San Francisco, Reno, and Beyond

We were both free, Kent finished the semester and I still had a few weeks of maternity leave left so....ROAD TRIP TIME!

We first passed through Rancho Cucamonga to get my parents then all 5 of us headed up to the Bay Area to visit my grandmother and dad's side of the family. Anna did great in the car. We stayed at Mina's house for a few very enjoyable days and spent Mother's day and aunt Diane's house. It was a great feast there and a lot of fun. We even got to visit with the extended family of the Ivanciches.

I love being with and visiting family. Mina is especially fun and enjoyable to be with, she is a wonderful grandmother and great grandmother . I wish we all lived closer.

We also took a four generation pic with my grandmother, dad, me and Anna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two of my cousin's wives have babies also. Looking at the three babies, 2 weeks, 2 months and 7 months you can really see how fast babies grow.

While my mom and dad babysat Anna, yes we love them for that, we headed to out San Francisco for a day, walked across the windy golden gate and peered over the black heads of the Chinese in China town. China town is crazy if you have never been there. It is like you enter Asia, there is no sign you are even in the US. We bought fortune cookies and had to try the food, and let me tell you roasted duck is not very good. And of course, heading out of the weird smelling Chinese restaurant it started pouring on us. Were we surprised? NO. It has rained on Kent and I on every vacation, trip, or special event we have taken since we were married so we were just expecting it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we headed to Reno, to visit Kent’s parents and little brother, stopping on the way by Sacramento to visit Larry and Lisa Ivancich for a few hours which was fun.

We had a nice stay in Reno with Anna getting a lot of attention from everyone. What a spoiled little girl! Kent got to go on the Father Son’s campout with his dad and brother, a rare opportunity. We did some geo caching, bike riding, four square, chest tournaments,and had some dynamite games and obstacle course challenges at the park near by. And Chris almost taught Anna to say “Mom”. Fun stuff.

While going through the bins of all of his old stuff Kent happily found his bear claw slippers. Exciting day.Six days later we headed home.

 

 

Mono lake is a cold windy place but it is near a great volcano which we climbed with Anna.  Then we stopped in Bishop where we stayed over night at a cute hotel an ordered pizza.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool rocks huh! Yep they are at the base of Mt. Whitney.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have always wanted to go to Death Valley, I mean it is a National Park so it must be a pretty cool place, right? Wrong! It is not a cool place, it is HOT and like Death. Don’t go there. All it is, is a big fat dry hot deathly desert. We tried to get out of there as fast as we could, and to think we paid to get in.

 

 

 

 

 

After escaping Death Valley we stayed in another death valley for the night called Las Vegas, we got out of there as fast as we could also and made it safely home.

I made it home just in time for the Wednesday night Young Women activity.What a vacation!