Lucky me and good 'ol California

Just six short weeks after we left California, I was heading back. Lucky me, I was the lucky recipient of two free Southwest tickets. Lucky me again: my incredible sister-in-laws took Joshua home with them on the airplane when they left two days before, leaving me to only have to travel with one easy breasy four year old. Note: When we were taking Alli, Kristin and Joshua to the airport, Audrey cried for a good 20 minutes because she would miss her brother, she didn't want him to go to California without her, who would she play with, and just because she "loved him so much". It was very endearing/slightly annoying about how much she cried about it, but it makes my heart happy she loves her brother so much.

We were gone for 9 days, and it was so good to be home.
We went into San Francisco for a day to see some dear friends we left behind. It was amazing driving into the city and how the feelings of leaving were still so raw that it brought me to tears. In other ways, it feels like a million years ago that we lived here.

The foggy city.

Lucky me! All these ladies came to spend the day, and they brought my favorite treats! Addi's homemade Oreo cookies, Linden's scones, LaDonna's pumpkin cookies, Angela's gluten free cookies. I was a spoiled, sugar crazed girl. It was a hot day for San Francisco, and we all got a little sun burned!

Audrey and Joshua had such a fun time playing with their friends that they had missed. They played duck duck goose in a line for a long time, letting the mommies eat and chat - my favorite things!

After a long day at the park, some of us headed up north for dinner at Boudins. We also saw Miss Audrey in the window at the PBK there.

Happy Birthday Jason! We were lucky enough to be in town for my nephews second birthday party.

Andrea is a very talented cake maker.

These two cousins are so cute together. Love the football.

The construction themed house party.

We went to the lake one day and had so much fun dipping our toes in the water,

and being thrown off the tube. I haven't been tubing in years, and at first I was nervous but then I remembered how much fun it was!

We took Savy and Joshua out on the tube (Audrey refused) and they loved it. Savy kept saying, "Dis is so fun!" and Joshua would look back at me and say, "Wheeee!!"

It was a really fun day.

We went and spent some time with Memor and Fafa. We met at the mall so we could see Audrey in that PBK window. People would stop us and tell us how much Audrey looked like the girl in the window!

This is my favorite one.

Doing a little dance...

We spent a day at Six Flags and we were so lucky that Aunt Rachel came along! Three adults and three kids is so much easier! The weather was perfect and we didn't have to wait in line for one ride. Lucky us!

Pool party! We went to the pool quite a bit, which we loved. Doing anything with these lovely ladies is always fun. Thank you Mimi, Savy and Rachel for coming and spending so much time with us!

We would meet my dad up there for lunch somedays, and other days we would go wait for Aunt Jess to be done teaching her swim lessons, so she could teach Audrey! Thank you Jess for not only being the soccer coach, but the swim coach as well.

These two sweet girls love each other so much. And I love their cute little bums.

Since Jessica worked at the pool all summer, We were able to have a big bbq there one of our last nights in CA. It was so.much.fun. We swam, we ate, we swam some more, we let the little ones skinny dip. I remember thinking when I was a kid that there was something so magical about night swimming. I still do.

Grande, the swing pusher extraordinaire.

Uncle Ryan's parents have a boat so we were able to go boating again our last night in CA. Loved it. Joshua loved driving the boat!

Jess and I won for most improved tubers. We didn't get thrown off once!

We had to bribe Audrey with 20 gummy bears to get on the tube. She finally did it, but wouldn't let us go very fast. When we got off she said, "That was fun...Dad can buy a boat now". I wish.

My beautiful mom. She was an amazing water skier in her day. Now she is an amazing water skier, hostess, wife, Mom, GrandD, and friend that anyone could ask for. This woman walks on water in my eyes.

Jessica's first time ever skiing!

Me. My triceps were sore for days.

Rachel's skills on the wakeboard

Ryan was seriously impressive.

I love my family.

The day before I left, Rocia and her sister Kaisa were nice enough to meet me at the Jelly Belly factory. It was so nice to see them both again and all these sweet kids did so well during the tour. Aren't they cute?

3 mommies + 9 kiddos + LOTS of jelly beans = one good time

Me, Rocia and Kaisa. Rocia is my California native friend, we'll be seeing lots of each other in the future. Lucky, lucky me.

Sweet girls.

Thank you to everyone who made my trip to California so memorable. The flight home to Texas was long, but very worth it. I feel so lucky, no, blessed to have had the chance to go see family and friends. Thanks to all who made it possible, and thank you Mom and Dad, for letting us come stay and make a disaster of your house. Love you all!