (right across the border from AZ). It is an armpit! Seriously. I thought Rawlins was an armpit. This is 100 times worse (no offense if you are from here, but you know it is)! In fact, I mentioned to Ben that I thought Rawlins was about the top of my list and right then, we actually saw a car from Rawlins! What are the odds:) Anyway, Rawlins, you are a beautiful gem comparatively speaking:)
    Ok, so we stopped at Blythe to eat lunch. I used the GPS to find a city park (what a feature)! It was not far off the interstate, so we plugged right through and ended up across the street from this 6 ft. cinderblock fence with barbed wire curled around the top... I thought, what kind of place is this... Turns out, it was the city pool! Wow. So, the park itself consisted of two broken picnic tables with marijuana drawings all over it, a lawn of partial grass, mostly dirt with cigarette butts everywhere, two dead trees, and 3, yep 3, old rusted out swings. Awesome. I decided there was no way we could actually get out and feed those dearest to me in this little hole. Unfortunately, a 3 year old ruled that day and INSISTED on eating on a broken picnic table! It was even more ghetto than words can describe, but we were together and Ben didn't have to run off to study, so turns out, it was wonderful:) and short lived. We ate quickly and got back on the road!
    The rest of the day was spent pretty much in the car and at another park outside of Pasadena, CA. The boys were SO GOOD in the car! I have some great little travelers so far!

Friday Feb. 26th- We drove to visit my favorite chickee mama in the bay area and her beautiful baby boy outside of San Francisco. I'm telling you there are some parts of the world that just speak to my soul (I just don't know how else to say it...) Anyway, this is one of those places. Maybe it's the agriculture, maybe it's the farmers, maybe the lush green-ness or the mountains in the background. Maybe it's just all of it or the fact that we got to see it for the first time as a family, but it was beautiful to me. I loved the almond groves, walnut groves, apple orchards, vineyards, etc. Gorg! I could live here... in our friend's back yard to be exact:)

    We had a wonderful visit with my mommy friend. I love how there are people like that in my life that we can just pick up like I live across the street and see her everyday. I know if we ever had the chance to live close by again, we'd be best friends. I'd watch her kid all the time and we would barbeque in the back yard while our kids played... something like that. Anyway, it brought such comfort to my soul. I love it!

     After leaving our friends' house, we traveled up a canal on an old scenic byway that is actually on top of the levy to Sacramento. It was BEAUTIFUL! The bay/canal was on one side and walnut groves with old plantation-like houses on the other. There were cute little towns with cute little storefronts not yet monopolized and turned into baby gaps, but little antique shops and old mom and pop bars... cute. I could go back there and spend some time too. We met Andy, and later Amber, and just caught up. It was great!
                                                                                                                   Along the Levy
Saturday February 27th- Andy and Amber had to work today for a bit, so we took the opportunity to do some touring on our own. We went to Old Town Sac, bought up some blue diamond almonds (my new favorite flavor is cinnamon brown sugar- just a light dusting, not too carb-y). We went to some cool parks, and walked along the river downtown and across the famous golden bridge. It was great. Sac is very pretty. It was really fun to watch Ike, Zach and Andy interact too. I know Ike misses Andy like crazy (I think Andy might miss them too)! I have to admit, it was also nice to get to know Amber better. I feel like we didn't really spend much time with her until this week. She is really great, and so good to our kiddos! Oh, also, Ike is still afraid of dogs... even a little pug named Maddie. He is trying really hard, but got very nervous with her coming around sniffing in his business:) By the end of our trip, they were on *better* terms:)

Sunday February 28th- Went to church bright and early (compared to our usual 11am start time). It was great. I always like visiting other wards and knowing that really, it's always pretty much the same... except in English, Indiana... but that's a different story:) Anyway, afterwards, Amber and Andy took us to Amber's favorite hangout as a child... Fairytale Town. It is this great park with park features themed to different fairytales and kid's stories like the old woman who lived in a shoe, winnie the pooh 100 acre woods, jack in the beanstalk (or asparagus... Ike was sure it looked like asparagus!) Anyway, it was really fun and a beautiful day outside! We drove out to the new temple overlooking Sacramento. It was beautiful! That evening we met some of Amber's family and played games. I loved it!

Monday March 1st- Big Day! We went to San Francisco for a bit today. We stopped at the jelly belly factory on the way and had an awesome time taking the tour and taste testing new jelly beans. Andy had Ike try one called "baby wipes" which he actually didn't mind... weird kid! Andy tried "skunk spray" and Amber tried "dog food." They were really really bad! Ben and I liked the "chile mango" and highly recommend it!

In San Fran, we did lots of touristy things (my first trip there). We went to pier 39 for lunch and entertainment, saw cool street performers, walked along the warf, walked up and down lombard st. (the steep switchback street that I want to live on), sang "Everywhere you look, everywhere you look there's a heart a hand to hold on to... Everywhere you look, everywhere you look..." with Amber and Andy and tried to find the Full House house... Then we drove through town to the Golden Gate Bridge, took pics and made a big loop back to Sac. That's a really condensed version, but it was really a great day. Even if it was the coldest I have been since living in Phoenix! What a beautiful area! We finished off the day with a trip to the bowling alley for Ike's first bowling trip and Amber's best game ever (I think 200)! 

Tuesday March 2nd- we started our descent, but only went back to Bakersfield. It was really sad to leave A and A (and M), someday maybe we'll all live closer... I found this weekend that we have way more in common than we could've guessed. I would feel privileged to have AAand M closer! I'll keep dreaming:) Anyway, we got an even more posh room for the same price. Note to self- this is a cheap city to stay in! We really took our time driving through the San Juaquin valley stopping at farmers shops and the cutest gas station, weird funny farm petting zoo, cheese factory ever! Ike could've played in the giant treehouse forever, it was so cool! You MUST stop there if you are ever driving through:) We also stopped at the Raisin Capital of the World and took pics at the Sunmaid raisin place. We were really excited about food on this trip, if you couldn't tell.

Wednesday March 3rd- Drove the rest of the way to Phoenix. It was a little depressing to leave an area that "spoke to me" so much:) I guess I will have to love it from the desert for awhile! We did stop in Joshua Tree National Park to do some hiking and driving. What a beautiful desert! I guess I can love both. It is a cool place to stop, if you ever find yourself in the middle of the desert needing something to do... 

Cholla Garden- Joshua Tree NP- we couldn't believe how tall these chollas were! It was a cool little hike and a great reason to stop and get out of the car!

If you read all of this, you deserve a prize! I doubt anyone in my own family would even read all of that! It was a great trip and a great time to be together as a family. I am so enjoying this phase of our lives because even though we are working really really hard, we get a chance to really focus on each other too. Life is so good.