California!

We took an extended weekend trip to California last weekend.  My cousin, Kirsten, graduated from the San Joaquin Delta College Police Academy and we really wanted to be there to celebrate with her.  We decided to make a little vacation out of it and spend some time with family that we don't get to see often enough.
We left early Friday morning and traveled through the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range via South Lake Tahoe.  Ron and the kids had never see the lake and the drive was gorgeous.

First sight of Lake Tahoe

Continuing though the mountains

A beautiful little lake that was right off the side of the highway

 The drive took a little longer, but it was worth it.
Saturday was Kirsten's graduation.  We had some time to kill before things got started.

Lilian playing with baby cousin Landon (Joffery & Cassie's son)

Braison & Lilian were OBSESSED with tickling Landon's feet. 

Landon and his Papa (my Uncle Ken)

Kirsten's graduating class (there is a white arrow pointing to her)

Receiving her certificate

After the ceremony we went to Pam and Ken's house for a wonderful lunch (thank you again you guys!).  Then, we decided to take the kids exploring a little and hopefully get them to take a little nap while we were in the car.  Uncle Ken told us to go check out Bass Pro Shop in Ripon.

It was actually a lot of fun.  When you walk in, you walk through a hollowed out redwood tree, then it is like a museum in there with all of the taxidermy animals and a big waterfall going into the fish pond.  And, of course the arcade where we all got to try our hand at shooting rifles. I won, by the way.  We spent the better part of an hour wandering and looking at things.  The only thing we bought...fudge.  Yes, they had a fudge shop right in the middle of the store!
Then we continued on and over to Modesto where we stopped by McHenry Mansion.  It was amazing.

Sunday was our fun-filled day.  We drove up to Vallejo to go to Six Flags.

Mommy finally got to ride on some real roller coasters!

Best one I got

Only family photo we got the whole time.

Grandma & Braison getting ready to watch the whale show

Dolphin show

The lions were a favorite with us

This sweet lion was talking to Ron :o)

Braison & Lilian riding on the frogs

We had such a great day!  Everyone was there, but we were split up most of the day doing different things.  The last ride that we went on (the only one Ron and Grandma joined) was the White Water Rafting Adventure.  Needless to say, it lived up to its name.  We were all SOAKED when we got off.  It made for a long walk back to the car and a wet ride home.  

Speaking of the ride home.  Since I am the world's worst navigator, we took a wrong turn after leaving Vallejo and wound up detouring down through Oakland.  Ron was not very pleased with me (we did everything we could to avoid going through the big cities), but on the plus side, we did get to see the Golden Gate Bridge!

And, here is one more of a smiling baby Landon.  Wish we didn't live across the country from him (his parents either, I guess :o)

Thank you everyone for helping to make our weekend so wonderful!  Hopefully it won't be so long before we see each other again!