San Francisco: day 1

The big highlight of their visit was taking them to San Francisco! Jakes sister and her husband and 5 kids were meeting us there Friday night so we decided to do all the touristy stuff before they got there! We got tickets to do the double decker bus tour which was so worth it! It took us to all the major sights and parts of the city we might not ever see...it was so fun!

Lunch on the Pier!

 

(Lexie obviously enjoyed it) 

It took us across the Golden Gate Bridge (windy of course) and then over to Sausalito which was the cutest most expensive little town! 

Then we explored china town and ate some yummy Chinese food. 

Visitors!

We got back from rexburg late late Monday night and jakes parents flew in Tuesday morning to come visit us for a week! Lexie loved having new people to show off all her toys and tricks too and having lots of attention :) 

the day after they got here happened to be our 3 year anniversary so they babysat lexie for us while we had a lunch date (since jake had to work).

They also surprised is with a hotel room for the night and it was definitely so nice to have babysitters for lexie and to get away for a little bit! 

The next day we went to a place called discovery bay. It's a little town about 30 minutes from us that has deltas from the ocean running through it and a lot of vacation homes are there. It's crazy that it's so close to us and such a different atmosphere! 

So lexie has a little attachment problem with her binky. It has gotten worse with all the trips we have been on and this should have been my excuse to be done with it cold turkey! I was holding it and pretending to drop it in the water... Which she thought was funny. I kept tricking her and ended up just giving it back to her... Well immediately after she got it she tossed it in the water... She watched it sink... It was SO funny! She kept saying "binky in the water?". Well that's not the end of the binky era unfortunately... But we are back to only having it for when we go to bed so that's a little improvement right?! Gah love/hate relationship with that thing! 

Fourth of July!

We didn't have any set plans for the fourth of July and we were driving home from the gym the day before the fourth and decided to just drive to rexburg! 12 hour car ride is nothing right?! We packed as fast as we could and we started the long trek.... A very longggg trek. It actually wasn't THAT bad... Just long. Jake did most of the driving (he says I'm a bad driver) and lexie was a champ. We watched frozen over and over and as long as she had her movie and snacks she was set. We pulled into rexburg as the sun was rising and got a quick 2 hour nap before we needed to be up for the parade! (One of the main reasons we went... You just can't beat a small town Fourth of July). Lexie basically had candy for breakfast from the parade but she loved every second of it! Jakes parents were actually out of town... (And coming to see us in California the following week!) so we just hung out with his siblings! 

After the parade we went up to island park for the day to hang out at our brother in laws family ranch. We pretty much intruded on their family reunion but we know them pretty good so we were glad to be there! We rode four wheelers, went to a retirement trailer park and they did a little parade (basically just threw candy to the kids), had a great dinner and ended the night with some fireworks. 

Lexie loved playing with her cousin Brynn!! 

Jake went golfing the next day with friends and later that night his younger sister tiara and her family came and stayed with us! Lexie and Keaton are about 7 months apart (I think?) and they were two peas in a pod! 

It was a great weekend and definitely worth the drive! On our way back we stopped to have dinner in Reno and we ate at a burger place that jakes cousin recommended to us. It was inside a casino and we were just waiting there for our food when a homeless man walked up to jake and snuck him a dollar bill and then walked away. It was the weirdest thing! Well when we were filling up with gas before we came home a man walked up to jake and asked him if he had any money.... So we put the dollar to good use! 

Santa Cruz!

Even though jake has to work on the weekends we try to make up for it by doing something fun on Mondays! We got back into town on Sunday so we wanted to get out as a family! We live about an hour and a half from Santa Cruz so we decided to go and it was so fun! There's always traffic so it took a little longer but lexie was a champ in the car. Northern California beaches are definitely much colder than southern Cali but lexie absolutely loved running from the waves, getting sand all over her, and eating snacks while sun bathing :) 

He's a beach pro....

We loved playing on the boardwalk afterwards... Especially jake. He won lots of new prizes for lexie! 

Arizona!

By the time we got to Arizona I realized we have only been gone for 2 months.... But that was long enough for me! Jake stayed in California to work and me and lexie flew to arizona for about 10 days! She was pretty good on the flight... Good thing it was only an hour and a half! We walked off the plane and when we walked into the lobby area all my family was there cheering and holding welcome home signs.... I didn't know if I should be happy or walk the other way in embarrassment ;) I was so glad to see everyone and lexie was a little confused at what was going on! 

The week was spent meeting up with our old friends, going swimming almost every day, having BBQs with family, and much more! I also always forget how hot it really gets during the summer..., definitely made me appreciate living somewhere cooler! 

These 2 loved walking around everywhere while holding hands... We miss living close to them :( 

I also got my hair done while I was there! Lighter for the summer time! 

We had such a fun week but we missed daddy so were excited to get back home. Until next time AZ!