California 2011

Well, I survived a trip with the in laws :) Just Kidding, it was actually really fun! We didn't leave as early as originally planned because of some rental car issues but we really liked the car that we ended up with. This isn't the actual car, ours was a really pretty red but it is this model...

It was super roomy and actually got really good gas mileage so we were very happy! So we headed out in the pouring rain, yes POURING it was raining until we got to Arizona and it was horrible to pass the semi's on the road because every time I did their tires would spray me and for a half a second I couldn't see ANYTHING! Joe (Luke's brother) was making fun of me because I would grip the steering wheel really tight and go red apparently every time. But, we made it after 14 hours! We got there at about 12:00 midnight and we're apparently crazy because immediately we went to Denny's and chatted with Matthew (Luke's brother-the graduate) and his girlfriend, Kimberly until about 1:00.

So by the time we got to our hotel room, unpacked and got all ready for bed we were going to bed around 2:30 and they all wanted to get up early on Friday because it was our only free day to do some sight seeing....

So Friday morning we got up pretty early but by the time everyone was ready and we went over to Matthew and Kimberly's house it was pretty late by the time we got going. So we headed to lunch....we ate at a place called Besta Wan Pizza, it was super yummy! It was cool because they allowed people to come and sit on the deck with their dogs. And it was decorated really cool inside!

Then we broke off from Matthew and Kimberly and went down to the beach. It was such a beautiful day to play at the beach and the water wasn't actually as cold as we thought it was going to be. Here are some pictures of our adventures on the beach....

Then that night we went to a yummy Mexican place to eat dinner and we hit the sack early because Kimberly informed us that she would be at the hotel promptly at 7:30 in the morning to pick us up for Matthews graduation.

So on Saturday we went up to the graduation, which turned out really nice! He got a degree in Business Administration Information Management Systems (I think ha ha) and the graduation was outside and it was a really good day because it was overcast at first and then right as it started to warm up and get too hot the graduation ended. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from the graduation because we were to far away and then in a hurry after because it was so hot. But we are super proud of Matthew!

Yes, we were kind of disappointed that he is in fact a cougar...but we'll forgive him this one time.

Saturday afternoon Kimberly's sister threw a really fun party at her house with lots of yummy food. It was really fun to meet some people from when Luke was growing up and hear their stories and visit with Kimberly's family who was super nice! After a while Luke, Joe and I decided to go drive around some and see some Cali stuff....but those of you who know Luke know that he is very passionate about....grass seed and all of his products.

So he really wanted to go to a Home Depot and Lowes to see what kind of product they had in the area. We did get to see a bunny in Lowes eating the plants so that was pretty fun :) Then of course for dinner we had to go to In n Out, which I have to admit that it was a lot better than the ones that we have in Utah....

Then on our last day there we decided to go hit up Knotts Berry Farm. I've never been there, but it was really fun! My favorite ride by far was the Ghost Rider which is a not so old wooden roller coaster. Then by the time we had dinner, and went home we had to get to bed so we could get up nice and early for our ride home.

The last highlight of our trip was stopping by Zion on the way home. Me and Luke have both been there before but Joe and Linda had never seen it so we decided the 3 hour detour was well worth it. Especially when we saw Joes face light up with everything and he was just too excited! We also saw some buffalo on our way out...and some idiots trying to get some pictures of them. We got home around 12:00 midnight and then had to clean out the car and return it so we finally got home and to bed around 2:00 but we were really glad to see our kitties! :) Hope you enjoyed this novel. Here are the pics from Zion....