California knows how ta partay....

Wish you were here.... Oh wait, I wish I was still there.... We just got back from Cali late Friday night, or actually really early Saturday morning if we are getting technical (3:00 am puh-lease, we were supposed to be home by 11:00 pm, I'll explain later...). It was the most fun I have had in a while. My sister Stacy & her family live in Monterey & were kind enough to let us come spend spring break with them. So much to get to & I am going to overload you with pix, but hey, this is actually the scaled down version, so don't hate. A joke me a make, pix are the best part right? The pic above is from the evening we went to Carmel Beach & had a bonfire/BBQ/smore party. It was uber gorgeous & so much fun. When we first arrived it was raining & I said, we'll at least stay a minute & watch the waves crash & like 10 min later the storm had passed & we were able to stay & do the whole shabang. This was one of our fave things we did while we were there, here's a few more pix (by the by, I am not necessarily going in order of when we actually did stuff)....


We also went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (it's the one in the movie "Seven Pounds", fabu), so awesome, the boys loved it! They had sharks & jelly fish and all sorts of sea-a-deasy life, it was sweet cause Stacy & Chris had managed to get some passes from people in their ward so we were able to forgo the $30 entrance fee & get in for free instead (always a much better plan). Here's some pictorials....

This place called Point Lobos was also another favorite of ours. We did a little hike to get to where you look out & I feel like I keep repeating myself, but I don't know how else to describe it, it was AMAZING! There were 30-40 ft waves coming up & crashing right on the rocks by us. We definitely got wet a few times. Oh, & you could see a bunch of seals & sea lions playing in the water & on a rock a little ways out. Breathtaking.....


Here is a couple other random pix...

Jaden & Aly kickin it at the Tide Pools

My boyz at the beach livin it up Cali style

Us at the Pier on Cannery Row

Alright, now for the whole getting home 4 hours later than planned, scroll to the next pic & you'll start to understand. We got to Donner's Pass & it was a nightmare, this is actually a modest picture of the snow, it was much worse in other places (this is just when I happened to think to click a photo of it). We got through this huge long line & then realized that Chains were required on our car (p.s. we had taken the Prism to save on gas) from that point on. Do you think that we just had an extra pair of chains laying around? Nope. We had to turn back around, buy some, install them & go back through the line & then go through a winter wonderland......in April......in California! What? But we made it home safe & sound! That's all I asked for the whole ride home, literally, I don't think that I have ever said so many prayers on a road trip before!


Thank you sooooooo much O'gwins for such a ball of a time! Mike & I fell in love with Monterey. We kept joking that we were going to move out there. But it wouldn't be a joke if we had a few extra million dollars laying around. Every day was an adventure & you could be somewhere & then drive just 2 miles in a different direction & it looks like you are in a completely different place. Everything was beyond beautiful, but the best part of it all was getting to spend time with the fam! Love you guys! We did a bunch more stuff that I am going to blog about soon, with more pix! But this was all the time I had to put up right now. So, this post is to be continued... As are most of my posts I've noticed. Still need to get on to continue them. Soon. But the one that goes along with this one is a definite go! Miss you already Monterey, Stacy, Chris, Aly, Lise & Kate! Air Kisses!