California 2012

Long time, no see??

It sure feels like it.

Anyways. I have a good excuse. My family and I have been in California the last two weeks... it's something that we do every year. Both of my parents grew up in California, so we go stay with my aunts and grandparents in Los Banos every year so that they can get an adequate dose of nostalgia... :)

Prepare yourself for lots (and lots) of pictures...

Our trip started out celebrating a birthday. Isaac is 2 years old!!

San Francisco skyline

We have our traditions... actually for years we pretty much did the same activities every year we went out there... we go to Monterey, Carmel, Santa Cruz, The Island waterpark... but we have started branching out more. I've been to CA many, many times... but had never been to San Francisco... so it was really fun to go see it this year. 

I looooove the architecture and the uniqueness of all the buildings... soooo cool.

Golden Gate Park

This really cool looking flower observatory place... just so happens they are closed Mondays... and of course, we were there on a Monday.

Probably the first ever carousel ride for this little kid...

 I think the sign said that this was the location of the first children's playground in America... hmmm...

My dad claims that everyone who comes to San Francisco must get a picture of the above houses with the skyline behind it... (what I wouldn't give to live in one of those... I like the yellow one in the middle...)

The most we could ever see of the bridge. Lame, right? It wasn't even foggy anywhere else. Just there. 

Next year, I guess!

We are easily entertained.

Lombard Street... "The Crookedest Street in the World" apparently... Those poor people in the above picture rode down it on Segways... 

Ghirardelli Square...

Hard to tell in the picture... but Biggest. Ice. Cream. Ever.

We devoured it in probably 2 minutes...

China Town was probably my favorite. It was cool to see everything written in Chinese... (plus everything is really cheap in their souvenir shops... yay!)

We picked up dresses and slippers for both of the girls for like... $18 total. Sweet.

SF Giants game... they barely lost in the 10th inning. Bummer.

To say that Isaac had fun would be a huge understatement.

Zach got pooped on by a seagull. lol.

Notice the rag on Zach's head... I think he got a little paranoid after that...

My dad and I toured Stanford University... (haha. someday maybe...)

the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk...

We've been on this ride over and over again... and this is what our faces look like Every. Year.

I didn't go on this ride. I would've puked.

We always go get Marianne's ice cream after...

Monterey. If I become a multi-millionaire someday... I'm moving here. It has been my favorite vacation spot since I was five.

Our favorite lunch spot... every year we ask for a window seat...

I love shopping. So naturally, I love Cannery Row.

Souvenir shops galore.

Carmel Beach. Did you know that Doris Day lives in Carmel? I wanna go see her house really really bad. But I don't know if anyone really knows exactly where she lives...

We went to the Oakland Temple on my parent's anniversary. 

The temple they were married in... on the day they were married.

Cool, right?

(I had never been there before...)

We went to Fenton's after the temple... more huge ice cream.

All of the above pictures were from the first week... my dad only stayed out for a week and then flew back home so that he could work. The second week we went to another beach, but since my dad's phone was our main camera... we didn't get any pictures. (I found FIVE whole, perfect sand dollars!!)

Anyways. The second week we mostly hung out at my grandma's house and visited with our aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Give him the iPad and he will be content for hours...

"I do not like the cone of shame."

(name that movie)

The awful, long drive home... (blech. 14 hours.)

Anyways... we had lots of fun but I am really happy to be home. Where has you and your family gone over the summer?

Oh... and back to my regular blogging schedule now! No more two week breaks! 

haha. yeah.

Until next time...

i'm an olympics junkie.

Greetings from California!

Haven't seen (you know what I mean) you people in a while!

I've been busy, busy, busy around here... and I'm mentally preparing myself to write a very long post with lots of pictures when I get back.

But for now, let's talk Team USA.

I'm a huge Olympics fan. My whole family is. I remember times as a little kid when we would buy a Marie Callender's pie and sit on a blanket in the family room and watch the Olympics while enjoying good ol' Chocolate Satin.
And I got to stay up almost as late as New Year's. haha.

It's kind of a bummer that we ended up going to California the exact two weeks as the Olympics... but I've still been able to tune in pretty often.

I have to say that at first I was like, "huh??" while watching the Opening Ceremonies... but it came together nicely and ended up being really cool.

Anyways. My little sister is big into gymnastics. She pretty much dedicates her whole life to it, actually, so we were pretty excited to watch the women's team compete. We've known for a while that they were supposed to be really good this year... and holy crap are they ever.

We freaked when they won gold as a team. That hasn't happened since 1996, you know.

Oh. and I like swimming. Of course, I always root for the Americans, but I was super happy when that Le Clos guy from South Africa beat Michael Phelps yesterday. It was his first Olympics and probably his first gold. But the best was his dad. He was so proud... the cameras showed him crying in the stands... and he used the flag he was holding to wipe his tears. It was cute.

Apparently that was the first major race Michael Phelps has lost in ten years... he's now officially the greatest Olympian of all time... and I'm a fan of his and all... but it's fun when some other kids get the gold for a change... :) haha.

But yeah. I liked watching the kayaking, too. (It seems to be a pretty hectic sport!)

Are any of you Olympics fans? What do you like watching?
See you soon...