Up the Coast

We began to make our way up the coast and stopped in San Francisco, a city which we also love. We wanted to show the kids the Golden Gate Bridge, so we made a stop with many other tourists. It happened to be a foggy day, no surprise, so we couldn't see the top of the bridge, but it was still neat. After we made our way across the bridge, we surprised the kids with a stop at the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. (It's a great free tour.) Unfortunately, there was over an hour wait, so we decided to make a quick stop in the store for some "belly flops" and be on our way. The Jelly Belly guy looks a little weird in the last picture, but at least our stop was documented!

Katie Joy Turns 17!

We celebrated Katie's birthday a little early since we were together with family (and would be driving on her big day). Emma, our cousin, was quite eager to make the day special for Katie. She offered help with decorations, present-opening and presented Katie with a princess crown that she thought would make Katie's day complete. Dan and Nesha were wonderful hosts and treated us all to a great day!

The day ended with birthday treats in the fountain.

Sunday in the Sun

One of our favorite spots in the whole world is Mount Hermon, a Christian conference center located in the Santa Cruz mountains. We were able to hang out there on Sunday. We attended the worship service (sitting out in the sunshine), swam in the pool, ran on the rec field, ate a great meal at my brother and sister-in-law's and celebrated Katie's birthday at the fountain. Fun times!

A Great Spot

After dinner we drove up to Natural Bridges State Park. We took some family pictures there a few years ago which are some of our favorites. A great spot to spend an evening!

Happy Anniversary!

We just finished a wonderful vacation! On our first day we made it up to my brother and his family in Santa Cruz. My parents were also visiting, so it was a nice time of our whole family being together. We were able to celebrate my parents' anniversary at a nice restaurant down by the wharf. What a beautiful evening!

Redlands' Bowl

One of the traditions many Redlanders (is that a word?) enjoy each summer is attending the concerts at The Redlands' Bowl. They have concerts there during the summer every Tuesday and Friday evening open to the public. Many people come during the day and set up blankets or lawn chairs to save their spot for the more popular concerts. It's a pretty relaxed atmosphere with people bringing their own food and drinks and meeting up with people they know. I'm always amazed how well attended these are. We've made it over for a couple of these performances and really enjoyed the musical, Cinderella, the other evening. The highlight was the carriage driven by real horses! The cast did a great job and it was a neat family outing on a warm summer evening.

Kam, Troy and I took a walk before it began to check things out.

Some of the crowd.

We were fortunate enough to sit by these lovely ladies.

The stage set for Cinderella.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

We found a sweet deal on Padres tickets (travelzoo.com) and decided to make the drive down to beautiful San Diego the other evening to catch a baseball game. We talked the Barents family into going with us which made for an extra fun outing. We were really impressed with the park and although the Padres didn't come out ahead, we had our own highlights: the 2nd baseman tossing the caught fly ball into the crowd after what he thought was the third out (It was really only the 2nd-oops!); the crowd cheering the pitcher's first strike after walking four batters in a row, the fireworks going off right next to us after a Padres player hit a home run in the ninth inning; the guy selling hot chocolate out of his backpack thing; and of course, Cindy's delicious homemade carmel corn!