Let's Start at the Very Beginning, A Very Good Place to Start!

To say that it has been a busy few weeks would be an understatement! I realized that I had a lot of catching up to do and tons of pictures to help show what I have been up to for the past little bit. I better start where I left off...SAN FRANCISCO! What a road trip! We spent three days in sunny California, and then a full day (or I should say two full nights) driving to and from our destination. It was quite the trip and I have plenty of pictures to prove it!

We ended up leaving "Happy Valley" about 5:30 after work. This was the first road trip I was taking my new car on, and so we were all gassed up and ready to go after a quick stop in Salt Lake Valley to pick up Mandy and Erin. We had a 13 hour drive ahead of us, a 12-pack of mountain dew, two bags full of granola, and fix road trip music mixes custom made by Jennica...there was nothing stopping us!

We learned that the most exciting place along the long, desolate drive of Northern Nevada is Reno....even at 3:30 in the morning. Mandy still managed to sleep through all the lights and hooplah. It worked out great having 4 drivers, two would drive while the other two slept. We were all relieved when we pulled into San Jose, California at 7:30 the next morning!

First order of business was to crash and get some shut eye at the house of one of Jennica's childhood friends. Three hours later we were all rejuvinated and ready to spend the rest of the day in Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk!



Jennica insisted we stop at her favorite childhood ice cream place, Thrifties, for the best cheap ice cream cone. We didn't protest!


















I hadn't been to California for about 12 years, much less seen the ocean, so it was an exciting day for me. I loved just laying on the beach feeling the warm sun and listening to the waves crashing on the shore. The sunset over the boardwalk was a great way to end the day.

The next day we made our way to Fremont, California where we had book a hotel and planned to hop on the BART that would take us into San Fran. It was exciting to get off the train and walk above ground to the center of the city. There were entertainers everyone. Many making quite a living off of Michael Jackson's recent death. Erin and Jennica's first stop was the Modern Arts Museum, while Mandy and I decided to get right down to business and shop!






We met up later that day to see some of the fun site of the city. As we are all 80s children, a must-see were the locations of the TV show we all grew up with, Full House! We saw the exterior of the Tanner house, as well as the Painted Ladies, which are the traditional San Francisco houses that were shown in the opening credits the the 80s television show. There were choruses of people around Alamo Square singing the theme song of the show as we all were taking pictures of the sites.







We took a bus over to Golden Gate Park for a ride on the carousel and to walk the botanical gardens.









That night we truly became tourist and rode the trolly to Chinatown. My mission in Chinatown was to find a really great knock-off purse. That part of town is well known for selling imitation Chanel, Gucci, Dolce & Gabanna handbags. Our first stop I found the perfect bag. It was a great turquoise Marc Jacobs bag that I knew I had to have. I even tried my hand at bartering...I wasn't extremely successful, but it was worth the experience.

The next morning we woke up excited for our last day in the city. We loaded up the car, and caught the train back into San Francisco. We rode a trolly to Fisherman's Wharf and the Pier where we had rode a boat over to Alcatraz to spend the morning exploring. It was fun to see the view of the city from the ocean. You could see all the rode that run up the hills of the city.

We spent the afternoon exploring the Pier 39. We visited the aquarium where we got to see tons of sharks, starfish, and all sorts of other fish. I even touched a shark!

We made our way through Fisherman's Wharf, which was packed with entertainers and tourists. We visited Ghirardelli Square where we had the most delicious ice cream sundae's! I have a weakness for chocolate, so this had to be one of my favorite treat's the entire trip.





Hands down, my favorite part of our trip was going to Wicked the last night we were there. I had never seen this broadway musical, but had heard amazing things. I have to say that even the outstanding reviews from before didn't even to the show justice. Teal Wicks, who played Elphaba, the Wicked with blew the roof off. I had a huge cheesy smile on my face throughout the whole show! It was a great way to end our fantastic trip to San Fransisco.









On to other happening in my life lately. Just before my California trip, my cousin, Nicole invited to to come with her and her Husband to the Oquirr Mountain Temple Open House followed by The Fray concert at USANA Amphitheatre. It was such a fun day to spend with Nicole and Colby. Nicole's younger brother Mitch and his buddies also ended up coming out from Roosevelt, our cousin Haley came to the concert from Morgan, and my brother and sister, Megan and David made the drive up from New Harmony. It was fun to hang out with the family. Not many people can say that they have moshed and crowd surfed with their siblings and cousins before.

I also have enjoyed a little bit of America's favorite past-time this summer, baseball! The Utah Owlz are a minor league team based out of Orem, and I have gone with Mandy and her family a couple of times. They aren't the greatest team...so Mandy and I decided to entertain ourselves. Scary!





It isn't summer if you don't go camping! I went with a group of girls from my Orem ward to a campout in Alpine at the Bishop's house. I guess it doesn't count as roughing-it when you sleep on the back lawn, watch a movie outside one the projector, and get to enjoy a hot breakfast courtesy of the Bishop in the kitchen. There was a fire, dutch-oven, and sleeping under the stars...so I think I will count it!

This last weekend I went home to spend time with my family and visit a few friends. Now that my family all live in New Harmony, I have to be sure to visit often. I also got to see my friend Michael, a high school and college friend. He was excited to show me his new toy, a shiny, fast motorcycle! We stopped by our friends Kelli and Kirk's and to catch out and go out for ice cream. I always realize when I go home how much I love Southern Utah and my family and friends.

And the last experience I have to note is that my laptop got bombarded with some nasty viruses and has been our of comission! But thanks to a fantastic Home-teacher, I just received the report that it is feeling better and should be as good as new!

Phew! So there it the update! The summer isn't over yet so there are sure to be a few more fun things in store this month!