Our Road Trip Continues

We are having so much fun on our first real, no-deadlines-no-real-need-to-be-home-for-anything road-trip! This leg of our trip has brought us from Utah to Southern California. What's not to love about sun, sand and the beautiful ocean...Not to mention we've had lot's of family time too and nothing in the world is better than that, right? Here are just some of our 4th of July activities:

******************************************************************** The day after... we just chilled all day. We went to the park and rode bikes and scooters and layed on the grass, it was heavenly! One of my favorite pictures of the day: Landon with Angela. Such a good mommy!

Amy, Elly, Owen & Emmett all dressed up for the party at Abuela's!

Chris, Ron, Patty & Larry paid tribute (and told some funny stories) about their mom.

Robert's cute wife Reese, me & cute little Amy, before the party.

Making last minute tweeks. Todd was our DJ for the evening and he did an amazing job with the music!

More behind the scenes work from Chris, Reese, Lorrie & Amy.

Part of the after-party party. We watched family videos that Patty had put together on a disk for everyone. It was fun, and everyone is exhausted.

Gracie turns ONE

Little Miss Gracie was havin' nothin' to do with this animal business on her first birthday! I'm sad we weren't able to be there for the party with it's cute wild animal theme. Gracie is our youngest of only four grand-daughters. She's a little out-numbered by fourteen boy cousins! Happy Birthday Gracie!

Utah trip...

We made it to Utah in a day.

The next morning we had Ella's baptism...Ella is the oldest of our 16 grand children, and the first to be baptized.

Shannon, Dave & Ella

Nessa, Sean & Gracie. Kinda fuzzy, 'cause I really shouldn't have been taking the picture in the chapel.

Dave and Shannon took us to a Japanese restaurant. Here Ron is teaching Cole some mad chopstix skills.

Sunday Morning was Cooper's blessing. Afterward, we had yummy lasagna dinner at Shannon & Daves.

Then Ron & I drove up to see the Brigham City Temple which will open next month.

We were able to see my newest great-niece, Harper, Dan & Heather's newest addition. Isn't she beautiful? So sweet!

The next morning we got up early and drove down to Erin and Ben's. Nathan, Ron and Tyler are looking at a Lego magazine.

Here is cute little Erin. She's just as tiny as ever, except for the basket ball right out in front and man is she carrying that baby low. Must be a boy. :) The Utah part of our trip was a whirlwind, but I'm glad we were able to fit in as much as we did in such a short amount of time. After we left Erin's we headed to California. But first a little detour..."just ten minutes off the freeway" to Bryce Canyon.....

A great shot of Chris & the canyon.

We made time to stop and visit the DelToro's in St. George. Their new home is lovely. What a great family...we miss them being in our ward already! Now on to California!

And then there was one...

One hundred days ago, Shannon, Ella and I made a chain for Ron to count down his last one hundred days at work. We draped it across the windows in our family room. (see March 20th post) Each day he would remove a paper link that would bring us closer to his retirement. Today is the last link. Today is the last day I will pack him a lunch to take to work. The last day of a routine he has had for over 24 years at the Prosecutors Office. Each day for the past couple of weeks he has been bringing home framed family photos, memento's, little pieces of his life as a Prosecuting Attorney. His office, which looks out over the Sound will be cleared out by days end. There will definitely be an unfillable void in his office...Ron, as I've been told, is "one of a kind". So on to a new chapter in his life. This will be the first summer he has had "off" in over forty years! ...........Well deserved my love..................... ......................................................now let's go play!

Last night was Ron's retirement party for work. There were lot's of important people there to wish him good luck and everyone had glowing things to say to him and about him. Attorneys who had worked with him, some county workers and people in law enforcement who he defended, some judges who he tried cases in front of, and even some lawyers that he went toe to toe with in the courtroom, came to wish him well. It was very touching when his co-workers (and his bosses) got up to tell of experiences when Ron took the time to do something special for them or when he assisted in making something in a trial work that no one else thought of. Many stories of Ron going the "extra mile", doing significant things for others in his quiet, unassuming way. Treating everyone with respect and kindness. This is why I love my Ron the way I do. He is so genuine.

This is one of my favorite photo's of the night. Of all the important people there, Ron's family was the most important! Ron is so proud to have his little grandson Logan share the evening with him.

I just love my guy!

We have so much fun when we travel. I especially love going on road trips with Ron. Sometimes we have the CD player turned up and we sing (like no one is listening). Sometimes we play word games, taking a word or two from a song or scripture or poem and just keep it going...kind of a six degrees to Kevin Bacon-esq game. Sometimes we design our dream home with words only. As we were driving, we saw this meadow in Eastern Washington, and decided we needed to plop our imaginary dream home down in a location just like this...so we hopped out and took our picture. It was pretty windy.

Ron and I just finished this book. It is an easy read, but it took us a little longer to read because it was our "dessert" book. After we read scriptures each night (our "meat and potatoes"), we get a little dessert book. I already knew the story of Stephanie Nielson, but it was, at times, very emotional to read it out loud. Would I recommend this book? Yep!