Three Years

It's been three years since I've blogged.  I was looking back at my old posts and I'm so glad I did it.  It brought back a lot of memories and details about trips that I had forgotten about it.  We are set to head out to a big vacation next week, so I thought it would be a good time to start again.

Here's a brief review of the past three years that were not blogged:

Ethan got his driver's license and bought Grandpa's truck.

Nikki started 8th Grade, July 2014

Ethan's first day of his junior year of high school, Aug. 2014

Nikki had surgery on her foot. It was a long and painful recovery, Feb. 2015

Ethan went to his junior prom, April 2015

Nikki graduated from 8th Grade, May 2015

We started fostering for Friends for Life Animal Rescue in the summer of 2015.  This is our first foster, Lux.

We went to San Diego with the family, June 2105

Family portrait, July 2015

Nikki started High School, July 2015

Ethan's first day of his senior year of high school, August 2015

Nikki at homecoming, October 2015

Ethan went to Iowa and South Dakota for college visits and to meet some baseball teams, October 2015

Ethan registered to vote, January 2016

It was Ethan's final year of playing high school baseball.  He played on the varsity team all 4 years.

My sister Jenny got engaged to Michael, April, 2016

Ethan signed his letter of intent to play baseball for the University of Sioux Falls, April, 2016

Senior night for baseball.  He had a fantastic year, earning all division first team and all section player of the year.  Then, the next day,  at his very last game...

He ended up having a partial tear in his UCL during this throw to first.  

But...he did graduate from high school!  May, 2016

Here's a link to the graduation video I made for him:  

Ethan's HS Graduation Video 2016

Stan and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in San Diego, June 14, 2016

Nikki started her sophomore year of high school.  July, 2016

Nikki adopted Lucifer, July 2016

We surprised Nikki with a trip to Disneyland for her Sweet 16th birthday, Dec. 2016

Nikki and me at the Aloha Festival, March 2017

Nikki' s 16 year old portraits, April 2017

Jenny and Michael got married, April 2017

Family Portrait, April 2017

Hollywood

While the rest of the family headed home to the heat, we thought we would surprise the kids with a trip to LA and Hollywood.  Nikki has always wanted to go to Beverly Hills and to see the stars on the Walk of Fame.  I LOVE San Diego.  I don't feel the same about LA.  But I can say, glad I did it, don't need to do it again.

Some of the stars on the walk.  Really, this is a dirty part of town.  It's very crowded and some "interesting" people there.

Found the Chinese Theater

And had to snap a photo of John Wayne's boot prints for my dad

But we did run into a couple of movie stars while we were there.

The next day, we went to Universal Studios.  It was OK.  The rides were fun, but all basically the same.  We came on a good day, as there were very few crowds and really didn't have to wait in line to ride any rides.

All  in all, we had a good time in LA, but it really made me appreciate Phoenix and we were glad to go home.

San Diego

We had so much fun last summer celebrating my Mother and Father In Law's anniversary in San Diego that they rented the same house and all 16 of us headed over to San Diego for a short vacation.

On our first full day, Stan and Ethan went on their annual deep sea fishing trip.  They love going on the boat and spending half of the day at sea.

Since I get sea sick and Nikki has no desire to go, we went with the rest of the family to Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla.   

Nikki and Drew watching the fish.

Hadley watching Drew and Brayden explore the sea cucumber.

The Kelp Forest

La Jolla.  I could have sat on the balcony all day looking at this view.  The weather was perfect and the view was gorgeous.

Nikki and me

Nikki looking cute

Oh no!  Nikki was eaten by a shark

Later that afternoon, Steve, Barb and I took Floyd and Bea to Balboa Park to see the organ concert at the Organ Pavilion.  I've never been to Balboa Park.  This Pavilion was gorgeous.  On this day, there were kids from 10-18 performing on this huge pipe organ. They were all so talented.

On the next day, the younger kids went to Lego Land.  My kids really had no desire to go there, so we decided to drive around San Diego.  We had intended on stopping at a couple of colleges (yikes!) for Ethan to tour, but decided just to have fun that day.  We started off in Pacific Beach and walked around.  Then we headed towards Point Loma.

We did stop at one college...Point Loma.  This school probably has one of the most beautiful campuses around.  Here is a picture of the baseball field.  Hit a home run and it's in the ocean.  

The third day in San Diego was spent at Coronado Beach.  We had such perfect weather the whole time we were in San Diego and beach day was no exception.

Stan and E playing football

Nikki, Jill and kids

Ethan

Nikki