CALIFORNIA-start at the bottom (my sisters grad)

Now for the final leg or our journey we spent time in San Francisco with friends and my sister.
First stop was lunch with Diana and Jill. Diana is a very good friend of mine and we used to meet weekly and go to lunch and coffee and walks, but now we just have to limit it to once a year:(. Jill is a friend from Cole Valley that I met when I first started working at the cafe.
Next was a visit with another baby-man this is the season :) This time it was Victoria's precious Paloma-which means dove, a perfect name, dove is the symbol of peace and the symbol of the spirit of God. She is definitely a blessing from God. Since I have known Victoria that has been her desire to fall in love and to be a mother-God answers prayers! She is doing great and will continue to be a great mom, she is super nurturing and present and fun and loving. I miss you Vic! :) Congrats Vic and Gary!
Then it was a fun filled weekend with Britt and Neil-we went to our fav restaurant fresca and unfortunately got served our favorite dish but burnt, so we returned it and the second one fixed our craving! Then it was up to the river for a party-how special that they through us a party with some of our friends from church. Thanks gusy. It was nice to see everyone and to catch up, eat good food-like pear pie, and canoe, and laugh our heads off. Ahh all I know is when me and that girl get together all we can do is laugh and the boys are always saying "all we can hear is you guys laughing your so loud." Don't worry that never stops us.
Of course we went to Cornerstone sun morn and it was good to get alot of hugs, and then we spent the day with my sister-we went to our traditional breakfast at the boulangerie and then for mani/pedis at lavande-It was soo good to see her, and yet a bit sad to realize how much you miss those little traditions, the reality that weekly has turned into yearly. But praise God for technology bc we always have text, cell phones and emails and oh blogs to keep up with everyone. So we also got to meet her new boyfriend. As a big sister I want to one day meet a man who just adores her and loves her as much as I do, so I am praying for her match.
So that is that, that was our adventure.
It feels good to be in NYC-you all can pray for me I am really pursuing photojournalism and am working on some of my own documentary projects, the Lord is really blessing the work of my hands, I am excited to see what he will do, I have a feeling God has a BIG surprise up his sleeve, and I am trying not to get discouraged in the waiting.

Straight from there we drove to Nana’s house in Palm Springs for quality time with the Cohen’s-lets just say I love palm springs, its so relaxing and I love being with family-and I love how nana treats me like I am one of her own-sitting on the couch together she took my hand and said “I don’t know why but I just love you.” Then we were off to LA for a few days of fun, lets say we experienced the LA trend “krav maga” basically a killer workout class, as steppo said I was walking like a penguin for three days. Again no pictures, I am a photographer but it takes so much focus that when I am doing other things I don't often like to take pictures. Oh here is one from our joint family lunch. I like when everyone gets together, its funny because we see everyone so much we forget that they never see eachother.
OH I FORGOT TO MENTION MY NEW HAIR CUT- so cute, and it was so a funny LA moment, the salon I got it cut at was the same salon the britany spears shaved her head at, random right?!

Then we made our way down to Long Beach to see our long time friends, from the college days, Mark and Missy and their little cutie Jordan, unfortunately we went crazy taking pictures just not with our camera. Then it was another UCI reunion, at our friend Knowlton’s wedding we were reconnected with our Campus Crusade friends-it was really special like a flash back to 1998-there were lots of memories and hugs. And here is a picture of us with Risa and Anders. I was super touched when after over 5 years of not having seen nor talked with each other, they said “we were hoping you would be here.”
That was a special night, congrats Knowlt and Lisa.

Then we were off to Bakersfield, and spent time with family and friends. As you can see in these photos, we got to spend time with Barbie and Justin's cutie Aubrey, who is turning one in about a week!-there is a much cuter picture of us together on barbs blog. And here we are with Kate, in high school everyone said we were attached at the hip; how time has flown by, now we are all married ladies starting family's (well kate is getting married and barb is the only one with a little one, but you get the point:) ).
Also we spent some time with Dustin and Angela long time friends that have known me since I was like 12-and after all these years we had our first double date-so sweet.
A highlight in Bako was when we went to the mountains, to this cabin my dad is working on, for a day of dirt biking-of course I tried the what they said was "safer" three wheeler-after I learned that they aren't produced anymore bc they are so dangerous I didn't feel so silly for almost running over my foot and down the mnt. But mike and my sisters had a blast, they flew up and down that horrendous dirt road for hours, I wish I had that kind of fearlessness. Mike came back with a "war wound" a huge scar from a fall, but boys will be boys.

CALIFORNIA

So we had a blessed and amazing time, from the five-hour delay on the runway and the 3am arrival in so cal to the goodbye in sf.
Really the 3am drive for 3 hours to Pismo was actually refreshing, Mike's license has expired so I was the driver-which was fun bc I hadn't driven in a year and I was finally in control-Mike never let me drive :)! We arrived at the Bako favorite Pismo Coast Village greeted by my family and cinnamon rolls. Then we were off to Emily’s ROTC graduation-basically boot camp for kids-intense, glad my parents didn’t hear about that when I was in high school! I can’t believe she is now in Highschool-ahh memories! And look how cute my grandma Ruby is in her hat-hi grandma!!!