Our Totally Awesome Vacation

Wow, we finally made it home after an awesome 30 day vacation. Really, who takes a 30 day vacation all at once? Talk about needing a catch-up week of sleep! But, really, it was so much fun and I feel so blessed to have been able to spend so much time together as a family after missing Shon for so long. It was great to see family and friends, and make some crazy fun memories. On that note, I had great intentions of sitting down tonight and blogging the trip. Yeah, it is taking way longer than I thought and there are way too many cool pics to choose from! So, I started working backwards so it would be in the right order, which means that you all get to see the pics starting from the end of our trip because I won't make it to the beginning on this entry. oops! sorry! Oh well. We spent the last week in California and had so much fun. among other things, we went to the San Diego Zoo. That zoo is pretty cool. It didn't feel like the normal zoo I've been to--there were so many trees and landscaping that I really felt like I was out in the wild with the animals. Of course I couldn't share all the pics, so I chose a few that were fun.

Cody loved the elephants, even the fake ones! They had a huge elephant exhibit with dozens of them it seemed. (I don't really know how many there were.)

Cody was determined to walk so he wouldn't miss anything and so he could get up close, but now and then I'd catch him stopping for a quick break---he crashed so hard when we finally got him to sit in the stroller.

Kali was loving the shoulders

Cody, Kali, and Daddy? What a crazy group!

Cody LOVED the map because it had pictures of all the animals. Plus, pirates have treasure maps and he's a little obsessed with pirates. He carried it around all day and kept us on the right trail.

The petting zoo was a hit. I'm not sure why smelly goats and sheep are so appealing, but the kids loved them. Cody gave then all hugs, and Kali tried to give them all kisses.

We also got to spend a bunch of time with the Richards. (a family Shon knew from his mission). They were awesome and we had tons of fun hanging out with them. Cody even got to ride a "horsy" for the first time and loved it.

Kali got a harp lesson as well. It was fun going to church with them and visiting their home. Of course in other pics you'll see that they were great babysitters and company on the beach as too!

Tahtianna and Kali

Ok. I will add the rest of the California pics asap, so come back and check it out!