Our Trip Back

We’ve been back a month and a half now, and it finally feels like the house is back in order.  In a way, it seems like we were never in Fresno.  Then I see a picture or think of something that reminds me of someone I met there, and my heart feels a bit empty.  Maybe I didn’t leave my heart in San Francisco.  A piece of it is in Fresno.

Thankfully, our drive back to Minnesota was pretty uneventful.  The boys were great in the car.  We followed a pattern of picking movies and having 30-60 minutes of playing/reading/doing activities while listening to music.  Sirius Radio was running their free week of service for our whole drive home, it was awesome.  Brad and I listened to Outliers and A Girl on a Train.  Brad drove the ENTIRE way.  I kept offering to drive, but didn’t want to be stuck on my part of the car surrounded by stuff.  We were quite jam packed in the van.  Here’s some pictures from the drive.

Our first stop was Las Vegas.  Luckily, the boys were oblivious to all of the butt cheeks all around.  It must be hip to wear extremely short shorts and almost thong bikinis.  They were distracted by the limousines, fountains, buildings, and characters.  We enjoyed breakfast for dinner at Hash House A Go Go, and walked around the strip for a few hours.  Here’s the Las Vegas pictures.

We spent the night at the Hoover Dam Lodge, and visited Hoover Dam in the morning.  It was a bit rainy, but my structure loving family loved the dam and the huge bridge that wasn’t there yet when we visited in 2006.  There was a HUGE motorcycle meet up, and we had to wait in a parking lot for about 20 minutes for them all to pass through.  Charlie and Teddy got a kick out of seeing all of those motorcycles.  Here’s our Dam Pictures.

After the dam we drove to the Grand Canyon.  We weren’t planning on being there too long, so we just did the basic touristy things.  It’s quite amazing not only how deep the canyon is, but how long it is too.  It is definitely, “Grand.”  It was rather crowded in most spots.  The boys were much more interested in crawling around on rocks than viewing the canyon.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  I want to go back when the boys are teenagers and hike in the canyon.

Monday we visited Four Corners, which is in the middle of the most desolate area I have ever driven in.  Charlie had to go to the bathroom.  We pulled alongside the road and he couldn’t get himself to go.  Twenty five minutes later we finally found a gas station called “Mexican Water,” where he was able to relieve himself.  Here’s our pictures from Four Corners.

Mesa Verde is what Brad was most looking forward to on this trip, and it exceeded our expectations.  I am not much of a history buff, but I loved learning about the history of this place and what life was like for these people.  Theo did a great job climbing up the steep ladders and stairs, but was quite loud and obnoxious during the tour guide’s talk.  It was raining on our way out of our guided tour, but we got to the car before it started downpouring.  My FitBit was very happy with me this day.  Charlie got his beloved hummingbird puppet and Theo picked out the bear puppet.  We were thankful to have these as a distraction as we were waiting a few minutes here and there.  Here’s our pictures.

On our drive to our hotel in Moeb, we came across Wilson Arch along the highway.  It was a great stop to stretch our legs and take in the scenery.  The boys were quite quick to jump into climbing up the formation, which make me a bit nervous at times.  Tator the van looked tiny from the top!  Here’s the pictures.

Tuesday morning we visited Arches National Park.  It was simply stunning.  Charlie’s hummingbird enjoyed getting nectar from every flower it found.  Poor Teddy’s hand got smushed in the fan door.  The highlight was definitely climbing the rocks.  I might have two little rock climbers on my hand.  Here’s the pictures, once again, they don’t do the place justice.

After a long chunk of driving, we stopped in Grand Junction, CO to see the Allen Unique Autos museum.  Highlights were the herse that carried JFK, the real Herbie, and a limousine with a hot tub in the back.  There were mannequins all over the museum.  Spiderman was near Madonna, and Theo was certain that Madonna was a villain.   Enjoy the pictures.

We were thankful to see snow on our drive throughout the afternoon and early evening.  We needed gas near ski country in CO, it was 40 degrees and windy.  It felt sooooooooooooooooo good.  We were going to stop at an awesome park in Denver and eat some dinner, but it was raining.  Instead we went to Cabela’s and Hobby Lobby which was just as fun.  We spent Tuesday night in Cheyenne, WY.

Wednesday was our long driving day, we were so glad when we finally made it to Watford City, ND to see Grandma and Grandpa.  Highlights of this trip to Watford City were climbing Battleship Butte, Teddy showing Great Grandma all of his toys, driving the electric wheelchair, playing with daddy’s old toys, and Fun Aunt Beth’s Beanie Babies.  Here’s some pics.

We were so thankful to arrive home safely on Saturday, May 30th.  Our yard and landscaping were looking great thanks to my parents.  Our trailer came six days later, and the massive unpacking and reorganizing project started.

I’m not sure how many more blog posts there will be since our “California Adventure” is over, but I’m sure glad to have this little blog to reflect on and remember a very memorable year in our lives.

Thanks for “Frolicking in Fresno” with me.

To the people of Fresno and Clovis

I have spent 28 years of my life in Minnesota, where Minnesotans are known for “Minnesota Nice.”

After living in Fresno for almost a year, I must say that the people here are NICER!  Everyone I’ve encountered has been genuinely caring, considerate, down to earth, and friendly.  The interactions I’ve had with employees at grocery stores, restaurants, retail places, the park, the gym, have all been very positive.  People are SO nice.  I don’t know why this is, maybe it’s all of the extra vitamin D Californians take in?  Maybe because it’s a smaller population within the city area? (Fresno/Clovis has about 600,000, the entire Twin Cities has 3,800,000)

During our time here I was hoping to connect with 1-2 other moms that I could see a couple times a month for playdates.  Instead, I’ve connected with MANY moms through the assistance of some groups.  The Clovis Mom’s Playgroup and the Clovis Kid’s Playgroup I found through meetup.com.  There’s so many awesome mom’s in these groups, I quickly considered many of them friends.  Through Northside Christian Church I joined MOPS and a Bible study.  I met even more friends here!  My heart is overflowing with the friends I have found.  Their friendships have meant so much to me (and the boys).  What should have been the loneliest year of my life turned into a year filled with ladies who make me think, smile, grow my faith, offer advice, and laugh.  As many of my Minnesota peeps know, I am NOT a huggy person.  I felt the need to give my California friends hugs because I don’t know that I’ll ever see them again, which breaks my heart.  I am thankful for social media to help us stay in touch.  If my new friends ever find themselves in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” I hope we can get together.

Back in January I noticed someone new who was going to attend a MeetUp at the trampoline park with me.  When I saw that she also came from Minnesota I started stalking her. 🙂  Liz, I’ve only known you a few months and I feel like you’ve been a friend for many years!  It felt so nice to find someone to compare a shared MN history with, as we both experience living in a completely different climate and surroundings together.  I’m so thankful your family lives in MN so you have to come visit!

New Friends: Thank you for putting up with my long Os and As, questions about the area, and constant comparisons to my “home.”  Next time you use a “bag” a “wagon” or drink a “pop” I hope you think of me.

Here’s some pictures of some final gatherings.

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Amtrak to Hanford

May 17th

You probably know that the boys are obsessed with trains.  We found it necessary to ride the Amtrak while we were here.  We see an Amtrak passenger train most days, and the boys sure were excited to ride on one.  We would have loved to take the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, but the timing never worked out for us.  The 30 minute trip to Hanford was perfect!  Hanford is an adorable little town.  We walked about five minutes, enjoyed the carousel, then took a stop at Superior Dairy, which was superior.  As you can see from the pictures, the portions were extreme.  Brad and Charlie loved the strawberry ice cream on the banana split the best.  I liked the peanut butter sauce on vanilla the best.  Theo liked the cherry, banana pieces, and walnuts the best.  After being allergic to milk for most of his life, he still hasn’t taken a liking to ice cream. We didn’t even eat half of our dessert, but the boys loved scooping it and mixing it around with their spoons as it melted.  The atmosphere was just as amazing as the ice cream.  Next, we burned off some energy for a while and headed back to the train station.  This was a great last “roo haa haa” of our time in California.

Here’s a highlight.

Here’s the rest.

T-Ball at Northside

March-May

I am still flabbergasted at the amount of sports the boys can play here.  We’ve done soccer, hockey, basketball, and we finished our year with t-ball.  Northside Christian Church runs a well organized program.  We liked it all; the teams, the coaches, the location, the price, the pictures, etc.  There was even a snack shop on game days, and bouncy houses a couple weeks.  Our only complaint is that brochure says that it’s Saturdays only, but, each team has a practice during the week along with the Saturday game.  If we would have known this ahead of time, we may have signed up with a different program.  Three days a week committing to t-ball is a lot of commitment for our family.  I suppose we better get used to it.  The older the boys get, the busier we’ll be on nights, right?

Charlie was the tallest on the Green Gators.  He prefers fielding, even though he can often be found dancing in the outfield.  When he swings a bat, it looks a lot like a slapshot in hockey, which makes it very hard to hit the ball.  He definitely enjoyed playing and interacting with his teammates.

Theo was the shortest on the Black Bears.  He prefers playing in the dirt.  We were thankful each week when the game wasn’t on the regular field—he paid more attention.  He made great improvements throughout the season, like not throwing his bat, and throwing the ball the correct way.  His coaches have so much PATIENCE working with these 3 and 4 year olds.

Here’s the link for baseball pictures.

Gilroy Gardens

Sunday, May 10th

Mother’s Day is marvelous when spent at Gilroy Gardens.  Gilroy is the “Garlic Capitol of the World,” so garlic and other produce was a theme throughout the park.  Out of all of the amusement parks I’ve been to in my life time, this one felt the most relaxed.  The theme park is made for younger kids, I would say up to age 10, so that automatically cuts down on a lot of chaos.  In fact, Charlie, my giant, was too tall for a handful of rides!  Theo felt pretty important going by himself for once.  We loved the train ride around the park, which was a great thing to do first to get accumulated to the park and have no line.  The longest line we had the whole day was at the old fashioned cars, and was about 10 minutes long to ride the 1950’s style cars.  No surprise, but the cars were all of our favorites, with many surprises along the ride.  We shared pop and popcorn for lunch, which I would call a pretty fabulous Mother’s Day lunch.  The gardens and landscape around the entire park were out of this world.  Grafted artistic trees, specially trimmed hedges, and oodles of colorful flowers made you feel like you were in Alice in Wonderland.  It was sunny out, but so much of the park was shaded we didn’t mind the intensity of the sun.  Charlie REFUSED to go on rides he would have loved, like the banana (mini pirate ship), or the kiddo roller coaster.  Even bribery didn’t work.

By 3 o’clock the boys were ready to cool off in the water areas.  They were both a little big and rambunctious for these parts, but they still had a lot of fun.  Theo started shivering, so I had to make him stop to warm up. There was a sale at the bakery as we were leaving.  We shared a big bowl of fruit, a cupcake, and a cinnamon roll for five dollars! We have definitely reached a new stage of parenting as we enjoyed the day with no stroller and no nap.  Theo did zonk in the car as we were leaving.

If we were staying longer, I would definitely purchase a season pass for Gilroy Gardens, it’s basically the same price as going one time!

Here is our collection of Gilroy Garden Pictures.

Santa Cruz, Take 2

Saturday, May 9th

We loved our first trip to Santa Cruz so much, we knew we needed to go one more time.  We left after tball, and didn’t arrive until about 4:30. This time we came prepared with our swimsuits and beach stuff, even if it was only a blustery 70 degrees.  We enjoyed our time at Natural Bridges State Beach, playing in the sand, frolicking in the ocean up to our ankles.  Both boys were buried in the sand completely for the first time.  They didn’t mind at all, because the sand was pretty warm from the sunshine.  It didn’t take long for Theo to start shivering, but we made it almost an hour and a half.

With our sweatshirts back on, we walked the boardwalk, ate some food, and enjoyed taking in the sights of the rides among the beach without huge crowds like there were last time we were there.

Theo’s grown up so much this last year.  We rarely bring the stroller along anymore, and he can walk/run for longer distances in the sand.  A year ago he’d have to be carried most of the way through the soft sand.

Here’s a comparison picture.

Here are the rest.

Moo Moo Milk Tours!

Through the Clovis Kids Playgroup we had the opportunity to tour two different milk farms in the area.

Organic Pastures is a raw milk farm with an awesome kid’s play area.  We took a tour of the pastures and feeding areas in a covered trailer.  The cows came right up close!  It was fun to try to find the bull in the mix. The boys loved seeing all of the farm equipment and watching the two farm dogs run alongside the trailer.  Theo managed to touch the bristly boot scraper that was covered in manure.  I tried raw milk and cheese at the end of the tour, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how good it was, it tasted just like the regular stuff I buy.

Next, we visited Rosa Brothers Farm.  They are famous for their flavored milks in glass bottles.  Not just regular chocolate and strawberry flavors, but root beer and orange cream too!  We got to try them at the end of the tour, they were UDDerly delicious, and would make an awesome treat.  We got to watch a couple of introduction videos about the farm in an air conditioned building.  After the video, the tour guide asked if there were questions.  Charlie proudly raised his hands and asked, “How do the dogs get the sheep to move around?”  (There were no mention of sheep or dogs in the video, or even on the farm.)  After the videos we rode on the MooMobile around the farm to see the cow areas and their feed. Next, we got to meet a two week old calf.  I asked Theo what it felt like and he responded, “Like Cheese!”  Next, we practiced milking a cow and trying the milk.

No trip down 99 is complete without a stop at Bravo Farms.  We do love that place!

Enjoy the pictures from these fun outings.

Forestiere Underground Gardens

Saturday, May 2nd

Even though the Forestiere Underground Gardens are only a mile and a half from our apartment we were a bit reluctant to visit because it’s a bit nerve wracking when thinking about bringing a couple of young boys on a guided tour.  (This is the same reason we never toured the Hearst Castle.)  Thanks to some bribery, we made it through.

The garden itself was quite cool, literally and figuratively.  But, what we found most interesting is the history and dedication of Baldasare Foresteire’s life.  He was probably a bit cooky, but I’m glad tourists are able to relic at his life’s work.  He grafted a tree that grew seven different fruits, with only two remaining today.  I can relate to Baldasare, these Fresno summers are unbelievably hot.  If it weren’t for air condioning, I would also find a way to live underground.

Here are the pictures.

Our Last trip to Yosemite

May 3rd

Yosemite with my parents (part 2)
Fall colors in Yosemite
“Winter” in Yosemite

We started off in the Mariposa Grove, determined to hike to the tunnel tree.  We were hoping to take the tram, but it’s closed for the season.  We took the Double Bob and stuck to the road.  When we got to the tree, we had a chuckle.  It was only about 500 feet past the point where we stopped hiking with the Posls because we thought it was too far to make it to.

We’ve had to opportunity to visit Yosemite in September, November, January, and May.  Each time we hiked to the Lower Yosemite Falls, and each time there was more water!  This time the falls were by far the busiest.  I wish I would have taken a picture of all of the people with their selfie sticks, had a sound recording of all of the languages and accents I was hearing, and had an ambulance ready for all of the people climbing on the dangerous slippery rocks.

Here’s the rest of our pictures from one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

Outing in Oakhurst

My dear “Minnesota Friend” Liz and I decided to spend the day in Oakhurst. We started off at the Children’s Museum of the Sierra.  We both had low expectations, since we’re used to the fabulous Children’s Museum of Minnesota, but this place did not disappoint.  There was a TON to do in not a huge space.  The pictures will give you an idea of the variety.  Charlie’s favorite was the fire truck play area, Theo’s fav was the vacuuming of balls through different types of mazes.

After the museum we devoured a yummy lunch at Pete’s Place.  We were getting ready to go to the park, and I noticed my prescription sunglasses were missing.  I went back to Pete’s to check, no such luck.  We continued onto the park.  The kids loved the equipment and trying to feed some fish from the bridges.  I called the children’s museum for my sunglasses.  A few people walked around checking for them, no such luck.  But, they found Charlie’s Chicago Bears hat.   (Maybe I should have left it there. :))  Then, I drove back to the children’s museum to get the hat, and check again for the glasses, no luck.  Filled up my gas tank, called Pete’s again, someone had turned them in.  Thank goodness.

Here’s my favorite pic, and the rest.