Cooling off at Grandma Lemmon's house

When my sister was in town we took the girls out to visit my Grandma in Los Osos.  It was so fun going back and doing some of the things we loved doing as kids.  Betsy and her girls went to Montana de Oro (but the tide was too high to go to the tide pools).  Then we headed to Morro Bay where we fed the sea lions and went to the aquarium and saw the octopus.  We had lunch and bought salt water taffy.  Then we headed back home because Betsy had to go back to Iowa the next day.  It was a great day and I just love visiting that part of the state.  It was nice and cool and it felt good to put on jeans and a sweater.

Betsy and Daphne feeding the sea lions.

Nina was pooped out from all of the excitement.  Grandma bought her this darling hat!

Nina liked seeing and hearing the sea lions.

Tricia and Grandma feeding the sea lions.

The girls couldn't get enough of this electric moving chair.  They loved playing on it.

Beach Bummin'

Last week we took a trip out to the beach in Ventura.  It ended up being all girls except for Tyson.  I'm sure he was in heaven.  It was nice to escape the 100+ degree temperature in Bakersfield and enjoy a nice cool day at the beach.  The water was freezing but I had to get in to wash off the seagull poop.  I swear I am a bird poop target and have been my whole life.  We went home sunburnt and itchy, but it was still a great day.  

Me, my sisters, and my cousin

Our first family photo at the beach

Nina really loved her first trip to the beach.  She got loved playing with (eating) the sand and getting it everywhere.

Mmmm...Tito's Tacos

Me and Nina

My dad, Bridget, and Daphne

Sweet little Tricia

Daphne helping Nina get a drink

Last week was a great week.  My sister from Iowa, her two daughters, and my sister living in Utah came to visit for the week.  It was so fun to spend time with them and it was a nice "staycation" for me, Tyson, and Nina.  My sisters both flew in on Saturday evening and we all met up for dinner at Tito's Tacos.  That place is deliciously amazing and it was a great way to start the week off together.

Jennalyn, Kevin and Betsy

The Big Move

We have spent the last three years in Iowa City, Iowa while Tyson worked on his BSN at the University of Iowa.  We absolutely loved it there but when it came time for him to graduate we had some decisions to make.  We could stay in Iowa; pros: close to Betsy, I had a great job teaching 1st - 3rd graders, Tyson could work at an amazing hospital, the people in Iowa are awesome. cons: the majority of the year has horrid weather, far away from the majority of our family, no 7-11s in Iowa.. so we decided to move out west to be closer to most of our family.  We researched many different places and found that Bakersfield could be a good spot for us.  We could afford a home on just Tyson's salary, we could be close to family and fun things to do in LA, we are a couple hours from the beach, and Bakersfield is a family oriented community.  So, to make a long story short, Tyson got a great job, we packed up and headed out.

The move was easy.  I would definitely recommend hiring movers to anyone moving across the country.  

We have been in Bakersfield a little over a month and are really enjoying it.  There is a pool in the place we are renting, so we escape the heat by swimming nearly every day.

The people seem friendly in Bakersfield and they will even let you merge whe

n you drive.  (A stark contrast to Iowa drivers.)

We have also been lucky enough to find a home.  Everything just seemed to fall into place with it and it seemed like the right thing to do.  We close on the house at the end of the month and can move in after that.  We are excited about that and are happy that our renting days are finally over.

I started

So, I finally started this thing called blogging.  Yay, for me!