We took the train to San Fran

Last weekend we took Amtrak from Merced to San Francisco and back all in one day. It took us about three hours each way. Why in the world would we do that when driving it will only take two hours each way? One reason.. Camden. He is in love with trains. Actually he's fascinated with everything with a motor at the moment. Buses, trains, cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes and helicopters are something we hear about regularly. Our church participated in a kids day out with Amtrak. Its fun for the kids to be able to ride the train, go somewhere fun, and all at a much cheaper price. AND since Amtrak doesn't cross over the bay, we took one of their buses across the bridge. We killed two birds with one stone that day.. we rode a train and a bus! He was a happy camper. As always, here's some pictures of the trip. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the train. I was too worried about making sure I had a tight hold on the little ones while we were standing next to the track. If you're really sad that there isn't a picture of the train, google Amtrak train and i'm sure you'll get the idea. That's what I'll have to do when it comes time to scrapbook.

Cam and Kara on the train


The W's


I love our little family


This guy was a riot.


I love my parents


She looks like a book worm with Papas glasses


Nonna met us at the Pier!


Andersen doing his "gasp and cover my mouth because something funny or silly happened"


Playing at the fountain at Ghiradeli square


Sisters


My baby is getting big!


Riding home with papa

Some random pictures from random times

Back in March my grandparents came to visit. They live in Chicago so we rarely get to see them. It was great to get to visit with them and to get pictures of them and the kids.

Four generations


Great grandparents!






This pictures is funny because Kara was asking cam to be her prince and dance with her all night! He kept blowing her off, she was actually really sad about it. You'd never guess it from this picture though.


Practicing his skate tricks, even if he does have to use moms leg for balance




Look how handsome my boys are. I love them.



This was the first day it was warm enough to wear his rainbows... he loves them


How did I get so lucky?!?!

And for those of you waiting for a Foster care update... We meet with our social worker once a month from now on just to keep things current. At this point we're just waiting for the right placement to come along. We know God has a plan and we are trusting in HIS timing.

March.. Brian and I went to Washington DC

This year we are incredibly blessed to have a fun event/trip to look forward to every month. Seriously every month until... October. So January we had our snow trip. February we did Disneyland. Now were at March. Okay, I know its April now but we've been pretty busy around here with every day "life" so I'm going back to March. ;)

Brian knew for awhile he had a business trip to Washington DC on his schedule. About a month before the trip my mom was over and it came up. She started talking about how fun it was when my dad would have business trips because his company always allowed for her to go with him. Brian said that was an option, all that we would have to pay for is the airplane ticket for me. He just figured there's no way I would want to go because he'd be in meetings during the day.

I thought about it for probably less than five seconds and laughed. You mean I could actually have some quiet alone time during the day. In a nice hotel. Where you can have anything you need brought to you by just picking up the phone. Where someone comes and cleans up after you. Where I can eat lunch with nobody touching me, "I just want to eat lunch with nobody touching me". (quote taken from the movie Date Night). Oh and lastly.. not to have anything I HAVE to do all day and I can sleep as late as I want. Not sure about you but that sounds like a dream vacation to a busy mom with little ones. I told him, call your travel agent and get me on that flight.

The trip was excellent. We stayed in two different hotels over the three nights we were there. They were both located near the white house and the other monuments. When we checked into the second hotel they told us when they have people working on the roof of their building they have to call the secret service and let them know that they're supposed to be there and they aren't snipers or anything. We were that close.

Brian actually only ended up having meetings two of the days and only 4 hours or so at a time. We got a lot of sight seeing in, enough to satisfy us anyway. I did end up staying in the hotel room while he was gone, mostly sleeping since you can make it as dark as night in most hotels, including the ones we stayed. It was fabulous. Here are some pictures from the trip. We had a blast.

Brian in front of the white house


We didn't have many pictures of us taken together because when we asked people we either got this..

Umm we kind of wanted to be able to tell where we were?!?!

or this...


So the next one we opted to set up our selves. We just found a spot in the grass, put the timer on the camera and propped it up with my purse. I was satisfied.



A few hours later though we thought we would give it another try. The guy that took this pic did good! He probably thought I was crazy when I was so happy to see he captured what I was wanting!


Now this.. was my FAVORITE place to visit in DC




Those right there are cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes. They have a show on TLC called DC Cupcakes. We waited in a line that wrapped outside around the building for 30 min in the cold on a Friday night to get cupcakes and it was worth it! I bought 18 cupcakes and guarded them with my life the whole way back to CA so my friends and family could experience these delicious treats. YUM

The morning before our flight we took the subway out to Arlington National Cemetery. We didn't have very long to explore but it was neat. Here's a picture from The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.


We had such a great time. It was a huge blessing to be able to get away from our every day life and spend some quality time together. Mostly it was so relaxing because we knew everything back home was being taken care of. I work with awesome ladies that were supportive in me taking the few days off and were willing to cover me at work. And not once did I have a single worry about the boys. They got to go stay with Brian's parents and Auntie Katie. They were very well taken care of just like I knew they would be. They were excited to see us when we came back, but when we left Brian's parents house Camden was crying because he didn't want to leave their house! Apparently he had a great time.

Next month, or really later this month.. So Cal Beach House with Brian's family. I'm sad to say Brian wont be able to make it on this trip because he cant afford to miss work.. BUT I get to make it a road trip with one of my besties and our kiddos. Can't wait!