Ruth's Spicy Tuna Roll

My parents came over that evening for dessert and just to visit.

On Saturday, we headed out to Ironwood to visit Daniel, James’ brother, who is working there for the summer.  It was a nice day.  We stopped at Ontario Mills Mall on the way out and also had a picnic lunch at a park…

My Love and I

We arrived at Ironwood and it was hot.  I drank a whole water bottle inside the first 30 min, and probably 2 more before we left.

Hanging out at the Homestead

We were given a tour of the property by Sheriff Tom Horton.  It was very nice to see how the property and ministry has grown.

Mom, Dad, and Ruth enjoying the tour but not the heat

We also saw Renae Archer, her sisters and a friend were visiting her.  After our very hot, but nice, tour we headed to Victorville for dinner.  Daniel joined us and we enjoyed a meal at The Original Smokehouse.  They have the best blackberry lemonade I have ever tasted.

My quart of Blackberry Lemonade

After dinner we hung out a little longer and then we headed home while Daniel headed back to Ironwood.

Sunday was church and Mom and Dad joined James and I at Bethel while Ruth went to Lighthouse.  It was a fun but interesting day since James and I only have a 3 seater truck and there were 4 of us…It took a little shuttling but we managed okay.  We walked to Wingstop for lunch and then went to Target.  For Dinner we decided Yougurtland sounded good so that is what we had.

James was able to take Monday-Wednesday off.  On Monday, we went to the Ronald Reagan Museum.  It was very touching and interesting.

My Love and I with Air Force One in the background

Picnic lunch at the Reagan Museum

Ruth and I

On the way home we decided to go to the Santa Monica Pier and promenade.

Mom and Dad at the 3rd St Promenade

We finished the night out with dinner at Chipotle and an adventure to find a mall!  It was a day full of fun, laughing, and teasing.

Tuesday we traveled to San Diego.  We drove down Pacific Coast Highway for part of the trip and then finished it out on the 5 fwy.  Our first stop was the zoo…

I love this man!

We took a 40 min bus ride around to see the animals and took some really nice pictures.  After getting off the bus, our first stop was the Koala’s,

He didn't want to fall

they were all sleeping so we moved on down Monkey trail to Albert’s where we enjoyed a relaxing lunch.  After stuffing ourselves we headed to see the Pandas.  And for those who know who he is, Brian Regan jokes were a special part of this.  Our next adventure was to see the Polar Bears…

One of my favorite animals!

We also saw elephants (Ruth’s favorite animal), zebras, giraffes, bears, and many other animals… After leaving the zoo we went to the motel 6 where we were spending the night… They had very interesting bedspreads.

The interesting bedspreads

After dropping our stuff off at the Motel, we headed out to a Padres/Dodgers game…It was a good game.

Taking a chance to smile

James was able to explain the game to a family visiting from England… It was very entertaining.  We stayed for the entire game and then headed back to the Motel for the night.  I still have many more adventures to tell you about… And lots more pictures to share!  To see pictures to this point click here

See Pictures here

I have been back at work for 2 days and I am already getting some extra hours so that is nice.  I am also coaching jr. high girl’s volleyball and the first game of our season is on Thursday.  I am looking forward to it… I am also hoping for a winning season, but I don’t know if I will get that.  Yesterday was James’ 24th birthday.  One of his students brought him a cake and we went out to dinner with my parents, Tim, and Ruth.  TGI Friday’s has good food and after we had stuffed ourselves we got our dessert to go and headed to our house to play some Wii and hang out.  It was a great ending to my vacation.

I am back to being busy.  I have volleyball practice Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri from 3:45-5:00.  The extra time is nice for James since it gives him time to work on stuff at school and church.  I am also able to volunteer in the school office and I really enjoy that.

I hope you all had a great vacation.

We left Oroville at 10:00 at night… Yes, that late!  We arrived at the Vacaville Outlets at Midnight. It was packed and crazy.  Some of the stores had lines down the side of the building and lines around the whole inside of the store.  It was so much fun… we left the outlets at 3:00 and headed to the JC Penney at Hilltop Mall we arrived there at 4:00 and did a little more shopping.  We went to Nations for breakfast and then headed home to get a few hours of sleep before we did more shopping. It was 6:00 and we were all tired, but we were back up and headed out shopping again at 11:00.  We hit Target, Kohl’s, Fry’s and Wal-Mart.  We arrived back home at 4:00 and we are definitely having a lazy evening at home.  Ruth fixed dinner and we are watching a Christmas movie as a family.

Good deals you ask. Of course we got some good deals, but I can’t reveal any of them since that is classified information until Christmas.  James and I did get a 4′ Christmas tree, a tree topper, and some ornaments.  Our first Christmas tree.

Tomorrow we are going to be decorating for Christmas and James and Dad are going to a car show.  We are having a great time and have had many good laughs.  Like today in the car I opened a bag of gummi bears and the bag exploded sending gummi bears all over the backseat.  We picked up as many as we could find and then dad decided to flick them out the window while we were sitting at a stop light. So he did… I found out that my family gets crazy when they are tired.  Check out Pictures here

We had a great trip… Lots of laughter, fun, and coffee.  We hit heavy fog going through the grapevine but Ruth handled it like a pro. We decided that Pixley is a very interesting town name and that California cows are happy because the smog makes them high.  We also decided that we like the 99 better than the 5 because of all the houses right by the road.  We got to the hotel where Mom was staying around 3:00 pm.  Mom got there just after 3:45 and Mom and Ruth opened birthday presents.  We went and walked around the small mall there.  It made Montclair Plaza look hugongous. We went to Red Robin for dinner and then back to the hotel.  All of this took 2 1/2 hours, but it was a great time with mom.

We headed home at 6:15.  We stopped for Starbucks in Delano and made the rest of the trip with no stops.  We started the trip in a Ford Focus Wagon and ended it in an ‘09 Versa with 600 miles on it when we left Fresno.  We arrived back at my apartment at 10:30 pm.  It was an 8 hour day in the car… 4 hours there and 4 home.

I missed James but enjoyed having a day off and spending time with Ruth.  It was nice to be home and my bed felt so good.  Check out the pictures here