Sunday, January 4, 2009

Thanksgiving - Part 1

Chris is from the Bay Area in California. It costs a small fortune to fly there, and we've never wanted to make the long drive clear up there, so we haven't been for a long time. Too long! We decided at the beginning of 2008, when he had a real job with real benefits, that we would drive up there for Thanksgiving and Chris' birthday.


We took the kids out of school a few days early and headed up the weekend before Thanksgiving. Here we are toward the beginning of the day. See all the happy, smiling faces? 2 things I learned to love that day...
1. minivans
2. dvd players in minivans
(I'm just sayin'...)


It really didn't take that long, all things considered. I think I had it in my mind that it was going to take around 15 hours or so. So when it took almost 11 hours exactly, I was ecstatic. It wasn't the most beautiful drive, but if we had driven up PCH like I wanted to, we might still be on our way.

The day after we got there, we went to church in the morning, then headed to Half Moon Bay for a picnic (yes, on Sunday. I know...scandalous!).


We stopped at the cemetery where Kathy and her mom and dad (Chris' mom and grandparents) are buried. It was so good for us to go there and talk about our fun memories of Grandma and Grandpa and hear some of the stories and memories that Chris and Dave have of Kathy. The kids carefully cleaned off the headstones as we talked. The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS! Which is actually kind-of rare for that cemetery. We enjoyed the peaceful time there before going on to the beach.



I had never been to Half Moon Bay before, but I have been hearing about it since Chris and I got married. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't how I expected it would be. It was hard to get to and crowded once we got there. But after we parked and walked down to the beach, it was beautiful. We were there about an hour or so before sunset, so it was still nice and warm. Not warm enough to swim in the ocean, however...but that didn't stop some kids. CRAZY!

We just took pictures, and looked cute.

Hannah looking out at the waves. She was petrified of them touching her. It was cute to watch her running up and down the beach.

I love this picture of Rachel and Chris.

No comments, please, on what the humidity does to a desert girl's hair...it only gets worse.




Its pretty clear I was digging the sillouette pictures that day. There actually wasn't really a choice because of the time of day we were there.

We drove around to one end of the bay and thought we'd walk to this big white ball thing...but by this time, the sun was going down and it was FREEZING! We only got a little way out and decided to turn around (I didn't have a jacket).

Our freezing little family.

The girls with Grandpa.

We called it a day and headed back to Grandpa's for some dinner with he and Adrienne (his wife, who we finally met this trip). It was a great day!

6 comments:

lindsay said...

oh how i love my jensens! it looked like such a fun trip, i'm so glad you got to go! my grandparents used to live there but since they moved to AZ, i really miss having the excuse to go to california every summer.
Next stop: Japan with US! right?!...

shauna said...

Wow, you are on a roll!

I love all the details. Your kids will too.

Road trips are the best when done in a Toyota Sienna. So there Ford. . .

Okay. Enough of my random comments. Happy New Year.

Cookie Mama said...

Looks like tons of fun. Glad you had a chance to go on a vacation! I loved the first picture and I was waiting for the last picture to be the one where the kids are pounding each other on the car ride home. Guess you're kids are nicer than mine.

P.S. The fact that you went to church on your vacation is amazing, but I was totally cracking up with the whole scandalous remark. You are seriously one of the funniest people I know.

Cookie Mama said...

Please change my "you're kids" to “your kids”. Seriously awesome. I think my 2nd grade teacher must have been high on crack when she passed me on to the 3rd grade.

I hate it when people don't proof read their comments.

utah beach kids said...

Gotta love the road trips. The trip from Utah to Cali is a fun 12 hours for us, I feel your pain. We're still not used to it. Love the DVD's in the car though:) Looks like you had a fun trip. Cute family

The Scotts said...

How fun! I love that family picture of you all on the beach and the one of you and Chris is so cute! I think your hair looks great but I know what you are talking about. Ponytail time and even then it is not a cute one! Glad your drive was shorter than expected. Our DVD players just broke, it doesn't look good.