Utah Here We Come

We left Los Osos and headed towards Bakersfield.  It is a long drive with not a lot of interesting scenery.  The hills are so brown.

 We did notice a huge drop in gas prices in Tahachapi.   Tired of driving, we stopped in a small RV park in Baron before we hit the 15.  It's a super small town.  How small is it?The Circle K did not even have a Slurpee machine!  I witnessed my first alcoholic literally spend her last cent on a bottle of cheap vodka in a convenience store.  This town is home to the Twenty Mule Team Borax Museum and has a beautiful small park on Main Street with real fire trucks and miners trucks for kids to climb on.

We decided against boondocking at the Virgin River Gorge again, and drove straight through to Snow Canyon in Ivins, just outside of St. George, Utah.  There is a beautiful state park there with pretty nice campsites.

 Our friends Keith and Stephanie Cannon just moved to St. George,  and we were anxious to catch up with them.  We had a great visit Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a delicious Mexican meal at their new favorite Mexican restaurant.  It was interesting going to church with them on Sunday.  They attend a seniors ward with no youth.  There were visitors with children, and the Bishop taught them in the second and third hours.

I love the St. George  downtown area, and the tour of Brigham Young's winter house is definitely worth taking.

There are several galleries and small mom and pop establishments that are fun to poke around in.  Keith and Stephanie did their best to sell us on St. George when we are ready to settle down.

Lakeside RV Park in Provo was our next stop, a few miles away from John and Brenda.
A bonus for us was that Dominic, Nicolette and Joe were in town visiting Chiyeto and Julio.  We were able to go to Joe's 6th birthday party, keep the kids Friday and Saturday and take them to Scott and Maggie Richards Pioneer Day barbecue.  We love spending time with the kids, and am blown away by how big and smart they all are.

John made it home from Texas on Friday evening, and they induced Brenda on the following Monday morning.  Jameson Bradley made his debut on July 27 around 3:30 p.m.   He weighed  6 lbs. 9 oz. And was 19 inches long.  We were able to visit when he was only a few hours old.  He is straight from heaven and perfect.

We hung out with John Brenda and the kids  for the next ten days.  Everyone was doing well when we left.

While we were there we did have time to see some of our very dear friends.  We had dinner and FHE with the Kanaheles and then had them over to John and Brenda's so they could meet Brenda and the kids. We have been friends for over 25 years, and they are definitely family.

We also took a quick trip up to Bountiful to see Cree and Ila Kofford, the family that introduced us to the gospel.  We had not seen them for 14 years.  We have such love and gratitude for them.  They were excited to hear about our mission plans.

On our last day, we made a quick trip up to Salt Lake City to meet Diann and Frank Voordeckers for lunch.  Diann gives tours of the Joseph Smith building on Mondays, and she gave us a private tour.  There is really nothing like good friends that bless and enrich our lives.  It doesn't matter how long it is between visits, we are always able to pick up right where we left off.

Here are a few pictures from the Joseph Smith Building.

We headed out to Wyoming on Thursday, August 6.

Stay tuned for more living.

Central Coast California

We drove up on Saturday morning.  Surprisingly traffic was not too bad.  Seems like most people were headed South.  The Central Coast area is so beautiful.  We made a reservation at La Sage RV Park way back in January.  I swear I read that they had a club house and a pool, but apparently I was mistaken!  It's all good though.  We are a block off the beach and a quick bike ride into Pismo Beach.  There are a lot of full-timers in this park so everybody seems to know everybody.  The sites are tight, but our truck fits just fine.    Ken, Sarah and Calvin live about 25 miles north of where we are staying.  We hang out with them every chance we get.

The pier in Pismo is a favorite place to go, and the fishermen we ran into the first day were fishing for shark.  Their line was incredibly heavy and the sinkers were like bricks.

The park we are staying at Is a block off the sand, and we love to ride our bikes down or walk on the boardwalk which takes you right into the state park.

The sunsets are especially pretty here when the fog has not rolled in.

We love the town of Grover Beach, and my favorite spot is a place called Rons.  It is a garden shop that is a little slice of heaven.  

The Pismo Beach Car Show is a long-time tradition for the Kens on Father's Day weekend.  We started out riding our bikes down to the pier and then walking over to the Honeymoon Cafe for breakfast.  The food was amazing, and I was shocked there was no line waiting to be served.  There are hundreds of cars on display, and I took pictures of some of my favorites.

It was Calvin's first show and he loved seeing all the people and cool cars.

We ended the day with Mexican food from a new found "favorite" place, Juanitas.  I know, right?

We followed up the car show with our annual Father's Day barbecue.  This year we made fall-off-the-bones ribs eith homemade baked beans, cucumber salad and homemade bread.  We finished off dinner with blast to the past pistachio cake.

We love Ken and Sarah deeply, and we love to see them parent in action.  Their little Calvin, now 8 months old, is a good boy and embarassingly cute.  People stop to talk to or about him wherever we go.  We were in the Hands Gallery and the clerk said "I want him.  Seriously, I want him."  We keep a good grip on him!!

We celebrated Ken's birthday with Ken and Sarah and Calvin.  Sarah decorated with balloons and streamers.  We barbecued steaks for dinner with twice baked potatoes, tomatoes florentine, Caesar Salad, home made bread and home made German Chocolate Cake with butter pecan ice cream.   The two Ken's helped a family move early in the morning and worked on giving the truck a tune up in the afternoon while Sarah and I worked on dinner.  Sarah also got a great deal on strawberries, so she also made a big batch of jam while we were preparing the birthday dinner.

The kids went to a wedding in Utah over the 4th of July, so we hung out with Jack.  He is such a good dog and a real people person.  He loves hanging out with us.

Cuesta college was having a Juried Book Art show in their on-campus gallery.  We tried to see it on Thursday when were were in Morro Bay but the exhibit was closed.  We took a run over there on Monday.   They had some pretty amazing stuff, some off the wall stuff, but the Ode to a Penis was just too much!

It was a fun afternoon.

We have had a few art days while here on the coast.  Here are a few of my favorite things: 

We both love Morro Bay and we spent a couple days down there also.

Our month in the park ended all too soon.  Ken and Sarah invited us to stay for another week with them so we packed up and headed over to their home in Los Osos on Wednesday, July 8.  We set up the RV in the driveway.  Ken will be able to put in the new refrigeration system and do a little modification to the RV while we are here.  It will also give Sarah and I a chance to work on some art projects, cook some fun meals and spend quality time with Calvin.

We look forward to a fun time and know that it will end all too soon!

Stay tuned for more adventures on the road.