20 Years

To commemorate our 20th  wedding anniversary, we stay-cationed at The Hilton Tapatio Cliffs.  We spent a lot of the time in the pool as well as enjoyed the local sights.

 

Here we are basking in the pool.

 

The hotel also had hiking trails, so we tried to hit those too, but of course it had to be early morning due to the intense temperatures.

 



 

At night we hit the restaurants on property, one of which had a beautiful view of Phoenix.

 

We couldn't go out on our actual anniversary due to my school's Curriculum Night, so on Friday, July 29th, we hit our favorite anniversary establishment - Red Lobster.

 

Sienna acted as photographer for our pre-dinner pics.  I couldn't choose which one I liked best, so I posted a bunch of them.

 

 

Happy 20th!

18 Years

Monday, July 25th, was a big day as Sienna turned 18!  I still can't believe she's that grown up, but time marches on, as they say.  It was also Spenser's first day as a junior and my first teaching day.

 

Here we are with the proverbial 'first day of school picture'.  This time it's just one of our kids......:(

 

 

 

Our first day went fine, and the rest was devoted to celebrating Sienna's birthday.  We went to Red Robin along with Sienna's bestie, Marianne, and then came home for cake.

 



 

It was a great day and Sienna enjoyed her gifts. 

In just 6 short days, we'll be moving her into the dorms at ASU!

 

Forks up Sun Devils!

 

California Vacay

After our Comicon adventure was over it was time to drive out to California for cooler temperatures. Our first stop was in Mission Viejo, to see my cousin May and her twin girls - Hannah and Hattie. I don't know which ones which, but they are both adorable!

We headed home to Arroyo Grande that same night and after resting a day or two, hit our favorite hometown beach - Avila.



Sienna and I lazed about most of the time but still ventured to the touristy spots - Madonna Inn for example.



We visited the coffee shop for a fine dessert and took in the pink splendor.



 

A couple weeks later it was time to head to LA and visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Hollywood.

 

Here's our hotel,

 

and our shuttle to the park the next morning.

 

 

Here is the village of Hogsmeade in the Wizarding World, where all things fun occur.  The only problem with this and the other pictures is that they don't show how miserably HOT it was.... 106 to be exact, which for California is C R A Z Y.

 



 



 

Here we are enjoying the delicious frozen concoction called Butterbeer.

 

 

It wasn't all about Harry Potter.  We visited Minion Land too!

 

We even rode more daring rides, such as the Mummy (a roller coaster) and Jurassic Park, a water ride.  Here we are getting off the Jurassic Park ride, where we were significantly soaked.

 

That was our Day 1 adventure.  Day 2 had to be postponed as I became ill later that night, probably due to heat-related illness and motion sickness.  The good news is that after a day of rest, we were able to go into the park for Day 2.  I decided not to ride anything though, just to play it safe.  Sienna rode her Harry Potter rides one more time and we went a little crazy buying awesome Harry Potter wares.  Then it was time to drive back home to Arizona.

 

We did it!