Visit Home to California

For Memorial Day weekend we went down to California to visit out families. We left at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday the 22nd and drove all night. We took my grandma with us as a surprise for my mother. She hasn't visited California since my wedding 2 years ago. Driving all night proved to be a good choice with two small children who slept most of the drive and required very few stops. Fewer stops is a plus on a drive that's already 12-hours. So we arrived at my parents house at 3:30 a.m. We crept inside as quiet as you can be when you're totally exhausted, but my mom heard us and came downstairs. When she realized we had Grandma with us she was very surprised and was everything I was hoping it would be for her.

This particular visit was a busy one. Not only was it Memorial Day, but the 26th was my dad's 54th birthday, we blessed Marceline on that day and had a family gathering for everyone in the area to come see Grandma, and the 27th was my youngest brother, Joe's 18th birthday. A lot to cram into 5 days. Let's get started ...

We were all understandably exhausted on Thursday. We visited with my family in the morning. Then in the afternoon we went down to see Ryan's family. My best friend Katrina came over to the Bartley's home and visited for a while. That evening I took Marcy and went with Katrina to meet up with a couple other friends, Raquel and Victoria, for some Sushi at Blue Nami in Folsom. Best sushi ever. Go there if you're in Folsom. It was so awesome to see my friends! I have missed having good friends to hang out with. While I was at dinner, Ryan took Russell over to his friend, Nick's house to visit.

Friday and Saturday we spent visiting with friends and family and going back and forth. It was good. It's always so nice to see everyone. I miss them. And I know Russell misses his grandparents. He loves visiting California. He's always so happy when we're there.

Sunday was the big day. We had almost all the family in the Sacramento area over to my parents house for Marcy's blessing and as a sort of mini reunion for everyone to see Grandma. We got a bit of a surprise when my Uncle Joe who lives in Idaho showed up. That was great to have him there. I'm glad he came. Uncle Joe was really special to us kids when we were little. Marceline received her name and blessing, which was beautiful and I loved watching my husband give. I'm so thankful to be married to such a good man who's worthy of the priesthood he holds and can perform these ordinances for our children. I'm thankful for all the good men in my life who were able to help Ryan give Marcy her blessing. I'm also thankful to have such open minded in-laws who are supportive of our religion even though it's not their beliefs. My life is filled with such wonderful and good people! Some of the things I remember from Marcy's blessing was Ryan blessed her with health, intelligence, and good friends in her life. There was more but I can't remember it right now. Side note: the blessing dress Marcy is wearing was my blessing dress that my grandma made for me 27 years ago. After the blessing was the party. Boy, did my mom prepare a feast. A tasty one at that. Thanks to my Aunt Connie for helping her with that and saving my mom's sanity. She's saved my mom's sanity on more than one occasion. My mom counted all the people that came. In total there was 44 people and all but 6 were my mom's family.

After the party was over and it was just our family we celebrated my dad's birthday. 54-years old. He's an old man. Almost senior citizen age.

Monday was our last day in California and it was my youngest brother, Joe's 18th birthday. His birthday was a little more low-key. We had dinner at In-N-Out (his favorite restaurant), played the "headbanz" game at my parents house, and had the msot delicious mint chocolate trifle. Mmmm. We said our goodbyes that night to everyone and left back for Utah early the next morning.

That was a bummer of a drive. It's already a terrible and long drive (usually about 12 hours), but since we needed to take my grandma home to Logan first that added an extra 2 hours to our drive. We left Sacramento at 7:30 a.m. and arrived back at our house in Santaquin at 10:30 p.m. It was worth it though.

Grandma's getting their new baby fix in:


Car Ride:


Dinner with friends. L-R: Raquel, Victoria, Katrina, me.


Marcy's blessing, reunion, and Grandpa's birthday:


Joe's birthday:


Random pictures from the weekend: