Where the Sun Always Shines

We had an absolutely delightful time out in California this weekend! We were able to fly out Thursday afternoon and spend the evening with Grandma Fedorka, Uncle Mitch & Aunt Jeanne, as well as Aunt Dolly & Uncle Joe. Friday morning Uncle Mitch took us and Grandma up the mountain to Big Bear where Dan grew up. It was so cool to get to see some of the places I've always heard Dan talk about! Now I understand why he wanted to be a forest ranger in Montana :-) It was my first time in the mountains of California, and I must admit, they were a lot more "mountainous" that I realized!

That afternoon Grandma was set on buying Dan a new suit, so we headed into Redlands and found one. I'm not sure who was more excited - Dan to wear his spiffy new suit, or Grandma to see her grandson looking so handsome! I even got a few new things out of the shopping trip, too. Then we headed back to Yucaipa and out to dinner with the whole gang and even a cousin or two where they treated us to a yummy steak dinner. Then Grandma tried to feed us some of her pie when we got home - we felt like two spoiled kids by the end of that day!

Karee (Mom) & Katee drove down late Friday night so they could drive us up to San Luis Obispo (SLO) on Saturday. We enjoyed our drive back, stopping at an In-&-Out and a couple of beautiful beaches along the way. That night we roamed around SLO a bit, went and had some fabulous Mexican food, and then enjoyed the pier down at Morro Bay. Sunday we got to spend nearly the whole day at the beach, and I couldn't have been happier! Karee & I went out to Avila that morning and just visited while we soaked up some wonderful sun, then later the whole gang headed out to Dan's favorite beach, Montana de Oro. It was such a blessing to just spend time together, and as short as it was, we were really able to pack a lot in to these few days. After dome delicious tri-tip & Dennis's fabulous salsa, we packed our bags and headed back to Nashville on the last red-eye out of SLO (and I now understand the meaning of the term "red-eye" a whole lot better!), and by 10 am we were both at work. What a whirl-wind! But a wonderful & refreshing whirl-wind to say the least.

Rather than labeling all of these, I thought I'd just throw up a smattering of pictures for you all. Unfortunately, all of the pics we took with Grandma were on Uncle Mitch's camera, but there are plenty others. Enjoy!