California: Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Thursday: We went to the Winchester Mystery House! I love that place, and we had so much fun. I think that house gets cooler and cooler every time I go there, and I learned so much on this tour! After our tour of the house was over, we spent some time exploring the really strange gift shop (they have the most random assortment of stuff...), and walking around the gardens of the house. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, so all of my pictures are exterior shots. OH, and if any of you are ever in the San Jose area, I have a recommendation for a really AMAZING restaurant: Zona Rosa. The food was really amazing, the restaurant was cute, and the service was excellent!

My parents in front of the Winchester Mystery House

On the right side, you can see the door that opens to a huge drop-off... 

It's so pretty! (and weird!!)

Friday: On Friday evening we went to a River Cats game! It was very fun. Little Addison was SO beyond excited about it. Cassidy was mostly enjoying eating the peanuts, I think... The game was really good though, and the River Cats won! After the game there were some really awesome fireworks (I didn't take any pictures of that though...).

Photobomb by Cassidy! :)  

The view from our seats! You can see the bridge in the background. 

Saturday: Saturday was Cassidy's birthday party!! I'm SO glad I was able to be there to celebrate her birthday! Her birthday party was at Wacky Tacky, which is a kid's playground kind of place... It's a really smart set-up. They have multiple play areas for the kids, and they do face painting and balloon animals, and then they also have a room where they do the pizza and cake and presents for the kiddos! They keep everything organized and moving along (plus they do the clean-up). It's such a brilliant idea! They have a few benches set up for the parents, but it's definitely a place that is all about the kids. 

Here's my cousin Anna's little girl! Her name is Abbey. 

Here's Addison waiting for her balloon animal (she requested a monkey). And you can kinda see the face painting she has on her cheek (it's a pink bat... haha). 

Cassidy getting ready to blow out her birthday candles!!

Addison really enjoyed her cupcake! 

After the party, the girls went home to take a nap, and then when they woke up they came over to my mom and dad's house to hang out for a bit before me and McGee had to leave. We gave Cassidy her presents then (we didn't want to cut into the play time at Wacky Tacky), and we had a nice BBQ dinner (my dad made his amazing BBQ chicken!).

Here's Cassidy opening up her presents from our family! 

Then it was my least favorite time... Time to say goodbye to everyone. I tried really hard to contain my crying when my brother, Amanda, and the girls left (I just had to rush inside to try to keep myself together...), but when my mom and dad dropped me at the airport I definitely cried. Goodbyes really suck.  I miss everyone already.

On the bright side, I'm sure that Christmas will be here in no time, and I'll get to see everyone again! I predict that Fall will fly by, and so far Summer is definitely flying by.

Yosemite!!

We had an absolutely amazing time in Yosemite. We were there for 3 days (2 nights), and it was really the perfect camping trip. The first day we set up camp, and then drove into Yosemite Valley to visit the gift shop and see some of the cool views from the Valley. We also stopped by The Ahwahnee Hotel, which is BEAUTIFUL! I'd never seen it before, because we always just tent camp... but it's a really cool hotel (I still think I'd prefer to tent camp though... ). Then we headed back to our campsite, and enjoyed some grilled turkey burgers for dinner, and Smores for dessert!

 The dining room inside The Ahwahnee

The 2nd day we woke up pretty early, and had a really lovely breakfast of pancakes and bacon, and then we drove to the Tunnel View area and enjoyed the beautiful scenery there. The trailhead for our hike (to Artist Point) was across the street from Tunnel View, so we walked over there and started our hike nice and early before it got hot. The hike was pretty deserted, which was good (peaceful!) and bad (bears?). Little Addison ended up getting pretty tired of hiking fairly quickly (she has little legs!), so my parents headed back down the mountain with her a little bit before halfway. Cassidy (a hiking champ!), Brad, Amanda, McGee and I all kept hiking, and after we reached the part of the hike where we had to turn onto another trail, we saw some fellow hikers that said they'd stopped because they'd just seen a bear. So... that made me, Amanda, and Cassidy quite nervous. Brad and McGee wanted to go find the bear, but they eventually decided they should just stick with the rest of us. We continued hiking for a tiny bit more, but I was feeling like we should head back, and Amanda and Cassidy agreed with me. And then I saw a pile of bear poop, and that clinched it for me: We turned around and headed back down the mountain. We didn't get to reach Artist Point, but we still had some really amazing views of Half Dome and El Capitan on our hike back down the mountain.

Brad, Amanda, Cassidy, and Addison at the Tunnel View parking area

Yosemite!! That's El Capitan on the left, and that's Half Dome in the distance.

 Me and McGee and Tunnel View! 

The view on the way back from our hike! Not too shabby.

The bear poop! Just in case any of you were curious what bear poop looks like...

More views from our hike... That's El Capitan in the distance.

We were singing (mostly "Let It Go"...) to keep any bears away.

 After our semi-failed hike (it was still really cool and beautiful, and we didn't meet any bears... so I call that a success I think?), we met back up with the rest of our family, and then drove into the Valley for a nice lunch. Then we started the drive up to Glacier Point! I love Glacier Point. The views are spectacular.

Half Dome. I can't believe my dad, brother and I climbed that years ago! 

So beautiful! 

The whole family! 

Another view from Glacier Point! 

After Glacier Point, we drove to Bridalveil Falls and did the mini-hike there (McGee hiked all the way up to where the Falls usually are, but with the severe drought that California is in, the waterfall was barely a trickle this year. After Bridalveil, we were quite exhausted and ready to head back to camp. We had a really awesome time back at camp eating dinner (hobo chicken and steak!), playing dominos, making Smores, and just relaxing by the fire. It was really perfect :)  

Mom and Dad!

Addison and McGee! She was having fun talking his ear off. 

Cassidy!! That's McGee's bandana. She said she had a headache, so McGee got his bandana wet and tied it on her head! Her headache magically disappeared after that. 

 On the final day in Yosemite, we just packed up our campsite and headed home! We all had an amazing time, and it's been far too long since we've all gone camping!! I loved every second of it.

Santa Cruz and Monterey

We arrived on Friday (July 4), and it was a pretty good day of travel until we hit Minneapolis Airport. In Minneapolis, we boarded the plane and everything seemed fine, and then there was some sort of problem with a computer on the plane, and that turned into a 2.5 hour delay. We finally arrived in Sacramento a few hours late, and then went to Brad's house for a BBQ with the family. It was soooo great to see everyone, and spend some time relaxing and enjoy being with my family. After it got dark, we watched some fireworks, but then me and McGee were getting quite tired (we'd been awake over 21 hours by that point... ), so we drove back to my parents' house and passed out.

The next day we drove to Santa Cruz!! It was really beautiful and awesome there, but MY GOODNESS it was crowded!! I guess the Saturday of the 4th of July weekend is a popular time to go to Santa Cruz... whoops! It was such a relief when we were finally parked and could walk around a bit. We walked over to the pier/wharf and had lunch, and then we went to the beach and got our feet wet in the ocean. After our feet were nice and cooled-off, we walked over to the Boardwalk and Brad, Amanda, Cassidy, and Addison went on the carousel. We were pretty tired by that point, so we returned to the car and my parents, McGee and I headed down to Monterey (Brad, Amanda, and the girls drove home).

In Monterey, we parked near Cannery Row and then walked around quite a bit. We saw a ton of harbor seals lounging on the beach, and we stood and watched them for a little while.  Then we continued to walk around the Cannery Row area, and we ate dinner at the Cannery Row Brewing Company (which does not brew any beer...), and then drove home!!

You can kinda see all the seals on the beach in both pictures! 

We're leaving for Yosemite tomorrow - I'll make sure to take LOTS of pictures!!

We're going back to Cali...

We're heading to CA in just a few days! I'm so excited to see my amazing family and friends! And I'm also excited to show McGee around some more of California. We have a LOT of sightseeing plans! Our trip is pretty jam-packed, and it should be a great time!!  Here are highlights of some of the sightseeing we're going to do:

Santa Cruz/Monterey - It has been YEARS since I've seen Santa Cruz or Monterey!! I'm so excited. And the weather should be a lot cooler there than it is in Sacramento, so I know McGee will appreciate that! We're going to walk around the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and wharf areas, and probably eat lunch somewhere on the wharf. And then when we're done there, we'll head down to Monterey to do some more sight-seeing!

Yosemite - We're going camping for a few nights in Yosemite!! I'm SO excited to go back to Yosemite, and I'm SO excited for McGee to see it! I predict he'll love it. It really is one of the most breathtaking places I've ever seen. Also, it's been far too long since I've gone camping with my family!! I can't wait. 

Winchester Mystery House - I love this place. It's so weird! If you live in California and haven't gone here, I highly recommend it. It's such a beautiful yet really quirky house. And I thought it would be a pretty easy roadtrip one day since it isn't TOO far away! 

The outside of Winchester - Isn't it beautiful? 

And I will have peace-of-mind about our little guy while we're in CA, because McGee's parents have oh-so-kindly offered to watch him the entire time we're gone! He absolutely loves staying with them, and they spoil him rotten (in a very good way!). Here are two pictures of Guinness and I watching the World Cup: 

He wasn't very interested at first...

But then he got really into it! 

I'll take lots of pictures while I'm in California and I'll try to do some posts while we're there (but it may have to wait til we get back, depending on how much down-time we have...). 

Busy weekend!

This past weekend was supposed to be a pretty relaxed one, but it ended up being rather busy! Fun, but busy. On Saturday morning, I had a dentist appointment down in Wilmington. I like my dentist in Wilmington, so I decided it's worth the commute 2 times per year to keep him! I had no cavities, so that wasn't a bad start to the day! Then McGee had to get his car serviced - It was the big 15k mile service. After that, we had to head into Philly for one of my birthday presents to McGee! I signed us up for a beer and cheese tasting at a local bar. They took us through 8 beers and 4 cheeses, and we learned a lot about how the beers and cheeses were made. There were a lot of fun people in our group, and we had a great time!

On Sunday, we went to the Movie Tavern for a 9am showing of 22 Jump Street. The Movie Tavern is super cool, and you can order food and drinks before or during the movie to enjoy while you're watching the film! We'd never gone there for breakfast, and I've gotta say their breakfast was pretty darn good! And we both highly enjoyed 22 Jump Street and thought it was hilarious. If you liked the first one (we did), you'll like the 2nd one. After that, McGee had to pick his sister up from the train station in Philly, and then we went up to McGee's parents' house (with Guinness!) to celebrate Father's Day. Guinness was having a great ol' time with all of McGee's family, and he's still tired today from being so hyped up yesterday. 

And we got home last night in just enough time to watch the Game of Thrones finale! I'm not going to give any spoilers, but man it was a good one. I wasn't disappointed at all. I really want to read all of the books and at least catch up to the series, but I think I said that last season too... Maybe I'll actually do it this time! 

So far, I am not enjoying the summer weather here... It's been so hot and humid. It has been raining like crazy almost every day, and it turns out that's the perfect breeding weather for tons of bugs. There are gross bugs EVERYWHERE, and every time I step outside I get at least a few bug bites. Our backyard has been infested with some sort of biting gnat bug, and if you hang outside for more than 5 minutes they start to swarm around you. It's SO gross. We tried an all-natural pet-safe spray for our lawn (we're afraid to use harsh chemicals because of Guinness...), and I also tried some "bug traps" which consist of apple cider vinegar and some dish detergent. So far, no luck with either strategy. I also bought a bunch of plants this weekend, because I read that certain plants act as insect repellents. So, I specifically bought plants that were supposed to repel mosquitoes and gnats. I have a really nice geranium plant, rosemary (I've always wanted rosemary anyways!), lavender, and lemongrass. I was looking for catnip (it's supposed to be a stronger insect repellent than DEET!) and citronella (I didn't even know that citronella was a plant... but it is! It's a grass), but I couldn't find either of those. Fingers crossed the plants work... They look really nice though, so there's that at least! 

This isn't a picture of MY geranium, but it looks exactly like mine! I just haven't taken a picture yet. 

I hope you're all doing well, and I hope you have a good week! 

Kevin's Birthday Present

One of the presents I got for Kevin for his birthday was tickets to go see the Ireland vs Costa Rica soccer match! They were playing a "friendly" international game here in Philly, and I knew Kevin liked the Ireland team (he has a few jerseys and everything!). So, on Friday after we were both finished with work, we grabbed a few beers and some sandwiches for our new cooler (we just bought one that day!), and headed to the stadium to do a bit of tailgating before the match!

We had fun tailgating a bit and eating our dinner, and then we walked around for a bit, because the stadium parking area has some really pretty bridge views and the weather was PERFECT! The high was in the 70s that day and not humid at all. It was a very relaxing and fun way to wind down from the work-week.

You can see our new ice chest in this picture! I don't know how we didn't own one already... 

The bridge!

We headed into the stadium about 30 minutes before kickoff, and we noticed that we were some of the very few spots of green in the stadium - It turns out that Philly has a TON of Costa Rica fans!!! The stadium was a sea of red shirts and jerseys to show support for Costa Rica. And if you think I'm joking, check out the pictures - I'd say it was 95% Costa Rica fans. I had been guessing that it would be an even split of fans, because I know Philadelphia has a HUGE Irish population... But nope! Costa Rica has some very passionate and intense fans in Philadelphia. 

Here we are looking a little nervous wearing our green jerseys before the match started - We noticed the extreme lack of green in the stadium.  

 The pretty view of the bridge from our seats! 

Umm... Do you see all the fans wearing red? Do you see how very little green there is in the stands?

Again with the red...

And again with the red.... 

The final score ended up being 1-1, and it was a lot of fun to watch!  We cheered loudly for Ireland, even though it was a bit scary at times to be an Ireland fan during that game. The Ireland team played way better in the first half (and that's when they scored), but Costa Rica dominated the 2nd half (and that's when they scored). I think Kevin really liked his birthday present!!