Pinecrest

We spent four days at the Barth family cabin in Pinecrest.  It is so beautiful up there and the summer weather is perfect.  The cabin has a great porch that looks out at the lake, so we spent most of our cabin time on the front porch lounging, reading, playing games, eating, and people-watching.

Aaron and I enjoyed kayaking.  Brigham enjoyed getting in the lake and eating rocks and pine needles.

The boys both enjoyed reading their books on the beach.

Aaron and I enjoyed hiking around the lake, while Brigham enjoyed napping.

 

Brigham enjoyed watching his older cousins and trying to play with them.  We had a great 4th of July with family and loved spending time up at the cabin.

San Fran

We spent a great day in San Francisco doing some of my favorite touristy things.  My favorite spot of the day was a new one and one I've wanted to visit for awhile--The Walt Disney Family Museum.  The museum is all about Walt Disney's life and work and it was quite fascinating.  The first part of the museum is a bit slow, but once you take the elevators upstairs and get to the room that is all about Steamboat Willie and Mickey Mouse it becomes really interesting.   I think my favorite part (although it is hard to choose) was the miniature model of Disneyland when it opened.  It was so cool to see what was there, what is still there, what has been replaced, and what has been moved.

 Our next stop was the wharf to enjoy some clam chowder and sourdough.

 Then the chocolate factory to enjoy a hot fudge Sundae.

Brigham's favorite part of the day was the plastic spoon we gave him at the wharf (pictured above).  As we walked down the street along the wharf he would try to stand up (as much as he could) in his stroller and would wave the spoon around in the air while babbling really loudly and excitedly, like he had just discovered the greatest invention in the world.  He got quite a few looks and smiles from people passing on the street, and we couldn't stop laughing at him.  Little did we know how easy it was to entertain him.  Why do I buy him toys?  Apparently all he wants is a plastic spoon.

Great Grandma T

The next leg of our trip included a visit with my grandma in Los Altos.  This was the first time that Brigham got to meet his great grandma Thompson.  As you can see, he was pretty excited.  She kept telling us he is the happiest baby she has ever seen, and asking us if he ever cries.  I think he did cry once at her house, but other than that he really was a happy camper as usual.

Visiting my grandma's house makes me feel like a bit of a superstar.  There are pictures, paintings, and drawings of my family in every room.  Even baby pictures of me in her bathroom.  She has kept her house pretty much the same from when I was a young child, so a visit to her house brings back some good childhood memories.  One of our favorite places to take pictures has always been this bench around the tree in the front of her house, so I had to get a shot of the little man on it.

The Boardwalk

The second leg of our trip took us from Fresno to Hughson where we spent one night before heading to Santa Cruz for the day.  It was a bit cold to enjoy the ocean, but we had a great time exploring the boardwalk.  

We enjoyed the fried foods and salt water taffy (delicious) and took Brigham on his first merry-go-round ride.  He was super excited to sit on the horse before the ride started, but not so sure about the actual ride.

A great day with my favorite boys.

1979 Miles

We just got back from a great two week vacation in California, traveling over 1979 miles.  It was so nice to have two weeks to relax and spend time with family that we don't get to see often.  It seems super overwhelming to try to sum up the trip in one blog post, so I will be splitting into a few different ones over the next few days.

Our first leg of the trip was traveling from Utah to Fresno.  We kept thinking we were going to stop and stay the night somewhere along the way, but decided to just keep pushing through.  Brigham handled the 14 hours in the car fairly well thanks to a little bit of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and a break at the state line.  We got to visit with the Castle family, our "old" friends that live in Fresno now.  Dave was in Aaron's MTC district and then they were roommates after the mission until Aaron and I got married.  They were pretty much inseparable for a few years, even having the same major and taking most of their classes together.  Dave was the first one of Aaron's friends to want to work at the ranch, inspiring the rest of them to join in and interview for jobs there.  So thanks to Dave for getting Aaron to work at the ranch.  It was so much fun to see their cute little family and get to spend a few hours with them.

Summer Nights

We love, love, love it when Julia and Jacob come to visit.  We were so lucky to spend a week and a half with them this summer.  We discovered this great park in Orem where we decided to spend their last night here.  We have tried multiple times to get a photo of these two boys in their matching hot dog shirts, but it seems that every time we tried it didn't work out.  One of them would get the shirt dirty or Jacob would try to give Brigham a big hug and Brigham would have a look of terror on his face.  So this was the best we could do.

Most of us enjoyed the two swingsets.

Brigham couldn't quite decide.

I'm so grateful for summer nights that we get to spend with family.  

What Happens in Vegas

 We had our first annual Bodell cousin's retreat in Las Vegas and we had such a fabulous time.  We headed to Vegas a day early and got to spend our first night in the fancy Marriott Cosmopolitan Hotel right next to the Bilagio (thanks to our favorite Marriott Associates!).  It was so nice and had a really great breakfast buffet and pool.  The boys loved the pool because it was so shallow they could sit and crawl around in it.  We liked it so much we snuck in again the next day after switching hotels.

 The rest of the cousins arrived a day later and we moved into the Marriott Chateau about a block away from the strip.

We had great classes, made cute crafts, did facials and pedicures, ate good food, had a crazy hat party, and had lots of time for catching up with each other.  We even had my aunt serving a mission in Africa join us through skype for some of the festivities.  We had a Dr. Seuss baby shower for my cute sister-in-law Becca and played a very competitive game of "Name that Seuss Book" (picture four people pushing each other to try to get to the chair and steal the hat so that they could answer the question).

Did I mention we enjoyed lots of good food?  Especially chocolate.  Charise taught us how to make great carmel chocolate apples like they do at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  We also went to a restaurant devoted to chocolate called "Chocolate By the Bald Man" where we had pure chocolate shots, chocolate ranch dressing, and fries dusted with cocoa powder.  Delicious.

What a great trip!  Can't wait to do it again next year!