vacation!

Aaron has started at General Mills and has learned he does not enjoy working eight hour days inside a factory. I finished the garden mostly well everything is planted and it was a lot of work. We have zucchini, yellow squash and butter nut squash in the round beds. We have cucumbers, peas and eventually beans on the trellis. The tomatoes are by the shed, watermelon in pots on the cement and spinach and lettuce in the raised bed. I also planted pumpkins in pots in the front yard and will put together a bed or pots of herbs this week. So we have been pretty busy and took two vacations as well. Last weekend we drove down to LA for Aaron’s Grandparents, 50^th wedding anniversary. It was a lot of fun it looked like a wedding reception all over again; there was a huge beautiful cake, lots of fun finger foods, balloons and slide shows of their life together. I enjoyed hearing about each child’s thought of their parents; it was fun to learn more about the Patrick side of the family. While we were in LA his grandparents took us out for breakfast to Hometown Buffet…. Yummmm! Then we went to the park and watched his cousin Haylee play soft ball. It was very cold and windy, but I had so much fun! Her dad Glen is the assistant coach, which is so cool. They have twin daughters that are four that play tee ball, they are so cute too. I want my kids to play sports that they enjoy and support them by coaching or going to all the games, just like Glen and Julie they are a great example. We also went to the aquarium and the Korean friendship bell in San Pedro with his cousin Nicole and her family, she has four adorable kids! That night we went to Nicole’s house and played Scene It Disney, Nicole and I beat Aaron and Mulek twice! The next day was Aaron’s 26^th birthday I made him French toast and we sang him Happy B-day. Then we went to sacrament and took the long drive home. When we got home we had banana splits and presents. My sister Tina got him the DVD Transformers, my sister Eva got him a great card and an IOU dinner, Mom got him a bamboo rug and I got him two shirts and candy.

Aaron had Good Friday off so we left Thursday afternoon for San Fran. Aaron booked two nights at the Best Western the night before and we did not expect the rooms to be great but they actually were. There was a large king bed, a TV, a fridge and a nice bathroom. We also got breakfast every morning which made it all worth it. Thursday night we walked some of the piers to find dinner and we stopped at Boudin the sourdough bread factory. WE got a clam chowder bowl and a turkey avocado croissant sandwich, they were so yummmy. Where ever we go Hali says Hi and people always say hi back. We met a family there this way, they had gotten together for their grandparents funeral, and anyway they had a baby girl about 6 months older than Hali. They laughed; played peek-a-boo and hugged it was cute. The family thought it was cool that Hali could sign just like their baby and walk well. On Friday we got on our free double Decker bus and toured downtown. Hali loved being on the top and everyone else enjoyed her hi’s when they came on and bye’s when they left. We got off in china town and saw lots of stores bought a few shirts and ate lunch and again it was very good. We then got back on to the bus and stopped in Fisherman’s Warf just in time for our boat ride around the bay. We went all the way under the golden gate bridge and back around Alcatraz. I learned about all the history of San Fran and we all liked the boat ride and watching the water and birds go by. Then we went to Steve & Barry’s and Walgreen’s and bought a shirt for me and jeans for Hali. Then we took the F train back to d-town to watched Jumper at the theater. Hali usually does well but this time she was not too happy. After the movie we took the F train back to Fisherman’s Warf and ate at In-N-Out and Cold Stone. Saturday morning it was actually a very nice warm day, we drove to the golden gate and walked halfway across, it was pretty intense being so high up. We were able to see all of San Fran, lots of sail boats and there were even dolphins and sea lions swimming around. We also saw a big tanker go underneath us. Now we can say we walked on the golden gate bridge even Hali.

Well Hali now says bye bye very well, “buddy” for butterfly and “cott” for Scott. In ASL she does more and milk all the time and all done. She knows patty cake she says “patty, patty” while she claps, “roool” and twists her hands and sometimes throws up her hands for throw it in the oven, it’s really cute. She will copy singing and make up tunes too. She also hits herself in the head with both hands when I take something away from her that she is not supposed to have. She also knows who everyone in the family is, like I will say, “where is Aunt Eva,” and she will look at her then I will ask her where others are and she will find them. Hali walks everywhere now she still falls on her bum sometimes but she does not crawl anymore.

On Easter Sunday, we went to church and Scott and Dad spoke, So it was interesting to listen to the things they had to prepare. I went and sang with the choir even though I had only practiced a couple of times with them. We came home to have Tina, John and Elizabeth visiting for the night. Eva showed up a little later. We had roast and potatoes for dinner and afterward we all open Easter eggs and ate chocolates. Later Hali and Elizabeth opened gifts from grandma. They both got Easter hats and and PJs and Elmo Phones. Hali had fun taking Lizzy’s away and running from me. You can see that in the video. We played some Napoleon Dynamite MAD LIBS and had a good laugh from them. We picked some Oranges and Mandarin oranges to juice later. We had some mango's that John and Tina brought as well. All in all its been a great vacation!