California Love

This post is long overdue, but here it is. Back in mid-May my dad and Rhonda treated us to a trip to California. My dad and the family moved from Denver, CO to Dixon, CA (a small town right in between Sacramento and San Francisco) a little while back and this was our first visit out to see them. We had an amazing time! My dad's new house is absolutely gorgeous. In fact, we had a lot fun just hanging around there. We spent a good amount of time relaxing in the pool in the backyard and in front of their humongous flat screen TV. We also got to roam the city streets of Sausalito (SO pretty) and San Francisco (Pier 39 was probably my favorite part). We went to Napa Valley and saw the beautiful wine country, watched my little brother Devon play in a football game, ate some delicious food, went hiking through Muir Woods (known for their famous Redwood trees), celebrated Devon and Ryan's birthdays, and took a tour of Alcatraz. We definitely had enough to keep us busy while we were there! The whole trip was really wonderful and it's all thanks to my family. Thank you Dad, Rhonda, Devon, and Missy for making the trip possible and for making it so much fun! We love you and miss you tons already. We can't wait until we get to visit again! It's so awesome that you live somewhere cool that we can come and visit but it stinks that you are so far away... Who knows, maybe we'll end up in California for Ryan's residency and we can be neighbors! After that trip, we are definitely keeping California in mind! :)

P.S. I thought I would mention an unexpected perk of the trip. When we stopped in Phoenix to catch our connecting flight to Sacramento, Ryan's old mission buddy & college rommate and his family came to see us! They happen to live just a few minutes away from the airport and so we planned to meet them for breakfast during our 2-hour layover. It was so good to see Brimhall and his wife and their adorable son. (We didn't have a camera so we couldn't take a picture with them when we were in AZ, but here is an older picture of Joe and Tanner.)