Our Move to Washington

It has been over 2 years since my last post.  It is something I think about often and miss doing.  I don't keep a journal or a scrapbook so this blog has been my way of documenting our lives.  I hope someday my kids will enjoy reading about all of our families adventures.  So here I am getting back to my blog and hopefully I can commit to this being a regular occurrence.  I do intend on updating the missing 2 years on the blog with a series of posts of our comings and goings but I felt this post was most important and needed to be documented before my memory starts to go!  

Its no secret that I've often dreamed of moving out of California.  Its not that I wanted to move away from friends or family but I've lived there my whole life (with the exception of college) and I longed for some adventure and to explore somewhere new.  The steep home prices, astronomical taxes, and ridiculous state of our government also made it appealing to leave.  Chris and I bought our condo in 2004 during the housing boom and we thought it would be a perfect starter home for us.  And it was, we have loved living there but after 4 kids and 10 years we were itching to move into a bigger home.  Problem was, our home has been upside down for many years and even though we are finally at the tipping point we still couldn't bear to sell it and break even just to buy a bigger home with a huge price tag.  So we endured our crowded time in that little condo.  Whenever a new position at Chris' work would open up we'd talk about the possibility of moving and even had considered moving to places like Arizona, Texas and even Chicago at one point.  None of the jobs seemed to work out or weren't the right fit so we just kept on praying that God would lead us in the direction he wanted and if it was to stay in California so be it.  

In December of 2014 Chris briefly mentioned to me that there was an opportunity to take a new position in Boise, Idaho that he had some people talking to him about.  Not exactly the place I had in mind but I toyed around with the idea and started looking at homes online and reading up the area.  It wasn't until January that he became more serious about the position and it became more real.  I started to get excited thinking I could get a big house with a small price tag.  Chris had an interview, and we tried to not get too invested until we knew. (But as usual I had already spent countless hours reading online)  Chris called me on his way home from the interview.  He had good news and bad news.  The good news was the interview went GREAT!  The bad news was that they really liked him better for a position in Seattle, Washington!  Seattle?  My first response was shock, "What? I don't want to move to Seattle! It rains all the time and its too expensive, the people are cold and liberal there.  My kids will grow up wearing goth and listing to grunge music"  (This was literally my response)  Then I started looking online at zillow as we were talking and the home prices didn't seem much better than California.  I was sad and bummed.  I didn't want to move my whole family only to be in the same situation we were before.  Chris calmed me down and told me to pray about it.  Over the next few days we started getting used to the idea and thinking more positive.  After all, my wonderful Sister in law, Amanda, is from Seattle, and I would love for my kids to grow up to be like her.  Maybe Seattle isn't as bad as I thought it would be.   We started to tell our families and friends and the idea started to grow on me.  Seattle really was a cool city and very beautiful.  Maybe we would even get visitors because it is such a fun place to visit.  My brother Chris (who is married to Amanda) told me about some areas that he thought might be a good fit for us price wise and location wise and after looking online I was pleasantly surprised that the homes weren't as expensive as I thought and the schools in this particular area were really good.  The homes were not as big and cheap as Boise but after crunching some numbers we figured out that it might just work.    

Everything was a whirlwind from that point.  This occurred at the very end of January.  We told our kids first and they were actually thrilled.  We wanted to make sure that they would be okay with moving and to our surprise there was not one hesitation.  We had to figure out what to do with our Condo, should we try to sell it and maybe break even or should we rent it.  Regardless we had a lot of odds and ends to do to get it ready. Chris was set to start work on March 9 and he would be living up in Seattle, flying home on the weekends until the kids and I could get up there and we could settle in a house.  We toyed around with the idea of staying in California til June and then moving up but we knew it would be so hard to be apart and I wanted to give our kids a chance to meet some friends before Summer.  Two weeks later on February 18, Chris and I flew up to Washington to look at homes.  We had found a Real Estate agent through a Dave Ramsey referral but we were kind of miffed because at the last minute he told us he would be busy so he passed us on to another agent in another office.  She was nice but not who I would've picked if I'd interviewed her.  She lined up some places to show us but we knew for sure we wanted to be in Maple Valley.  We liked the sense of community there and the schools were excellent.  That first afternoon we flew in we drove out to Maple Valley from the airport.  My first impressions were, Wow, this is so far off of the freeway.  I can't see anything but trees.  I feel like I'm out in the country.  This little lake is gorgeous.  Look at this cute library.  This is so different that what we are used to.  Am I sure this is the right thing for our family?  We drove by some of the homes I had found on Zillow and I started getting excited to go looking the next day with our agent.  On our way back to the hotel we got an email from her telling me that the two houses we looked at already excepted offers or were not on the market anymore.  I was so frustrated and sad.  I felt like this was it... if we didn't find a home this trip I didn't know what we would do.  There just wasn't another opportunity to come up here to look at houses. The market was pretty hot and if a house came on the market I wouldn't be able to fly up and look at it in time.   If we didn't find a home this trip, Chris would probably be picking out our home while working up there and that made me nervous.  The next day we got up early, went running and then met our agent in front of  the first house.  We liked the house but hated the way the yard was situated.  It just didn't feel like home to us and it needed a little bit of cosmetic work.  We also felt that the seller was asking too much.  She showed us two more homes but they weren't good fits either and one wasn't in Maple Valley, which is where we knew we wanted to be.  After looking at homes we were so fortunate to get lined up with my best friend Carrie's cousin in law who just so happens to live in Maple Valley!  Sweet Debi Reeves emailed me that morning and said, "There are 3 things I am an expert on... my husband, my kids and Maple Valley, Washington"  We were thrilled.  After our drive around the night before we felt a little uneasy and scared. It would be nice to talk to someone who could tell us what this city had to offer and about the church here as well.  Debi met us while we were having lunch and we spent the next several hours talking and even went over to her house!  She was so sweet and got us so excited about living here.  Only problem was we needed to find a house and our agent had informed us that there was just nothing left on the market in Maple Valley that had the right number of bedrooms and an office for us.  (Chris was going to be working from home so we needed an office and Maddie was ready for her own room) Our agent left us that day saying she'd do her best and call all the expired listings in the area to see if one wasn't coming back on the market.  We didn't have much hope she'd find anything though. 

Those first 2 days were so uneasy and scary.  We said a lot of prayers and I felt like we were literally walking by faith every step of the way.  We had a wonderful visit with Debi and she even had us go look at a home which was going on the market soon of one of her ward members but the timing wasn't right since they wanted to move in June and we needed to move in April.  We were considering the option if there was nothing else that came up.  That night as we were heading to dinner we got a call from our agent.  She had spent hours on the phone calling listings that had previously expired.  She got a call back from an agent who said we could come look at a home that was not on the market and had fallen out of escrow last September.  She wasn't going to put it back on the market but said she would let us come see it and we could make an offer.  The agent didn't go into much detail but told us she had a good feeling about it.  We didn't get too excited at first because the price was at the very top of our budget.  We also found another home that had just come on the market to look at that same day.  Things were looking up and we even had a back up plan if neither of these worked out.

  

We drove up in front of the home our agent had found and I thought the neighborhood looked adorable.  It was a newer home on a well manicured street and even had a window box out front.  It was actually in the same area as Debi lived and a few streets over from the house she had us look at the day before.  I walked in and my first instinct was this house is way too nice, we can't afford it and its much nicer than I would expect.  I'll just look around for fun and a girl can dream right?  It wasn't until I noticed Chris' demeanor, that I realized we might actually be able to get this house.  He started asking questions and it appeared he might actually be interested.  The home had everything we could want and more.  The kitchen was huge and it had a built in double fridge.  The family room was enormous and would be perfect for entertaining.  As we walked upstairs and saw how much room it had we imagined how happy our family would be there.  It even had a large bonus room which was literally a bonus!  I turned to him and said, "Could we really do this?  Isn't it too much for us to spend?"  He made that face that let me know what he was thinking.  He was thinking this could be the house... We went outside and we both got excited thinking this might be the one.  We took pictures with our phones and told the agent we still wanted to look at the other house but left the house absolutely beaming.   

We looked at another home which was really nice as well but less square footage and the same amount of money. We both felt good about the first house and told our agent we'd meet her at her office to make an offer in a few hours.  Our heads were spinning so we drove to the local Fred Meyer sat down on some couches for sale and talked.  It was a no brainer, we both knew this house was a dream.  After looking at the numbers we realized that we could make it work.  We put in an offer that night which was Friday and the very next day our agent called us in the morning to tell us we got the house!  We literally jumped up and down on the hotel bed we were so excited.  We immediately called the kids who were with my parents back home to tell them the good news.  They were over the moon and couldn't wait to see it.  After all the excitement settled we had a day and a half left of our trip so we decided to explore Seattle!  It was a beautiful Sunny day in February (which I've learned is pretty rare) and we did the underground tour (what were we thinking? It was interesting however)  We also visited Pikes Market and had a nice dinner that night. 

That next day we went to our new ward and met so many nice people.  We found out that we had an adorable family from our ward living on our very street with 4 kids as well.  It felt like all the talks we heard were speaking straight to us.  We both knew that the Lord had guided us to this spot to this place in this very home and we didn't know why but we felt the hand of the Lord every step of the way.  It was an amazing feeling and we knew it was right.  

After church we visited my cousin Parker and his wife Stella who live about 40 minutes from Maple Valley.  They took us out on their lake and it was beautiful.  It made it that much sweeter to know that even though we'd be moving away from family we had some family here too! 

Once we got home that evening it was a race til the end of March.  I had a month and a half to get our condo ready to rent, packing up all of our clutter in our closets, toys, books and anything I could do to make the house look bigger.  We had to fix things, paint most of the baseboards and cupboards and make it sparkle.  The hard part was that Chris was gone most of the time, working in Seattle.  By the time we actually were packed up and the condo was empty I was completely exhausted.  

We looked back at our little house, our little 1200 sq foot condo that we raised our kids in and I actually felt sad and empty.  I knew that there would be more exciting times ahead but it was hard to leave the past behind us.   We said our goodbyes to our neighbors and friends and many tears were shed but we looked forward and ahead toward a new horizon up north.  

I snapped a picture of this rainbow as we were heading up north.  It was a symbol to me of beautiful things to come, a message from God that we were on the right path.  

St. George Marathon

(Sorry I’m so wordy, this is like my journal and I wanted to document this…)

All my life I never thought I’d be able to say, “I ran a marathon” but just one week ago, I crossed the finish line after running 26.2 miles with my 9 year old son Carter and I can officially say, “I am a marathon runner!”  Even though a week has passed it still sends chills through my body when I say it. 

Why in the world would I want to run a marathon, someone might ask.  I have probably asked myself the same thing before.  Two years ago is when the seed was planted in me.  As I waited for my husband Chris to cross the finish line in St. George in 2011, I watched perfect strangers accomplish this amazing feat and tears welled up in my eyes when I saw the sense of accomplishment on their faces as they completed this journey.  Moments later I saw my husband nearing the finish line and I could not contain my emotions, I lost it and started crying as I watched him accomplish this goal he’s had for so many years.  My heart nearly burst with pride as he crossed the finish line.  I secretly told myself in my heart that one day I wanted to do it too.  At that point I could not even run a mile without stopping to catch my breath.  I didn’t tell anyone my secret desire.

A few months later on New Years day some of my cousins were talking about running a half marathon together.  I voiced my interest and decided I wanted to do it.  The Fontana Marathon was about 6 months away.  It would give me the perfect amount of time to train for it.  While we never quite got our cousins group together I went ahead and got ready and ran that thing.  It was the hardest thing I’d ever done.  I thought I was going to puke at the end and my legs felt like they were going to fall off.  I even said, “I’m never running again!” over the last 2 miles.  I got over that pretty quickly and started running again about a month later.  This time Carter started running with me.  He had gone on a few 5-6 miles runs with Chris and really liked it so I had him start running with me.  We even registered for the Santa Barbara Half last November but I hurt my knee during training and had to sit out.  Carter and Chris ended up running it together, and Carter did amazing.  Last year Chris ran the St. George Marathon again for his second time.  I told myself that I wanted to run it the following year.  My knee injury took a lot longer to get better than I had thought it would.  It took about 4 months before I could really run on it again.  I learned my lesson the hard way: Don’t run when you feel hurt! 

This past April, when it came time to register for St. George, Carter was all set to go, this was going to be his year to run a marathon.  As for me, I had mixed emotions about it.  My running was going well and I was training for the Fontana Half in June and I just wasn’t sure I was ready to take on that huge task.  I also was excited for Carter and wanted his first marathon to be all about him.  I didn’t want to steal any of his thunder and I wanted to be able to experience watching him finish as a spectator, and a proud momma.  So he and Chris registered and got in!  Every Saturday or Friday night (if we had something going on Saturday) we would do a big run working our way up to 17 miles just a few weeks before.  I just kept on training with them because I had to run with Carter during the week before school while Chris was at work and on the weekends I would run with them because I wanted to be supportive and I really just enjoyed it.  In the back of my mind I thought that maybe I was the back up plan in case something happened, I could run in Chris’ place.  Chris’ heel was bothering him pretty much the entire time we were training.  It gradually worsened and he worried that it might affect him being able to run the marathon.  We tossed the idea around about a month before the marathon of me running it instead.  We called and were given permission to have his registration switched to my name.  Chris really struggled with it because he wanted to experience Carter’s first marathon with him, but at the same time he knew that I was more prepared and that I had put in a lot of work.  He gave me the choice if I wanted to run it or not.  He told me he could do it but at this point he wanted me to do it because he had seen how far I had come.  I decided to go for it and we made it official just 2 weeks before the marathon.

I can’t even describe the amount of anxiety and pressure that goes along with training for a marathon.  All I could do was think about the marathon 24 hours a day for the 2 weeks leading up to it, even my dreams and sometimes nightmares were about the marathon.  We had an entire trip revolved around it and my parents had even planned on coming up for the weekend.  It was a big deal and I was freaked out that something was going to happen before the race that would prevent one of us from running it.  Every time Carter would walk a little funny I’d freak out and worry that he was injured.  He got so tired of me asking how he was feeling!

We drove up Friday early in the morning and got into St. George around 1 pm.  As the view of the beautiful red rocks came into view I got butterflies in my stomach and it all became very real. 

After checking into our hotel we headed over to the Expo where Carter and I attended a first timers clinic that was very valuable.  It was exciting to be around other runners and it kind of lightened the mood. 

We checked out the Clif bar tent and loaded up on samples. 

Carter got a bit of a reaction from some people when we told them he was running the marathon. He definitely feeds off of the attention he gets from others.  Its not every day that a 9 year old runs a marathon. 

Here we are with our bibs, this was really going to happen… (mine doesn’t have my name because of my late registration)


That evening we met my cousin Brad and his family and my Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Craig and cousin Bruce for dinner at Brick Oven.  My cousin Brad was running the marathon as well.  My Mom and Dad were also there.  It helped calm the nerves a little to be with family and for a moment I didn’t think about the marathon. I felt bad for Carter because he didn’t get his usual root beer.  No soda or candy for this guy for the entire week before the marathon.







We got back to our hotel room and the kids got in bed and fell asleep fairly easily. Carter’s stomach was bothering him, probably just nerves but it made me worry.  After that felt like an eternity.  I’ve never experienced insomnia before… until that night.  We had to get up at 3:45 am to get to the busses and ride up to the starting line.  My heart was pounding, my chest was tight, and I could not relax.  Not only was I worried about me and all the things that could go wrong, but as a mom I had my son to worry about too.  I looked at that darn alarm clock all night long.  I think I fell asleep somewhere around 2:30 am.  What a night!  The alarm went off and I popped out of bed with a splitting headache.  I took some Motrin and we were on our way.

Here is a picture of us before we left.  Chris was so sweet and supportive.  He got up early with us and helped us get off.  He made sure Carter had Vaseline in all the right places!  (Chaffing is a huge problem for runners)  Chris kept saying how proud he was and it really kept me going and made me feel like we had so much support behind us. 


The bus ride lasted at least an hour.  All I can remember is that I had to pee so bad I thought my bladder was going to burst on the way up.  I think all that hydrating the day before did me in!  It was windy and freezing cold up there, 30 degrees to be exact!   We stood in line the entire time waiting for a port-a-potty and never got to use it.  The marathon was to start in 5 minutes so we just went outside behind the bushes in the dark! 




We took off our jackets and stood in the crowd of 7,000 runners waiting to start while freezing!  Before we could blink we were off and running.  I’m kind of glad we didn’t have a ton of time up there to think and worry about the race.  It was a mad dash just getting to start it!  The first few miles went by really fast.  I remember thinking at 3 miles, “We just ran a 5K and I feel so good!”  Each mile marker brought us closer to our goal.  As we ran we talked and met some amazing people.  Carter was a bit of a conversation piece because of his age.  Many runners would ask how old he is and give him attention which we both fed off of.  I was just amazed at the people we met.  A woman who was about 60 had just started running marathons 2 years ago and has already completed 34 marathons.  We met a guy who climbed Mt. Everest.  As I realized how many amazing people were running right along with me it gave me strength and kept me going.  Mile 7-8 was the dreaded Veyo hill.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  We ended up running it and walking for a few minutes after.  We kept our pace steady and tried really hard not to burn out.  I knew we’d need all the energy we could get through those last few miles.
 


We both felt like Veyo wasn’t too bad but we didn’t like the steady incline after it that seemed to last forever.  Before we knew it we had reached the half way point.  We both felt really good and I was glad that we had kept a steady pace and not burned ourselves out.  For me that was the key, I wasn’t even worried about our time.  I just wanted to finish in one piece!   At mile 14 we stopped to use the restroom and I texted Chris.  He and the kids were on their way to meet us at mile 16.  I was so excited to see them and it kept me going.  When we stopped, the 5 hour pacer had passed us.  Carter was pretty set on finishing at the 5 hour mark so when we started back up again he was really pushing it to catch up to the pacer.  We never did catch that pacer and I finally told Carter to let it go and just enjoy the journey.  It took him a while to get that pacer out of his head but he finally did.

Just before mile 16 we reached Snow Canyon State Park.  We ran down a hill and this amazing view came into our sight and literally took my breath away.  I had to take my phone out and take a picture.  Carter ran backwards for me so he could be in it.  It was at this moment that I realized that this all was really happening and today I was going to complete this awesome goal.  It was kind of surreal.  Just down past those rocks we saw Chris with the kids. 



Chris was using my SLR and didn’t learn how to zoom so he took this shot that I cropped but you can see us running together.  Carter is pointing because he just saw his dad and siblings.



Here are the kids with their adorable signs they made for us.  I didn’t get a chance to read them until after we finished.  It felt great to have an amazing support team behind us.



After we passed them the next few miles went by so fast. I remember getting to mile 17 and telling Carter, “This is the furthest we’ve ever run!”   Those mile markers just kept on coming and I remember when we got to mile 20 I thought to myself, “I don’t want to jinx this but I’m feeling really good and this isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be!”  Don’t get me wrong my legs were sore and my feet were feeling very tired but I was really holding it together and I was proud of myself.  Carter was simply amazing.  He never complained or got down on himself.  If he’d had it his way he would have run even faster and probably finished 30 mins faster than me.  We had one little moment there on the course where he was mad that he couldn’t catch that 5 hour pacer.  He started running ahead of me and I kept calling out to him to slow down.  When he finally did he was not happy and I told him that if he wanted me to do this with him he needed to stop his attitude and be happy.  His competitive spirit was getting the best of him and he wanted to get a faster time.  He eventually perked up after a few miles and was sorry for being mean to me.

Once we got to mile 23 we were heading down a hill into the city of St. George.   It was fun to hear all of the crowds and music playing.  It felt like we were just right there… but we weren’t.  Those last 3 miles were the longest of the marathon.  Carter and I kept running and even passed a lot of people.  (our stats say that we passed 189 runners and only 10 passed us during the last 7 miles).  I was so glad that we had conserved our energy for this moment.  My legs and feet were feeling it though!  At mile 23 we saw another 9 year old boy running with his dad.  His dad and I chatted for a minute while the two boys ran side by side.  They pulled ahead and Carter told me that the boy made this really mean face at him while he was running.  Carter was so surprised because everyone else out there had been so supportive but this kid obviously felt threatened.  He did not want Carter to beat him.  I told Carter not to worry about it so we just kept on running.  The other kid would start walking and we’d catch up to him.  He kept looking back to make sure Carter was well behind him and when we’d catch up he’d start running again.  Carter was getting annoyed so I finally said, “Carter lets not let this kid ruin your moment as we cross the finish line"  We walked for a minute while we let him get far enough ahead so that he wasn’t right with us.

The last mile of the race has 3 turns and you can hear the crowds and music from the finish line.  We kept on running and I would call out to other runners who were now watching the race after finishing, “how many more turns? Where is the finish line?”  I wanted to be there so bad!  Finally we reached the last turn and we could see the balloons and all the crowds.  This was it!  We picked up our pace (as much as we could) and ran for it.  We saw Chris and the kids and waved to them.  My mom and Dad and Cyril and his family were there right at the finish line.  The announcer said “Carter Nielsen from Alta Loma, California- He’s only 9 years old!”  We crossed that line and just basked in the moment.  We finished in 5:04:28, right about where Carter wanted to be.   We never did catch that pacer but we were only 4 minutes behind him.  We were both pleased with our time and even managed to beat Chris first marathon time by 4 minutes. 

I grabbed Carter and just cried.  I squeezed him so tight he told me later that he could hardly breathe!  It was an amazing moment and I was so proud of him.  Before I could feel that sense of accomplishment, all I could feel was relief.  Relief that this was over, all the worrying, the planning, the training, and the running was over and we had done it!  That was the greatest sense of relief I have ever felt in my life!  We reached over the fence and gave my Mom and Dad a hug and they were both choked up.  Chris came over and told us how proud he was of us and hugged us both.  It felt so good to hug him and see him.



Our medals were placed on us and we headed over to get some refreshment.   Carter was quite the celebrity, he had 2 different people ask if they could have their picture taken with him. (A little side note:  We checked out our chip times on the handy dandy St. George Marathon app and Carter actually beat that other 9 year old kid!!  He had started the race a few minutes before us and your chip time doesn't start until you cross the start line, we actually started 11 mins after the gun went off.  Carter beat him by 10 seconds.  Just enough to irritate that kid for sure!)



We took lots of pictures afterward.  Here are some of them…



We even ran into an old friend.  Reed Christensen from our Duarte days who now lives in Idaho was there running and his sister Sherri was there too!  (I saw her during the race and ran with her a couple of times).  Small world!


I was so grateful that my Mom and Dad were there to see us finish.  It made it so much more meaningful. 


Cyril, who has been like a member of our family since I can remember, brought his whole family up from Las Vegas to see us finish!  What a treat!


I love this picture of Maddie carrying Carter after the race.  She was so proud of her brother and wanted to carry him!


We walked to our car and I snapped this adorable pic of Carter riding my dads shoulders.  Melts my heart.


There was a Chick Fil A next to our hotel and we had both said that after the race we’d get a cookies and cream shake to refuel.  So that is exactly what we did!  Neither of us took our medals off for the rest of the day (except to shower)  We were so proud!



Chris took Libby and Sawyer over to Target to buy us some goodies while Maddie stayed behind and massaged our feet and legs.
 


After getting some rest we went to Five Guys for dinner and it never tasted so good!



I took this picture of Carter because it depicts the life of a runner.  You gotta protect yourself!



The next day we woke up and we both felt very sore.  We took our time getting out and drove home.  We got out before most of the Vegas traffic which was good.  We stopped at Café Rio for lunch and Carter and I put our official sticker on our car.  It’s a reminder of that proud day!  (I think we have earned bragging rights!)



A couple of days after we got home Chris took us to Lucile’s alone to celebrate our victory.   He kept telling me over and over again how proud he was and calls me his “marathon runner”.   It feels good :)



What an amazing journey that was… After all is said and done I can honestly say that it was not as bad as I thought it would be.  (I even said that to Chris at the finish line!)  The conditions couldn’t have been better the weather didn’t get above 60 degrees the entire time.  We even had a little tail wind for about the first 6 miles.  I  was so fortunate to have my body cooperate.  I only had some small knee pain coming down a few of the hills.  The hardest part for me was the training.  Making the time and sacrifices for it was tough.  Those last few long training runs were grueling and I wondered if after running 16 or 17 miles if I could keep going on the day of the marathon.  The adrenaline really carried me and Carter through.  It was an amazing experience and I know we weren’t alone out there, God knew how much we both wanted this and how hard we had worked.  He succored us and helped us when we couldn’t do it on our own, just like he does in life. 

SLO, SF and King of the Rock

At the end of September we got to take a trip up the coast to San Francisco to Red Bull’s King of the Rock.  Last year Chris and I took the trip alone and had a great time.  The whole time we were there we talked about how fun it would be to take the kids if we got to go again.  When the opportunity presented itself again this year we were excited to take the kids.  We have enjoyed attending some of the fun events Red Bull puts on since Chris began working there several years ago.  This one is probably the coolest.  It is a one on one basketball tournament that is played all over the world with the championship game being held on “The Rock” (Alcatraz Island) hence the name, King of the Rock. 
The event takes place on Saturday but we decided to make an entire weekend out of it.  We headed up the coast on Thursday after Libby’s eye appointment at UCLA medical center, (I’ll explain Libby’s eyes in another post).  We left bright and early for her 7:30 am appointment in LA and then headed up the coast.  We stopped at our favorite little beach, Avila. We spent some time swinging and taking a few photos, it was a perfect day and the weather was beautiful. Poor Libby had her eyes dilated when she was at her appointment so she had to wear my sunglasses.  She wasn’t quite herself for a while.  







We love Avila Barn and made sure to stop and see all the pumpkins they have there and even do a hay ride. 


They have lots of animals there and the kids had a great time feeding them.  Libby especially loved seeing all the animals.  She was a little scared to feed them though. 

Chris treated us all to some homemade ice cream afterwards.

My attempt at getting a normal looking picture of all 4 kids was in vain. 

Carter, Sawyer and I got a kick out of all of the fun names of the variety of pumpkins they had there.  It was amazing to see all the different types of pumpkins I didn’t even know existed!  From Red Warty things, Orange Smoothies, Peanut, to baseballs just to name of few. 




Just before leaving we took a ride on the tractor pulled hay ride.  It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed seeing the pumpkins growing in their element. 

Later that evening we went to the San Luis Obispo farmers market.  If only we had a farmers market like this where we live,  I would go every week and buy all my produce.   I just love the atmosphere there. 



The kids made sure we stopped at Gum Alley to add to the collection! 



Years ago when Chris worked for Odwalla, Maddie and Carter were little and we’d take the kids up there while he worked. We have so many fond memories in San Luis Obispo.  Chris would often stay at the Holiday Inn Express and across the street was a Veterans Museum with a large tank out front.  The kids thought that was so cool and would stand by it to take pictures.  As they’ve gotten older they’ve gotten a little more daring, now they climb on top of it!  Every time we are in SLO they say, “Dad, Can we see the tank?” 
Friday morning we headed up to San Francisco for the remainder of the weekend.  Red Bull put us up in a very nice hotel in an awesome location.  It was right in Fisherman’s Wharf and literally steps away from the Cable Car turn around.  It was fun to stay at such a neat hotel in an awesome location. 


Libby has a thing for San Francisco now since we brought home Boo the dog for her the last time we visited.  She insisted upon bringing Boo with her and reliving all of his favorite spots.  She has a little book of him that shows all the places he goes in San Francisco. 

Friday evening we headed out to hop on the Cable car.  This was literally steps from our hotel.

It’s a little hard now a days to “hop” on a cable car.  It’s more like, stand in line and wait an hour to climb on to a cable car, then wait some more, then finally go!  Nonetheless, we took some fun pictures while we waited. 




Finally on the cable car ready to go!  

We made sure we got to be on the outside spots and get the full experience, literally hanging on! 

Once we got downtown we went to the Cheesecake Factory on top of Macy’s for dinner.  It had a beautiful view of Union Square.  We aren’t very original, we do this every time we go.  I guess you could say we like to follow tradition! 

This weekend was the week before the St. George Marathon so Carter and I thought we should get a little run in.  We probably should have done a shorter run but who can pass up running across the Golden Gate Bridge?  We got up the next morning and ran over the bridge and back to our hotel which was 10 miles.  Still one of my most favorite places to run.  There are so many people running and the weather is just perfect! 

Maddie wanted to run across the bridge but wasn’t quite up for running 10 miles, so when we got back she and Chris headed out to run the bridge and I got ready then took the kids to meet them.  They ended up running 6 miles which was a great accomplishment for Maddie. 

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect.  I’ve decided September and October are the best months to visit the Bay area. We’ve mostly been this time of year and it is always beautiful!  


After burning some calories, we headed over to Ghirardelli square where we enjoyed a few samples of chocolate and shared a delicious sundae. 

While we were in San Francisco I happened to notice on my Instagram that my old roomie Meagan happened to be in San Francisco as well!  She was visiting her brother who lives in Oakland.  We got to meet up for just a few minutes that day and it was so fun to see her and give her a hug!  What a crazy coincidence since she lives in Park City!  Libby and her daughter Grace had met a few months prior when we were visiting Park City so they were happy to see one another! 


I love the sights, sounds and smells of being in Fisherman’s Wharf.  It never gets old. 


The kids got a kick out of watching the “Bush Man” scare people with his branches. 

On Saturday evening Chris took the boys to the King of the Rock event on Alcatraz island.  It wasn’t something we could all go to.  The weather is bitter cold on the island and there is some rough terrain.  It also goes very late into the night, and there is only one boat back after the event.   I stayed back with the girls while he took the boys.  Carter and Sawyer were very excited to get a special tour of the prison and jail cells.  They have talked about it ever since.  Chris took a few photos and texted them to me. 


While the boys were on Alcatraz the girls and I got dinner and went souvenir shopping.  We went back to Ghirardelli to enjoy some more chocolate. Madeline met the silver guy and we went back to our hotel room to watch a movie.  It was fun to have a just girls night in the city.



The next morning we took our time getting out on our way and headed back home.  What a fun weekend it was!  We love visiting San Francisco and San Luis Obispo.  The kids can’t wait to do it again!  Unfortunately this was the last year for King of the Rock on Alcatraz island.  Apparently they are going to be doing it in Taiwan on a similar island that used to be used to house prisoners.