Reminising in L.A.

Traffic in L.A. was so different than in Colorado. I think even I was a little culture shocked about the pace of the city on a Friday Night. We made it and safety after 16 hours of driving. It wasn't too bad. Celia and Joseph each got bags of rocks at a souvenir shop on the way. Celia picked some rose quartz and black obsidian while Joseph mainly picked petrified wood. I felt like a tourist all through Arizona, but once we hit Barstow my homing radar kicked in and I drove us to my parent's house. Since Brian and my anniversary is only a month away, I thought it would be nice to visit the some  places we went to on our wedding day. We stopped by the Summit house restaurant where they were prepping for a wedding reception. We visited the Richard Nixon Library where there was a wedding going on as well. It was really special and all the ground were so beautiful. Emmy, my mom and I took a tour of Richard Nixon's birth home while My Dad went through he museum tour inside. Emmy was impressed with a piece of the Berlin wall displayed inside and I really liked the limo and dresses the first Lady wore.

We order Ortega's Mexican food for lunch and celebrated a belated Birthday for my Dad and an Early 40th Birthday for me. We swam and visited the Temple and the Santa Monica beach at Sunset. I love that someone offered to take our picture on the temple grounds. I cannot get over how big that temple is and how special it is to have all our immediate family members on my mom side sealed there. We survived the car ride home and enjoyed many meals with my parents who are such great hosts. It was a wonderful stop to finish off our vacation. That was a wonderful reprieve.We made it home safe and readjusted to routine I cant wait to celebrate our anniversary and birthday again on the actual dates.:)

The Meadow, The Rio Grande, and The Alamosa.

We love to ride through the platoro reservoir area and down the Alamosa river. We stopped by a rive nearby and we hiked to Whitman falls. Brian was hiking up to the top of the waterfall to see us down below. We couldn't believe how high he was and tried hiking after him. We loved the cool weather, intermittent rain and beautiful animal life near by. The pictures never do any of it justice, but maybe we can remember a little of what it was like there. We had pizza in Alamosa and we ad a picnic by the Rio Grande. We did get some laundry in at the Sunshine laundry in Alamosa and played some games at the cabin. It was a short visit, but the beauty and time together was wonderful. All the children were so well behaved an traveled so well through the many states of California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.