Yahhhh WE ARE HOME!!!!

I am so excited to be home and back to normal....well it will take a few days but it is so nice to be here right now.

First of all we woke up really early yesterday morning to Pismo Beach and found lots of shells and Sand Dollars. The kids were thrilled and had a blast in the ocean. Benjamin actually was running through the waves and splashing. We also saw seals out in the water playing by the surfers. We then left the horrible hotel and was on our way to Oxnard to meet up with Brenda and her beautiful daughter Kristen. It was so nice to see Brenda and reminisce about the good ole days in the military. I was so excited to meet her little girl and see how smart and pretty she is. It was a short reunion but we had to be on our way for another trip to San Clemente. We ran into a lot of bad traffic along the 405 but we got there just in time to shower and head to Nick and Kelsey's reception. It took us a while to get there since we were lost but it was worth it. They both looked so happy and had the honeymoon look in their eyes. It was held at Kelsey's parent's house and it was beautiful. They had a pasta bar and chocolate fountain. I have to get one of those for my kitchen. I also enjoyed seeing her beautiful cake. I am so very happy for them and was thrilled to see Bill's uncle and aunt and the rest of the family. They are all so wonderful and we don't get to see them too often so it was nice. This morning we were off one more time home. We didn't hit any traffic that really stopped us so we made good time. We only really had one major meltdown with Matthew so we were lucky.

Now that we are home and sitting down a little, we are all about to pass out. It has been a rough couple of weeks but it was all worth it. I miss my family and friends already, I am happy to have Shannon here with us though. She is kind of my piece of Sonora here...I am going to be heart broken when she leaves. Love you all and hope you enjoyed our journey on our vacation with us. Here are some pictures of us all these last couple of days.

We are in Pismo, CA

We are now in Pismo Beach, CA, a half-way point between San Francisco and San Clemente. We were going to go to Port Hueneme and stay the night but it was quite a drive and we thought it would be fun for the kids to get sand dollars if they are there. Anyways, we started our morning going to Lombard Street. We actually got to go down it in the van...it was actually really exciting and really pretty. We then drove through China Town, which probably saved me from stopping and spending a lot of money. I saw a lot of great deals and really wanted Bill to jump out and grab something at every stop light but I resisted.
We are now at a beat up old motel that is pretty gross and broken down. I am very dissapointed and will never stay at another one. I have no pictures to post, I am so sorry but I really need to get some sleep because we have a very full day tomorrow. We will go to Port Hueneme to say hello to Brenda and then we are off to San Clemente for Nick's wedding. Nick is Bill's uncle's Mike's son. Does that make sense? Well, we are exhausted and really need to get some sleep so I will let you all go. I will try to get some pictures posted tomorrow for you all though. Goodnight.

Marine World Six Flags

Wow, what a day it was yesterday. As you can see, I passed out last night before I had a chance to write on our blog. We are up early and ready for another day though. We went to Marine World Six Flags yesterday with the kiddos and we just had a blast. We couldn't get Justice on any big rides but he did ride the Tony Hawk one which was a pretty good one. We rode other rides like Medusa, Kong, V something, Tony Hawk, Water Rapids(where I got soaked) and some others that Ben got to ride with Shannon and Justice. I took Matthew on the Thomas train that he loved as well.

We also got to see some shows of the Whales, Dolphins, Sea Lions, and Tigers. During the Shouka the whale performance they were asking the audience questions and giving away stuff for it...Justice got picked and got a shirt and stuffed whale. He sat in the soak zone and got pretty wet. All the performances were just incredible and everyone loved it. They also got to meet some really nice characters like Tweety Bird, Sylvester and some others I can't think of. We are off to see Lombard Street and heading down to Pismo Beach. I hope you all are enjoying this blog and of course here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Loving San Francisco.

We have arrived in San Francisco and enjoying it too much. We have enjoyed ourselves so much that I will keep this one short so we can get some sleep before our big day at Marine World tomorrow. Today we got into town and stopped at the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. It was very cold and foggy, but it was still breathtaking. We hiked only halfway across the bridge and back and headed to the hotel. Our hotel is beautiful and is big. We then headed back downtown to Pier 39 to go on a bay cruise and see the Aquirium of the Bay. They both were phenomenal...pictures to prove it.

Placerville was a BLAST!!

Lets see where I left off. We took our journey to Placerville, CA to visit family. Placerville is where I was born and raised for a good portion of my life. We stopped in at the Round Table Pizza downtown and met up with my cousin Cassie and her boyfriend Mike and my great friends from well a long time...Stephanie and her son Jack and a friend I can't remember how I remember...Teresa and her beautiful daughter. I also got to see Keoki, Shelly and their son Kayden when they dropped off Michael. It was so nice. I even ran into my cousin Elizabeth who I went to church with when I was just a kid for years. So many memories just flood my head when I go to these places and reunite with my family and friends and it is just so heart-warming. I greatly enjoy all these memories and getting to see so many people. I have to say thank you to everyone for making it a point to come and see me, I know it is out of your way at times but I do appreciate it very much. Before we left home we stopped and got some pictures of Brent's and Grandma's graves. They are so loved and missed. Brent is my sister's Laura's kid that passed away when he was almost three months old. It was a tragic event for all of us and he will always be in our thoughts.

I got to spend the night with my sister Samantha and just had a great tri-tip dinner that Mike cooked and also got to meet his son Chris. What a beautiful house they have with so many animals. I saw goats, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats and more dogs and more cats. If you know Samantha...you know what I am talking about then. She is so wonderful though and I just love them all. So this morning we drove back to Sonora and got to visit with my brother Bobby, Sister-in-law Teresa, Cory and Shannon. They are growing up so fast and just so beautiful. Yes, even Cory is beautiful to me. We sit and reminisce about the good ole days and just laugh. We had such a good time and didn't want to leave. So now I am back at my sister's Valerie's house who I have greatly enjoyed visiting to spend one more night before we head back to Sam's house. We picked up a straggler on the way and Shannon will be coming home with us.

We are in Sonora finally

Hello everyone, I wanted to update our blog whenever we got anywhere. Our trip started out well and we got to Las Vegas and had a killer time in there. We loved our room in the Luxor, but didn't care for the food buffet on Fremont Street. The kids had so much fun and we were able to meet up with Bill's cousins once again. They are such nice people and we just wished we could spend more time with them. We were then off to Sonora for our long trip...about eight hours long. We did good and so did the kids until we were about an hour away from Valerie's house. Benjamin was complaining of a stomach ache...something we all had from dinner on Fremont Street. Well finally the very curvy roads got to us all and Ben hurled all over the car. Thank goodness we are not in Phoenix weather and we were able to roll down the windows. The GPS told me that we were there at the house and I couldn't find it so I pulled over and Matthew hurled all over then. I tell you what, I was ready to get inside a house and a bath. CC came and rescued us and we got there. I was so excited to see my family, my Aunt and Uncles were even there to see everyone. It is just a great feeling to be back home and I am so happy to be here...even with the puking.
I now have Matthew passed out in my lap and I need to get Benjamin still down. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow....we are meeting up atPinecrest with everyone. I am very excited. I will try to post pictures of this beautful area soon. Oh, I forgot to mention that we passed snow up on Sonora Pass...it is almost 10000 feet elevation. Look forward to more posts...