Ah... Spring Break!

The long awaited week is almost over. It went by so fast. But we sure had a great time. We started the week with my family in Salt Lake City for General Conference. Mom, Dad, Doug, Mark and the two of us in one hotel room! Um. Weird?! When my mom first invited us to stay with them, I thought, "no way! I sleep with a boy now." But then, Brian was completely open to the idea (free room, right?)... and I found out Mark and Doug would be there. So after double-checking that Brian had packed something to wear over his undies at night, I agreed. And sure enough, it was a tight fit, but much more fun than weird:) Mark and Doug were nice enough to sleep on "lay-a-ways" so that we could take the extra bed and Mom had the place stocked with food, so we couldn't even think about being hungry. And of course, Conference was wonderful and being there in the Conference Center to hear our prophet speak was such a treat.

Later in the week we took a trip up the coast to Hearst Castle in San Simeon, about 250 miles north of L.A. The drive was spectacular. The early spring rain had turned everything to green and the sunlight bouncing off the ocean made the water a sparkly, light blue. We made it to the castle just in time for our 10 o'clock tour. It's situated at the top of a hill overlooking thousands of acres of coastline and untamed wilderness.


Isn't it beautiful? Here's a picture of Brian in front of his favorite feature... the outdoor Neptune pool.

I took this self-portrait while Brian was busy asking the tour guide a LOT of questions. Either he wanted to get his money's worth... or he was really interested in how William Randolf Hearst made his billions. Probably both.

I'm standing on the patio. The gardens were full of manicured shrubs, flowers, trees and lots of naked statues. It reminded me of the time I took a group of middle-schoolers to the Getty Villa, a beautiful museum full of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts. The only thing they got out of the trip was an anatomy lesson... you can forget about art appreciation.

After the tour we drove a few miles up the coast to see the elephant seal rookery. A rookery is a breeding ground where animals return every winter... but the only thing these animals were doing was laying around and flipping hot sand on their backs every now and then. Since we already had our anatomy lesson for the day, that's probably a really good thing. Boy, these animals are UHG-LY!








As we drove home we must have passed 100 "Pea Soup Andersen's" billboards. So we gave in a stopped for a bowl of soup. It was pretty good for something made of mushy peas. Here we are, splitting peas one at a time.

The best part about Pea Soup Andersen's was that it was located across the freeway from Solvang, a little Danish village founded in 1911. We popped over for some aebleskivers... but unfortunately they were closed for the evening. We got some danish pastries instead. Not a terrible substitute. :)

Now it's time to do our taxes! Happy Easter, everyone!