We started with a visit to my mom's in San Jose where I get my long awaited dose of Korean food! We visited the Japanese Gardens there and he we are. At 73, my mom is still adventurous enough to climb a fairly steep and slick rock.
We spent one day in San Francisco. Here we are at Pier 39 in front of Alcatraz. Matt and the kids enjoyed some clam chowder in CA sourdough bread bowls while I devoured the fruit stands. I was saving my treat time for Ghiradelli chocolate and boy was it a treat or two or three . . .
I always like to visit this lefty store when I come but now I have a reason to! There are so many cool gadgets that make life for "Lefties" a little easiser.
We loved our walk around Golden Gate Park. This tree was truly beautiful. Ella reminds me of me when I was a little girl; when she sees a tree she just has to climb it.
We spent one day at Santa Cruz Beach and Board where we met my dad and nieces and nephews and rode dozens of rides. Oh, you know, we just went on dozens of rides, splashed in the ocean. The kids were bored stiff :)
We then spent a couple days at my dad's in Los Banos and spent more time in the water at a neighbor's pool. It is amazing how many wonderful people there are out there. We didn't even know these people and they invited our whole family over for a barbeque and swimming all because they wanted their little 5 year old to have some friends to play with.
I look forward to being with all the great people who have crossed my path of life if even just for a short time. The kids are loving every minute of this "California" visit Grandma and Grandpa thing.
And now for the SURPRISE!!
26 years after my baptism in 1985, my sweet mother decides to join the church. This is truly a happy moment. She has always felt something special about the church and particularly with the members. She especially felt something when she was here for Nicholas' mission farewell. Nicholas was quick to get started on his missionary work with Grandma and bore his testimony to her. She was already searching for truth and after her experiences here then having the missionaries sent to her in San Jose, she decided this was the right church.
This, of course, was the highlight. I love you, Mom!
And now for the end of our trip - Lake Tahoe . . .
Beach, water, sun - life doesn't get better than this.
Aidan spent so much time trying to touch these geese that just swam in the water with us. It was so cute to see his determination.
I absolutely love this photo of Ella. She is my little fish and monkey. She loves to swim and climb so of course when she saw this rock in the water she had to swim over to it. I caught her in this meditative pose and had to capture it.
Me and my beautiful girl.
We must have spent an hour getting this shot. Aidan spotted these squirrels near our spot on the beach and was determined to touch one but these guys were so shy regardless of the people they must have been used to being around. We got out some sunflower seeds and threw them to them. They were so darling to watch as they would hold the seed to their mouth and shell it. We were able to finally get one of them to trust Ella and have one literally eat out of her hand. She was in heaven and Aidan, well Aidan cried. He wanted to be the ONE but we weren't about to spend another hour at this point. He got over it.
Hooray for summer!!
