Oregon

Maybe I should have made this into multiple posts also... we did a lot of stuff in one day. First off, we stayed at my Aunt Sonja's house who was nice enough to let us all stay there for two nights when there was a pretty full house the second night. I think all the kids had a lot of fun though getting to meet/see each other. After the trip my mom and I were talking on the car ride and really feel like we wish we would have seen the Calls more growing up; they were so nice and even if it was short, it was great. So, thanks to Aunt Sonja and Uncle Alan!!!

They have a wonderful chair that gives you an awesome massage. It even plays some music for the ultimate relaxation experience. I love Audrey and Allie's "sleeping" pictures in the chair.

We headed to Washington Park in Portland, Oregon and I got to hand out with my cute nieces and nephew that I don't get to see very much. That was really priceless. Jack has the sweetest smile and attitude. He is a really good kid; you can literally see it in his eyes. I love this picture of him at the picnic table.

Ha! This is a great one, let me explain... Jack was being very helpful and trying to show Isaac how to look at the camera when someone is taking a picture of you. So when Jack started to try and turn Isaac's head toward the camera, Isaac decided that this must be some kind of game or something and started pushing back on Jack's head. I love it, it makes me laugh when I look at it.

At the Children's Museum they had an alligator with some big toothbrushes you could clean his teeth with. Isaac loves toothbrushes, so he was really excited to see those suckers!

Audrey and Allie had the chance to paint their dad's face which they loved.

They also had a restaurant and cafe where Allie and Audrey served mom, Annie, and me some great food.

Audrey and Isaac working the lights on the stage.      Jack playing with some fun trains.

Jack in the construction zone with some tools. Isaac hang out there a little but kept escaping with tools and running to the tooth brushing alligator!

There was a beautiful rose garden in Washington Park. I have never seen so many colors and varieties of roses. I think my favorites were the orange and pink and yellow and pink roses.

Audrey took this picture of Isaac asleep on Grandma's shoulder.  

Jack shooting with his leg gun

After the rose garden we went to a fun park where the kids played for a little bit.

Jayden and Emma were trying to help me get some pictures of Isaac, I thought they were super cute and great helpers. Jayden probably knows a thing or two about taking pictures because her mom is an amazing photographer.

Emma giving Isaac some flowers

What a fun day! I hope people made it through all those pictures, I know that was a longer one for me. I decided I'll have to do two parts because I remembered that I have some great videos that I want to share also... stay tuned for more moments from Oregon.

California Part 3

Wednesday (July 28th) my Aunt Candy, Uncle John, cousins Julianne, Isaac and I went to Malakoff Diggins and met up with Andrea and here beautiful girls in Coloma California to look at some of the old mining towns.

This is in Malakoff Diggins where they did a lot of hydraulic mining. In this picture is a cannon that they used to shoot water at the sides of mountains and wash out the gold. Only problem is, they also washed out mountains and caused a lot of problems while doing it.

 Inside the General Store. Exactly how old are those Quaker Oats? :)

Washed away mountain hills

In Malakoff Diggins Mormon workers were with James Marshall when gold was discovered.

Uncle John and second cousin Hannah peaking into the Mormon Cabin

Isaac and I in front of an old lumber mill in Caloma, CA where people worked before they discovered gold.

Chilean Wheel Mill. Chilean's had the mining thing down pretty well; Chileans came and shared their knowledge of mining.

What?? Isaac's sharing his peach....? naaaaw

Monument to James Marshall

I had so much fun staying with my Aunt Candy and Uncle John. I wish I could have stayed longer; the visit went too fast. I did get to see a lot of things I'd never been to before which was really cool. I can't wait to go back hopefully with Jason next time and visit some more places and see family again.

California Part 2

 On Tuesday we planned a trip to Sonoma, CA to visit the old mission there. I love old buildings and have always wanted to see a mission. I'd still like to visit more of them along the coast.

Grandma Smith came, along with my Aunt Candy and my mom, and of course the lady's man Isaac... always with the ladies. It was a lot of fun driving with them and hearing stories when they were all growing up.

 The mission was fairly simple, not exactly what I expected. I really had no idea what to expect but I guess I envisioned something like an old monastery in Europe, which I also really want to see someday. It had really thick walls with a few rooms and a big courtyard with an outdoor kitchen.

my very cool Aunt Candy and my awesome mom,

Aren't they hot chicks!?

Here they are outside the Valero House in Sonoma

 mmmmmmm... we had dinner at this very yummy Mexican Restaurant

They had delicious fresh chips and salsa

This is the only shot I got of the food because we all ate it too fast (other than Grandma) because it was so good!!! The portions were perfect and the flavor was RICO!

Isaac laying back in his thrown while the ladies fed him

It was a really fun day, pretty exhausting, but fun. Good sites, good food, good company. I'll take that anytime.

California Part 1

When we got to California we stopped by my Grandparent's house in Sutter so that I could see my grandparents (I stayed with my Aunt while we were there) and so they could meet Isaac for the first time. Isaac had fun rocking on the horse his great-great grandfather made.

This is my Granddad Smith here holding Isaac on his lap. Isaac was a little unsure about his beard at first, but I think he got used to it :)

Monday we went to Chico, CA to have a family picnic at Bidwell Park. Most of my good friends know that I'm a little obsessed with old houses. I LOVE them. My mom told me the "Bidwell Mansion" was pretty cool and so my very cool Aunt Candy went with me to check it out. When we pulled up to it I was shocked to see that it looks almost identical in a lot of ways to my parents house when it was originally built. Other than the balcony on the second floor above the wrap around porch and the arches on the top part of the windows, my parents house (The James Lindsay House in Davenport, IA) looked exactly like this (and my parent's is on a little smaller scale than this one). Since it was built the widow's walk and wrap around porch were destroyed, we're not sure how. After doing some research we think that maybe James Lindsay used the Architect who built the Bidwell House's plans. In the inside the layout is also identical except for one extra room as you enter on the left that my parent's doesn't have. Pretty crazy and very cool for someone who loves historical architecture. I can't find any picture online of the James Lindsay house but when I go home next time I'll scan the pictures my parents have of it in the front hallway.

We went swimming in the river for a little while and then had a picnic. It was a lot of fun to see some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I have a lot of good memories from my trips to California and always wish I could see my family out there more. Isaac loved all the delicious food at the picnic, especially the grapes and watermelon.

I wish I had more pictures but my battery was dead on my camera and my point and shoot's shutter release button camera broke so it was really tricky to get any pictures at all that day. :(

Denver - Part 1

As I was saying in my earlier post, I just got back from a loooong road trip with my mom and eventually met up with my family in South Dakota. Our first stop on the trip was Denver, CO to visit my brother for a few quick days in Broomfield. They were pretty busy. The first afternoon when we got there (around 1 or 2 in the afternoon) Isaac discovered their backyard... wow, let me tell you, it's a pretty fun place. He especially loved climbing all the cool toys. Here he is on the rocking horse living it up.

One of our biggest reasons for stopping in Colorado was to do a 14er (climb a 14,000 peak mountain). My mom has been really excited for a little less than a year I think getting ready for this. We did a really pretty hike the night we arrived to try and help us acclimatize a bit. Then Thursday we headed up our 14er, southwest of Denver, Mt. Sherman. We were having fun, after the first hour it actually got easier as my body adjusted. There were some really cool old mining ruins along the trail. Here I am with my nephew Andrew on our hike up.

The peak is behind us. We were getting really close when my brother said we might have to turn around. He's been hiking a lot and knows what he's talking about so I ran ahead a bit with some of the older boys to see if we could make it to the peak fast and then run back down. On our way we passed an older man who was yelling for his wife to come back who had ventured a bit ahead. The man told us that he used to work for Search and Rescue in New Mexico and had pulled one too many dead bodies off of peaks like this to continue. The storm clouds were rolling in fast so I ran back to my brother not that far away to tell him what the man had said and we decided to turn back. We joked that if I didn't have Isaac and James didn't have his little family we might have tried for it, but didn't want to risk it.

Here's John on the gate entrance to the mountain, I think he might be a ninja like his dad was when he was a little older than John jumping on roofs and scaring little sisters...

John and my mom when with the little guys (Isaac and William) to a park near James' house to swing and play for a bit. John is a great older brother and cousin. Here he is helping Isaac up the slide. Isaac loves going up slides, not going down so much...

You can check out a few other pictures from Denver at my other blog at the July posts.