California dream in'

I have been waiting to see Jasons pictures of California (his are so much better), but I need to get these up.  We enjoyed a fantastic week in Northern California, most of it spent with Jasons aunt and uncle in Santa Rosa.  They were most gracious hosts and we had such a wonderful time!!

Day one, San Fransisco!  We took the Larkspur ferry over and walked all over the city!!  If you knew the city and how far we walked (and how hilly!!), you would be equally impressed with our awesome kids!!  The iconic Lombard Street...

Riding the carousel

Bennett was not too sure about it...he cried through most of it!!  After paying $5 a person to ride it...ugh...

Santa Rosa was home to Charles Schultz, creator of the Peanuts comics, so we visited the gift shop and ice arena. Reagan and Bryce especially love to read comics!!

The Jelly Belly factory!  This picture of Ronald Reagan was made entirely of jelly bellys!!  He was actually very fond of them and they sent tons upon tons of them to the White House for his inauguration and during all his years in office!!

We visited Sacramento over the weekend and visited our old senior pastor from East Michigan.  He has been out in California for 13 years (just before we got married), so it was such a treat to sit in his service and visit his church.  He is just so personal from the pulpit and it was such a delight to reconnect with him and his wife.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch with them before we headed back to Santa Rosa.  I'm just kicking myself that we did not all get a picture together!!

This is the house that they used to film Pollyanna..it is privately owned now, and the grounds are just beautiful!!

The kids were just amazing on the flights.  We flew in quite late to San Fran and the kids woke up and were pleasant while we got our bags, rental car and drove to the hotel.  On the way home, we had a red eye flight with a connection and they again just did great!  Once we got to Minneapolis, Jason had to actually get on a different flight to Ohio for work and we headed home, just the kids and I.  Everyone were such troopers, Bryce helped with the luggage, Reagan helped with Bennett!  I am just so thankful for how well they all traveled and vacationed!!  The 3 hr time change is a killer, especially coming back east.  It took many many days to get reset, but it was worth it for a great vacation!!

Bennett is SO into planes and tractors and trucks right now, the airport was just heaven for him!  He was a tad nervous on the first flight, which was a smaller plane.  He was sitting with Jason and grabbed his arm and looked quite concerned.  Once we got up on the air, he asked to come back down!!  He did great, though, and loved being on the plane!!