Some Big Trees

 In conjunction with the unpredictable stops in San Francisco, I really went above and beyond to try and make my friends feel like their visit was worth their effort and took them to the Calavaras Big Trees. (a family favorite and please excuse the run on sentence). Knowing that we couldn't go to Disneyland, we made some arrangements to bring Disneyland to us and borrowed our friends Astro Van for the 2 hour trip. If 3 minutes of the Indiana Jones ride makes you weak, try 2 hours in the back of the Astro! Wouldn't have it any other way.

Angles Camp proved as wonderful and relaxing as always. I love the closeness of it, yet the resort makes me feel like I'm states away from my real life. Again, neglecting my desires to photograph more frequently, I have no documentation of this portion of the trip.

The next morning we were off to the Big Trees. Although the North Grove Trail always catches me by surprise in its length-it is quite beautiful. Note to self, bring a stroller - or turn around after the walk through log. 1.5 Miles is NOT four quarters of a mile as we overheard another group saying. But the trees really were lovely as I remembered.

 

 I had plans to have a lovely picnic at the river, which turned into a picnic with the bees, which evolved into scarfing down your sandwich and running back to the van. Eh-can't win them all. But we were all pretty bushed from the extra long walk, the sun beating down on us, carrying the babies, chasing down/dragging the babies along, and looking for Dora, that heading back to the resort and kicking it by the pool sounded like a better option.

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And like any good parent would, we dipped Cameron's toes into the water. Couldn't have him miss his chance at his first swim! I think he was confused between this and bath time, so it only lasted a few minutes before he wasn't enjoying it anymore. But it was a start!

We love a good reason to get away, and visiting with the 'chardses is one of the best reasons there is. Once again, thanks for the visit. Be seeing you again soon we hope.

**as a completely unrelated sidenote. I am lovin' the iPiccy.com website that makes the photo collages for me. Makes me not give up on blogger while I wait for it to upload a picture or two. Perhaps a few more blog posts will come out of this.**

"The City"

 When we made the decision to move away from Disneyland those few years ago, we understood that the draw for our friends visitations was going to be significantly less. So much so, that in these two years, we have had ... okay, lets not count how many friendly visits we have enjoyed. So "excited for your visit" would have been a drastic understatement when our best-ies confirmed our relationship and ventured to the Bay Area. So of course, I had to plan the only bait we have to dangle; and took them to see The City. Mark and I have refrained from going to Alcatraz on our own, knowing this is the only thing we've got to lure people to our area. So off to the city we went!

I tried to be precise in our planning to the city to ensure that a revisit could take place someday. After a beautiful "preview" vista at the Oakland Temple, we jaunted across the bridge to the Painted Ladies. "Whatever Happened to Predictability?" Our friends would have never predicted that Mark had researched the whereabouts of a classic sitcom-opening-credits-location. Presenting, Full House. Although I was driving, and Mark was stuck in the back of the van with 2 babies, Michelle and Brandon were quick and efficient at their picnic and photo session. One round trip around the park, and they had successfully seen the spot, taken the photo, and were waiting for the pick up. A few blocks down the road lie the actual Tanner home. And I won't mention this was the location of a "too-close-for-comfort" incident on the borrowed van. (Thanks to the 'chardses blog for documenting this moment for us)

 We made our way through the very steep hills of San Francisco, to ensure our guests experienced the whole of it, to get down Lombard Street. Then across the traffic to the busy Pier 39. I was all geared up for a pleasant stroll down to Pier 32 where the ferry to Alcatraz departs, but realized we had 10 minutes and 5 Piers to go. Wishing we had a stroller, Mark huffed our flour-sack of a son at a "more- than-a-pleasant-stroll" pace to make it to the ferry with no more than a minute to spare. Literally. At least we didn't have to waste our precious time waiting in line.

 The Tour was everything I remember - at least it would have been if I could have paid more attention. Our friends were nice enough to wait with us as we fed the lad; a delay that you wish went faster. We then lugged our children up the hill they don't tell you about before the tour starts. And then we had quite the melt down mid tour resulting in a blow out and a one very unhappy child. For our first public meltdown, I think we handled it well-despite the perfectly echoed screams bouncing off these prison walls, and the frightful San Francisco winds preventing me from taking him outside. Our fellow tourists had many thoughts (and glares) about this little family taking their infant to a prison...but alas, the show must go on!

 In between the cuddling and rocking, we did manage to take a few pictures and pick up a few bits and pieces of the tour. Mostly, we just enjoyed being with our friends. I aspire to be more like Michelle who was a rock star at caring for her very active 2 year old and still managing to get a plethora of fabulous photos.

Weekends

Life is happily moving right along here in our corner of the world. Although most of our daily life is fairly mundane and ritual - there have been a few noteworthy events that I can post just to keep my blog from looking neglected.

Several weeks ago I took a trip up to visit my dear friend and her family in Portland. We certainly enjoyed catching up on each others lives and of course reverting back to our College habits of eating too much, talking for hours, and watching movies. My favorite part of the trip was our visit to the Portland Temple. Simply beautiful and very rewarding. And to top it off, I also ran into another old collage neighbor whom I haven't talked to since we moved out 7 years ago. Kaylynn Boggs - the only girl with my name. :)

A simply delightful trip visiting a simply delightful friend always leaves us planning for another get together soon.

Another fun thing Mark and I did several weekends ago was to visit the Palace of Fine Arts and attend the A Capella Regional competition there. It was just a lovely evening and the Palace didn't dissappoint with a little romance and "mood setting".

We found a park bench overlooking the pond and dome and ate a little picnic lunch. Then it started to rain, and Mark didn't have a jacket, and we were freezing. But we stuck it out anyway because this is what I had planned dang it, and we were going to experience it rain or not! And so we did.

The singing contest was delightful, even if we were the youngest ones in attendance by about 2 generations. But alas, you attend what you like - and clearly we are a little behind our time.

Most of our weekends are just cleaning the house and catching up on bills and whatnot. You know, the usual stuff. So it is always wonderful to have a little something else to fill our scrapbook pages.

Birthday Wishes

Twas that time of year again when I get to take a weekend and celebrate simply because I am alive. And I loved this year's little trip. Mom treated us all to a weekend in Angels Camp; a short little jaunt from our home where there are a plethora of old mining towns for exploration. Plus an infamous Thrifty Ice Cream location just a stone's throw from our condo. Bonus.

Although we spent the entire weekend there, the most pictures come from our day spent in Columbia. It had been decades since my last visit, and it was fun to see mom in her walk down memory lane as she saw her little kids running round the streets that we were on. Hence this picture of Mark and I on the blue wagon. She had a moment remembering all her kids hanging on - so we induldged her with a photo op.

Of coures, one of my favorite things about my mom and husband is how well we all get along. It wasn't quite 10am and we were all in the candy shop purchasing an array of delightful treats to munch on before lunch.

As much as I love history and everything about it, I am certain I would not have been very comfortable in that era - mostly because I am not super comfortable around horses. I like them from a distance, but getting real close sort of freaks me out a little. I'm not sure why. Something about their size and strength against my own. So this picture is sort of a big deal for me. Mom and Mark were ready to saddle up and ride them through town, but I was content with just a little pat and walking away.

Another fun bit about my mom is her "no reservations" attitude. She will ask any stranger anything, walk through any fence or railing to see whats on the other side, climb rocks, and walk around "no public entry" signs if she thinks what is on the other side is worth a sight. Here is Mark taking after her lead. Mom saw the empty house and walked right through the fence up to the windows and peered right in. We both watched from a distance at first until she started boasting about how neat it all was. So-we both had to get a close up view as well. Funny lady.

A few other things from the weekend that were delightful

* The spa trips

* Movies late at night

* Our "free gift" for listening to the WorldMark presentation

* Sidewinders - dinner one night, encore the following lunch

* Thrifty Ice Cream

* Chocolate Cupcakes-it was fabulously funny the morning we all wanted one before breakfast but didn't want to be judged by the others. Finally, I just went for it and we all laughed that it was what we were all thinking.

* The old numbers psychic who was hitting on mom. She is too nice.

It was just a delightful birthday weekend! Topped off with lots of love from friends far and near. Happy Weekend. Happy Day.

The City

In an effort to make our weekends more exciting than house chores and hours of TV, my mom and we decided to take a trip to Oakland to get some fresh air. Mom found that there were some old 1800 replica ships in port so we headed out for a little salty sea air.

The 2 "tall ships" were replicated from old war ships from...a long time ago. Which was fun to get to board and walk around their tiny decks and quarters.

There were several seamen getting the ship ready to sail, so we were lucky enough to get a shot of the 2 of us together! And yes, we are both supporting the cougars. Only because it is the BYU bookstore where our yearly clothes purchase occurs. We're those people.

And as a sidenote-the seamen were a very interesting crew of people. Talk about rough and toughin' it. They looked (and smelled) like they had been in the open waters for ages. It made us wonder at what junction in their lives they decided this was going to be their line of work. Interesting.I was particularly interested in just the architecture of the vessel. Just really neat all the rope work and the masts and sails. Although the clouds were grey and gloomy, it was really nice weather.

A stop at the Oakland Temple on our way home rounded out this rather wonderful day!

Stay tuned for our recent home renovations that has taken us this long to be able to do!

Lil' Trip

We really are doing something in our lives. Most of it just really isn't blog worthy. Honest. So to save my grossly neglected blog - proof that we still live.

Several weeks ago we took a trip down to see Hearst Castle again. Such a lovely little drive down the California coastline - something that really shouldn't be missed in life. We stopped halfway down and stayed in a really sketchy dive hotel that happened to be right next to a Carl's Jr. which made the divey party not so creepy. (although the peeping tom was a little less then welcome)

The next morning we made the rest of the trip down to San Simeon, where the weather was mostly cloudy and cold in the morning, and then burned off by the afternoon. Typical of the area. We made a quick stop to see the elephant seals which was far more windy and cold then enjoyable - and were shortly back in the car and off to the castle.I really like visiting the castle, dreaming of what it would have been like to stay there. It is just so dreamy; and big. We ventured down with our dear friends Sarah and Matt who make great company. Plus, since they had never been, they really made the trip more interesting for us repeat guests. Simply delightful.

**Please excuse our lack in pictures. They are mostly just of the castle and really not-so-fabulous close ups of my face! And who needs to see that right?**

Happiest Post on Earth

True to Morrell style, we decided to take our much needed time off to visit our old stomping grounds in Southern California. Some may think we have an illness with our frequency of the Disney goodness, but to each their own right? We headed down on Thursday evening so we could have some time to relax on Friday and of course have time to hit up our favorite restaurant Ruby's where too much is eaten. Even our friends who had not been in over a year remembered it was delightful - even if they couldn't remember why. :) Mark is really good and orders something different each visit. I however, am stuck on their shrimp tacos. And still sorely miss their White Chocolate Raspberry shake. Cheers to a Ruby's Diner.

By Saturday we were ready for our visit with the mouse. Mark and I had very few needs which made our trip fabulous as the Richards' didn't seem to have too many expectations either. We were all just thrilled to be there and little Teagan was a trooper if I've ever seen one. With only a few 30 minute power naps - she seemed to be in good spirits the entire day. A fan of Disney from...birth. Just how we like them.

Little Mermaid didn't disappoint. Its been open for a week now so we expected lines down the street. We were pleasantly surprised with only a 30 minute wait! It really was quite wonderful, and true to most Disney "dark rides"; missing a large portion of the middle of the movie and just skipping to the end. Eh - it was still entertaining.

Of course a trip to the Mania was required. Mark and the Richards' are good sports to play with me. Although my scores are NOT the best of the day like the use to be, I still score higher then most and have a delightful time playing. And let the record show that I bring good ju-ju because Michelle got her best score when she rode with me. I'm just sayin'. I'm kind of a rock star.

The most ... colorful shall we say ... part of our Disneyland adventure was discovering the "Rave Children" all over the park. Now, for a high school teacher, I pride myself in knowing a bit about the young culture. However, I have never seen something like this before. And lets just keep in mind that it felt like 95 degrees in our regular attire so I can only imagine how warm these people must have felt. I give you - the plastic color explosion parade.


They sort of reminded me of Rainbow Bright. These kids had plastic jewelry everywhere! Some had them in several layers all the way up their arms! It was insane. We began to bargain that the more colorful bracelets you had on, the higher in rank you were. You know, sort of like some kind of system of hierarchy. And the girl with the magic school bus lunchbox (green shirt above) was the queen of the Rave Children. It was the weirdest sight we had ever seen. And I must say, I just missed the pose of the entire group of like 50+ in front of the castle. If only that gentleman would have walked faster then I would have had it! Sadly, this will have to suffice for memories.

Waiting for the parade was by far the hottest wait of my life. But well worth it. Disneyland has been failing in the parade department in my book for several years now; so when I heard that the new Soundsational parade was now preforming, I knew I had to have front row seats. And I was so delighted. It was a genuine Disney parade! Fabulous floats, delightful costumes and dancers in between, all the good characters, catchy music. Just delightful! So I highly recommend the time to sit and watch.


So, cheers to another delightful trip to visit The Land. We were really looking forward to spending the weekend with our dearest friends and were thrilled they made the trip down to join us.

Birthday Celebrations

Can you believe my man is Thirty? Such a fabulous age with a whole new decade to embark on. When trying to list all the things that happened the last 10 years of his life, we started to get excited with how much more good stuff lies ahead. So a big "hala" to my love and his thirty years of life. Rather then go through a list of 30 things I love about him and bore you all to near death, I'll just skip to the activities and let you all know what we did.

Mom was kind enough to treat us to a weekend getaway in Monterey. The weather seemed made to order with sun and blue skies. We enjoyed a delightful walk down Cannery Row, perused through some antique shops, stopped by a market for some lunch and enjoyed it on the beach where I caught some rays and a little nap. Aahh delightful.

The highlight of going to Monterey was our trip on the Bay in kayaks. We rented a few and headed out to see if we could find some wildlife. And boy did we. We made our way to a rather large bed of seaweed and there were about 12 or more otters just hanging out. Advised by the rental guys to stay at least 50 feet away, we didn't get close enough for a picture, and was even more amazed at the speed at which we had the wildlife preserve peeps on our back ready to "answer our questions" about the otter. Right. So we enjoyed from a distance for a minute longer and then made our way back.

Okay, now for a totally inappropriate segway picture for this birthday post. While kayaking in Monterey, the rental shop had this little dedication tattooed on the wall. I thought it was extremely accurate and therefore had to take a picture. I would have taken it on my phone but since that was all the way in the car, this was the solution. And besides, the Internet world needs to know the truth of the matter. I'm just sayin.

And back to Mark, for his actual day of birth, we enjoyed a little Chili's fresh mex. Which is just delightful, and opened a few gifts that I had tried so very hard to choose. Buying for Mark is so difficult. Especially when he breaks the cardinal rule of birthday-dom; don't shop for yourself during the month of your birth! UG.

Here is Mark and his fake surprise picture; posed perfectly for the camera. We both love the movie Inception, and I had to practically tell him that I got it for him to prevent him from purchasing it on his own. And a more genuine birthday opening face which I appreciate for the photobook memories. I also got him a few books to keep his reading frenzy at bay. He seriously has been reading every book we have in the house several times over. So some new material was highly overdue.

So a happy birthday wish to my wonderful man who is embarking on a new decade of life. I guess you could say he is "thirty, flirty, and thriving." Which is what we were going for.

Old Town Sacramento

Being that our anniversary falls on Conference weekend, we decided to celebrate this weekend to ensure we were available to listen to the sessions. This year was my turn to plan our little get away and I decided to stay somewhat close to home. As usual, our weekend was full of unexpected funnies and just delightful memories. We got off to a bit of a rough start when I was delayed at school thus making our departure from home a little later then it should have been. In an effort to switch it up a bit, we made arrangements to take the train up to Old Town Sacramento. Being that we were running a little behind, our stress level was higher then it should have been, so we weren't exactly thinking totally clearly. To make a long story short, we flew into a parking spot we didn't think we snag, let a few obscenities slip as we tried to grab our luggage from the trunk, ran like mad across the tracks and barely made it onto the train as it was pulling out of the station. I felt a little like a hobo might have, trying to jump on the train while it was still moving. Ok - so it wasn't that bad, but it was bad. Of course there were few open seats so it took a few minutes to find an open row. Got seated and tried to calm down. Only to find out...what?-this train is going where? That's right folks. We got on the wrong train! Drat! So it took an extra 40 minutes but we did eventually make it to our destination.

We stayed in a hotel that we are pretty sure supported some kind of political campaign. But it was nice and right across the street from the capitol building. Except of course our room was not on the right side. We still think the view was something special. We did make an appearance at the State Railroad museum which compared to the one in my memory - was a ton smaller. We started with the tour, until the tour guide was a little drab, then just made our way around on our own. Then we walked around Old Town Sacramento and enjoyed a little pizzeria who boasted a lunch buffet. We were disappointed when the buffet consisted of 2 pizza's with a ton of cheese, one with a little pepperoni. Weird. We then went over to see the state capitol building which was built in 1875 or something crazy like that. The refurbishment in 1975 cost California 2 bucks a person. And it was something amazing for sure. We stood in front of the Governor's office and even set off an alarm while trying to find the exit. That was fun. After an innocent explanation and personalized directions to the exit; we felt we really made our mark on the capitol.

We ended out trip with a delightful meal at The Firehouse Restaurant which I would highly recommend. So although the weather was a little more wet then I would have requested, it was a great little celebration for just the 2 of us.

Snow Day

A fun advantage to working with the youth in the church is the ability to participate in all the activities they have planned. (Although to be fair, this is also a disadvantage as many times we would prefer to use our time to get stuff done) Anyway - the youth had their annual combined snow day and Mark and I were asked to attend. What a perfect day it was. The weather couldn't have been more pleasant; and the company superior. We feel so blessed to be surrounded by people who have taken us in as friends.

Although neither Mark nor I are really snow people - it was a fun trip. I spent the better part of my runs with my fanny (and face) in the snow. Mark on the other hand braved the slopes head first! Champion.

We headed back slightly earlier then the rest of the crew because we wanted to stop by the few antique shops we passed on the drive up. What delightful finds they had there! Nothing we could afford or purchase mind you, but the kind of stuff you would think to see in a museum. Really fun for the history buff in me.

Check out this day

As a part of my birthday festivities (more on that later) we spent the afternoon in the city with some of the most perfect weather I have seen. Granted, it was very cold - but picture perfectly beautiful

Please note: jumping pictures inspired by Brandon & Michelle. Cuz lets be honest, it is always appropriate to jump in your pictures. :)

My reasons for loving this man are beyond words. Now that we're married, everything just feels right; like we're exactly where we were always meant to be. Being married is just like I imagined it would be, only a thousand times better!

I love you honey. Thanks for the birthday surprises.

A weekend Trip

Oh Disney how we have missed you. After a very spontaneous phone call from some delightful people, Mark and I were on our way to enjoy a little magic by the company who does magic best. And truly delightful it was. Stephanie and Brandon met us at a glamorous hotel establishment just a stone throw from the park where we enjoyed a very eco-friendly restroom policy. Let it be known that none of us followed the request posted near the toilet to dispose of our paper in the trash. Yes, we only stay in high quality.

Off to the parks we went along with 65,000 other magic seeking guests. Whew! I think working with the crowds was more exhausting then trying to make it the whole day. Our first day felt like the longest day of our lives. All starting with Mark jumping on the bed at an early hour questioning "why are we all still in bed, let's go!".


Needless to say, we were quite content riding the "easy" rides despite having a pregnant lady with us. *side note: not me*. The Mark Twain ferry boat has no line. That is right up our ally. I was lucky enough to hang out with Stephanie most of the day - which made the day turn more into a man-date, girls-day-out so it worked out well.

We made a point to wait in the 45 minute line to visit with Rapunzel; the newest addition to the Disney peeps. The entire line Stephanie indulged me in the true life behind the princesses which of course I was fascinated with. Sadly, the moment we left, the gentleman of the movie whose name I couldn't tell you if my life depended on it showed up and of course I was mad because I HAD to have my picture with "what's his name". Vital. Did we wait in line? No-we headed over to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride instead. Again, short line and Stephanie can ride. Double Bonus.

A few things we laughed at this time around were:

-"I don't like cotton candy. whew - glad that is out there"

-Brandon's amazing food consumption at Ruby's. Sidenote, that place was Delish!

-Indrillgestion

-Toy Story Mania and the new level. (what?)

-Pregnant wife = he-date, she-date

For a bunch of people who love the Disney, I think it was a very successful trip. Sadly, our trips to the parks are numbered as our connections dwindle. We still hold our hopes out that Cam will never leave and we'll get in on his dime next time around. A BIG shout out to our dear friends who thought of us to invite. We sure loved spending time with you. And Disney of course, we loved you too.

Sadly my picture taking efforts were less then par. I have so many pictures from Disneyland; how many times can you get a picture in front of the castle, or with the mouse, or standing in line before it is just all the same photo? Exactly.

Hoping to return in February.