California

Not sure how to capture everything from this state...it's one I've visited a number of times.

The first time I visited I was about 4 years old. I don't remember the trip, but I remember the stories of watching goldfish swim outside a strip mall, and that we had to buy new clothes because it was so much hotter than expected. Pictures reveal they were super crazy shorts...

I remember going back when I was 11 with my family - we tagged along on my Dad's business trip getting about a week at Disneyland and another week playing in the pool, drinking Shirley Temple's, and ordering pancakes and eggs cooked however we wanted from our free hot breakfast. Heaven!

Okay, maybe it wasn't heaven the night my 5 month old brother screamed for hours after my mom accidentally had some chocolate and then nursed him. But the Fantasmic fireworks show and the free passes back to the front of ride lines (yay for baby passes!) and riding Space Mountain back to back to back late at night.... Totally awesome.

In high school I went back to Disneyland with my Debate team. I remember it as kind of a traumatic trip. One night I called home and was told that my mom was diagnosed with diabetes - for some reason it hit me really hard and made me sad for much of the trip. I remember a dear friend doing his best to cheer me up (and how mad he was when I went into the pool with my arms wrapped around his leather football - never mind that he was the one that picked me up and threw me in!).

I also remember feeling very responsible for my fellow teammates - I remember having to talk the Disneyland employees into letting one girl back into the park after she washed her ticket in her pants pocket and all we had was a handful of pocket lint paper to show for it. I also remember going into the ocean and being in awe of the grandeur of nature and this world we live in. And getting the nickname Tinkerbell - why? Not sure, and I tried not to think about it too much...

And how can I not mention the awesome road trip Janna and I took to be at our roommate Claire's wedding? And driving a manual car for the first time in ages - on a steep hill... San Diego was a great reprieve from the snowy December in Utah. And I'll never forget seeing the baby sleeping in a car seat RIGHT next to the drum set. Say what?! How do babies do it? And the road trip was awesome - including the midnight stop for Greek food, but that is technically a Nevada story :)

Or the time I went to Los Gatos to nanny for 10 days and the solo drive down the coast to Santa Monica? Gorgeous! It made me want to go to a real boardwalk (hello Coney Island!)

And how that trip allowed me to meet up with friends I knew in Boston. I even got to go to their Easter concert in a beautiful chapel on Stanford's campus. Plus my family drove out one of the weekends allowing me to see my brother Craig for the first time in over two years. There were other firsts on that trip too - we drove up to San Francisco and I got to see the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. We also went to the Oakland Temple and I was able to perform proxy sealings for the the first time.

Then there was the road trip my brothers and I took in 2012 - picture a mini-van, me, two brothers, my (pregnant) sister-in-law, my brother and sister-in-laws friends Toky and Nana and their 5 month old baby. We explored quite a bit of California on that trip - from San Francisco through Bakersfield and LA (loved the stop at Diddy Riese where they sell ice cream cookie sandwiches - pick your cookies and your ice cream - wa-la!) 

The observatory, where we went for a "good" view of the Hollywood sign (it's far, far away - pictures and movies lie to you!) and got to see beautiful pictures of stars and a Tesla coil - it was so cool! We also saw the very end of Route 66 and spent a little time at the beach there. And there was Pyramid Lake, which we didn't stop at, but we admired from afar and schemed about ways to plan a reunion road trip in the future - true sign of having a good time, I guess, planning the return before you've even left.

I guess the point is, California and I have had many meaningful experiences. And each time I leave, I hope to have another one soon!