Busy busy.......having fun!

June, July, and August were so busy. Life flew by, but so many things happened! To begin we drove out to California in hopes of finding an apartment the last week of June. We found one- and what a blessing it was!

We did take a break and go to the beach with the kenneys to roast smores so fun!

 At the end of the week we drove up to Northern California for a Call family reunion. My family is so funny, I really enjoyed spending time with them one last time before we officially moved.

We hung out at the Kenney family ranch. It was so nice to sit and relax there were so many things to do just on the ranch. There were four wheelers, shooting range, basketball hoop, a pond to swim in, lots of space to hike/walk, and last but not least the pinball machine in the garage. 

here are a few pictures from that week

 this is us at Burney Falls. ...just in case you were wondering that water was like 40 degrees, only crazy people would jump in it.....

 So of course I had to try... (but I only tried after Jared jumped in and then swam around for a while) I guess I thought it was going to be warmer.

 It definitely was not warm....but once in a lifetime experience, unless you do it again. Which is exactly what i did after encouraging my nephews Carter and Jackson to jump in.

 I tried to get Seth to jump in and he said he would do it if I did it with him. So I jumped...he did not. but dont worry after seeing what I went through TWICE he knew he had to do it.

Mission accomplished! We are more awesome because we jumped in freezing water

Another day we hiked around Lassen National Volcanic Park. It was so beautiful! 

 We went on a three mile hike up Bumpass Hell and it was well....smelly. It was at least a couple miles of bubbling sulfur pots. Stinky by pretty cool.

The weirdest part of this hike was that it was so hot but there was snow on the trail leading up to the stinky sulfur pot. It was great for two reasons: first, it gave you something to cool down with. second, it kept the younger kids busy and not too bored.

Later that night we went shooting. This was my first time in my whole life shooting a gun! I shot a bb gun, a 22, a shotgun, and a revolver?

 My nephew Nick shootin' it up!

 Yes I shot at a broken laptop and I hit it every time!

 Seth took a shot at it with the shotgun

 Here are a few of my family members. The little kids were given a chance to pull the clay pigeon machine.

The next day we went on another hike to a cave! I didn't want to go at first because Mary told us horror stories about bats, luckily, there were not any. Walter loves his cousins

 Taking pictures in the cave

can you say photobomb...TWICE  and not only that Walters forehead barely made it in the pictures

Most days there was always someone out in the lake/pond thing. It was nice to have a place to cool off.

We even got my DAD into a canoe on the lake. Granted, he and I almost capsized at the very beginning but with a pro like my dad we had nothing but smooth sailing from there on.

Another great thing about the reunion was doing nightly activities. We had watermelon carving, a Chopped dessert competition, guess who family game, a backyard Olympic challenge, and arm wrestling competition!

Arm wrestling is not just for kids!!!

 Jon looks really interested in the outcome of this match. haha

 Brady and Jared sat in this exact position for a very very long time

 It was fierce competition....Pat is like the strongest person I know, so the fact that Seth beat him was really shocking to me. ... and I think to Seth too.

So Seth took first in the mens category, ana got first in womens (big surprise there) and I think carter got first in the kids, luckily no one got hurt :)

Well that pretty much sums it up...other than it was THE BEST CALL FAMILY REUNION EVER! I guess I did forget to mention that it was our first reunion but whatev, it was pretty awesome! 

That Saturday morning we left around five am so that we could make it back to Utah for a play Seth had been really wanting to see and then to finish up packing for our trip back to California two days later. We made it to Utah and headed to the play Guys and Dolls with Seth's parents at the Orem Hale Center Theater. It was really well done and so fun to watch! 

Monday we get our moving truck and pack up our stuff at the Calls and then the Sainsbury's. And we were off to Vegas around three pm....Seth drove the moving van and I rode with my side kick walter. I technically left about an hour and a half earlier than Seth but he got to the hotel first. We probably made like four stops ...poor Walter he hates the car. Now he even cries if we are in the car for thirty minutes. 

Our hotel in vegas was awesome I really wish we could have got there sooner so that we could have had more exploring time. I had only ever driven through vegas. 

Around 8 the next morning we headed for our final destination! We got there around noon and while I drove to drop off Walter at Mary's so that I could help unload. Seth just drove straight to our apartment. I think Monday night Seth got a hold of a counselor in the bishopric of our ward and asked for some help. Because it was such late notice we didn't think anyone would be able to come. I pulled up to our new apartment and there were 4 or 5 guys there helping unload. What a blessing! It was super duper hot and our apartment was the farthest from the front door! Not only that but we have a lot of heavy stuff! But with all of that help we were able to get all of our stuff in our apartment within an hour. 

A couple hours later we drove down to join the Kenneys for dinner. Geesh did i mention what a life saver they had been this entire experience. After dinner I wasn't feeling too well, I thought that maybe I had over eaten. So we left around 8 and get Walter into bed. Around three a.m. I was in so much pain that I knew something had to be done. So we took a trip to the ER. it was not fun. but the pain medication helped a ton! They told me I had Colitis. Which I had never heard of before, nor do I want to hear about for the rest of my life. Thousands of dollars later we left the hospital and I came home,  Did I mention that this was our Very First Day moving to California? haha. I laugh because I don't want to cry. So I slept and slept and took medicine for the first two days. I started functioning later that week and was slowly able to unpack our apartment. What a great intro to Cali huh? (well if you read my last post about the DMV you know that the first move experience wasn't great). but along the way there were so many miracles. And I am grateful that our experience was not WORSE. We are finally moved in and I am feeling awesome and enjoying the weather. ....but more so I'm enjoying being close to some family and DISNEYLAND.......to be continued.