Glen Fowles November 22, 1911- August 10, 2010

On our way to Sonoma, i got the news that my dads father had passed away at the age of 98. He was such a sweet man, loved his family and did pretty much anything for them. He and my gramma were a great inspiration because of the love they had and for the total devotion they had for each other after 75 years of marraige. It was very bittersweet hearing this news and not a coincedence that we were on our way to visit my fathers grave for the first time.

My sweet gramma is still hangin in there, taking it one day at a time.

He is surely missed.

cute little boy and his buzz.

11th anniversary trip, bay area and Monterey

(warning: picture overload)

This year for our anniversary we dropped the kids at Chris' parents and started west to Reno for the first night of our road trip. I was so excited to show Chris the tree in the middle of the salt flats that i always looked forward to seeing on our trips from California to Utah growing up. Unfortunaltely he did not share my same excitement.


In Reno we stayed at the Atlantis casino, which was home to ugliest lamps on earth.

right?

The next day we went on our way through the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains to San Francisco.

We stayed in a cute little boutique hotel called the "W".

I was very excited to walk to china town and look through all the shops. I dont know what it is about cheap crap that excited me so much.

Our hotle was right next to a fire station. luckily there were no emergencies in the middle of the night.

The bottom of Lombard street.

We went to the pier and saw crabs, lots of crabs....

these men know what they are doing.

Even though i grew up 40 miles away, i had never been to alcatraz. I asked someone(who shall remain nameless) to preorder tickets but that person forgot and surprisingly the tours were sold out. So this is the best view we got.

Had to catch the seal show, loved this fatty.

love the architecture.

I was always told that i had to hold my breath to see the rainbow at the end of the tunnel and then wondered why i could still see it when i didnt hold my breath. Apparently i was lied to alot growing up.

The next day we went 40 miles north to my hometown, Sonoma. The first stop we made was to the Veterans cemetery to visit my Dad's grave.

I was surprised to find my dads name on this star of honor monument in the center of the cemetery.

We made a quick drive by of the house i grew up in.

had a donut at the danish and donut. My family would stop there many sundays after church for a donut.

Next we were off to the south to Monterey. Which is a place i had been to once or twice growing up but Chris and i have wanted to go for a while and it did not dissapoint.

jellyfish seen right off the dock

sunset on the beach

We went to the Monterey Bay aquarium. I was in love with the jellyfish and the anenomes.
some of my favs...

and this wierdo, the leafy sea dragon.

we saw squirrels on the beach

and this guy. no words.

after some major zoomage on the camera this is what we saw on this rock....

hundreds and hundreds of seals.

the lone banyon tree, we grew quite a fondness for these trees.

The last day of our trip we did a whale watching tour. They had been seeing huge amounts of whale and dolphin because of the increased population of krill. We were able to see over a dozen blue whale and several humpback. At one time we were surrounded by over 200 dolphin.

Schools out for summer!! finally.

Here in Nevada they take the term "year round school" literally. We didnt get out of school until the first week of august. We even had friends and family that had started the next school year before we had even finished. Fortunally our school district has switched back to the traditional school schedule.

Here is Olivia on her last day of Kindergarden with her cute teacher Mrs. Ruggles. Hannah also had a great teacher this year for third grade, Mrs. Brimhall.

Stadium of Fire!!! and other summer happenins

This 4th of July we again decided to head up to Provo and go to Stadium of Fire, and how could i not knowing the musical guest was going to be.......



Carrie Underwood BABY!!!! the girl is awesome!


Cousin Chloe danced again, shes in the somewhere...


We looked cute

and

watched the fireworks.

We also enjoyed a fun day in Park City


riding the alpine slide and the other roller coaster,