California Craziness!!!

Well, we survived! We took a trip to Cali to visit family for some important milestones, visit some sightseeing spots from my childhood, and to help tackle one project my mom has been wanting for awhile...organizing and inventorying AVON products. Here is a picture of the side of her office we didn't get to...

 and the side of the office we did work on...

 Each box is labeled with a category and number...each item in the box is inventoried on a spreadsheet and it's location is noted...

Now my mom can search her spreadsheet for an item to see if she has it before ordering another one! There is still A LOT to inventory,but the system is in place!

On our way to Cali, we stopped at the salt flats for some  cute pics!

 This is Super Boy and Super Girl saying..."I can't believe I'm standing where a lake used to be!"

Some of the places we visited while we were in Cali...

The Jelly Belly Factory...
Waiting in line for the tour...

 They had jelly bean shaped food...we got a pizza while we waited...

We also made a trip to the Bay Area. Our first stop was Point Reyes...

 The kids with conglomerate rock...

 The kids sizing up to a California Gray Whale Skull...

 Super Girl's 1st visit to the ocean...they "played tag" with the ocean...

 This sea gull let us get super close and just sat there. Then after we had passed,it got up,walked 3 feet, then sat back down again!!!!

 Kids and Gma K with an Elephant Seal Statue at the visitor's center...

I also took the kids to the Oakland Temple...it's where Tall Boy and I got married 12 1/2 years ago!

Getting kisses from Birds of Paradise flowers!!!

They thought it was so cool to be able to walk on the top of the temple! We found out from the missionaries in the visitors center that this is the only temple you can walk on...

At the front doors...

Hugging the temple!

We saw a great video at the visitors center about service, it was a great visit...

The next day we went to San Francisco, specifically Pier 39...

 We went through Boudin's Bread Factory...Mmmmmmmmmmmm, Sourdough............Anyway, we found these fun hats and just had to try them on...Super Boy was a little reluctant at first, but he looks so cute!

 

 We also saw some fun metallic robotic dancing dudes...they were nice enough to let the kids take a picture with them!

At the pier,we only saw one sea lion when there is usually a huge group...

 But the kids got their picture with Alcatraz, even though we didn't get around to a tour of the prison as planned...

 We also went inside this awesome kite shop with every animal, shape, and type of kite that you can think of...of course we had to take pictures with the Elephant Kite!!!

 

 

 We tried to visit Ghirardelli Square, but the traffic was insane,and there was absolutely NO PARKING anywhere near it, so we just drove by with a wave and a wish! The same thing happened when we tried to visit the Fortune Cookie Factory. So we resigned to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and then head for home, Gma's home that is...

We originally planned on 2 weeks, but decided to stay a week longer to tackle another project my mom had been wanting to start...the room we affectionately call "The Black Hole"
The before pics...looking straight ahead and to the left in the doorway...

 After we cleaned out the stuff and one of my bros helping out...

 The awesome wood paneling that we tore down...

 and the awesome green puke carpet that we took out!

Then came the SPACKLE...and more SPACKLE...and more SPACKLE...

Day 2 brought paint! Super Girl and Super Boy even chipped in to help with one of my bros...

 We painted the walls and the ceiling...

 In this photo you  can see the tan on the ceiling matched the tan on the wall, but it's not paint! It's the color of the ceiling before we repainted it white!!!

 As a surprise, we bought a new light for the room too...so nice!

 Day 3 brought shelving on two of the walls...

 Then the waiting game began, we waited 2 days for the underlayment for under the laminate flooring to arrive by mail...when it finally did, we began the flooring, and it turned out great!!!

 Day 6 was the refill day...bringing back SOME of the stuff we took out. Gma spent the day sorting into keep, donate and throw out...everything that came back in was organized and stacked...

Eventually Gma will do an inventory of her fabrics similar to the one we set up for her Avon. So that ended our visit to California. I think we may make it an annual event, every summer doing a project at Gma's house! The kids loved it, I had a great time visiting family and taking kids to my childhood adventure spots, and Tall Boy enjoyed the peace and quiet of an empty house for 3 weeks! But our adventures weren't over yet...
On the way back to Utah,we encountered the coolest double rainbow ever!!!

and just look at the amazing things I found at the end of that rainbow!

So that was our crazy California trip!!!