Our California Vacation

Sorry it has taken so long to post this.  I just can't seem to find the time to blog as much any more.  I had planned on doing several post because there are lots of pictures and things that we did but I'm just not sure when I will get it done so I am going to do one long post. Warning!

We went to California for about 10 days.  It was our first vacation in a long time and I have to say that I was not looking forward to it.  Most the time when we go anywhere with the kids it is very busy and exhausting so the thought of taking a 12 hour drive with the little ones did not sound like a vacation.

If you saw my post on packing Here, you will see that it really help make the start of this vacation a great one.

One thing that always helps when going away is making sure I come home to a clean house!  Does anyone else do that?

My house was so clean I had to take pictures!

Here are our pictures in the car....The kids did an amazing job in the car!

I was bored...

The kids only took one nap the entire way down and it was right before we pulled into Sacramento.  I think they slept maybe a half hour.

We stayed with some very special friends of ours for a few days in Sacramento!  We are so grateful for our friendship with them and so thankful for the time that we had.  It was nice to be able to stay with them and all the kids played so well together. 

 Relaxing on the Hammock!  Really thinking we should get one of these if we had a bigger backyard.

Our two views from the hammock.  These beautiful trees and this chunky cheek girl!

If you are ever in Sacramento you must try a Squeeze Burger!  They are amazing!  Our friend Ken is the owner of this truck and travels around Sacrmento.  They also have several store locations as well.

The reason that this burger is so famous is the cheese skirt!  It's totally not healthy but definitely worth the calories.

 Eva and Kaden!  She followed him around the whole time.

Here are our friends the Bourquins! We love this family!

Next stop....San Jose. My grandparents live there as well as extended family on my dad's side of the family.

This is who my little man gets his dimples from. They had so much fun together.

 The kids loved the back yard and going through and picking all my grandparents fruits!  It was so fun to see them play where we once played when we were little.

 We took the kids to the park to burn some energy and the kids loved this slide. I've never seen them laugh so hard.

This video is so funny!  

  

Little Selah with her Great Grandparents!

The next day we decided to head to Santa Cruz!  Another favorite place of mine when we would go to San Jose when I was little.

All ready to head to the beach!

My mini Tom Cruise

This is the best family picture that we could get with the kids.  They were so distracted with the sand.

My little boy decided to go potty, so he just pulled his pants down and went!

We only went for a few hours and had a great time!  I do wish it was a little more sunny that day but it was not to bad.

At the end of the day we headed over to my cousins house to finally meet her new little girl Quinn!  She is so adorable.

My cousins Melissa and Whitney

A picture with my Aunt Nancy too.

Second cousins together

Eva was not sure what to think about Quinn!

The next day we headed back to Sacramento and stayed at the Residence Inn!  I have to say that it was a great place to stay. We were able to get two rooms  and with a kitchen and living area.  The rooms had recently been update and were really nice.  

It was not super expensive and also included a full breakfast in the morning! It was nice to have the two rooms so that George and I could stay up after the kids went to bed.


One of the stores that I really wanted to check out when we were down there is Hobby Lobby.  They are pretty much everywhere but Oregon. :(  It's like a huge Joanns and Michaels mix.  It's also a Christian company and was playing instrumental worship music in the store.  I hope one day they bring one to Portland.

Here are just a few things that I saw that would be fun to buy.

Loved this shelving unit.  It was only $149.00

This would be fun to have in a little boys room.

This section reminded me of my sister in-law.....Danielle this one is for you!

Fun burlap ribbon.

One of the restaurants that I wanted to try out that we don't have here in Oregon is Chic-fil-a.  Loved this restaurant.  One of the most clean fast food restaurants that I have ever been too.

Each little kids meal comes with a plastic placemat that sticks to the table and the kids meals you can a decent fruit bowl instead of fries and they had little apple sauce packs too!

We had a chance to see one of my other cousins in Sacramento and this is her little boy.  Isn't he adorable!!

This was our last minute pool time before we left the next day.

 At the end of the day we met up with our old friends who were our Matron of Honor and Best man in our wedding.  Just before we went to their house we had to stop by and take a picture of where we got married.

 We were married right under those palm trees.

All of our kids together for the first time.

Kids Silly Picture

 Christ and I.....we have been friends now for 17 Years

Roy and George

We had a great time connecting with them and catching up on all that God has been doing in our lives.

That about sums up our trip.  I think I must of stopped taking pictures on the way home because this is all that I had.  It was truly one of the best vacations that we have been on with the kids.  Just this last week George and I were talking about how we wanted to go on vacation again.  Looking forward to the years ahead with the kids as they get older.

Sorry this was such a long post but really wanted to get it all in here.  At some point I plan on having this blog printed up in a book for a keep sake.