Of Vacations and Weddings

Tonight I would like to share a post I wrote several years ago.  It is primarily about our trip to California and events from the fall of 2006 though the beginning of 2007.  A highlight of our vacation was that we got to visit my Aunt Marjorie.  Eric & I had not seen her since I was pregnant with Austin, which of course meant that she had never met Austin!  I recently re-read this post and noticed that I wanted to take a cruise for our 15th anniversary.  Well, we never went on that cruise, but now as our 18th anniversary approaches, we are preparing to go on a cruise!  Most likely that will be the subject of my next post, but for now, I hope you enjoy this post, originally written on February 24, 2007.  It was originally called "General Update" and was shared on my business website.  I have renamed it "Of Vacations and Weddings" for this this blog.

Wow...it has been forever since I updated this. We went on our vacation to California in October, and we had soooo much fun!  First, we went to see my Aunt Marjorie in Magalia.  While we were there, we visited Feather River Canyon, and took a trip to a real, working gold mine.  This was great for Austin, since he's really into gold and gemstones.  We also went to downtown Sacramento and toured the Leland Stanford mansion.  The rest of the time, we pretty much visited with my Aunt, and ate at great restaurants.  Here is a picture of me at Feather River Canyon.

Audrey at Feather River Canyon, October 20, 2006.

After we left my Aunt's house, we drove over to San Francisco, where we stayed in a neat bed and breakfast at the top of Gold Mine Hill. Our hosts were so much fun, and we enjoyed breakfast with the other guests and our hosts every morning before we set out for the day. We went to Pier 39 and spent a long time there. There was so much to do and see! The highlight for me was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. We had two people tell us before we left home, that we HAD to go there, so we did and it was well worth it. We visited an aquarium that had an underground section...we could see fish swimming around us on three sides while we moved through on a conveyor belt. We also visited Alcatraz and Golden Gate Park. The park was so crowded that we didn't do a lot there...we were running out of time, so we mostly went in the Japanese Tea Garden and then looked at some artwork that was on display right across from the Tea Garden. Then we drove over Golden Gate bridge to Muir Woods and walked around in there until closing time. We got some neat souveniers there...my son got a statue of a bear that was carved from the redwoods, and I got a necklace, also carved from the redwoods. The plane trip home was exhausting, as we got on our first flight at 12:30 a.m. and then had a long layover in Texas before boarding the last plane, a jet, to bring us back to Alabama. I didn't like the jet...it seemed to take off at a higher incline and coming down was steeper too. It made me a little sick.

Well, after we got back, it was business as usual...until my son & I got the flu. That wiped us out for about a week. Plus Brittany's boyfriend moved here, so most of our "free" time was taken up with chaperoning. Then, at the end of December, they decided to get married...Here's a picture of the newlyweds!

Joel & Brittany Gomez, December 29, 2006

The newlyweds lived with us while they were waiting for their rental to be ready. Joel got the flu and Brittany got bronchitis. Then Austin got sick again, and then Eric got the flu! So I had been tending sick ones, in addition to running the shoppe. Brittany & Joel's rental finally got ready after a couple of weeks, so they moved out and are in the process of getting everything set up nicely in their own place. I have been working hard at home too, trying to get rid of a lot of things I don't need, so that we can spend more time together as a family.

Eric & I "celebrated" our 14th wedding anniversary on February 8th. I say "celebrated" because this was right after he had the flu, and he still wasn't feeling well...so we really didn't do much. We have decided that we should start celebrating our anniversary in the summer when everyone is well. Anyway, next year will be our 15th, so we will probably plan something really big then...I've been thinking about a cruise...who knows!