Our sojourn to California

How lucky we are that Riley has the job that he does. Because he has to do firesides all over the United States, he just happened to have to do a fireside in my old home-town, Vi-smell-ya. I mean, Visalia. So, there was no way that I was going to let him go without me and the kids...and no way that my parents would let him stay at their place without the grandkids (to heck with me). So for an awesome week, we were able to stay with my parents and play...oh, and Riley did do some work.

The first major thing that we did was go to King's Canyon and Sequioa National Parks. It was sooooo beautiful up there and we loved spending the day there. We were able to eat lunch at the camp ground that my family used to always camp at and see some big ole whompin' trees. There was three forest fires going on in the Sequioa's, so we didn't stay long there, but it was still a ton of fun.

We also went to the zoo in Fresno. It is the perfect size; only takes a couple of hours to go through but has some of the bigger animals that we don't have at the zoo in Idaho Falls. We even got to feed a giraffe - a totally awesome experience and well worth the 2 bucks it cost!

We also went swimming and tried to spend as much time outside as we could. It was great! Riley tried to perfect his dive, I really think he's almost there. Watch out Yo Min, or whoever that really famous Chinese diver was.

We also went bowling, had a picnic, and just took it easy. It was a blast and we were sad to see our trip come to an end, but it's good to be back home where we can be with even more of our family. We are excited to go back at Christmas and be with the whole gang. Hopefully by then our children would have recovered from the excitement!