Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Santa Cruz is such a cool place!  I knew David and the kids would love it, so it was one of the first places we visited on our California trip.  We let the kids each pick a couple rides to ride on at the Boardwalk, and then we walked the wharf to see the sea lions and enjoy the view of the bay.  I have so many good memories there as a kid so it was really fun to see it all again and see how the kids enjoyed it all as much as I always did.

The boys LOVED the bumper cars (as you can tell from Matt's humongous grin)!

Ari was happy with the flying dragon ride.

This was a new ride but it looked so fun!  David couldn't resist.

The old carousel was a must!

Walking out on the pier...

Checking out the sea lions and trying to get them to bark.

We liked how the one had found himself a nice pillow.

Looking north up the coast at the lighthouse.  It was such a gorgeous sky!

Matthew had to climb on everything!  He's a little hard to contain, but it's even harder to resist that grin!

After our walk on the pier we made our way downtown to find a Pizza My Heart - a new pizza place I'd been told we couldn't miss.  It was delicious!  It all made for a fabulous day and made David REALLY wish we lived in CA. :)

Do you know the way...

...to San Jose?!  After 16 years, I finally do again!  For the first time since I'd left for college, I got to go back and show David and the kids where I grew up.  I lived there from the time I was five or so until I left for BYU at seventeen, and then Mom and Dad moved to PA and I'd never been back.  Sara and Ben moved there in May, though, so we finally had a good reason to go!

We decided to go over the kids' Fall break.  Thank goodness for DVD players and ipods - the kids did great on the road trip.  And thanks to faster cars and higher speed limits the trip was about three hours faster than it was when I was a kid.  It was so surreal being back!  I was surprised at how many things were still the same, but it was still hard to remember everything.  I would see something and it would trigger a fuzzy memory, and then that would lead to a different fuzzy memory...  Fuzzy or not, it was fun to see the places that meant so much to me as a kid.  We spent one whole day just visiting old places...

Like my old house - 779 Foothill Drive!  The big bushes, lemon trees and basketball hoop are gone, but I was happy to see the big tree I used hang out in was still there.  So many good memories in that house!

I had to take the kids on the hill across the street - good old Foothill Park.

We used to take Sunday walks up here and along the canal behind it.  I always loved the views.

Cahalan Avenue and Santa Teresa Blvd.

Looking out at what used to be Randall Elementary.

Bryan was thrilled with all the big trees to climb.  Gotta love the graffiti.

After telling the boys how I used to slide down the hill on pieces of cardboard, Matt insisted on trying it out just in his jeans.

After Foothill Park, we drove around my old neighborhood for a while and headed over to the old church on Comanche Avenue.  The Oakridge Ward is no more, but the church is still the same.  So much of my growing up took place in or around this building, between church, young women activities, early-morning seminary, stake dances...  I loved seeing it again.

We also stopped by Cahalan Park to let the kids play for a bit where I was reminded of the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl, ward activities and family picnics.  The kids didn't care so much that it meant anything to me... They were just happy to play on the swings.

I'd completely forgotten about Fresh Choice until it was time to pick a place for lunch and something triggered my memory... This was my favorite place to eat in high school, mostly I think because I was always watching my weight and like the low-cal options.  But I do remember liking the all-you-can-eat muffins!  It was better than I'd expected fifteen years later...

We drove past all my old schools and different shopping centers and eventually went over to Vasona Park, which is actually really close to where Sara lives now.  I totally remembered this big airplane and the fire truck and the kids loved them as much as I must have when I was their age.

This cute little train station was the same...

And I remembered taking bike rides by this big duck pond.

I realized as we were walking around here this time how blessed I was that my parents did so many things with us to allow me to have so many good memories.  All the walks, picnics, bike rides, camping trips, outings... They were so good to do so many fun things with us!  And now there we were hopefully doing the same thing for my own kids. :)

My day of reminiscing wouldn't be complete without a stop at the best ice cream place ever - Sweet Retreat!  It's just around the corner from our old house and it had hardly changed at all.  Same sweet smell and sticky chairs, and same delicious ice cream!  I had to get all four of my favorite flavors - strawberry, chocolate peanut butter, peppermint stick and peppermint fudge ripple.  I pretended one of these was for David, but I at most of them both on my own.

Matt and the other kids got bubblegum, Bree's old favorite.

We discovered later in the week that there's a different Sweet Retreat just minutes from Sara and Ben's house, so we got Sweet Retreat ice cream three or four times while we were there. :)  

Yum!  Perfect ending to a fabulous day.  Definitely a blast to the past!

Soccer studs

I actually really enjoyed soccer season this year!  The boys did awesome, and their games were lots of fun to watch.  It helped that they each only had one game a week - I didn't feel like we lived on the soccer field.  But they still had plenty of opportunities to play and develop friendships with their teammates.  I'm already looking forward to spring soccer next year.  We get to focus on basketball instead for the next few months, which should be just as fun.

These have got to be some of my favorite Owen pics.  I love his blue blue eyes and sweet smile.  He was all bundled up for one of the cooler evening games.

Matt had so much fun out on the field, and he was focused, too!  He surprised us with how well he played, but the best part was just seeing how much he enjoyed it.

Here he goes...

 Gooaaal!

 I love this picture.  David always worked hard to make it to the games and the boys were always thrilled to see him.  Following in their daddy's footsteps...

 For their last game they got treats and silly string.  It doesn't get any better than that!

Bryan was so intent on winning his last game!  Thankfully, they did awesome and he was able to score a few goals.  Way to go, bud!

 Goooo, Eagles!

Our neighbor, Abby, was on his team (standing next to him in the pic) and she's become one of Bryan's favorite girls lately. ;)  His other good buddy, Jackson, is standing next to her.  I love Coach Loftin's big grin in this picture. :)  He was such a great coach!

 Now we're getting ready to start basketball season - Junior Jazz.  Matty plays games through December and then Bryan will start up in January.  In the meantime, Bryan's started karate!  It's a dream come true for him. :)  More on that to come...