California

The boys and I visited some friends this summer in California. The 3 of us drove, have I ever told you that I hate sitting still for long, if I haven't then let me tell you now, I hate sitting still for long amounts of time. It took us 2 days to get there and 1 day to get home. Can I tell you that having a GPS is awesome, if I haven't then let me, having a GPS is awesome. I get lost in my hometown, just ask my mother in law, she thinks it's funny. Anyway we stayed for a week and had such a great time. It was awesome to hang out with a girlfriend and talk and watch movies. When Kathryn and I get together there is just something about staying up late, eating junk and talking. Looking forward to her trip here next year and spending a few days at Great Wolf Lodge.

Us at China Town where the people are many and the trinkets are cheap.

Tavie and Jonah on a playground. That girl is a blast to watch, she is so dramatic.

Yeah, you read that right, Ghirardelli, a place that's whole focus is chocolate. Lets see; we had ice cream with chocolate syrup, whip cream and nuts, the chocolatest (is that a word?) hot chocolate ever and if that wasn't enough we went into a room that was lined with different flavors of, yeah you guessed it, chocolate.

The boys on the Golden Gate Bridge. That is a darn long bridge. The boys and I started at one end and ran/walked to the other and then walked back. Poor Jonah was begging me to stop and turn around but I wouldn't let him. I was so proud of them and knew they could do it. There were so many people on that bridge.

The bridge spans over 6700ft. WOW! More info here.

Vacation

We got to finally go see the Grand Coulee Dam light show in Eastern Washington. Something Jason has been wanting to do for a while now. We camped out for 2 nights and enjoyed some camping, beautiful scenery, wind and lots of sand.
This Dam was HUGE. This part of the dam, when the light show was going on they let the water in so that it was the backdrop for the light show. The laser light show was not what I expected. I was really impressed. I was just expecting lasers to be going all over but it actually had a purpose. It gave the history of why the dam came to be and it did this by having pictures done using the laser lights and there was sound to. It was definitely educational.

Vacation

Here are the Dry Falls. If you can enlarge the 1st pictures you can find out about them. It is pretty amazing. This goes back to the Ice Ages and a body of water in Montana. They had some before pictures and how the fall looked before it became the "Dry Falls" absolutely beautiful.

Here is how it looks. We camped not to far from the back of the fall so we drove around to check it out. It is amazing how this formed; sheet of ice moved into Washington, Idaho and Montana. A large lake in Montana helped the formation of the Dry Falls. When the lake grew it broke threw the ice damn and rushed into northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. "As the floods in this vicinity raced southward, two major waterfalls formed along their course. The larger was that of the upper coulee, where the river rared over an 800-foot cliff. The eroding power of the water plucked pieces of basalt front he precipice, causing the falls to retreat 20 miles and self-destruct by cutting through to the Columbia River valley near what is now the Grand Coulee Dam." information was taken from the Washington State Parks and Recreation pamphlet. They can explain it much better than I could, they also understand it a little better.

This was taken at a lake on our way home. This is Diablo Lake the water is so cool. It is a blue-green. The color comes from the powdery -stuff (sorry not sure what that stuff is called, there is some kind of big name for it) that come from rocks grinding together. When the light hits the powdery-stuff it makes it appear this color.

Vacation

Here are some amazing views we were lucky enough to see on our trip.

Here is a baby deer right up from our car as we were driving around checking out different spots.

Which one of these are not like the other!? I thought this was pretty cool. It was a wind mill garden. They were made out of all kinds of different things; pie plates, cups, spokes, and tea kettles. I thought they were neat. I love people's creativity.

Another amazing view.

Grand Coulee

Here is our campsite and the lake that was at the campground. Check out the view in these pictures. Unbelievable.

Here is the boys and dad (Jonah's feet are in there if your look closely) making scooby snacks. Jason and Jonah went on a boyscout camp out (Jonah was able to go because mom and Jeffrey were at cub scout day camp) and learned how to make these from an experienced camping leader. All there is to these things are wheat flour and enough water to make dough, you then throw them on the coals, yep right on those suckers, they decided to do them on the lid of Jason's dutch oven, a little less messy. The boys love them. Jonah chose them for our Family Home Evening treat. We made them right on our stove top .