We just got back from our trip to California. We arrived to overgrown weeds knee high in our front yard which was a little disappointing to say the least. Especially since we’ve been working really hard to clear the yard out. I can’t decide if I’m more annoyed with the overgrown weeds or with my overgrown eyebrows! I totally forgot to pack tweezers for my trip. But I’m sure everything will be well manicured soon.
It was a big downer to be in CLOUDY California for 2 weeks and be reminded several times that it was SUNNY almost the entire time here in Washington. What are the odds?!
For my twitter followers – no I didn’t pack a sweater. I rebelliously wore tank tops, flip flops and other summer wear the entire time.
But enough with the small annoyances. I had a really great time hanging out with my friends and family. Am I glad to be home? 
Well I’d be more glad if my suitcases would unpack themselves. Being home increased my awareness to how much my children grew while we were away. Alyssa went straight up to the forbidden DVD’s and barley used her tippy toes to reach the DVD’s! I guess her piggy can come off of time out now. (Here’s the reminder picture) As for Evan, he thinks anything on the floor is for eating (especially lint) and he’s also army crawling like crazy and is even crawling up stairs! So I’m pretty much about to pin him to the ceiling anytime now.
Oh right – enough with the small talk. I suppose what you really want to see are pictures from our trip. I’ll try to make it brief. :)
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Our first major outing was to the local petting zoo with my sister, her son Andrew and my parents. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go over because Alyssa has been afraid animals lately. But we went and although she was timid and didn’t touch any of the animals I think it was a good experience for her.
I let Evan pet the animals with his feet. He seemed to like it. hehe
This horse almost ate his cheerio holder! yikes. 
She enjoyed the ducks the best because she was able to throw food AT them. lol
We were really excited to see our good friends Matt & Melissa and their son Cayden a few times during our trip. When we first arrived we went to their house for a day trip. Alyssa and Cayden really enjoyed chasing after each other around the house and laughing. They wore themselves out and it was an amazing feat to have all three kids go down for naps at the same time (and bed for that matter) so that we could resume our tradition of playing Rook late into the night! (See Melissa’s blog for a similar summary of our trip with way cuter pictures! hehe)
Next on the agenda was a get together with my high school friends. I’m hitting myself for not getting a group picture of my friends, but we did get cute pictures of the newest babies of 2009 from oldest to youngest. Madison, Evan, Jake & Zoey. This is a plea to my friends to send me their pictures from the party! :)
One of the main events of our trip was my sister’s 29th Birthday. Uh, which means I’ll be turning 31 soon…but not that soon. :) If you’ve never met my sister, you’re missing out. We’re total opposites, but share a sense of humor. I’d like to say I’m funnier than her, but right now it could be a toss up. Or maybe she’s not that funny, but fun to laugh at! lol hehe just kidding. Just to give you a random piece of information about my sister. She’s gone through more cell phone services (which means cell phones as well), dogs and cars as I go through - well let’s just say it’s a lot. And why you ask? Well because you can’t have any of those things for more than a few months without some sort of excuse to get a new one right?! lol
We also used her birthday party as an excuse to take a few family pictures. As you can see from this first one, we might should have hired a professional. We took several and this was the best one. :) Can you tell we were all smiling for way too long before the picture was taken?! lol
Sabrina, Evan, Luke, Alyssa
Linda, Mike (mom and dad)
Betty, Hollis (grandma and grandpa)
Sandra, Ken, Camila (my mom’s brother & his family
Kari, Andrew, Wes (my sister & her family)
Here’s a really cute one of my grandparents
And finally…the main event picture. We took this one last and now that I look back on this day we should have taken it first and we might have gotten a better picture. This is the picture my parents want to have blown up and placed over their fireplace…we’ll see how it works to crop it because our feet are already out of the picture. Maybe they should use the one of them and the grandkids instead. :)
So as you can see by the pictures above I may have been slightly exaggerating the fact that it was cloudy the entire time of our trip. But mostly it was – regardless, it was not what I was expecting. However, we were able to go swimming a few times in Kari’s heated pool and spa and the kids (and myself) LOVED every second of it.
This picture below cracks me up. With a Luke head being scratched and Andrew’s crazy face. hehe
All three cousins posing in the pool. :) So cute.
Speaking of posing. Let’s regroup and finish our trip at a later time. Whew, blogging this trip is a doosey!
