Family In Seattle

Last weekend my mom and I went to a family reunion in Seattle to see family we had never met before.

A few weeks ago I joined Ancestry.com to work on my family tree. Once I type in my great grandmothers information a leaf popped up directing me to another members family tree. I was amazed at all the information I had found. This is the Norwegian side of our family, and if I had not found this tree I probably would not have had much luck. I sent the tree owner a message and when she (Anne) answered back she had invited us to a family reunion being held in Seattle, Anne was on her way there from Norway.

Meeting everyone was such a great experience. Anne and her husband Øystein are from Norway and most all the rest of the family is in or comes from Washington. I'm so glad I sent Anne a message when I did.

The day before my mom and I did the tourist thing and went to Pike Place Market and Pier 57 to have lunch. We did not go to the Space Needle or into the city though.

4th Of July Weekend

I was just thinking about how we spend our holiday weekend, so I thought I'd just do a little post. I especially wanted to share this photo with you tonight.

Paul's sister lives in Kansas with her husband and eight children, also there was one of his brothers and another sister. We all had a great time together, and I truly wish we could see more of each other.

On Sunday it rained most of the day, but in the afternoon the sun peeked out for a bit and that's where the rainbow came from. It was neat seeing the kids (adults too) get so excited about it.

I feel blessed to be able to call these happy little people my nieces & nephews. They are all a joy to be around.

(I have pictures, but I have not asked permission to post them, so maybe another time.)

Been Too Long

Paul and I have been on vacation this week so that's why I have not been posting. We didn't leave town, but we've been spending lots of time just the 2 of us & checking places out in our area that we've never seen.

Things we've done:

Strawberry Festival.

Bike ride to the pier to have lunch, then watched a movie at home.

Japanese Garden at CSULB. (pictures to below)

Toured Rancho Los Alamitos.

Had lunch at "At Last Cafe" which was featured on a recent episode of Diner's, Drive-ins, and Dives. It was AWESOME!!

Spent the day in Old Town Temecula, where we did lots of window shopping, ate BBQ, went olive oil tasting (instead of wine), etc. On our way home we stopped at Tom's Farms to buy some produce, and Paul was super excited to find a jar of really BIG dill pickles--it was cute!!

A lot of eating out.

Relax, watch golf, read, play Gin Rummy.

We didn't take a lot of pictures this week, but we have some of the gardens we visited. I hope you enjoy them.

I love this picture!!

Plans for 2011

I love old mission style Churches as I'm sure many people do, and I've been thinking that I would love to take a road trip dedicated to visiting these old Churches. I don't see a trip like this being possible for 2010, but I'm hoping we can make it work in 2011.

I haven't looked into this yet, but I'm pretty sure we can find lots of Churches if we stayed along the coast. What a beautiful drive that is, even though I drove some of that last year, I would do it again in a heart beat.

Highway 1 is gorgeous, but, I would demand (yes, I said demand) that we drive up highway 1 and find another way to get home. Even if we rent a car to drive up and fly back down. Driving down the 1 means being on THE EDGE of the cliff and after nearly having a nervous break down the last time, I refuse to go through it again. As long as we're on the side of the road closes to the mountain, I'm good to go.

What places are you planning or just hoping to go to?

The picture was taken on last years road trip, it is the top of San Carlos Cathedral in Monterey, Ca. The reason I only took a picture of the top is because the rest of the Church was covered by scaffolding due to repairs.

Thinking of Paris

I was thinking about Paris the other day and how our first day there (in 2008) we had the best baguette sandwiches of our entire trip, and we had at least one a day, or so it seemed. I've been in love with French Bread ever since.

After purchasing our baguettes we walked over to Eiffel Tower to sit & enjoy our lunch. It was awesome!

One of my favorite pictures from the trip was taken that afternoon from the very spot we ate our lunch. I'll show you the original and altered versions.

Road Trip!!

I'm sorry that I've been away from my blog (and from some of yours as well) for sooooo long. I will try not to let my postings be so far apart. I have missed my blog & all of you too.

At the begining of last month I went on a little road trip with my mom and brother. We went up to Northern California to visit family & on our way home went to the Big Basin Redwoods and headed home on Highway 1. We had a blast!

Here are some pictures.