***** Edited to add - I cannot, for the life of me, get blogger to post my pictures at the end of my post. Because I am a bit obsessive compulsive, I cannot bring myself to post this with the pictures at the beginning. They will follow in a later post. :) *****
Well, I am making another attempt to rejoin the blogging world. I, clearly, have been out for a while. I have had many moments that I have wanted to post about, but before I am able to, something else happens and I don't want to write about it yet because I still haven't written about the first thing, and so on and so on until months have passed and I find myself here with a much out-dated blog! So instead of trying to recap all that I've missed, I'm starting with a clean slate - only with what is currently on my mind.
We recently took a trip with the girls. They knew we were going to go see my sister and grandparents in Napa, California. But what they didn't know was that we were taking them to Disneyland for 3 days first. In fact, they did not know that we were going there until about 10 minutes before the shuttle picked us up from the hotel. To say they were excited would be a complete understatement!
After three action-packed days in Disneyland, we headed north up to Napa where we got to see my sister and grandparents. David and I got to do a little wine tasting, which was fun, and my sister treated the girls and I to a delicious lunch at the Neiman Marcus Cafe in San Fransisco (or An Frascisco, as Anna calls it!) The girls got to see their "California friend" as well.
After Napa, we completed our little tour of the west with a trip to the Grand Canyon. I've grown up going there for family vacations and I have to admit - I had totally taken it for granted. It is amazing. We truly have a creative God. In fact, Abigail told me that she was glad God was God and not her, because she would not have thought of making something so beautiful. The girls were quite the little troopers - we hiked about a fourth of the way down, and of course, back up. They made it all the way on their own, except for Abigail, who was carried only the last 10 steps. She had had her limit!
After each trip, David has started making a simple bullet point list of our favorite memories from the trip to help us remember things we might otherwise forget. We asked the girls to help out with the list this year, and while many of these won't make sense to you all, they are all special to us, so for that reason, I'm including it here:
Day 1
-Cinnamon Peanut Butter
-El Taco Tote
-messy back seat burritos
Tucson
-bad sushi
-Man Vs. Wild
On the way to L.A.
-Joshua Tree National Park
-Anna & Mommy beat Abigail & Daddy
-saw no Joshua trees
Disneyland & California Adventure
-"Errands" become Disneyland
-First ride was Dumbo
-Anna's faves: "Winnie and the Pooh" and Dumbo
-Abigail's faves: Thunder Mountain and the Rapids ride at California Adventure
-Churros!!
-Lunch at the Pirates of the Caribbean restaurant (not at all scary, or like the movie!)
-Princess dinner
-Interactive Toy Story rides
-Pouring down rain (on Thunder Mountain!)
-Daddy never got to see Tom Sawyer's Island
-Mommy didn't get to ride the Matterhorn (dad gum that rain!)
-One of everyone's faves was Peter Pan
Drive to Napa
-Stopped at Hearst Castle
-Fascinating!
-Playing in the ocean at sunset (Brrrr!)
-Pasos Robles
-Slow laundry night (bad drier!)
-"Pizza Magetcha"
Napa
-Saw Aunt Amanda
-Saw Grandma & Grandpa Whitney
-Went to Stenson Beach
-Winding roads & car sick girls
-Sand castles
-Anna asking the surfer if he was sky diving
-Anna said of the surfer's (long haired, male) friend, "Look, mom. That girl went surfing too!"
-Anna speaks "whinese"
-Wine tasting
-Hanging out with John and Claire
-Nieman Marcus Cafe - girls had bad cheeseburgers, but yummy chocolate fondu
-Sea Lions at Pier 39
-Our bare bones room at the Napa Valley Veteran's home hotel, where the heater was about 2 feet from one of the beds
-Abigail's dream about being in a room where all the walls were heaters
-Riding in Amanda's convertible
Long drive to Flagstaff
-Almost running out of gas in the Mojave Desert
Flagstaff
-Cold Stone Creamery, Thai food
-"tubey" scarf
-Grand Canyon hiking
-Popcorn and apples
-David got a little competitive the last 5 minutes (not wanting the people behind us to catch up and pass us) so pushed the girls a little more than they could handle!
General
-Out of the way Trader Joe's
-"Shcottie Dawgs"
-mouth pointing
-16 hours in the car
-Ami's faves CD
-Shuggie Otis on the dash
If there is anyone still reading (and I don't blame anyone who is not, that list was really for us, so therefore, boring to anyone who was not there!) here are some pictures:
