After Utah we went to the Redwoods

The Jones' came to visit!  They were at our house for a day and a half and then we headed to the Redwoods. We drove through beautiful Napa Valley on our way..

 This is the kids all crammed in the back of the Jones' car to drive through the giant tree.

 Marty had to get out to direct Greg through....there was about an inch of wiggle room, maybe.

 Mirrors pulled in and Jami able to touch the tree without even really being outside of the car.

 We made it!!

 Jami found a cute little cabin for us to stay in on a really amazing produce farm.  We had access to all of the fruit and veggies we wanted.  It was GREAT!  This is only part of their garden.  We loved it, but the kids REALLY loved it!  They could just roam around, hide in the corn stalks, pick whatever they wanted, chase the cat and dog, and just be dirty and happy.

oh those blackberries.  So, so, soooo delicious!  They just grew wild EVERYWHERE.  We ate so many!  They were so good on this salad! 

 Just walking down the street and eating more berries.

 The trees were MASSIVE!

 (Addison could not have been any happier to have this little girl along!)

When we left the cabin, we stopped by a glass beach.  Real pieces of glass made smooth from the ocean.  It was pretty cool!

And then we headed home for a few more days with the Jones'.  This was just when we came out of the Redwoods and got to the coast.   California is so beautiful!

Before Hawaii, we went to New York!

I tell you, we did more traveling this summer than pretty much our entire lives combined!  We told the kids by the time we were their age, I had been to Disneyland once, the beach a few times and Lake Mead.  Marty had been camping a lot and to Seattle once.  (Our parents may know of a few more vacations we took, but pretty much that sums it up!)  

Anyway...Marty had to go to NYC for work and we decided we would join him for a week of it (although by join, I mean we shared a room, poor guy worked so much it wasn't really a "vacation" for him).  It was a lot of fun, a little crazy, we learned a lot and certainly didn't see all we wanted to, but we are glad we got to go!

The day before we left, I decided to fly to Utah and spend half a day with Amy.  Luckily (and possibly miraculously) I was pretty much already packed and ready, which has NEVER happened.  I am always throwing stuff together at the last possible second.  Definite tender mercy.  

On our way!!!  

 Toys-R-Us

 Lego Store

 American Girl Doll Store

 Taking a break from walking and looking through the 9-11 magazines we bought from some guy on the street.

 Our hotel right in Times Square.

 The only statue of liberty we saw (bummer, but we will just have to go back some day I hope!)

 Top of the Rock

 Wicked on Broadway!!

 A-MA-ZING cheesecake, eaten at midnight (which is only 8pm in California, so we figured we were good)!

 Weekend trip (with Marty, yay!) to Palmyra!  SUCH a beautiful (although really, REALLY long) drive through the most beautiful scenery in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

 Sacred Grove

 Hill Cumorah Pageant

Susquehanna river

Before we drove back into NYC we stopped at a waterpark for a few hours.  I'm pretty sure it was both of the kids favorite part of the entire trip.  Next year we're heading to Waterworld in Concord!

We definitely wore everyone out! 

 

The kids and I left New York and flew to Utah for the next trip we had planned!  (Which turned out to be preparing for and having Amy's funeral, but could be considered another tender mercy since we were already scheduled to fly into Utah the day she passed away.)

Hawaii in a nutshell

After the kids had been in school for 5 days, we took them out for 6 days and headed to Oahu.  We LOVED LOVED LOVED it there!  We had so much fun and our week flew by!
We stayed in Waikiki and the beach across the street from our hotel (Addison counted 180 (of her) steps from our hotel to the water) was AWESOME!  The kids loved the waves and had so much fun in their tubes!  There was also a sand bar that went way out in the ocean and it was so fun to be way out but still be able to touch.  We also saw big sea turtles every day (and I freaked out the first day thinking it was a sea lion and tried to save my kids until a cute Australian couple told us they were turtles).  They were so fun to spot and follow around the rest of the trip.

 We took a drive one day, trying to find a waterfall hike, but when we got there, we realized there had been a landslide years ago and it was closed.  So, we just had yummy food at the shrimp shack truck and hung out at the beautiful Kailua beach.

We went to Hanauma Bay to snorkle.  It was breathtakingly beautiful.  The kids were AWESOME snorkelers and hung in there with us pretty much all day!  That same night we went over to the Disney resort, Aulani, for dinner (notice Addison's Mickey Mouse dessert she is holding).  The resort was so beautiful!

This was back at Waikiki beach, there was a super yummy shaved ice place right there on our walk between the hotel and the beach, lucky for us!

Another day we headed to the Dole Plantation, Matsumoto's Shave Ice and the Polynesian Cultural Center.  

On September 11th, we went to Pearl Harbor (sorry there are two collages from that day).  The Veteran in this picture is 96!  I couldn't believe it.

Then back to our Waikiki beach and stayed for our last sunset.  boo!

 Of course Thursday morning before we flew home we had to spend a couple of more hours at the beach.  We are all coming back tan and happy!  What a great trip!