San Juan Capistrano Mission

Mission Facts:
San Juan Capistrano Mission is named after St. John of Capestrano in Italy, warrior priest of 15th century.

The Mission has been founded 2 times.

The cemetery is believed to have 2000 people buried, most of them unmarked. They are all people who helped found the mission.

The bells were originally the bell tower of the great stone church and that crashed in the earthquake of 1812. The bells are used to announce deaths and for other occasions but each bell has a different ring. It is rung specifically to let people know if it were a man, woman, or child and the age of that person.

So I can probably go on about the facts of this mission, but I won't. Paul and I were able to enjoy a trip to San Juan Capistrano. This mission is part of California's History and it was fun to go on this tour. It was pretty cool. They had an audio tour as you went around. The tour included many stories and experiences from the founders and other stuff. The mission includes the Cathedral which happens to be one of two standing churches where Fr. Serra is known to have said Mass. The mission is the 7th of 21 missions that were founded by Father Junipero Serra.

Pictures of the uniforms, beds, rooms. I didn't realized the people were short. When you walked into the bedrooms the door frames were short that we had to bend down to get in.

This is one of the oldest churches if not oldest still standing in California. The cathedral is beautiful. Going to San Juan Capistrano Mission was something I have never done before and I thought it was one of the best things we have done on our trip. I love history and hearing stories about how things came about. If you ever go to California I recommend visiting one of the missions. They have several around here. You will learn a lot. I sure did.

DisneyLand 2009

DisneyLand

Most of this is pretty self explanatory. Paul and I had a great time at DisneyLand. We met up with my sister in law and her husband and spent 2 days there. It was great. Our favorite rides include Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates, Splash, Tower of Terror, and many more. I thought it was fun at California Adventures. They had a wine tasting thing going on and kind of based it around an ABC show called Brothers and Sisters. They had a picture taking place set up with Walker Landing from the show. I love that show and just had to have my picture with the set. It was fun.

Star tours is one of our favorite rides. Paul took a few pictures. I especially love that lady's hair as she does the introduction video.

Quick Update

Hi from California! We are having a great time. We just spent the last 2 days at DisneyLand. It was so much fun. I will have pictures and a better post next time or sometime in the near future. This was just to update about our trip. Miss you all at home. Gotta go to bed. Have a good night.

California Part 2 : earthquakes, sunburns, beaches, and more

The past couple of days of our vacation have been pretty interesting if not fun. We are having a blast here. As you can tell we spent most of our day today at the beach. The beach is a slice of heaven for us. The water was a little cold so I didn't spend too much time in it, but Paul had a blast with it while I sat out in the sun and pretty much crisped myself. If you look at me you can totally tell where I missed the sunscreen. Hopefully I'll have better luck next time.
So I have a little story to tell and I kind of blame Paul. Yesterday we had a conversation about earthquakes and stuff here. Well last night we actually got to experience one. I have actually been in a few before, never anything bad so I didn't want to be in one but Paul said he would like to know. Well what do you know, we got hit that night. I really have to blame him :) It was funny though cuz honestly we didn't really know it was happening. The epicenter was like 10-15 miles south of the LAX airport (4.7 on richter scale) anyways all of OC got hit. Luckily it was small for us. My grandma's house is an older house and she has wood floor, but when you walk throughout the whole house creaks. I was in the bath and just thought somebody was walking down the hall. I was really into a book and just heard the floors creak and didn't feel any shaking til the end. After that my water sloshed back and forth and made waves and I thought that was strange but I thought if I got out and said something they would think i'm crazy and just nervous since the conversation. According to Paul he thought I was just walking down the hall and coming to join them. Then my grandma woke up and asked if he felt the earthquake. It was kinda funny how it all came about, but in the end I was actually right. For those that actually live here it probably wasn't a big thing but with us being from Utah you can bet it was a deal. It was funny though to realize that people here make a huge deal out of smaller ones too. I think they got more reports on the after shock than the actual place in LA. I hope Paul doesn't want to experience another one cuz if I realized what really was going on I probably would've been super nervous and reacted a lot differently.

California Trip Days 1-5

Hello from California! Paul and I are finally on our much needed vacation. I'm not sure how great I will be at updating this while on vacation but I thought since we have some time I would post a little about what we have been up to our first few days here.
Let me tell you its been pure torture. We arrived early on Wednesday morning only to return to my grandma's for a little bit of extra sleep. We both had trouble sleeping the night before. Wonder why? After a small nap we enjoyed visiting with my grandma and just relaxing for the day.

We also have a tradition after our nap on the first day. We always go to In N Out. This is the best burger place ever. We are way excited to be getting one in Salt Lake Valley very soon. Its supposed to open in Draper at the end of the summer. We have already been able to eat here a couple of times.








Besides DisneyLand one of our favorite things to do here is go visit Balboa Island. We usually ride the ferry across and go visit the little stores and enjoy a frozen banana. I just happened to have a sweet tooth the day we went and the island has a cute little candy store that we just had to visit. They have the best taffy there.











As I mentioned we love to get frozen bananas on Balboa. This collage is of us with our bananas. I have pictures of the pigeons because they were hilarious. Paul and I learned that they can be very territorial. The one in the upper right hand corner was the ring leader of a group of three. It was pretty funny they were just waiting near us to catch anything that may have dropped or been purposely put on the ground. I put the last bite of mine back into the tray and set it on the ground. The birds all rushed to it but when the leader wasn't the first one he sure chased the other 2 off almost yelling at them. It was pretty funny. The bottom right hand pic is one of the birds that was chased off.

This weekend Paul and I have just spent time visiting with my family who lives here. We have just been enjoying our relaxation getting ready for the plans we have next week. Stay posted. I'm sure i'll have more to blog about later. Have a great night!

California here we come....

I'm super excited. We are going to Cali tomorrow! This vacation has been something we've been looking forward to forever. I so can't wait. I'll try to keep the blog updated or I can just do a big post when I come back. We'll see what we have time for. I still have to post some pictures of the cake that our friend made for Paul's birthday. I promise to get them up eventually. It was a fun cake for Paul. We just had our pictures done this past weekend so once I get them back I'll have a lot of new pics to post. Paul is happy to be done with the semester. He got a better grade than he thought he would in biology and we are happy about that. He ended the semester on a good note. I hope everyone is having a wonderful May. So happy for the spring and the amazing weather.

All Showered Out...and more

So the month of May is starting out to be a very busy one for Paul and I. I'm glad the last month went by as quickly as it did, cuz i'm so ready for spring and summer and for our vacation to Cali next week. The countdown began a month ago. Paul is happy to be done with school this week. He has his finals on Thursday then will be done with the semester. Yea!
The next month will be really eventful for us. It actually started last week. I have a cousin getting married at the end of the month. We had a shower for his fiance last week when she came to town. It was fun getting to know her.I also went to my sister-in-laws baby shower. Its their first girl! I'm so excited to have another niece. Then this week, I have a shower for my sister who is getting married in June. But it gets even better... I have another sister getting married in June and her shower is next Tuesday. So now you can tell why i'm all showered out. Not only that the first week of June we will have my dad's family in town. My little brother graduates and my sister is getting married. This summer is full of weddings. After the June weddings I have a sister in law getting married in July. I'm so excited for my sisters and sister-in-law. I'm actually looking forward to all these events. It means most of my family will be in Utah this summer. I love when we get a visit from my Iowa family. Hope everyone has a good May!