California Dreamin'

Santa Monica Beach

I have been dreamin' about a family vacation like this since my kids were too little to even consider taking along on a vacation! When Ciara was young, she carried on about wanting to go to Disney World. We told her that when she was 10 we would go to Disney. Well... we're nearly 8 years past that promise and now her and I both get sick on rides at the amusement park (bummer) - so when the opportunity came up for the kids and I to join Luke on business and mix in a little family fun in the sun... we jumped on it! If we wait much longer, our precious grown up daughter will be too busy living her own life to join us on such a trip. Brandon and Ciara have never flewn on an airplane or seen the ocean... so we're gonna wrap it all up this go around and I can't wait!! Luke's travel schedule has been horrible the last few months. I feel like we've barely seen him. He's been flying all over takin' care of business for his ever growing division. (that's another post all together!) He will attend 2 meetings while we're in California, but we can handle that - there will be things the kids and I can do to occupy our time in sunny California until Big Daddy can join us. :)

We will leave Wed. a.m. (that's tomorrow!!!!) and drive to Denver, Colo. where we'll catch a 3:15 flight into Los Angelos. That would be enough travel for one day, but once we arrive in L.A. we'll take a rental car down Pacific Coast Highway and go on into San Diego where Luke will have a meeting on thursday a.m. Once that's done, it's Sea World. Should be a fantastic time. I checked the show schedule and it looks incredible! We are gonna try to get in some beach time too. Then on Friday a.m. we drive back into L.A. where Luke will drop us off in the Santa Monica Boulevard area to hang out while he gets his meeting there out of the way. I'm sure we'll find plenty to while we wait for him... what with the pier and beach right there and shopping galore! After the meeting we'll hook up for lunch and then spend the day sight seeing. Each of the kids picked one BIG thing that they wanna do. Brandon wants to go to the Getty Villa Museum which is a Greek and Roman Museum, Ciara wants to check out Santee Alley which is supposed to be pretty incredible shopping. Also on the list of things to check out are Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Sign, China Plaza, and Venice Beach. I hope we can squeeze it all into a day! :) Doesn't it sound fun??!! The girls wanted to go on a celebrity home tour - but I don't think the guys will go for it. Maybe we'll get lucky and see a celebrity or 2 out and about on our L.A. exploration. That would just be too cool! Saturday morning we catch an early flight out of L.A. back into Denver - hop into the hespe mobile and head for Larkspur, Colorado where we'll take in a Renaissance Festival. I think the whole family will will be highly entertained by that activity! We'll rest Saturday night in a hotel in Castle Rock then once we're up and about Sunday morning we are homeward bound.

We've never taken a vacation like this before - could be a once in a life time for all 4 of us... so I'm really excited about this precious time together experiencing something new. My cousin is staying at the house with little Shoogsie and taking care of the house and outdoor pets. I'm so thankful! Now we can just enjoy our getaway. Please pray for our safety and with a shutterbug like me... you can count on lots of photos when we get back!! Until next time... PEACE OUT!

Sharing our Rocky Mountain Experience! (Warning: long post)

Hey... don't get sick of me sharing ok, cuz this was a fabulous vacation. :) We had such a fantastic time. We headed out early wednesday morning, June 25th and drove into Denver. We were blown away by the view of the mountains, seriously... I should have set my phone to record all of our commentaries - we were like toddlers in a candy store. I can honestly say that of all the beautiful nature I've had the opportunity to enjoy... this was by far the most stunning. God smiled on the Rockies. It had snowed a week before we got there (yes, in June - ha ha) and so there was snow on the mountain tops. We checked into the Quality Inn (a 9 story "so-so" hotel) - Luke travels so often that he gets free night stays all the time, so it was a free stay. Gotta love that! I can endure taking a puppy on the elevator to do her business for a free nights stay. ha ha. We were on the 5th floor. Luke dropped Ciara and me off at the Northfield Mall. It's new and it's awesome! We had a blast at Macy's and some other stores that we don't have in the area. It was a lot of fun. The plan was to drive into downtown that night and have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe - but our precious little Shoogie Bear decided she wasn't gonna be left alone in no stupid hotel room. So... we adapted. Ciara and I ordered in some fantastic Chinese food and Luke and Brandon got room service, which Brandon thought was totally cool because the foot came on a silver tray with a lid. (nothing fancy, just a cheeseburger and fries, but exciting to him none the less)

The next morning we headed to the cabin which was located about 25 miles from Estes Park and was just on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. There are so many great things to share, but for the sake of time and space I'll summarize. We didn't get lunch in Boulder, not knowing that it was the last city for cheap food, so we ate $33.00 worth of Deli sandwiches in a little town called Lyons. We bought $77.00 worth of groceries for the cabin, which was enough for 3 meals and a few snacks. YIKES. A box of Kraft Mac and Cheese was $2.49. So... we headed on to the cabin which was cozy and quaint. We loved how rustic it was and that it sat on the front of a mountain. It also had a hot tub in the back. NICE. Just across the road was a rushing river that was so loud, if you didn't know it was water you would think it was wind. But seriously... the water was cold so the temperature by our cabin was about 20 degrees cooler than it was in the city. It was neat. I took tons of photos while there... some of which will likely double as outdoor senior pix of Ciara. So... don't think I love her more cuz there's more photos of her... I was on a mission to get some incredible photos and save some bucks. :) Of course I was behind the camera so there weren't so many of me, but I'm totally ok with that. Our trailblazer didn't like the elevation and trying to climb mountains - but we stopped occasionally to explore and give it a rest and it survived the trip. We went through Rocky Mountain National Park. Oh my gosh.... I can't even describe the beauty within. All I have to say is God must totally love us to give us such eye candy as the Rocky Mountains. Then we went into Estes Park. What a gorgeous town! Seems strange having all this city life going on right at the bottom of a magnificent mountain. We had a picnic lunch there and walked the river walk to walk through some little shops along the river. That's where Brandon got his dredlocks hat. Fun. :)We stopped several places along the way and took pictures. The old stone church was so neat. I can't describ it... check out the photo in the slide show. I've never seen anything quite like it on a ridge in front of a mountain. Really neat. Then we visited a place called Crystal Springs where the water was ice cold and so so GOOD! They filter it for safety and it runs 24/7 so all can come fill their bottles and enjoy yummy ice cold spring water. There are also photos of it in the slide show.

We really had a good time and were able to relax and just enjoy being a family. Lots of memories were made there that will be treasured to be sure. So we left the cabin and headed for home. We wanted to go to a Renaissance Fair in a nearby town, but as luck would have it - pets weren't welcome and we had our fuzzy baby along. We probably won't take her on vacation in the future but she is so young to be left at a kennel or to ask someone to keep her. (she's still in training you know!) :)

Luke was totally hating 6 lane traffic outside of Denver, but he knew how bad Ciara wanted to see Hard Rock - so we trekked into downtown. As soon as we parked we saw a homeless man digging in the trash. So sad. (see post "whatsoever you do to the least of my people...) We had a million people tell us how cute our puppy was and we took turns going into shops so someone could stay out with shoogie. This was 16th Stree Mall... tons of stores on 1 street with no thru traffic. There were musicians on the street and lots of interesting looking people. Very Diverse! We loved it. Hardrock was a blast. We didn't eat there (had McDonalds outdoors on the bench as we enjoyed Ukelele music and singing by a fella that Ciara later had her photo taken with) - but Hard Rock is a neat place to visit. Some of my favorite things were Steven Tyler's stretchy sparkly outfit, and Jimmy Hendrix's guitar and memorabilia. Very Cool! Willie Nelson's guitar was on the wall too. So... after a pitstop to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some delicious fudge - we headed back to Kansas. We were tired from all the traveling, but had a super great time in Colorado. Even though we loved the trip - we all agreed, there's no place like home. I guess you have to leave it to appreciate it.

See the slide shows below if you're interested in some beautiful scenery. If you want to see a photo closer up, just click on it and it will stop.

Colorado Vacation 2008 ~ Part 1

Colorado Vacation 2008 ~ part 2