We Know the Way

This post is a little late in coming, but better late than never.

We went to San Jose for a visit the second week in July. On the way down we stopped in Lodi to see Marsha's aunt, Marlene. We had a fun visit with them and then continued on to San Jose.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this will be a long post.

Monday we went to San Francisco.

Mark and Afton present Alcatraz

Mechanical Museum at Fisherman's Wharf

The crew at the Grant Street entrance to Chinatown

Grandpa and Mark with a lion in Chinatown

The fam at the Golden Gate Bridge

Ghirardelli ice cream shop

How good is it? Joseph knows

Thanks for the wonderful day to our great tour guides, grandpa and grandma (and of course Aunt Stef)

Tuesday we went to Santa Cruz

The weather was awesome. The water was cold.

Look out BYU, here comes Mark!

Joe in the waves

Ryan in action

It feels good to get buried in warm sand after the cold water

Joe with a personalized burial

Tuesday happened to be dollar night, so we did some rides as well. Sorry we didn't get pictures of those. Mark and Lauren rode the Giant Dipper a couple of times (best roller coaster ever!) Ryan even rode it, but didn't want to go again. Joe wasn't tall enough to ride the Giant Dipper, but liked the log ride.

Wednesday we lazed around for a while. Marsha and Lauren went shopping while I took the boys to the discovery museum.

Thursday we headed down to Monterey and Carmel. In Monterrey we went to the aquarium.

Guess who loves the aquarium more than anyone?

That would be Rayn (here with the rays)

I though this picture was hilarious - both for Ryan's expression and the fish eating his head

After a long day at the aquarium. Derek looks like he is about 150 years old

I thought this picture of my favorite people was fantastic

In Carmel we went to shops and then the beach. It was a bit foggy and cold, but we love the beach.

On the beach in Carmel

Ryan was excited

Joe and Lauren display the seaweed they captured in Carmel

We then drove up the coast to Asilomar. We had so much fun at the rocks/tide pools during the family reunion we decided to make another trip.

Ryan at work in the tide pools

Lauren preaching from the rocks

We have lots of pictures of Lauren and Grandpa together. The camera is a permanent fixture

We had an awesome dinner at Meyers afterwards. Thanks guys.

Friday we went to Castle Rock

The hills are alive...

Mark and Ryan in a cave in the rock

Joe and Lauren in the same cave

We topped off the vacation with a trip to Sweet Retreat

It must have been a successful vacation because the kids said they didn't want to go home when it was time. Thanks Mom, Dad, Stef, Brad and Afton (Brady was at EFY) for the great time.