Jim and I traveled to sunny Californian for our honeymoon. It was so great! It was perfect weather and we were able to see many of the people and places where he served his mission. We started out in 'the desert' (jim called it) Palm Springs, and Palm Desert area. We arrived there in the evening and Jim was confident that he would know where he was going when he got there, so of course he didn't look up exactly where it was. Yes, we had the address and we did get lost! Or so I thought, we were in the right vicinity the whole time... just trying to find a hotel called 'The Dunes'. We probably drove past it 4 or 5 times before we called and they told us that the hotel was located INSIDE the country club we kept driving around! :) It was The Best hotel/country club that I have EVER stayed in!
We were able to visit the Redlands temple while we were there, this was the temple that Jim went to on his mission! It is so pretty!
In Palm Springs there is an aerial tram way that goes to the top of a granite mountain. It was a fun experience, but unfortunately I got a little sick on the way up. It was still really neat to see over the whole 'desert'. Jim loved it!
On our way back down the mountain, Jim put the car into 1st gear and... Stalled the car! So there we are just gaining speed down this terribly steep mountain. (Its grade was probably comparable to 'the dump' at home.) Oh and not to mention that there was a stream of cars behind us! Needless to say I was just a little nervous! Jim started the car back up while we were still speeding down the road, and apparently that was not so great for our little Buick! So we drove to a strip mall not to far away and let the car rest while we wandered and looked at all the over priced merchandise, including a great hat shop!!
The green top hat is totally Jim!
Thankfully the car was just fine (thanks to some good advice from 3 great dads, including a little divine intervention) So thankful that we were safe!
We were also able to visit three other families that Jim knew on his mission and also the Cryder's home where Jim spent his first Christmas in the mission field. It was so fun for Jim to be back there, and the elders were even home! Jim was able to see Elder Ottens, who he trained.
Casarrubia's,
Fajardo's,
We visited the Sanchez family but I don't know where Jim put those pictures. :)
After our great time in Palm desert we headed to San Diego where we spent the rest of our fabulous vacation! We didn't do anything big while we were there but we had a blast. I got us lost at least a dozen times, its a good thing Jim is a patient man! We visited the Birch Aquarium, Old Town, Seaport Village and spent a ton of time driving from place to place because of my mad map reading skills (as I mentioned before).
We were so excited to be able to go to the San Diego temple! It is my favorite temple and Jim loves it as well. We wanted to get married there, but decided it was too far away for family to travel. Family is what matters most to both of us, so we settled for doing a session and coincidentally our friend Carla Hayden(Morgan now) was getting married in the temple. They were the first people we saw when we walked in the doors! It was so neat! They invited us into their sealing, it was so amazing! Life is kind of crazy like that, Heavenly Father never ceases to surprise me with the most comforting, and wonderfully amazing experiences like this one! We spent nearly the whole day in the temple... and.... it was by far my most favorite experience out of all that we did on our trip!
