California 2012

It seems like we go to California once every two years or so. However, I feel like it's going to be YEARS before we go down there again. Maybe to say hi to my aunts but that's about it.

We went down every so often to see my great grandpa. For the past ten years it seemed like he was on his death bed. Everytime I said goodbye to him it felt like it was the last time. The last time I saw great grandpa was at his 90th birthday 2 years ago. He died 10 days after his 92nd birthday.

I woke up early on my birthday and saw grandma and grandpa's car in our driveway at 5:45am. I knew why there were there. We all did. I don't think his passing was such a sad thing... He had been wanting to be with my grat grandma for so many years and we all know that he is in a better place. We all miss him but at least he isn't suffering anymore. He lived a great life!

About a month after he passed we all went down to California for his memorial. It was great seeing everyone again. My aunt from Arizona came, Uncle from Texas and my Aunt and Uncle from Kennewick...Is it sad that my siblings and I were most excited about seeing the cousins from Kennewick? When we see them several times a month? We left a day apart and we all were so excited to see each other in California, I think they were excited that they would have their "crazy cousins" in California with them haha. The car ride sucked. 14 hours down, 14 hours up and the car was cramped!

When we got into Auburn we met up with BB and Erin at Foster's Freeze and coincidently enough Uncle Gene's flight came in around that time and Auntie Alicia and Uncle Trevor arrived in Auburn then too...So the whole gang basically filled up Foster's Freeze and we all caught up with each other before moving the troops to Aunt Mert's to see grandma and grandpa (who were there days before us).

While at Aunt Mert's I got attached to Miss Ainsleigh!!! She played on the trampoline with me (scared me too when she jumped too close to the edge). Then she showed me how she liked to line up all the crochet balls by color along my leg. We spent what seemed like hours on there. I had fun with her!

My family then separated from everyone else and went to the house. Mom cried seeing her footprints in the ground. I felt like I couldn't get enough pictures to hold onto all those memories.

Hard to see but those are my mom's baby foot prints...

Grandpa's chair that he would feed the birds in

The gate to "the woods"

After our detour to the house we all met up at Round Table pizza with crazy kissing cousin kelly and her husband tom! That was fun! I got pizza down the front of my shirt from Ainsleigh throwing it, ended up with more pizza on me from Lolo and then got cranky and tired that I fell asleep after all the little kids went back to the hotel (there wasn't enough room in the car for me...).

Lolo chowing down on some pizza....we just kept feeding him!

Someone else was a little tired too.... Grace!

The next day, Saturday, we all got ready for the memorial. My sisters and I did hair for everyone, Emma made flowers for them too and we all were lookin snazzy in our black outfits lol. One by one the cars left for grass valley and then I somehow ended up with the kiddos walking to the church...sitting with them at the church and during the service and then walking home with them from the church. It was nice though. Then all the family members met up at the house and we just hung around for awhile. It was nice to see people I haven't seen in years and even met little Wyatt! After the service it was time for Taco Time where we let off some steam chasing the little ones around the restaurant. Somewhere between the service and Taco Time we went shopping and got all the little kids Mad Bird pajamas :-)

This was Maddi's first time in California!

Some cute cousins!

Miss Ainsleigh

I hate this pic of me, but we spent forever on the porch where she would "charge" at me and give me a great big hug!

Got her to say colors as well!

Handsome little devil!

She was fascinated with the windchimes :)

Mad Bird cousins!

Cousin Sleep Over :-)

Kobe-Monster spent the night all by himself for the first time a while ago! He is so so so much easier then miss Maddi-Moo! She always wants to bake, do nails and stay up really late and wake up really early! We love doing all that but it was a pleasant surprise when all Kobe wanted to do was play games on the IPad, watch Phineas and Ferb and eat food :-) Plus I had fun doing the type writer on him and making him laugh til he about peed!

 

 

And my brother and sister and I decided we would take funny pictures while he played games :-)

 



School vs. School

I love love love Westminster. I love everything about it. The people, the professors, the atmosphere, the buildings, the classes... just everything! I had such a wonderful time there and was dreaming about going there my entire Senior year of High School. I want to go back. But I can't. I see both good and bad to not going back to school.

What I am going to miss: friends, going to church, the encouraging professors, over night hosting, living on my own, being in a new environment, focusing on school only, the nursing program, SI sessions, late night studying, study groups, laughing so hard in study groups, Yolanda, Trent, the creek, the park, the general area, Shawmlettes... I'm going to miss having professors and faculty actually caring about the student and checking in on them. I'm going to miss the small number of students, the small classes, the little extra things that made college such a joy like the Dean delivering food on finals week, midnight breakfast served by the faculty, Wild Wednesdays, the concerts and plays, the free museum at the U, school events like atomic bowling, ice skating, glow in the dark capture the flag. I'm even going to miss the power outages, the snow, the rain, the stupid slippery bridge, the dances, the creepy people watching you cross the bridge. I'm going to miss going to Walker Hall and getting packages, or the bell tower ring every hour. I'm going to miss soo much about Westminster. I hope to one day visit especially since I didn't get to say goodbye to a lot of my friends or anyone from church.

Good things in me not returning: I'm closer to family (good and bad). I don't have to travel home for holidays, I can work, and I could use a break from Utah after all that happened. But I'm not going to be as focused on school here as I was there.

Converse Hall

Our beautiful Library

Rock Wall!!!

Shaw!

Behnken Hall!!!

The bridge...On a snowy morning



Now I will be going to CBC, getting my ADN then going to either WSUTC for my Bachelors/Masters or EWU. Either way I hopefully will have my degree soon!