More photos...

We got together with more college friends. I love being able to see these friends. They make me smile. :-) I miss hanging out with them.

Pictured from left to right:

Rachel, Jen, Melissa, Me, Heather

This is my friend Melissa. She is holding Dorie, her daughter. You may remember previous posts asking you to pray for Melissa who was in Uganda to adopt Dorie. They made it home!

We always like to visit with the Pendergrafts. They lived next door to us when we lived in Santa Ana. They get the award for best neighbors ever. :-) Emma and Lily were born just 15 days apart. Anna and Sophie are only a few months apart too.

The Baldaufs live near the Los Alamitos race track. Tonight (Sat. night) the track was hosting the national weiner dog race. We decided to go, just for fun. Anna enjoyed watching the dogs race and Emma enjoyed watching the horses race.

The picture is small, but those are horses racing. :-)

Jane made cupcakes and we had a little birthday party for Anna tonight. Can't believe my baby will be 7 tomorrow! She had fun opening presents and eating cupcakes.

Tomorrow Anna gets the rest of her birthday present... a trip to Disneyland! To say she is excited is an understatement. It is going to be fun just watching her expressions.

some pictures i promised to post...

I said pictures would come, so here are a few. Believe me, there are MANY more, but these are just a few highlights. :-)

St. Louis Arch

There is a place called "Geronimo". We stopped there 4 years ago when we made the same drive. We stopped again and posed the girls in the same places as we did 4 years ago.

We made a stop at a meteor crater site in AZ. This photo was taken in the museum.

Hanging out with Dave's parents...

Hanging out with the Cragoe cousins...

We took a drive to Santa Barbara and saw friends of mine from college... Wanda, Mike (not pictured), Justin (also not pictured), Amanda and Jordan Hayes.

After we left Dave's sister's house, we went to San Diego. We stayed with my friend and roommate from college, Marcia and her family (Bryan, Nathan and Ava).

The Fox and Toevs kiddos.

After leaving Marcia's house, we went to visit Dave's sister Patti and her family. Here we are after eating In-n-Out for dinner.

While in Orange County, there were many people to see. We spent one evening with Roy and Cecelia... a.k.a. Boy and Cece.

While staying at the Baldauf's house, Emma, Anna and Rachel had fun with a "spa day". Emma and Rachel made "Lavender Spa". Anna was their first customer. She received a hair style, make up, a massage and a pedicure. She was pretty pleased with her pampering. :-)

The trip isn't over yet. There are more pics to post, but they aren't downloaded yet. Still left on our agenda: Disneyland and our return trip home.

Vacation

We are at the beginning of our second week of vacation. We are currently in our eighth state. We started in Indiana, then traveled west through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and then into California.
The girls are good travelers. They did great on the drive out here (we are still in CA). We took our time as saw many things... the St. Louis arch, route 66, the largest meteor crater, a couple of giant crosses, a Cherokee trading post (tourist store), a Navajo trading post (another tourist store) and many rest stops. This year, we didn't tent camp along the way, but instead stayed in hotels/motels/inns.
To find a place to stay, we would pull up somewhere with free wi-fi (like McDonald's or Del Taco) and priceline a place. Then go directly to the hotel to get our room. We managed to save a few bucks along the way. :-)
We are now in Thousand Oaks visiting with Dave's sister Ruthi and parents. The girls are having a blast with their cousins... Ruthi and her husband Dave have 8 kids, so there is a houseful of playmates! We will be here for a few more days and then head south for a bit before returning home.

* pictures will come... I am just experiencing a bit of technical difficulty right now.