Cali Trip April 2007 Highlights

I never posted about the trip to Cali. Here are a few highlights. Pictures therefrom can be seen on my picasaweb. Get them while they're hot, because I'll probably take most of them off to make room for more later.

-We stopped at and walked on the Bonneville salt flats.


-Heidi and I watched all the episodes I had never seen of The Office season 1 and 2.

-We played with James every hour that he was awake.


-We stayed in the nicest hotel I've ever been to, and it was only 89/night, but it had no free breakfast. (It was in Sunnyvale. Or was it Mountain View? They're so close!) I gave up after three nights, because the snoring was interrupting my sleep too much. Amy and Paul's wool couch is really quite comfortable, and it's nice to wake up to James.

-All the girls and James went shopping at Target and Ross. I got some bermuda shorts, a couple of cute shirts, and a dress.

-Amy made amazing food every day. My favorite was the Greek meatball with cucumber yogurt sauce. Mmmmmm.

-We went to Amy's ward's Easter brunch. I decorated a paper egg. Sica and I snacked on all the peanut butter M&Ms, even though we'd eaten a whole bag on the way to Cali. Paul and Sica tied for first in the water-balloon-tossing competition. I impressed this brother because I could pick up four chairs (kinda weird).

-We watched model airplanes and walked around the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve, where we also learned from a sign what to do if we encountered a mountain lion. (How do you pick up children without bending? "Jump!")


-We hot tubbed at the hotel. Paul enjoyed it so much, he was plotting ways to have year-round access to the tub.

-James sat in the corner of the shallow part of the hotel pool and laughed his head off. He rarely laughs out loud, so it was hilarious to see him giggle at Heidi splashing.

-Somehow Sica convinced all of us to watch two of the LOTR movies. Wow. They are long. The second one was kind of pointless, because you have to watch the third one to see what happens. Oh well. I actually quite enjoyed them, I just felt like I could be doing other things in California with Amy and Paul and James. I do not like the really violent parts, though.

-I won at Settlers, which upset Paul, because he was about to win. I had just offered Amy my soldiers because I wanted someone to hurry and end the game. That didn't work, and neither did doing a trade just so she'd win. So, I just finished it up instead. (I remember the first time I played that game and I beat Uncle Rick at the Bear Trap Lodge. He was so mad, he stood up and said, "I'm gonna run you over with my car!" Ha ha.)

-I drove 95 through Nevada. What a bland state. Like Wyoming. (Except for Yellowstone, thank you for pointing that out senior year, Vande.)