California Trip

Ever since Andy and I got married we have wanted to go back and visit his mission. So we decided we better do it before he forgot where everything and everyone were. He wanted to show his parents his old stomping ground too, so we invited them along. After some debate we decided the best idea was for us to pull his parents fifth wheel camp trailer and just drive and camp along our way. So His parents left on Wednesday and ended up at Jody's the first night, and then on a highway somewhere in Nevada in a snow storm the next night.

Day 1:
On Friday after work Andy and I rode up with Suzie to Jody's where Jody then took us to the airport to catch our 10:00 PM flight to Reno, NV. where his parents were going to come and pick us up.

This was Dodger's first time flying so I took lots of pictures.


He rode on Andy's shoulders most of the time at the airport


It was really late for this little guy, so he was starting to get a little cranky.


boarding the plane


Then when we got on the plane he was so excited and going crazy.


I was holding Dodger, when the guy sitting next to us opened up a bag of jerky and once Dodger heard that bag making noise he was trying so hard to crawl across us to get to that food. The rest of the flight went OK. It was hard to get him to sleep and then if we moved him at all he would wake up and start crying. Good thing it was only like a 45 min. flight.

Day 2:
We woke up early and got on the road to head for our fist stop on the mission tour - Paradise, CA.


We stopped at this really pretty overlook for a potty break.



This is Vinny and Tatum Mena. Andy lived at an apartment at their house when he served in Loma Rica, his first area.
For a while he kept in good contact with the Mena's but then they moved and he hadn't talked with them since. Well he knew that they had moved to a town near by and were running a feed store, so while we were driving through that town we decided to look for this store. We had just spotted it, when we also spotted these two kids sitting on the corner of the street across from the store. Andy knew it was the Mena kids because he remembered what they looked like, but just to make sure he went into the store first to ask if the Mena's owned it. Well the lady said that they used to but a few years ago they had sold it and moved. But, he decided to go and ask the kids anyway to see if it really was them. Well, IT WAS!! And the weird thing is, is that they didn't live in this town and they hadn't been there for like a year. They just happened to be there that one day to clean out their old house to sale it, and they just happened to be sitting on that corner waiting for their mom to come and pick them up. SO CRAZY!!!


When Andy was on his mission, he got a picture by this exact sign and sent it to me because it says Double A, and since both of our names start with A, we used to say that.




Our big hamburger feast at the campground in Paradise


This is the bathtub grandma rigged up for Dodger. He loved it.


After dinner Andy and I went for a little walk down to a very cute stream.

to be continued...