Summer Traveling

Summer is just about over for everyone, and that will finally include us too.  Britton starts work next Monday, and our summer traveling days will be over.  We had a great time this summer going to many places near and far.
We took a short day trip as a family to Oakland to board the USS Hornet.  The aircraft carrier had a rich history including battle in WWII and was the prime recovery ship for Apollo 11.  They had a lot of fun artifacts, photos, and information.  We watched a short, awkward video of Richard Nixon interviewing the three Apollo 11 astronauts during their quarantine time.

There were some cool planes to look at, and Britton needed a picture in front of the jet engine of course.  It's always amazing how massive these ships are.  You can kind of get an idea from the picture below.  You can see San Francisco in the distance. 

Unfortunately the Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday this year.  What do you do with that?  So we attended the annual Sommercorn family reunion the weekend before the holiday.  This year we traveled to McCall, Idaho for some fresh mountain air.  I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about enjoying a vacation in Idaho, but I have seen the Idaho light.  The location was absolutely beautiful, and there was so much to do because everything was so cheap!  We took advantage of a great deal on horseback riding through the mountains. 

We enjoyed plenty of delicious ice cream in town which was also a steal!

We spent some time swimming at a local hot spring, and the lake.  I don't really recommend Zimm's hot springs which was actually piped hot spring water into a shabby pool.  But at least it was warm, and everyone got to enjoy swimming.  I'm kind of a pansy when it comes to swimming in cold lakes these days.

One of the best parts of the trip was finally visiting my brother's family in Boise.  Just coming from our tiny student housing, my boys were just amazed at the size of their house, and the awesomeness of their backyard.  "They have their own playground Mom."  They also had a giant garden, deck, and two-story play house. 

Shortly after that trip we drove to northern California to go camping with the Olsons in Lassen Volcanic National Park.  There are all different types of volcanoes there as well as bubbling, stinky hot pots.  We took a nice hike around Manzanita Lake, and enjoyed some absolutely beautiful views. 

We had to cross the freezing cold river during our walk, and spent a good amount of time climbing on fallen logs.  We also took advantage of some kayaking.  At night we roasted jumbo marshmallows, and spotted different planets and stars through Phil's telescope.  We were pretty exhausted after this trip as camping with a bunch of kids can do to you.


Right after Britton's Ph.D defense in August I flew out to Washington so I could make it just in time for my friend's wedding reception.  I was sad I missed the ceremony earlier that day, but so happy for the couple, and happy I could see so many old friends.

Then I spent a week with my family catching up on Washington stuff.  I got to spend a lot of time during the day with my mom and sister, and we took the kids out for lots of fun activities. 

We spent a day at Alki beach throwing lots of rocks, and then went to the Woodland Park Zoo another day.  I was so exhausted after both those days!  This early pregnancy gets to you! 

Will got to spend lots of time with his cousin Natalie, and this is what they did most of the time.  It was some kind of game with legos and airplanes.  Will also had his first ever sleepover at Natalie's house!  I was a little hesitant especially since I had to take him on a plane the next day, but he was fine.  He was a little more prepared for his second sleepover with his California cousins.

It was great to see all those parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, but it was also great to get back home and into our usual routine.  Our usual routine didn't last too long because we only had one week to pack, celebrate Will's birthday, and move to the east bay.

After the move we had lots of family time before Britton started work so we recently took a day trip to the Del Valle reservoir near Livermore, CA.  It was the middle of the week so we practically had the whole lake to ourselves.  We had an absolutely fantastic time driving the boat around, spotting wildlife, and hopping on shore for a picnic lunch. 

We found the bald eagle's nest, and then spotted a bald eagle soaring in the area.  I won't show any of those pictures because our camera is nowhere ready for those kind of nature shots.  We also spotted these ducks, herons, a lot of hawks, and two deer.

I'm not sure why we took a picture of this, but here I am putting some sunscreen on Elliot.  He likes to put on sunscreen, and while we weren't looking decided to put more on by himself.

It was all over his hands, face, and even in his mouth.  He didn't cry or say anything!  He just sheepishly walked up to me like this.  I love how you can see his hand print on his face!

We moved all our stuff to Brentwood on a Saturday and the following day happened to be our sixth anniversary.  We gave ourselves some time to recover from the move, and pushed our celebration all the way to Labor Day weekend.  Mostly for babysitting purposes. 

We started out driving up to Lake Shasta since I've always wanted to go there.  It always looks so beautiful and fun when you're driving I-5 on a long trip.  We took a tour of Shasta Caverns.  Despite all the stairs you have to climb, it is definitely worth your time.  Pictured below is the cathedral room, named because the formations look like organ pipes.  Yay, organ!

We didn't spend too much time on the lake because it was so smoky in some areas from the forest fires, but we did visit the second largest dam in the US!

Can you believe the size of that?  It provides a steady water supply for most of California and all those farms that grow all that delicious produce.  We took a long walk to the middle of the dam despite the heat.  We also visited the dam visitor center...  We couldn't help ourselves.

We also stopped in the Napa valley for a little walk in the clouds.  No sight of Keanu Reeves.  We did see a ton of people at Castello di Amorosa.  It was also blazing hot that day, but we enjoyed all the sights and educated ourselves on the wine making process. 

I love how everything is hand made, and every detail looks just like part of a medieval Italian castle.  We indulged in some pretty amazing grape juice.  The people there couldn't believe we were for real.  I gave the server guy my pregnancy excuse, and he said, "That wouldn't stop me."  I'm sure there's not much that would stop him which is probably why he's working at the winery.

We ended our trip with a fancy Napa dinner, and got to see a wedding take place during our meal!  Happy six years to us!  Marrying Britton was the best decision I have ever made, and I am consistently impressed by his talents, and grateful for him every day.  Except when he teases me like an obnoxious older brother.  But that makes life fun.

So that's all our travel!  Now it's time to settle into routine, and make some tough decisions about where to live!