Lots To Catch Up On

I've been so lazy about blogging. There has been so much going on and I just haven't taken the time to sit down and write it all out. I'm going to try and catch up since I have a lot of pictures I want to post.

The first thing I'll catch up on was our trip to San Francisco in mid October. Sadly, the main point of this trip was to say goodbye to my Grandma. She is very sick and doesn't have much longer. It was very important to me that my family all come with me. We were able to work it out so that Ryan could come and of course we brought the boys. Alex had already met my Grandma and knew who she was, but this was the first time my Grandma met Darek. She has seen pictures and was already madly in love with Darek, but I was really happy that she could finally meet him. He was going through a really bad Mommies boy stage at the time, so he wouldn't let her hold him the first visit. But during the second visit, he fell asleep. I gave him to her so she could hold him. I will never forget the look on my Grandma's face as she just sat and cuddled with him. We had a wonderful visit with her and it was fun to sit and reminisce memories we all had. We got a recent report that she has taken a pretty bad turn. We know she doesn't have very long and I am so grateful I was able to see her again.






Since my Grandma was pretty weak and could only handle short visits, we planned some other activities with my sisters Hayley and Bethany, Beth's hubby Chad and Hayley's little girl, Anna, while were all in the area. We were lucky enough to stay with my cousin Heather and her family. We had the best time! When I went to my other cousins wedding back in June, I was able to reconnect with Heather, Jennifer and Jason (who are all siblings). So when we knew we were planning the trip to Cali, I emailed Heather and she graciously let us come stay with her. We had some wonderful late night talks and even though it wasn't very warm, got to dip our feet in her beautiful pool out back. We could not have asked for better hosts!

There were some fun activities we did that stick out. The first one was visiting a park that we used to go to all the time when we were little. It was right down the street from my Aunts and just a little ways away from my other Grandparents house. I have lots of memories playing there with my cousins. So it was fun to go and play with my boys there and reminisce with my sisters.






The second one was visiting The Nut Tree. This was another one of those places that we used to visit a lot when we were little. It's a wonderful place to visit with kids. It looks almost nothing like it did when I was little, but had a few things that I recognized from when I was little. Again, it was an amazing and surreal experience to bring my boys there to play. It felt like only yesterday that I was a kid playing there.

















The third thing was our day in San Francisco. Ryan and I were able to visit a few years ago with Alex, but Alex was still pretty little. We started out our day at the Exploritorium. This is one of my favorite places in San Francisco. It's a pretty famous building that is shown in several movies. I love walking around outside. It has the most beautiful structures surrounding it and it never ceases to amaze me when I walk around it. Inside, you find the coolest science projects ever! It takes hours to get through and you still have a hard time exploring everything. After we finished there we went over to the pier to get ready to go out to Alcatraz. The last time we had done this was when Alex was a baby. This time Alex couldn't wait. He thought it was so cool that we were going to go into what was a real jail. Once we got in there, he was a little freaked out. But still thought it was pretty interesting. We spent several hours there. I LOVE the view from Alcatraz looking at San Francisco. We finished our day at the Aquarium at the Bay. We had never been there before and we ended up getting discount tickets, so we figured why not? It wasn't as good as we were hoping it would be, but it was still fun. I'm glad we got the discount tickets.




















Any time we visit the San Francisco, we try to visit the Oakland Temple. This temple holds a lot of memories for me. I think I have only been in it once to do baptisms right after I turned 12, shortly before we moved. But this is the temple my parents were sealed in. And I have so memories of walking on the grounds after my Dad would take us to see a Giants or A's game. I love this temple. It sits pretty high on a hill and therefore holds spectacular views. Again, on a clear day, you can see into San Francisco. I love when you can see the Golden Gate bridge. So on our last day there, right before we headed to the airport, we went up to the temple. Since it was a Monday, we couldn't go up on the top and walk around. But it still felt good to be there again. We went through the visitors center as well where they some really neat displays set up about the history of Mormons in California.



Although we didn't get up to West Sac, it still felt so good to be that close to home. Even though I was about 13 when we moved, I still have so many connections to that area. I miss it a lot. I love that there are still so many people there that I love that also know and love me. I know I always will have people to visit there.

We had a wonderful trip. A very relaxing, memorable trip. I hope we can go back again sometime soon.