a sight to see.

good sight isn’t something that I was blessed with in my life. In second grade I got my first pair of glasses- and since then my eyesight has only gone down hill. currently my eyesight is a negative 7 in both eyes. for those of you lucky enough to have 20/20 vision, negative 7 is REALLY bad. basically without help from either glasses or contacts I am blind. Growing up I always wanted contacts, but it was a rule in our family that we couldn’t get them until we were in 7th grade. my mom wanted us to be “mature” enough to take care of them and take them in and out on our own. I don’t think I ever became mature enough for that… since that time I have gotten in the habit of sleeping in my contacts. it is a really bad habit, but luckily last year I ended up getting some contacts that were actually made for sleeping in. although you can sleep in them, you are advised to take them out every other day or so still. well the night that we got back into long beach from pocatello we decided to go celebrate sams sister jenny’s birthday in mexico. we had a few people (our parents) worried about our decision to go to mexico because of the shootings and violence that have been taking place… but because jenny and nicholas have been to where we were going quite a few times and knew exactly what we needed to do to get there, we decided to do it. everything went great and we were safe as could be! we never felt threatened and everything turned out fine. anyway. the reason why I bring up eyesight is because the night that we got to mexico I lost one of my last pairs of contacts. oh boy. glasses aren’t the same when you are used to the convenience of contacts. my peripheral vision was definitely not the same and neither was the quality of my vision. I don’t think I realized how dependant I am on my contacts until I lost the only pair I had. Boo.
a few days later though- when we got back to our car I found one more contact! Halleluiah! I was so happy to have my quality of life back! I am so glad that somebody VERY inspired decided to invent contacts. they have made my life so much better!

since we have been back we have definitely seen a few sights worthwhile. since mexico (we were only a bit across the boarder in a place called rosarita.) we have pretty much been on the 1 the whole way. what a beautiful place to drive.
If you haven’t driven it, it’s hard to explain. so here are some pictures of the sights we have seen. Lovely wouldn’t you agree?




unfortunately every time i post, i forget which pictures show up first... well of course they are backwards but there are too many pictures so sorry to say we will have to drive in reverse! :)





oakland temple. its lovely. sams grandpa was in the temple presidency here so it was really special to visit. we watched the joseph smith video for the first time in about 2 years. it is such a great movie. i truly respect and love joseph smith so much. i cant wait to one day meet him!

we went to san fransisco. such a cool city. it was my first time ever visiting so sam took me to all sorts of fun places. the fishermans wharf was a must see.

of course we had to walk across the golden gate bridge! this was one of my favorite parts of the day!

driving down lombard street! great right?

while we were in san fran we also went to the natural history museum. it was a nice place. i dont think ive ever really been to an aquarium so it was pretty cool to go to a huge one!dont worry this was just another part of the adventure! :)

this was in santa cruz on the pier. kind of a fun place but more for teenagers!

i freakin love light houses. i would live in one if i could. this one is called pigeons point. it is now turned into a hostel which is pretty cool. we didnt end up staying there but it was fun to visit.

just some cute kid.

this was in carmel. this is such a cute little town with lots of art galleries and awesome doors! seriously i love them. all of the doors to every business in the town are split in half so that the bottom can be closed and the top can be open. we will have doors like this for our home someday! i wish i would have taken pictures.

cali coast 2010

sam picked me my FAVORITE flower of all time! woops not like it was a national forest :)

the carmel mission. there are 17 along the coast and in surrounding areas.

i love telephone booths so i made sam take some pictures of me! im awesome i know!

this is where we parked one night. we woke up to a beautiful view dont you think!?

julia pfiefer burns park or something to that effect. it was beautiful and a nice walk.

i know hearst castle is supposed to be one of the main attractions of the coast, but we couldnt fork out $50 to see it so we settled on the visitors center instead.

just a pretty sight. :)

we were able to see a huge elephant seal colony. arent they cuties?

morro bay. it was chilly! kind of everywhere past san luis obisbo was cold!

this was one of my favorite places! only a population of 18 people. but its so quaint and lovely. it reminds me in a way of nauvoo. but ALOT smaller. there was a cool glass blowing studio and gallery here which was really fun to watch.

sampson on a beach in san luis obisbo. san luis was also one of my favorite places.

this is at gowesty. gowesty is a place that revamps and blings out old westfalias and then sells them for a heck of a lot of money. sam and i really want one. :) seriously they would be the best for road tripping! so if anyone knows of one for sale we arent kidding we REALLY want one!

my brother in law nicholas went to cal poly for architecture school. he built this house for a contest in washington dc called the solar decathlon. it was cool to see something that he worked so hard on and did so well with while we toured around cal poly.

ohh la la!

the store we found these at was so weird. everything in it was stuff like this. i wont lie i loved it.

have you ever heard of the madonna inn? dont worry i hadnt either. :) supposedly its really popular and everything is PINK! its crazy! and really gody!

san luis has a famous gum wall. actually its a full gum alley! its pretty sick but of course we had to add our mark to it!

we also went to a place called venice beach. it is WACKO! so many crazies in our world! i like culture, but lets be honest im glad to live in little conservative idaho.

this is back in san luis, like i said my brother in law went to cal poly. they have a canyon that they use for architecture and engineering students to build different structures. we camped there for a few nights! its a really beautiful canyon with lots of fun stuff to explore!

another house/bridge/structure.

im not really sure what this one was but isnt it so pretty and green?

i got hops!

frank lloyd wright (a very famous architect) had a son named the same thing just with jr at the end! :) he built this really cool church by the ocean. its a must see if you drive up the coast.

in a shopping market in mexico

just an interesting little tourist attraction?

our view from our campground in mexico.

i know this is an extremely long post but trust me ive cut out a lot of pictures from what i originally planned on posting! :)

we decided to come to sacramento for the weekend so that we could watch conference. wasnt it wonderful?

it always is, but i especially enjoyed the talks this time.

i know we all get different things out of each talk but for me the theme seemed to talk about mothers, families, youth and children alot. it made me so excited to someday be a mom and (hopefully) raise them in righteousness!

im so so thankful for my mom and dad for raising me so faithfully and helping me through everything.

another thing that stood out to me was the topic of enduring trials. they will come. they always do, but its good to be reminded that the attitude you have will affect what you learn from them.

Especially on this Easter day i am so thankful for my Savior. what a blessing to know that HE LIVES. the music through conference reassured me again and again that this is true. I am so thankful for all that he does for me on a daily basis. I know He is helping me through each struggle i have.

i hope your weekend was an uplifting one and that your week continues to be!

x0x0