Father's day 2012

 Why, whatever is that?  A bacon bouquet?  Don't mind if I do!  And yes, that card does say, "Hey dad, what's shakin'?  We just want you to know, we love you more than bacon!"  (Thanks, ourbestbites.com--the only food blog I read because it's awesome and I don't have time to read more than one awesome food blog.)

 Well, I think he liked it.  Gave him a great laugh anyway.  We sure love this guy and were happy to celebrate him on Father's Day.  I had my kids fill out one of those questionnaires that induce side-splitting laughter at all the cuteness.  Yeah, the kids are too old for those now.  They know all the answers so they aren't so funny.  Adam was the one reminding everyone that Zach is exactly 38 years old and around 5 feet 8 inches.  (How does he KNOW this stuff?  It just sticks in his brain somehow.)  Ah, well, I guess we'll have to wait a few years till Eli's old enough for the cuteness.

 Adam brought home pipe cleaners from Primary and Zach turned them into this.  Never knew he had it in him, did you? 

 Father's Day dinner--the only picture we got.

We love the dad!

San Diego For Sweet Sixteen

Head to San Deigo to celebrate sweet 16 years together?  Why, yes we will, thank you.  Zach had a work meeting in SD in early June, so I flew down to join him for the weekend.

The weather was beeeeaaaauuuuutiful.  But somehow I always ALWAYS forget that it is not very warm by the beach.  I was cold a lot.  So I'm wearing the same sweatshirt in every picture . . . because I was cold, remember?

We took in some sites of San Diego and had an awesome time doing it.  We went to the Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Town.  We took the tour, panned for gold, and took a moment to rest in a wagon.  Not as comfortable as it looks, by the way.  What?  You don't think it looks comfortable?  Yep.  Even less comfortable than that.  Certainly made me grateful for the mode of transportation we enjoy today. (I knew a bit about the Mormon Battalion, but wasn't aware of just how much they helped in the settling of San Diego.  Kudos to their incredibly hard work!)

After the museum, we meandered around Old Town, grabbed some lunch and took a look at some original San Diegan homes, ala Victorian style.  (I want one of these trees in my yard.  Except it wouldn't grow here.  Too dang cold.)

Toward the end of the day, we headed to the USS Midway Museum.  Having never been on an aircraft carrier before, I was blown away by the size.  4000 people lived on this ship when it was deployed.   Yowzahs.  We showed up about an hour or two before closing and they told us it was a 3+ hour tour, but that we could use the tickets the next day, too.  (tweetybird)

I've never experienced full-blown claustrophobia, but if I had to sleep in those bunks, I'm pretty sure I would.  3 bunks each x 25 or so per room= 75 men per itty bitty room--all allowed only the drawer under their bunks for personal effects.

 In the brig:

 Piloting a fighter jet:

 We checked out the tide pools near Ocean Beach.  It was re-heeeeeaaaallllyyy windy down there.

And then we spent hours defacing the upper tide pool rocks so that our love would be eternally etched near the ocean.  Just kidding.  Someone ELSE spent hours defacing the upper tide pool rocks so that our love would be eternally etched near the ocean.  Or . . . there is just another Sarah and Zach out there.  But that Zach doesn't know how to make his Z's yet, so he must not be very old.

 Desserts for dinner?  Again, yes I think I will.

Back at the USS Midway for Day 2 of Awesomeness.  (I would totally recommend this for families with older children.  I don't think our kids are there yet.  We thought it was amazing.)

And then we took a ferry over to Coronado because I really wanted to check out the Hotel Del.  Pretty amazing.

 San Diego skyline from the ferry launch on Coronado:

We met up with my Uncle Bob for dinner and he told us a few stories about his days in the Navy. 

The next day we headed to Point Loma so see some rugged coastline.  The tide was in, though, so we didn't get to see the tide pools.

 

After Point Loma, we drove up the coast and through Torrey Pines.  Gotta be honest.  I'm not sure what was supposed to be so cool about Torrey Pines.  Must have missed it.  So we went to the most awesome site in San Diego.  

 San Diego temple:

After a drive through Balboa Park, we rounded off the night with dinner in the Gaslamp District.  As we are old and LDS, we left before the night life started and went to see The Avengers.

After church on Sunday, we went back to Coronado just to lay on the beach.  It was the softest sand I've ever put my feet into.  I could have spent the whole weekend there.

 Goodbye, San Diego, and happy 16th to us!

And thank you, thank you to sistahs willing to watch the kiddos while we were gone, even though one of those kiddos was sick and was quite grouchy.  In fact, he inspired one of the sistahs to say to the other one, "If Eli is always like this, we are not helping Sarah enough."  Yeah, when he's sick, he's a peach, I can tell you.  (No, I mean it.  I can tell you that right now.  He's got a raging ear infection and he is so cranky.)

Growing Up

 Awwww, look at him there, just playing away with his chopsticks.  (Which were removed shortly after this picture was taken.  Let's just say he likes to put things in his ears.  *Sigh*.)

All That I Can

“Along your pathway of life you will observe that you are not the only traveler. There are others who need your help. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save.”

Thomas S. Monson

Are we doing all that we can?