Vacation Time Again

At the beginning of the month Husband is leaving for sunny Florida to do 6 weeks of schooling for work. February in Florida, compliments of the US Coast Guard. Everything is paid for -- the plane ticket, hotel, car, food. Honestly, who wouldn't want to skip the winter cold and head off to 70-80° sunny weather? I know i would love it. And that has been the plan, for me to go with him :) We knew this training was coming up for him so we've been waiting for his official orders before we purchased the tickets for me to fly out with him -- we were waiting just in case they pushed back his schedule like they usually do. I've been dreaming about it for months to be honest. Palm trees and beaches, reading by the pool, maybe hit up Disney World one weekend and basically just enjoying a month long cheaper then normal vacation. I couldn't wait for February to get here. I've never been to Florida before either.
But our plans have changed. Instead of going to the warmer sun and tropics -- cuz lets face it, yes Sacramento doesn't worry about snow too much in the winter, just the mass amounts of rain -- I'm off to Idaho. Where they have snow. My goal this winter was to not have to see a single flake of snow. That would have been heaven to me if i could have pulled it off. But no. I get to go see this stuff instead. This snow. Snow has its pretty moments...in pictures. But to me it's all pretty much yucky. I like to dress up warm, sweatshirts and long sleeves and jeans and coats and scarves. I don't mind bundling up for some cold. My problem comes from the fact that I'm not a winter driver at all any more. I don't even like to be in the car when other people are driving in the snow. If we end up settling in a climate that has regular snow fall in the winter, i'm planning to become a shut-in during the winter. And i've looked at the weather forecast for next week.... there's snow and the lows will be in the teens. But I'm going to suck it up. We talked it over and we feel like the best thing right now for me to do is to go home to Idaho and see my dad. I haven't decided when i'll be coming back to California, but i know i'll be back by the time Husband gets home from Florida because about 2 days after he gets home, his parents and sister are coming to visit for their spring break (yea!).
If you haven't been following, my dad fell in his garage the other week and hit his head which has caused his having Amnesia now. I've been calling and talking to my step-mom Cindy a lot over the last two weeks to get updates on my Dad. She's doing everything she possible can to make sure he's taken care of and comfortable, but i think in the past ten years that she's been part of our family that this was the first time i've ever heard her cry. I know she has cried, but never to me. This is just one of those trials where getting all the family support that we can is so important. She's doing everything she can on her own and its hard. I would spend every day crying if i were in her shoes.
The Doctors are saying he should regain his memory, its just going to take some time. He seems to be the most comfortable when he's in Salt Lake -- where he grew up -- and when he was there last he was able to enjoy lunch with one of his uncles and aunt, and my step-mom said for that hour he was just like his normal self. The doctors are saying not to expect improvements each day, but we should be seeing progress trends on a weekly basis. He definitely still has his same sense of humor, which is really endearing to me, and he's still the same person despite the fact that he can't remember what and who all made him the person he is. My step-mom says he's kind of weak on his left side right now also, and it makes him unsteady on his feet. Thinking about my dad being weak is almost blasphemous to me. He has always been the Big Strong Man to me. But, he should get back his strength in time with his memory, so that's good too.
I'm just glad i'm able to go home right now. It'll give me a little peace of mind to see him. I'll be putting pictures into his book that he was working on so that he has references to go with his writing. Spending time talking with him will be good for him too. At least it has been on the phone, so i can only imagine it would be better face to face for him. And for me, seeing my mom, step-mom and little brother will be great too.
I want to tell everyone thank you for all the well wishes for my Dad and our family. All the offers for help have not fallen on deaf ears. We are so grateful for everyone in our families and from church. Its nice to have so much help and support :)

Someone Had A Good Birthday

My birthday was over a week ago, but my lack of blogging about it before now has nothing to do with how great it was. i just haven't been wanting to do the sifting through and editing of the pictures. Husband took about 200 pictures, and vain person that i am, i can't just post anypicture of me. I have to find the ones that make me look cute...or at least not scary and fat. But i finally got around to it because i really do want to tell you all how my big day/trip went.
My wonderful husband for some crazy reason loves and adores me. i haven't figured out why, but he does, so i take what i can get. One of his goals in life seems to be making my every wish come true, and on my list was to go to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. Who wouldn'twant to visit it?

It is a maze of rooms and craziness, but i love the whole story of it, and the idea that it's haunted is just a plus for me. So birthday morning we threw the suitcase in the car, hit the gas station and Jamba Juice, and then we were on our way. We did the tour of the Winchester house, with the VIP behind the scenes tour that goes into the extra areas not on the regular tour, including the basement. My #1 hope was that i would see/hear a ghost on the tour, but i was disappointed on that one. But its ok, we can't have everything we wish for.
After checking into our hotel, he took me out for some of my favorite food: Greek. I'm happy to say i've been able to expose Husband to Greek food this last year so i can have it without him making a face at the idea now. He'll only order a Gyro, there's no adventure in trying anything new, but he'll never say no to baklava so i'll take it.

Tuesday we went to San Francisco. We walked around through the park and down to Ocean Beach, and i let Husband take his time taking pictures along the way.

We went over to the Golden Gate bridge and took more pictures.

We wanted to go over to Alcatraz Island to do the prison tour, but we decided we're going to need to take another trip to San Francisco so we needed to leave some things to do for next time. Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, and riding the trolley will be left for next time too.

We did go to the Exploratorium Museum though.

We promised each other we would only stay for 2 hours so we could go do some of the other things on our list for the day, but some how 2 hours stretched out into 6 and they were kicking us out the door for closing. There were so many things to do and see, and we still weren't done when it was time to go.

So after getting some dinner and checking into our hotel, we called it a night. We were so tired from the day, we were asleep by 10 i think.

Wednesday morning we slept in, got ready for the day and decided we were ready to head home. We drove down Lombard St. and then headed over real quick to stop to see the "Painted Ladies" aka the Victorian Houses you may recognize from the opening credits of Full House.

And then we got out of there. But since Fairfield was on the drive home, we had to stop at the Jelly Belly factory and take the tour.

We may or may not have left with several bags of Belly Flops... Our plan for those was to send some bags as gifts to people, but we both have a sweet tooth i don't think either of us have the the ability to give them away any more.

So yes, i can definitely say i had a good birthday. Probably the best birthday i've ever had. I've never taken such a great trip for a birthday before, and just the fact that i got to spend it all with Husband, my best friend ever, made it all the better. I'm going to have to do something really great for him soon i think.

Outer Banks

Vacation in Outer Banks, NC was everything i hoped it would be. WONDERFUL. Playing in the ocean, sand castles, parasailing, a new kite, family, little kids and babies, sun burns, great food...even just the initial act of getting out of the car the first time when we got there and smelling the ocean air...wow. My eyes roll back in joy just thinking about it.
We've been planning this vacation for over a year. Husbands mom, Liz, loves the Outer Banks and i think she's genius. It turned out great, and was worth all the months of stress talking husband into it (he was convinced we wouldn't be able to afford it).
The huge house we stayed in was on Hatteras Island. I don't think i realized that the "Outer Banks" was a string of islands (sandbars) before a few weeks before we left. I don't know what i thought it was before then, but it was a big realization. Now i know why Nicholas Sparks writes so many books that take place there. Our friend Jeremy dropped us off at the airport in Sacramento and we flew into Norfolk VA on Saturday night and drove down from there. We hung out at the airport for a few hours trying to figure out flights and the rental car situation for husbands brother Jacob and his wife because their flight was delayed, so we got to the house around 3:30 am Sunday morning. But since we were still on west coast time mentally we weren't completely dead tired.
Sunday i finally got to meet husbands entire family. It was the first time the whole family had been together in 7 years, so it was a big deal for us all to be there together. I knew i married into a great family, but this trip reminded me how wonderful they really are. I couldn't ask for better in-laws. And the extended family (a few aunts & uncles and cousins) that rented another house down the street, were just as fun getting to know too.
We spent Sunday, not at church because it was so far away, but enjoying the beauty of the beautiful beach and playing in the ocean. Getting sunburned. Our house was right on the beach so we got to see an amazing view. Husband was able to take some great pictures up on the deck one night.
Everyone took turns making dinner every night. I can't think of a night where there wasn't great food. Husband and i made taco salad on our night. I will be posting the recipe for that soon because it seemed to go over fairly well.
There was an awesome Frozen Custard place that everyone stopped at. There were over 30 of us that walked in, and amazingly we didn't scare them into closing early.
The Parasailing turned out to be as great as i hoped it would be. We ended up with 12 of us all together that went, and we got a great deal on it. With so many of us they were going to take us up to 800 ft of rope at the 400 ft price, but the tuesday we set it all up for, they didn't show up. They had double booked, and they felt so bad for making us take the ferry to Ocracoke so early in the morning that they set us up for Thursday for 1/2 the price. It turned out to be a prettier day i thought, and it really was tons of fun. It wasn't half as scary as husband thought it would be, and we've decided the best way to describe is was that we now know how it feels to be a kite.
We took the chance to take tons of family picture. Husband had fun spending time with his brothers and all the guys playing games, and i enjoyed getting to know the sisters-in-law. The kids were so fun too. One of husbands nephews found me so many great shells on the beach, it was soo cute.
Overall, the vacation was a success. I can't wait until we can go back to the beach again!

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