Laguna Beach Anniversary Trip

 

For our 41st wedding anniversary, we took a trip to Laguna Beach, one of our favorite places to go. Charles found a hotel that was right on the beach, just a flight or two of stairs down from our room. We had a beautiful view from the room, and with windows open, we could hear the ocean at night- way better than a sound machine!

There was a fire in a canyon several miles away the first day, so we got some smoke, which made great sunset pictures! We were very happy that the air in Laguna was clear the next day.

The view from our room.

Our favorite picture-taking spot by the Montage

Our balcony

Octopus sculpture

We found some tide pools while walking on the beach. They weren't visible in the morning, but when we went in the afternoon when the tide had gone out, we could see them.

Texas Trip September 2020

 

In September, we spent a couple of weeks with Abby's family in Texas. For one of the weeks, she and Kevin took a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. This was supposed to be their big Europe trip, but due to COVID, they were unable to travel internationally. We really enjoyed the kids while they were gone. Charles got Lucas and I got Tessa, mostly. Lucas sort of attached himself to Charles right away, and it was really sweet. Tessa and I had fun doing puzzles, coloring, reading books, and playing outside. We took both of them on a walk each morning, and Tessa especially enjoyed looking at the Halloween decorations in peoples' yards. She could walk a whole mile by herself, so didn't ride in the stroller very much. We found a Belle costume at a yard sale one morning, so she wore it most of the rest of the time. She liked wearing it while watching Beauty and the Beast.

We took a picnic to a park one day and saw deer

Tessa loved picking flowers on our walks.

We took a picnic to the San Antonio Temple one day.

Tessa like chalk drawing.

Abby took us to the San Antonio River Walk

Walking at the park.

The Alamo

I got in the pool with Tessa one day.

Reno/Anderson Trip 8-2020

This cool horse statue was near where we stayed in downtown Reno

I failed to get any pictures of us with Jake and Jacob, but we took a few with Megan and Lexi. This is at Laura's house, where they both have rooms. They wanted to show us their cats too!

Here we are on the loading dock at the farm. When we got there, we discovered that the place had very recently resold to an old friend of Mom and Dad's. Bob Moore, who owns Moores Mill, and also sells grain internationally, decided that he would love to retire on the property. He wants to build a house up on the bluff by the bomb shelter, and he loves how green it is. We got to meet him, and he asked if we could provide him with any history of the farm and the Hopson family, so I enlisted Andy's help with that. He has already sent him a lot of information. 

The "end of the lane", where we spent countless hours waiting for the school bus!

Our childhood home is in disrepair! Or at least it's unwatered. I didn't like seeing it like this, but wanted to look!

Dad's office at the farm

This is the view from the top of the hill

The old hay barn

We had a really nice visit with my cousin, Becky, and her husband, Gary

The Carr fire, a couple of years ago, did quite a bit of damage in the Redding area. It's coming back now. There was a lot of smoke in the air due to other fires in California. It was even smoky in Reno, and most of the way up 395.

We went out to Brandy Creek, which was pretty deserted, most likely due to the smoke in the air.

We took our little inflatable boat out on the water and stayed for as long as we could bear the smoky air.