Second Stop - Palm Springs

A few pictures of the Palm trees... I had to, we were in Palm Springs and they are just so cool!

Too cute for words

Family Photo at the wonderful Hotel we stayed at in Palm Springs

Thanks to Annie...aka: Miss Direct! :)

We love you Annie...and not just because you saved us many a times during our trip...you're awesome!

My wonderful sister-in-law, oh,

and me too!

So sweet

"Look into my eyes"

I love how sweet Brent and Ali are towards each other.

One of my favorite moments with them is when they get up from a nap or wake up in the morning...both of them immediately run towards each other with the biggest smile on their face yelling:

Alice: Goooood morning brudder (while embracing him mid sentence)

Brent: Hiiii Ali, good morning!

It kills me everytime!

Sunshine + adorable nieces = photo shoot

Our trip to San Francisco!!! The weather was perfect for a quick trip to San Fran and so we enjoyed many of the popular high-lights in a fast paced trip through the city. As I'm sure you can see we didn't really ride on the trolley, just took advantage of it while it was sitting all alone on the street! We also walked down Pier 39 and saw and smelled the Sea Lions.

The famous Lombard Street~ My Mom drove down while Kristine and I walked down the stairs on the side. One of the funniest parts of driving through San Francisco was my Mom's reaction to the big hills! I believe I captured her on my video phone screaming as she drove straight up one of the enormous streets. However, the picture to the left will have to do! :)The worst part was when we had to stop at a stop sign. It felt like if stopped we would go screaming backwards hitting everyone and everything in our way. Good times and lots of laughs! :)

My favorite picture of the Golden Gate Bridge is the one to the above with Kristine. We had quite the adventure trying to find out how to get to the spot where Kristine and I are pictured on above on the right and below. I had been there before but, I couldn't remember what road lead to the top. After driving ALL the way around a mountain we finally found our destination and it was well worth it. We were very grateful for the beautiful weather that made it easy to see and enjoy the sights. As you can see from the picture on the right, with my Mom and I, it was rather windy. The picture on the left is a picture of me in the army bunkers that were used to protect the bay in the mid 1900's.

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY

My Mom, Kristine and I wanted to, at some point, check out some of the museums down in the L.A. area. We knew there were plenty to choose from we just didn't know which one would be the best for our buck. As we headed North, in search of a museum we had noticed earlier, we got all turned around. After taking the wrong exit we noticed the Highway Patrol building. We decided to stop in there and ask for directions. My Mom was picked for the job! :D As Kristine and I sat in the car for a good 10 minutes she soon came out smiling. Turns out the guy she talked to had a better place for us to visit. She said he kept getting all excited as he talked about this other museum. So, she was sold. He gave us directions to The Huntington Library, which was only a few exits away. Well, as you will see in the following pictures, it was well worth it! It would have been very easy to spend a full day walking around the grounds. Each garden brought out so much of the beauty in God's creation. What a blessing it was to get lost and be led to an even better museum than we hoped for.

The Gutenberg Bible -------------------->

Sittin' and relaxing, taking a look at the map and deciding where to go next.


Kristine and I thought these stone dogs were neat looking. There were two of them. One on each side of the entrance. You can't have too many pictures with stone statues.

Located on the grounds of the Huntington Library they had numerous buildings housing a huge art collection. Mr. Huntington, himself, collected most of the art throughout his lifetime. You can see how enormous the paintings are in the picture to the left. Makes me look so little! I don't know very much about art and painting however, some of these paintings even took my breath away in the detail.
My Mom is standing next to the famous painting "Pinkie" for more information on "Pinkie" click here
and scroll down a little.

The picture below, of Kristine and I, was just another photo opportunity next to a pretty fountain.



My favorite garden to walk through was the Japanese Garden. When you first enter the gardens it is breath taking. The picture is a view of what you see as you walk in...If you closely you can see Kristine and me sitting down below by the koi pond.

Home sweet home! Huntington Beach is the beach my Mom grew up at so, there was a lot of reminiscing while there. Our friend Sheri (In the picture she is on the right), known as the 10th child in my Mom's family, spent the day with us at the beach. At the end of the day she was so kind as to treat all of us to dinner at Ruby's, the restaurant at the end of the Pier. You can kind of see it in the picture above. We were able to see the sun set out over the ocean as we ate our dinner. Our afternoon was spent relaxing on the beach soaking up the warm sun, the weather was perfect, not too hot and not to windy. We also walked along the waters edge, Kristine would have gone all the way in if she had a friend that liked the ocean. ;) Unfortunately, her friend isn't a big fan of salt water and the uncomfortable, itchy feeling you have when you get out...I never really have been a beach person, I'm more of the camping/woodsie kind of girl. Kristine and I did enjoy rollerblading along the path. We felt like true Californians! We even stopped for an ice cream cone on our way back, defeating the whole purpose of rollerblading but enjoying it nonetheless! Overall our beach day was a success. I think I'm safe in saying it was one of our favorite days during our time in California. If we didn't have a schedule to keep to I believe my Mom would still be there soaking up the sun! The California beach is one thing she misses a lot!

Palm TREES!!!! It's definitely Southern California! On our way down to the Bazinet's (family friends) on a last minute whim we decided to drive through and check out some of the fancy homes in Hollywood. Our goal was to take a picture of the sign however, we found it was a hard task to take on. Everyone is so rushed in California, another reason I love Oregon. I am shocked the picture shown below turned out. We ended up driving to the top of a hill and stopping so I could poke my head out of our sun roof and capture this shot. It, also, was fast paced, in fact, I think I snapped it on my way down so the car behind us could pass. All that just to have proof we saw the Hollywood sign. ;) It was amazing to see how people live down there. Makes me love Oregon all the more! Eventually, we made it down to West Covina and stayed the night at the Bazinet's. Then, in the morning we drove N. To Sun Valley for church. It was neat hearing Pastor John MacArthur in his home church. I'm usually not a big fan of big choirs in churches (mostly when it has a showy feel) however, singing with the Grace Choir was amazing. At one point I closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like to be in Heaven and sing and rejoice in the presence of our Almighty God and how amazing it is that we will sound even better than what I was hearing at that moment. It was an incredible feeling.

This post is dedicated to my niece, Marybeth, and the fun times we enjoyed with her. One of her favorite times was spent at the park with all 5 of us grown ups and her and Aedan. She loved the swing as you can see on the right. I really enjoyed our times of reading. Grandma Morris
gave her 5 huge Disney books and I believe we read through most of them during our first visit. I think she would have had me read them all in one sitting if I would have given her that option! Jenn has taken on home-schooling her children (which I think is wonderful) and Marybeth is doing very well and loves to learn. Below: Aunt Melinda and Marybeth, cuddle time. She loves to cuddle, and I love that she loves to.

Above: Kristine, Marybeth and myself (behind the camera) playing the good ol' fashion game of Chutes and Ladders. Fun times!

Aunt Melinda and Aedan at 3 months old.


Aunt Melinda and Aedan at 9 months old.
Gotta love the fact that I am wearing the same outfit! :)

Kristine and Aedan hit it off really well. It took him a little while to warm up to us but once he did he was as happy as can be.

Home Again

Our trip to California was wonderful! Thank you to all that prayed for us while we were gone! The Lord blessed us and kept us safe in many ways and we are so grateful to Him for it! I will post more pictures through the weeks ahead of our highlights. We took plenty of pictures! :) To start with here is an updated picture of my brother, Kevin, and his lovely family. We stayed with them our first two nights and then again our last two nights in California. Now that I think about it I wish I would have taken pictures of our set up, because Jenn did an amazing job in preparing our beds and making us feel comfortable. Marybeth was a joy to see. She lit up the room and made us laugh with all her silly faces and remarks. She is a very loving, caring and an energetic little girl. Aedan is absolutely the best baby I have ever seen. He is very smiley and very content where ever you put him. He is definitely a Daddies boy because when ever Kevin was around his face would light up and he would laugh and smile the whole time. So sweet! I can't wait to meet Madeleine. Jenn is expecting to go in on November 9th I believe for the scheduled C-section.