California Girls... and boy!!!

As I mentioned before, we were able to take a trip to Californ-I-A.  And, well, I am finally here to tell you about it.  Between planning girls camp, the ward campout, and various family reunions, I have had limited time to blog.  Sorry folks.  And unfortunately because we have been so busy, our summer has flown by.  How about yours?

Anyways, after school let out for Mark this year, we loaded up the car and headed out to beautiful, sunny California.  Mark's parents were remodeling their home and needed help painting the bedrooms.  So we decided to get out of dodge and help them out.  I can't say that I did much of it, but we successfully painted 5 bedrooms, installed new light switches and plates, as well as new baseboards in each room.  It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to a house.  Amongst all the hard work, we were able to sneek away for some fun.  Here's a few things we did.

We were able to visit the Folsom City Zoo.  It was a cute little zoo, not much to look at, but the kids had fun!  The exciting thing about this zoo was there were TONS of peacocks and chickens roaming freely about the zoo.  The kids had a great time "following" (of course not chasing) the animals.

Grandma, what's so interesting over there?

Another cool thing this zoo has, was a mini train.  Again the kids had a lot of fun, and truth be told, us adults had fun too!

As far as the zoo animals go, we did see a tiger!

And three small bear cubs!

We were also about to sneek away and go swimming.  Believe it or not, our sunny California vacation was not such a sunny California vacation.  It rained almost everyday, and we built a fire almost every night.  Crazy huh?  But thank goodness for INDOOR pools (don't even get me started on the pool they just built in Rexburg).  Anyways, grandma took us all to the pool she excercises at.  Everyone enjoyed the break from the work.

This was practically Abby's first time in a real pool.  Mark taught her how to relax and float on her back.  She thought it was pretty cool.

Hannah absolutely loved the water.  If it would have been shallow enough, she would have been all over the place.

Hannah and daddy's trick! (I have a cute video of this too, but I am not sure how to download it to our computer.)

Happy smiles show me they had a great time.  Thanks again grandma!


Mark and I were able to sneek away long enough to do some sealings in the Sacramento Temple.  This is an absolutely gorgeous temple.  I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to go inside.

Unfortunately our days in California ended, (I am SO looking forward to our next trip...whenever that is!)  And we headed home via Provo, Utah.  My brother and his wife had their baby on the day we left, so we decided to stop by and see him.  It was a pretty miserable drive for all of us, but it was worth it in the end to see little baby Broc.

Firsts things first, our family picture at the Bonneville Salt Flats
(Now how many of you have the same pic, huh?)

Despite the miserablely, long, boring, and not to mention UGLY drive, Hannah did have a few smiles along the way.  (Abby on the other hand was absolutely miserable)

 Now, this is what greeted us when we got there.  We quickly forgot about the past 13 hours and decided it was all worth it.  Congrats Cody and Anne!  He is a cutie!

  Hannah was so interested in baby Broc.  She wanted to hold him and kiss him.  If he hadn't of been just a couple of hours old, we probably would have let her.  It makes me think about how much fun she will have with her new little sister.

The next day before we headed home to Rexburg, we visited baby Broc again...so cute.  Then we took the girls to the Provo Temple.  The girls loved walking around the temple grounds and it was the most gorgeous day of the summer yet. (We actually got to pull out some shorts!)

 Beautiful Mt. Timpanogos!  It was crazy how much snow was still on it!

We had a wonderful vacation, and are sad it is already come and gone.