California Vacation

We just recently enjoyed a vacation to California to spend time with our families, to spend time in the sunshine, and to eat at In-N-Out :) We flew out Sunday after church and landed in San Francisco. We promptly made a stop at In-N-Out to make sure we got the trip started off right :) Having been on our diet, however, we were diligent and we did order our burgers protein style!! Still tasty although messy :)

We spent the first few days with Nathan's family down in the Antelope Valley. We went to the beach our second day there and had a great time! School was still in session so the beach was VERY quiet which was so nice! It was pretty chilly which was also nice as we weren't exhausted from the sun when we left. It was too cold to go into the water though, so we did just a quick dip of the feet. Makaela did NOT like this at all. I can't blame her. It was pretty cold. She also wasn't a fan of the sand sticking to her. The sunscreen was a little sticky on her legs which made the sand stick to her which consequently made her stand with one leg up in the air trying to get the sand off :)

We stayed with our good friends the Ash's while in the AV. They have a son who just turned 1 at the end of May and he and Makaela had a mostly good time playing together. Most of the time they were together it was nearing time for them to go to bed, but the times they were awake they had fun. We also enjoyed our time with them being able to hang out a little almost every night.

We enjoyed time with everyone in Nathan's family and were thankful for the time we had with each of them. We even got to see Nathan's grandma on his dads side, and grandpa on his moms side--an added treat!!

Friday we got to have dinner with some dear friends from school and we treasured that time very much. We finished off the night heading down to my family in Granada Hills. We spent one full day with my entire family before we all had to go our separate ways for various commitments. Then we spent the last half of our trip with my parents and sister in Visalia. That was a great time of relaxing and chillin--doing very little which we absolutely loved! We got in a few (and by few, I really mean only a few) good hands of pinochle with my parents.

Our trip was such a refreshing time for us and we are so thankful for the time we had to go away. We came back prepared to hit the ground running and we did!! God has been so gracious to us in providing for us and allowing us this time with our families. As our family hopefully grows in the future, we know those trips will become a lot more effort so we are thankful for the ease of time we have with them now.

Now we are springing into the fall (and yes, I did mean fall. Our fall church things really start in the summer) and preparing for Christmas and for the choir year ahead. We're excited about the upcoming season of ministry and looking forward to how the Lord will teach and grow us through these next several months!!