Jelly Bellies on the Sacramento River

Ethan was given a few days of "house hunting leave" so we took the opportunity to see some sites as a family in our new hometown.  The first stop was the Jelly Belly factory.  We were all gung hoe to see a tour, but when we saw the line going out to the parking lot and heard the wait was over an hour, we decided that a couple photo ops and a stop in the gift shop were enough for us!

There were too many jelly bean portraits of Ronald Reagan to count!  He must have been a BIG fan!  

And this Lady Liberty all done up in beans is pretty impressive too!

The kids were dying to try the Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.  We bought them once in Oregon when Jonas was around 2.  We ate some, but didn't dare try more... the next thing we knew Jonas had the box and downed the whole thing!  Vomit flavor didn't even bother him, he was getting candy!!!  This time around he was a little less impressed and ended up spitting out a lot of candy!

They boys were excited to say "Slug Bug Jelly Belly!"

Since we found ourselves with a little more time than we expected we drove out to the Sacramento River in a neighboring city. I needed to feed the baby and the kids were dying to try all their new jelly bean flavors!

Ethan got a gross one! Ha!  I am a wimp and didn't try a single one of the gross flavors!

This box was hilarious... it had regular flavors like Chocolate Pudding and then an identical bean was flavored Canned Dog Food!  You just never knew what you were going to get!  Everyone got a big kick out of it!

Hopefully you can make this big and see what the flavors were.  The smell on some of these was enough to make me want to toss my cookies, I can't imagine eating them!

As we sat and enjoyed the beauty of the earth, we also enjoyed the beauty of our family.

I love this family of mine.  I'm so blessed.

Coast to Coast... almost there...

We arrived in California the night of July 18th so Ethan could report to work on the Friday, the 19th.  The kids and I dropped him off at the hospital and then we drove around the base until we found something fun to do.  We ended up at the Heritage Center which has a great flight museum.  The kids really liked the cockpits they got to play in.  

There was also a space capsule simulator they thought was totally awesome, but I didn't get any pictures of it.  They keep asking when we can go back,  so I think its safe to say their introduction to California was a success!

Saturday, July 20th we drove around the neighborhood where the house was we were trying to buy.  As we were driving along I spied a family out working in their yard and the mom had a BYU shirt on!  I made Ethan stop and I ran out to talk to her.  They invited us in and we stayed for quite a while.  They gave us all the info on what time to be at church and such and then they invited us over for dinner and FHE for the following Monday!  Their kids found ours after Sacrament meeting to take them to class and they are now the best of friends!

Mindy planned an awesome FHE on pioneers and then they had Pioneer Obstacle Course/Relay Race. Ethan snapped a few pics of the fun!

We were having a lot of trouble with the purchase of our home... the bank was making it extremely difficult for us to close on the loan and the seller was just about ready to give up on us.  That coupled with the additional money we needed to come up with for closing, unexpectedly, had us starting to look at rental homes in the area.

We were so unsure of where we would actually end up!  Thankfully, the TLF (Temporary Living/Lodging Facility) on base was a lot nicer here than we had experienced elsewhere.  We made some really good friends there and had lots of fun.

There were only two bedrooms and one sofa bed in the living room, so each night the kids would go to bed and Abraham would join Ethan on our bed for some solids.  Then he would go to bed in his Pack'n'Play in our closet.

One night Jonas thought he would wait in the hall closet for Eliza and Bolton to go to sleep.  He realized in the morning that he must have fallen asleep before them!

And poor Bolton wasn't able to get a good naptime in here because he could escape his room too easily.  So every evening around 5 he would crash as he watched TV with the older kids.

I'm a big fan of this picture.  Bolton holds his face in such a cute way, it melts me!  And then Ethan's expression... we both think Bolton is a little cutie!

On Friday, July 26 the kids and I ventured out of our normal playground to try a new one.  It was a major hit!  Hooray!!!

Oh, I love this baby.  He is such a sweetheart!

The kids really love him too.  They were all so eager to take him on the slide.

And the highlight of the day... this mother duck nested down under the stairs of the playground.  Not the best idea for her, but the kids thought it was the most awesome thing ever.  The little ducklings were so cute!

And then on Saturday, July 27th we decided to take the kids out to Muir Woods.  We were all excited to go out and be in nature and finally make it to the Pacific Ocean!  However, it was not in the stars for us... there was some national race happening (kind of like NASCAR, but I'm not exactly sure what...) that had traffic backed up something fierce!  So we got off that road as soon as we could and drove around until we found something fun to do.  We ended up at the Benicia Waterfront Festival where we had expensive lunch, listened to a fun 80s band, and let the kids have some adventure.

What kid doesn't love a good bounce house?  Mine certainly do.  They were ecstatic we let them bounce!  We're usually far too cheap. :)  

At the booth next door they were doing free (free!) kids crafts.  The kids made Ojo de Dios and paper plate fish.  They had a lot of fun doing it... creating is fun for all (or at least most).  Then it was time to leave, so we bid adieu to the waterfront (which is the Carquinez Straight).  

 

We were so close to the Pacific Ocean, but not quite did we make it coast to coast yet! 

Coast to Coast: Utah!

We always love our time in Utah!  We drove in Friday night and crashed at the Woody's.  The kids were quick to find the dress ups.  Don't they look cute? 

 Saturday afternoon was my niece Lucy's baptism.  They came down from Washington to do it with everyone in the family and I was so happy that we got to be there.  The church was a big reunion for all of us.  We saw people we haven't seen in ages!  And we saw some that we saw just last year when we moved to Kentucky.  Eliza loves her little cousin Claire!

I was also honored that Lucy asked me to speak at her baptism.  It was really special and I'm so happy that she asked me.  She is a sweetheart!

After the baptism we took the kids to be babysat at Sean and Heather's so the kids could all play.  Then Ethan and I headed to the Brigham City Temple where we did an Endowment session with my family. My cousin Zack died a few years back and we gathered together to get his work done.  My Dad was able to proxy for him and it was a very special experience.  We were only missing one of my brothers in the temple (we missed you Dennis!)... hopefully next time we can all be there together.

Then we had dinner at Maddox and it was yummy!  We picked the kids up from Sean's and headed back out to the Woody's.  We got up Sunday morning and attended church with Jane.  I like her ward.  I participated more in their Sunday School lesson than I have in a long time in my own ward.  Mostly because we talked about sharing the gospel and I had a lot to say to try to help them see that they don't need to be afraid!

That evening we had dinner with my family and we played the funniest game with everyone!  We were split into three teams.  Then Dave (who was the moderator) told us an adjective (like quickest, fattest, or longest) and we had to choose someone was our team to up and compete against the other teams.  Then Dave would tell us what had to be the quickest (to burp), fattest (wallet), or longest (hold their breath).  It was so funny!!!  My mom is either trying to hold her breath or make herself burp...

The kids thought it would be a good idea to see who had the smelliest feet.

Monday night we did family pictures with my family.  I had to do some shopping to find Eliza and me something to wear (Ethan and I bought clothes for the boys on Saturday) so my mom and Adrienne all went out together.  We even met up with Heather.  It was a fun day.  The evening of shooting was less fun for me.  The baby was terrified of the photographer and he screamed a lot.  But we ended up with some great pictures nonetheless.  I usually bring my camera and takes lots of photos, but my phone was the only picture taking device I had with me since the camera died in North Carolina, so this is the only picture of the night!  I just love the dress I found for Eliza!

 We spent most of our trip just hanging out with family.  I sure love our families.  Lucy was so sweet with Abe.

And then Wednesday was Eliza's birthday!  We, of course, had to party, but Scott had his shoulder replacement surgery scheduled for Wednesday so we chose to have the party Tuesday night instead.  I was planning on just doing cake and ice cream, but Ron wanted to show us some authentic Navajo Tacos, so he came and cooked dinner for everyone.   It was a perfect evening.

We even got to meet Tom's youngest two!  Ryan and Lizzie are just adorable!

Eliza sure loves her "funny uncle", Sean.

She was showered with gifts.

We played Pin the Leaves on the Strawberry.  She wanted Strawberry shortcake for her cake, so we went with a strawberry theme.

Dalton missed the poster by a long shot...

We took a picture of all the kids still there at the end of the night, we were missing Cade, Ari, & Sophie; Caroline, Ryan, & Lizzie; Ethan, Spencer, Skye, & Gavin; Luke. So, you can imagine what a crowd was there during the bulk of the party!

Then the next morning after getting a blessing to try to figure out our house situation in California we hit the road!  The final leg of our journey!