One of our favorite things is to have an opportunity to go somewhere and spend a little time together coupled with a change of scenery.
The more we go, the more we love seeing new places, cultures, and the wonders of this beautiful planet we are blessed to live on.
Sometimes we go to familiar places - those that we have visited before and loved so much we wanted to go back...and other times we like to visit somewhere new. Somewhere we have never been and want to experience for the first time. :)
Growing up, my family never traveled. We just didn't have the means to. I always wanted to, but just didn't have the opportunity.
Trev was able to travel a little more growing up - especially being on the tail end of the kids (6 out of 7). The babies of the family always seem to get the perks of higher incomes. :)
He went to Hawaii a couple times...
Lots of camping trips...
Just lots of places.
So when we got married, I told him how I wanted to see the world! It didn't matter how long it took but I wanted to travel and visit all the places I had dreamed of growing up.
We decided we would make taking trips a priority in our marriage. We would plan, save, and go on trips - both together as a couple and with our kids.
Over the years we have been blessed to see so many places, and there are so many more on our bucket lists. It gets tricky with soon-to-be 5 kids, but every time we go it reminds me how worth any effort is.
It is something that just bonds us and creates memories that we will always treasure.
Well last month we had another opportunity to go and see.
This time we went back to a place we have been before and loved but wanted to see parts of it we hadn't experienced before...San Francisco!
When Morgan was a baby we took our first trip here. It was our first family vacation! :)
This time we went back by ourselves and it was so lovely!
We started our trip by taking an early flight from Salt Lake and chatting the whole way to the San Francisco airport. I am one of those people that actually likes the "travel time" portion of our trips because it just gives us time to talk without distractions. I don't even remember what we talked about but I am sure it was kids, work, where would visit, etc.
Nothing out of the ordinary but just nice to talk. :)
When we got into the airport we headed straight to pick up our rental car and head OUT of the city!
The first leg of our trip would be to drive the northern California coastline down to Monterrey and Carmel.
It was simply stunning!
It took us awhile to get there because we had to keep stopping to take pictures. It was just too breathtaking to pass up. Plus the weather was perfect! 60's and sunny the entire trip.
We also kept stopping at roadside fruit stands to try all the deliciousness. We both were perfectly fine with our little detours. :)
We skipped on the "larvets" (aka worms) but fell in LOVE with blood oranges!
There would be a few more of these babies to make it into our car over the course of the trip. :)
We also had a really neat experience as we traveled.
As I have mentioned before, last June we started a Home Health Care company - Lighten Home Health. Since that time Trev and the team have been working feverishly to get all the proper accreditations we need to move our company along and into full-swing operating mode.
Well about a week before we left on our trip we had a big survey from the government that we needed to pass to continue the process of accreditation. Long story short, while we were driving along enjoying the beautiful scenery and talking about the business and the lessons we were learning from it - low and behold we got the email saying we had passed and would be moving forward!!! It was such a special moment! One we will never forget.
Can you sense the joy and excitement in that handsome face? We were truly thrilled and it just made our whole trip even better. It was as if Heavenly Father was saying "here you go...have a great time on your trip!" :) What a tremendous blessing!
As we continued our sight-seeing, oohhh-and-awwing journey we stopped at a little restaurant/art gallery. Some of the art was well...let's say interesting. But here were some of my favorite pieces.
As I get older, I seem to really enjoy art a lot more. I feel like it speaks to me and the creativeness inside me. I have a growing appreciation for art that communicates a message in beautiful, inspiring ways.
Plus I love color! Bright colors always brighten my spirit.
Being in beautiful nature has the same effect. Probably because you are surrounded by God's art. And boy is He a great artist!
More on that to come...
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