Thanksgiving 2017 Trip, Part 1.

It has been an adjustment learning to deal with vacation time instead of school breaks. And in order for Brandon to keep his student loan repayment, he can only take off a few weeks a year. So when we found out that he would only need to take 3 personal days to have an entire week off at Thanksgiving, we took advantage of that! We hadn't seen my grandmas in a while, and haven't seen my siblings for a while either. It is hard when we don't have a home base anymore to all meet up. So we decided to go to Utah!

We drove to Bakersfield (just about 90 minutes south) the first night, just to get a tiny head start. The hotel took forever to get the pack n play to us, so this is what James had to sleep in at first. 

  

 A few months ago I learned about a "live list", which is similar to a bucket list that only has 10 items on it at once. The first thing I wanted to do from the list is visit the Seven Magic Mountains in Las Vegas.

Cora was freezing, she said "it snow dad?" Poor kid, it was only 55 degrees. Not freezing. 

I was in the middle of making James a hat, and I didn't quite finish it. Poor kid.

The rest of the trip went without incident. We got dinner in St. George and ran around the temple grounds for a while to get Cora's energy out. Temple 32 for us!

It was 25 degrees when we got there, and we were FREEZING. Poor James' face was so red, I think he got a tiny bit sunburned at the Seven Magic Mountains. Either that or he is just too sensitive. Only Vaseline helped.

Labor Day weekend trip, day 2.

The next day was Sunday. The wards near us were at odd times, but there was a Santa Monica ward that started at 10 AM and we had already planned to go down there so off we went.

We got to drive down the PCH to Malibu, which was beautiful.

 The building was extremely old and had some beautiful stained glass windows.

 After that we went to the LA temple visitor's center, because it was a record breaking heat wave and we were all sweating our brains out. This was a sweet picture...

 ... followed by what actually happened.

  I love our little family.

  Poor Cora was so tired... so obviously we tried to go to an insanely crowded place. The Santa Monica Pier!

 Seriously, more crowded than Disneyland.

 They had a carousel, so I thought Cora might love it. BOY DID SHE!

 "Woo-hoo!"

End of Route 66

 I didn't know if Cora would be tall enough for the other rides, so we just decided to skip trying those.

On the way back, I convinced Brandon to drive a few miles away and see the house from Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire. It had crazy high bushes and trees all around it, so this was the best picture I got.

 Yes, I did stick my hand through the gate to get those pictures. Totally worth it, a big part of my childhood!

Rest of our Utah Trip, September 2016- Cousins and Friends

We loved our time with the cousins and friends when we were in Utah!

Cora loves her bear backpack leash. She wanted to hike the Y that way.

 But she only made it that far before they had to turn back.

 Bethany's first official hike to the Y as a cougar!

 Graham and Cora LOVED eating the peaches off great grandpa's peach tree.

 Graham really wanted Cora's bottle.

 Hugs.

 We got to visit (the outside of) the Provo City Center temple! Notice poor Cora's feet. Her shoes from the wedding cut huge blisters into the back of one foot (ankle roll problems) so she had to wear socks and ace bandages for a while.

 Poor baby.

 

 Then Cora got a fever and was sick for a few days.

 It was so fun to see Jamie and Clay and meet baby Abigail! Cora was more than happy to run around the park, and got super hot and sweaty.

 I also got to see my old roommate Lindsay who I haven't seen in SIX years. Cora was obviously thrilled.

 Not a cousin picture, but still cute.

 They liked the old Provo Library. I was dying from the construction and death traps.

 It was fun going to pupusas in Provo.

Cora loves having so many other people around her to play with. So did I!