Sunny California

During the month of January, Southeast Idaho got a lot of bad weather and no new snow. This made snowmobiling trips pointless, and with no work to do and a sick wife, Travis was going crazy. So, I saw my opening to plan a trip to Oakland, California to visit Travis' older sister Shannon, her husband Jared, and adorable little Henry. We decided to drive the 14 hours there and back to save the money on plane tickets. I'm not sure that was the best idea, but there was no talking Trav into spending all of that money for what he called "no reason."

Connor was amazingly good, thanks to our portable DVD player, and we had a blast on the trip. Travis and Connor were in shorts and t-shirts almost the entire time. And our first day there Connor and Henry played in the water out on the patio for more than an hour.

The view from their top patio is amazing. On a clear day you can see all of the Bay, San Fransisco, the ports, and even Golden Gate Bridge. The sunsets are quite amazing as well.

Travis and I didn't really want to pack our week with a ton of things to do, so we kept it fairly low key. We spent one afternoon at the Oakland Zoo, which was really neat. So many of the animals were right out in the open, and it was a nice warm day. Another afternoon we went to a park down in the village and let the boys play on the swings, toys, see the ducks, and sit on and in the life size "Well's Fargo" coach.

Connor mostly loved to play in Henry's "beeg" blow-up castle full of balls. These two boys had so much fun together and got along amazingly. There were even blow-up swords to fight with.

We came home after almost a full week in sunny California. It was so much fun, and we miss Shannon and the boys, but it was nice to be back home.