California Trip - Day 3 Saturday April 9th, 2011

We were ready to go have some fun on the beach on this day.

What we didn't know was how windy and cold it was going to be.

This is California people, its supposed to be warm, right?

Unfortunately it was not! :(

It was probably the area we went to and the time of year that we went.

If you notice in most of the pictures we are all wearing jackets and jeans. 

We started off by going on a scenic tour through an area called The Russian River.

It was a narrow road with lots of trees and you follow the river until you reach the coast.

There is houses on the mountains as well as tons of fields with awesome vineyards.

It was so green and so pretty.

We wanted to go check out Bodega Bay.

Needless to say, i was a little disappointed. I thought it was going to be a little more taken care of with lots more to see. But it wasn't.

The anticipation of seeing the ocean for the first time, especially if you haven't seen it in a while is crazy.

It is so pretty and you have to go see it if you haven't at least once in your lifetime.

*kolbey & Kasey- my wonderful nephews*

I was determined to wear shorts this day, but of course I changed out of them the first chance I got.

stupid cold weather!

*The Boys*

We stopped and had lunch at a little place called The Boathouse.

It was so crowded and some of us had to sit in different areas than the others.

We all ordered fish and chips.

and they weren't that good and it was expensive.

This kite shop was next to where we had lunch. it was a cute little place.

I love this girl! :)

Ugh! It was SO windy!

I can't tell you how much i love them. :)

While we were in Bodega bay, we stopped at a market and bought some fresh fish. Whole crabs, salmon and jumbo prawns. It was SO good. I didn't even touch the salmon, i was stuffed!!

Be jealous!

We were all so full after eating the seafood, that we basically just lounged around the rest of the night. Fine with me....I was on vacation. :)

Sunday we drive into the city.

Be excited!

spring photo checklist

I found this idea on a blog that i visit regularly. what a great way to make it a habit to take pictures of anything spring.

i'm so going to do this. be prepared for lots of pictures coming up as well as more posts about my California trip. :)

book review

This book is about a man by the name of Wyatt that loses his wife and son in a car accident on his birthday. The other man involved in the accident was a drunk driver. Gabby, the wife of the drunk driver is having problems with her son Trevor.  He is going to be kicked out of school for fighting if he doesn't stop. Trevor is offered one last chance to make things better and that is too enroll in the New Beginning Horse Therapy Program at Wyatts ranch.  Wyatt is angry about Trevor joining, but allows him into the program. 

Wyatt has met Gabby once before when she wanted to know about the therapy program. He thinks she is the most attractive woman he has met since his wifes death.

I would give this book about 3 1/2 stars.

It was kind of slow at the beginning, but then towards the middle, i couldn't put it down.

there was a couple of  parts that I wasn't expecting to happen and caught myself tearing up.

happy reading!

California Trip - Day 2 Friday April 8th, 2011

Day 2 of our vacation we woke up to this....

ugh! i hate snow!

We had put on our itinerary that we were going to take a ferry around the lake that was like 2 hours long. Needless to say with the snow and freezing cold temperatures, that didn't happen. :(

Instead of going on the ferry, we took a drive around Tahoe for a little bit. We drove down a very scenic road with lots of trees and some amazing looking houses.

This was on our way to emerald bay. We were unable to go there as well because of avalanche danger. Stupid snow!

I really wanted to see it because there is a little tea house on the Island.  Couldn't even get a blasted picture!

This waterfall was just on the side of the hill. It had a pretty cool name too.

BRIDAL VEIL FALLS

 When we finally came out of the canyon and dropped into the valley this is what we saw.  It was so pretty and SO green! Reminded me of the Sound of Music..haha

The last time we went to California we had quite the laughs. We found this cookie store by the name of Uncle Biffs Killer Cookies and that was the highlight of our trip. And you couldn't forget "the smoker" it was a beat up rusty ole' car with smoke coming out of the tail pipe..haha. We kept asking people out the window if they have seen Uncle Biff because we want some killer cookies...haha ok well I guess you had to be there.

Anyways, to make a long story short, we had to pull over to find directions. This is where the highlight of this trip comes in. We pulled into this parking lot and there was this animal control vehicle backing up, and behind that car was a man guiding him back with this crazy crazy accent and he was yelling....."COME ON BACK!!" but you have to picture this guy with the accent when he says this. Anyways after that, we could NOT stop repeating "come on back" in this accent the whole entire trip and no matter what we were doing or where we were, if someone said it, we all cracked up laughing and couldn't stop! It was pretty funny.

Ok, so I'm a nerd haha. I heard about this next stop from my mom and she said if we had the chance,  then to stop and check it out.  It is located in Fairfield California and it was on our way to our destination, so what the heck why not stop. Kim thought i was weird, but oh well. haha

Jelly Belly Factory

There was SO many choices!

$24 later, I had what I went there for. A bag of jelly bellys for me, my mom and Bethie! :)

Yep...definetely a nerd!

We finally made it to Windsor California! yahoo! So this was our crib for the next week. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a murphy bed, cable tv, dvd player, internet access,  full kitchen and our very own washer and dryer. It was pretty sweet!

I thought i would take some pictures of the inside before the tornado hit..haha

so lets take a look around. :)

This was mine and Brittanys room! Umm yep, those are twin beds. UGH! They were the MOST uncomfortable  beds I have slept on in my life. Every morning I would wake up with back pain and the last 2 nights of the vacation, I DIDN'T SLEEP!  Stupid beds!

This is out the back door on the deck. There was 2 hot tubs, a pool, and a fitness area with a pool table, table tennis and a whole lot more.

Notice the tree. they were everywhere and so cool looking.

We unloaded our luggage and got a little situated and then went out to eat at ...

JOHNNY GARLICS

yes, Guy Fieris very own restraunt. It was so delish! I was hoping to see him, but no such luck.

 winding down. we were SO tired!

Well I tried to upload some videos of Kasey and Kolbey playing "just dance" on the wii, but blogger is being dumb so I will try again later.

We catch the first glimpse of the ocean on day 3...stay tuned.

California Trip - Day 1 Thursday April 7th,2011

After months of planning, this day came so quick that it was almost like we didn't have time to plan at all. Our destination....Windsor California/San Francisco California. :)

We packed up the car (my moms car) THANKS MOM!! :) and left early Thursday morning. Our first stop was going to be in Lake Tahoe and we all knew that it was going to be a long drive and seriously it was, with nothing to see but desert all around us. :/  So, what did we do.....

we slept...

well sort of....haha.

and we tried to strangle ourselves with seatbelts too. haha

We made it safely to Lake Tahoe and was very surprised to see that it was snowing and had been snowing ALOT!  I thought we were leaving Utah because of the weather? It was crazy how much it had snowed there. I have to admit though, it was very beautiful, oh so cold as well!

Yes, our condo was at 7,400 ft in elevation. Basically at the top of the mountain, where it was 10x as cold as it was in the valley. 

This picture was taken near our condo. you can see the valley with Lake Tahoe in the background. It was quite the view.

After we got settled in at the condo we ventured out to find something to eat. Poor Brittany had a migraine that night, so we went on the hunt to find her a cheeseburger per her request. We took her burger back to the condo and then  Me, Kim, Kasey and Kolbey went to Cabo Wabo Cantina,  Kims favorite place to go because of Sammy Hagar. Sammys son actually owns this cabo wabo and it was fun to see. For me, the food was just ok. Kim ordered me a waborita, which i didn't even drink half of and was feeling a little tipsy, so I stopped. The atmosphere was awesome and the waitresses were very nice.

Here is a photo taken at Cabo Wabo of all of us...minus brit. we missed you brittany!

Sorry for the blurriness, its a picture taken of a picture.

good times!

We were all pretty tired from the drive from Utah, that once we got back to the condo after dinner, we all pretty much crashed! 

I wish it had been a little bit warmer in Tahoe to see more things, but that just means I will need to go back in the summer when its warmer.

Our first leg of the trip was over and we had more to see in the morning. :)