Crusin' around California

After spending a great Easter weekend in Fortuna, Dani and I headed down to Rancho Cordova to visit Dani's Grandpa Goss. It was great to meet him and listen to his fascinating stories from when he met and dated grandma, his time in the military, his travels, and teaching.

Monday morning we met up with Dani's cousin Camille and went ziplining through the redwoods. It was a first time for both of us and we had a blast! It was a lot of fun hanging out with Camille too and getting to know her.

The next day Grandpa took us to go visit grandma's gravesite. She passed away in 2010, but Dani always had a special relationship with her as she grew up. Having been born in California, Dani was grandma's "Little California Girl." I really enjoyed getting to know and spending time with Grandpa Goss.

Our next stop was Stockton, one of the areas where I served as a missionary. We stopped by to visit the Zunigas, a family I helped to teach and baptize. When I met them in 2012, the mother, Cynthia, had been less active in the church, and my companion and I baptized her husband and their oldest daughter. Now Edgar, the father, has baptized his two sons when they turned 8 and blessed his three youngest daughters! It is the greatest feeling as a returned missionary to know that your converts are continuing to be faithful to the gospel.

The Zuniga family

We had dinner with the Lemon family! They were also converts in Stockton, and have now been sealed in the temple. They are hilarious, and it was so good to catch up with them.

The Lemon family

On Wednesday we went to the Sacramento Temple and did an endowment session. I love it there! I got to tell Dani about my fond memories of attending with companions, members, and my mission president. We also visited the very first person I baptized, Jody Smith. She likes to tease me because I was so nervous that I forgot to say "Amen" before I immersed her in the water, making it so I had to "double-dunk" her after I got the baptismal prayer right the second time.

Jody Smith

Thursday Dani and I hung out with Victor and Nancy in Jackson. Victor was the ward mission leader there, and we quickly became friends and have continued to keep in contact. Victor showed us around his current project - restoring the historic Preston Castle with several other volunteers. It was an industry school for troubled boys years ago, and now it is being brought back to life.

At the top of the tower with Victor

Us with Victor and Nancy

That night we headed over to the Gomm's home, near Placerville, another one of my favorite areas. Sister Gomm made us a fantastic dinner, and we loved spending the evening talking with her around the table. Friday we went to Orangevale to visit Courtney, a college friend of Dani, and meet her adorable six month old son.

Sly Park

Years ago on my mission in Placerville I found a hippy cafe that I thought briefly, "That would be a fun place to take someone on a date." So after a stroll down historic Main I took Dani to Cosmic Cafe to enjoy dinner. Since Dani loves eclectic cafes so much it was a perfect evening. Following our date we visited more with Brother Gomm and learned from his incredible spiritual experiences. We left their home with a greater resolve to better ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Mark and Audrey Gomm

We headed home on Saturday, passing through the Sierra Nevada mountains and Lake Tahoe. As we took in the incredible scenery, we were agonizing over the fact that we were unable to hike the PCT this summer - but at the same time were somewhat glad we weren't trudging through several feet of snow that is still on the ground. We had to stop and take a picture at the crossroads (or is that crosstrail?) for the hike of our dreams.

It was an amazing week filled with happy reunions and quality time spent with family and friends. It felt great to have so many of my friends from my mission meet Danielle - and it was equally wonderful to meet some of her family. We finished our incredible week with General Conference on Sunday, and are working to catch up on the sessions we missed on Saturday.

Moab to California

Chris handled another busy week in the office and really loves learning from dad. Instead of just going on fun hikes by myself while he works, I started to get some pre-season work hours in at the river company's warehouse. We both had some long days, but it feels good to be working hard and saving up for school.

On Tuesday was Utah's republican caucus, and despite Moab's dominant liberal population, we had a good turnout. Chris mentioned it was almost like a church function because he saw so many people from the stake. With the way absentee ballots work, neither Chris nor I had ever been to caucus, so it felt good to participate in the election process.

The line was out the door!

Early in the week we went climbing on Wall Street and brought Jacob along. That boy slayed the routes! We were so impressed with his ability to complete intermediate climbs - especially since it was only his second time climbing. After a year of not consistently climbing, it also felt good for us to come back and do better than we thought we would.

Jacob toproping Lacto Mangulation - 5.10b

Much to Matthew's disappointment, both he and Olivia were too small to fit any of the climbing gear we own and therefore were unable to join us on the climbing adventure. We tried making it up to them by taking them out for a hike on Wednesday. Chris told us of this secret hike in Arches that goes out to a giant tunnel arch. It's an amazing hike, and barely anybody knows of it as it's not listed in any of the Arches pamphlets and doesn't even have a trail marker by the road. We spent hours hiking, and bushwhacking, as Chris lead the way on this hike he himself had only done once before about 6 years ago. Well, we never actually found this mysterious and secret tunnel arch. Nonetheless we still had a lot of fun hiking, and the kids absolutely loved the sand hills. Even though we never found our intended destination, we had a blast on our journey.

Matthew's bouquet for me - watch out ladies!

No joke - the piles of sand in Olivia's shoes.

Friday morning Chris and I woke up early and hit the road for a full day's drive to Fortuna, California - the start of our week long "Chris's Mission Tour/Meet Dani's Grandpa Adventure."

We spent Easter weekend with a couple that Chris had baptized three years ago (Saturday marked 3 years to the day!) that had moved north after their baptism. They have two of the sweetest girls we know. We had the greatest morning just chatting with all of them at their home as they got caught up with Chris and I got to know them better. In the afternoon we attempted to go out to the beach, but a storm a couple days earlier had gotten rid of all the parking spots and it started to rain. Instead they took us on a tour of the Redwoods and the Avenue of the Giants. Standing next to those giant trees is an easy way to feel small! The father had grown up in the area and he was the best tour guide we could have asked for. We had a nice evening with the family at home. On Sunday we went to church with them and stayed long enough to open Easter baskets with the girls (They even made Chris and I an AWESOME Easter basket). After that we hit the road to spend the next couple of nights with my grandpa in Rancho Cordova.

Our Easter Basket :)

Exploring an old railroad trestle 

See the fish up there? That was the high water mark from the 1964 flood that took out entire towns in Humbolt County.

Drive-thru Tree!

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew