Family Excursions

Last month my cousin Alicia came to town. I hadn't seen her for a few years, so this was pretty exciting! My family and I met up with her and my Uncle Charlie in Fairfield for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. Fairfield seems to be our customary meeting spot as it is half way in between Santa Rosa and Sacramento where my Uncle and other family members live. It's also a pretty entertaining little town. We had a few little adventures while we were there and I realized again why I love my family so much. They are absolutely ridiculous! :D First of all my brother Steve, sister in law, Rachel, and I stopped at the Jelly Belly factory to stock up on belly flops, yum...well I actually got chocolate covered Jelly Belly's they're pretty tasty. Then we made our way over to the restaurant for lunch, it was really good and so great to see my long lost super cool cousin! :)

 

So growing up Alicia was the epitome of "cool" and I would say she's still pretty awesome. She loved and I mean LOVED Savage Garden! She had EVERY cd of theirs, including the rare European versions of their songs. She knew every musician you could think of, music was her thing. She would make cd's for us, so we would be sure to know the hot artists. She also loved Horoscopes, I remember she had this book that had a horoscope for each day of the year, The Birthday Horoscope, that told you all about your personality. That was so neat, I would pour over that book whenever I went over to her house. She was so fun, when I was about 10 or so we had a sleepover at her house, and we decided to have an adventure, so we dressed up like guys and snuck out of the house. We put on baggy pants and shirts wore bandanas, and hats backwards and maybe even drew on thick eyebrows! Hahaha, I don't even remember where we went or if we went anywhere, we were just so proud of ourselves for getting out of the house! That was probably our one act of rebellion! Haha, well....maybe not. Oh we had so many good times. I love her, she's wonderful. Last weekend when I was home my family was looking through old photos, and I found this one, of all us girls dressed up!

Alicia, Shaina, Shara, and me all dressed up with no place to go!

Yes, we truly believed we were princesses! We had so much fun prancing around and putting on airs. :) I don't think much has really changed! Haha, we're just bigger is all. Well...We had a good time.

And really nothing has changed! After our lunch we went over to The Nut Tree, a shopping center that just happened to be perfect for my crazy family. Look what we found!

 A giant chess board!! This made me so happy!

 A train! No we didn't ride it, I got some pics though, for my friend Jolene's little boy Levi, he's obsessed with Choo Choo Trains. :) I sent her the picture and she told me he loved it.

 My Uncle Charlie and my Mom had a fun time on the teeter totter! Oh my, I was laughing so hard! Unfortunately it's hard to see my mom in this photo.

 My Uncle Charlie and Dad on these Rocking Horses! I know where I got my young at heart spirit! It's genetic! Or maybe just Nature and Nurture. :)

 After the park we went to the Jelly Belly store, yes, again...I was forced, but they had these really cool Jelly Belly art pieces. Both of these photos are made completely out of Jelly Belly's. I thought it was pretty neat.

So as you can see, we had some great, fun filled adventures, we got to visit with family and have a good time being kids again. This is why I love my family, they aren't afraid to be young at heart and have a good time. I think it's an amazing thing to be able to be so absolutely ridiculous together. :) The only sad part of the day was that Shara and Craig couldn't be there, but we called them and put them on speaker phone during lunch, so they got to be part of the fun. I really LOVE my family, I hope they know that. :D.