We Love, Love, LOVE Vacations!!

I've come to realise that Josh and I don't ever do things by small measures. We decided to go on a trip to America in our free month, but did we plan a relaxing vacation? NO! We planned a trip of epic proportions that would mean when we got home we needed another month to recover!

But, now that we have recovered, we are ready to relive it by writing this blog. It was seriously THE MOST amazing experience we have had in a long time and was totally worth the time, money and energy it took to do. We went to 19 states of America and Canada in 28 days.

Here is a little look through the trip...
We flew straight into Los Angeles and then rented a car to drive to Arizona. We saw a whole lot of this on our trip... zillions of windmills! Everywhere! It was relaly quite cool. We left LA at like 3am, so this picture is just as the sun was rising. Priceless..

We arrived in Tucson to see Erin after quite the drive.. who knew it took so long to get to Tucson. Hehe. We discovered one piece of highway marked in kilometres instead of miles, which would have been an exciting part of our trip except that our car was telling us we had 17 miles of gas/petrol left in the tank and Erin's house was like 15 miles away. Cannot compute!

But we met with Erin, spent time with her and her wonderful daughter Lylah and ate Mexican food. MMM.. mexican.... Even though we only spent a few hours with her, it was great. Love you Erin!

We then drove up to Phoenix to stay with Josh's mission president and his wife, President and Sister Jensen. Such wonderful people! Took us to see some great parts of Arizona and treated us like Kings and Queens. We ate so well... mmm.. cinnamon rolls! Apparently the food was quite a highlight. Fat kids!

Well ok the pictures got out of order but I'm not going to worry about it. Here is VEGAS!!

Nauvoo! My wonderful aunt Clair drove all the way from Peoria (3 and a half hours) to spend the day with us in Nauvoo. What a wonderful woman! She was so kind and I loved getting to see a bit of my grandma in my Aunt I never get to see.

This is about two hours from San Fransisco in the mountains near Modesto, California. It was Josh's first time to see snow! Yay! So of course we went sledding down the mountain. I'd just like to say first and foremost, that I was totally better at it than Josh :). It was great fun. We are grateful to the Rawe's for looking after us there. Wonderful people!

This is a place called Point Lobos, also in California somewhere near San Fransisco. The water pushes up on the rocks with massive force to make beautiful big waves. It was stunning. The water looks beautiful, but I'm sure I would have frozen if I tried to get in. It was near a little town called Carmel where we ate lunch. So cute! I like little cute towns... they don't allow franchise stores so it stays really quaint.

This is us in Vegas again... there were about twenty of these in the M&Ms factory so Josh and I spent about half an hour taking photos of each other pulling the same face as the plush toys. Are we five years old? yes I think we are!

New York, New York!! We spent forty dollars getting to the top of the Empire State Building so that we could take pictures and see the view... and it was foggy and FREEEEEEZING! But oh well! We loved it anyway! I don't actually understand the fascination with New York. I saw places I loved much more... but, it really is massive with the tallest buildings and constant activity. But, as they say, there's no place like home.

After New York, we caught a bus to Washington DC. This was one of our favourite stops. We saw so many amazing buildings (and homeless people). We figure it must be a law in DC that you have to have giant white pillars outside your building or it will not be approved for construction... because EVERYWHERE had pillars. They were beautiful... it just seemed crazy!

If I was American, I'd be an awesome president.

We rented a car from DC and drove to upstate New York and visit some of the LDS church sites. At Palmyra, we had an AMAZING time. We loved it. Here we are, in the snow, visiting the sacred sticks....ooops, I mean, sacred grove. It had a different kind of beauty but still a great feeling. We LOVED Palmyra. Such a cute town. And it is where we discovered Cinnamon Toast Crunch... mmm....

We went to Denver and saw my old stomping ground. I love Denver. It is my second home. But Josh had never had the pleasure of visiting. This was another of our favourites.... Josh got to see a deeper insight into my life because Denver is where I did a lot of my 'becoming me' and growing up. We saw the nanny family.. ie, the people I nannied for and spoke with them. It was fun to reminisce and tell stories about how I was the most social nanny ever. Anyone shocked?

Our favourite part of visiting Denver, however, was seeing my wonderful friend Natalie. I LOVE THIS WOMAN! She is so amazing. She is truly one of the best friends I have ever had, and I think we met each other when we really needed each other. I was away from family and needed someone I could love and trust and she needed a friend to help her through tough times. It was a match made in heaven :). It was so great to visit with her and her wonderful husband Joe and two beautiful children, Enoch and Travis. I love that Joe and Josh got along really well too... when husband's love each other you know you're best friends for life! So Natalie, get your butt into gear and come visit us. We love you!

Both of us had been to Salt Lake before, but it was great to visit the temple and to do a live session. I was on the edge of my seat! I love to see the temple la la la la la la... This was a five day stop. Our longest stop. We were lucky to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas presentation, see friends and family, and spend time with our wonderful friends the Egberts. I love Utah... it was a good way to end our trip.

After leaving Utah we had two days in LA which we spent with some wonderful friends there who looked after us. Our trip was amazing.... We did so many things... too many to mention! But this is a brief insight.

We are so grateful that we could take this trip at this time before life gets so hectic that we can't. We know we are soooo BLESSED!!!