Landon Bikes Across California

Last Monday Landon headed out for his Priest/Teacher High Adventure Activity

They loaded up their bikes and gear and headed for the Nevada border where they would begin their bike trek across California.

the whole group

Here they are at Carson Pass -the highest point of the trip - they climbed 4,000 feet

Here they are at the end of day one - after riding 31 miles - mostly uphill.


This is Fiddletown - Landon says there's nothing there and he won't be going back :)

Wednesday they rode 81 miles in 1 day!  It was the toughest day - the reward was they got to stay at a home with a great pool on Wed night - everyone went swimming - I don't know how they had a drop of energy left.

Crossing the Delta by Ferry

Somehow they still managed to squeeze in a game of  ultimate frisbee on Thursday.

Posing for their pictures for the local paper.

Here they are - victorious - as they dip their feet into the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay after cycling nearly 300 miles - AMAZING!  Way to go Landon - We're proud of you!

Celebrating in the City

We went into San Francisco to celebrate John's birthday this last week.  It was a gorgeous day and we walked around for a bit and then had dinner at this great restaurant on the Embarcadero.

The restaurant is called Waterbar - and it is mostly seafood - but everything we had was INCREDIBLE.  It instantly became one of our new favorite places.The next morning we had breakfast at the Palace Hotel.  This room was amazing - it made me feel like I was in Paris, and the food was delicious.  I had Macadamia Nut Waffles with coconut syrup - I am still thinking about it!  I love when you do something unforgettable - and this quick trip into the City was very memorable.

We had so much fun we've decided we need to go into San Francisco a lot more often!

My Maricopa/Mesa/Chicago Adventure

After Madden's blessing everyone went home except - me and Michelle (and Naomi) stayed to help Tiff pack up her house to move to Chicago. I am pretty unexperienced when it comes to moving and I find the whole project a little intimidating - but Michelle was a lifesaver. We worked so hard we even got everything packed in enough time to squeeze in a little fun on the final day. After we had Tiff's house all empty and Randy hit the road for the 27 hour drive to Chicago we had some time to just hang out in Arizona until we would fly out to Chicago to meet up with Randy - it was great to have the down time to just relax and visit.

We attended the Kindergarten graduation of Tiffany's class. They were all so excited about the new baby. It was sweet to see Tiffany with her adoring students. One little boy wanted to know "how you got babies?" Tiff just smiled and said you just get married and then pretty soon a baby comes along. His response - " I wanted you to get marrried lots and lots so you can have lots and lots of babies!" I will miss the funny things Tiffany would share about her Kindergarteners - thank goodness for grandkids :)

Naturally, I took lots of pictures of Madden - I even caught some smiles.

Thankfully, Tiffany and the baby and I flew to Chicago. When we got there Tiff and Randy's apartment looked mostly like this -

-

. . . but when we were all done unloading and organizing it was looking like this -

Tiffany and Randy love their new home outside of Chicago -

Madden's Baby Blessing

Here's the whole bunch of us in Maricopa, AZ for Madden's baby blessing. It was a wonderful day for all of us -

The proud parents . . .

Michele and John and the kids came down to AZ and suprised Tif and Randy - it was a quick weekend for most of us but we all had a great time together.

Can you believe how cute Naomi looks all dressed up for church?!

On the Saturday before we got some time to just hang out together and visit and play with the kids. Everyone loves Uncle Landon - he's so good with all the kids, but John and Landon headed back to Calif on Sunday night to get back to school and work. Although we were all together less than 48 hours - it was all wonderful and I was so grateful we could all be there to share in Tiffany and Randy's happiness as they blessed their precious baby.

Sausalito Date

Saturday after we got some yard work and misc stuff done - Landon headed off to Waterworld with a friend and John had a "day date" planned. We headed to Sausalito for a late lunch - we found a delicious little place to eat at and wandered around Sausalito a little bit. It was a little windy and cool - but still a lot of fun. Those bags we are carrying . . . . we found a funny little store that had the most ridiculous random stuff in it. So we got our gag gifts for next years Christmas Party. I only hope by next December I can remember where I put them. Then we headed over to the Metreon and saw "Angels and Demons" which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was glad it had been so long since I read the book that the movie was still suspenseful. It was a super fun day - of course it would be hard to go wrong - I love the City and I love my date :)

A Wonderful Week

I could take pictures of this little sweetheart all day - (and one day I did - thank goodness for digital). He is such a cutie.

He was probably relieved when I stopped and quit posing him in every possible position with anything that looked like a good prop around Tiffany's house. I made it up to Madden with lots of holding and cuddles. Really there is no better job than that of a Grandma - actually job doesn't seem like an appropriate word - it is more a privilege. Tiffany and Randy were very sweet to indulge me and share this special time with me. I loved every minute of it.

There is really nothing like a mother seeing her own daughter become a mother herself - very sentimental, emotional, sweet, incredible, beautiful . . . . It has been a wonderful week!

I've been having fun experimenting with my new camera lens.

This one may be my favorite so far - but I am going to keep on trying to get more "kodak moments". So I spent all morning taking pictures of Madden and most of the afternoon editing them on a new site Tiffany showed me - Picnik. Very fun!!!

He's such a sweetheart. I'm having so much fun!