Right Back Where I Started From

This past week - California!! Back to my hometown and the scene of all our pre-marriage adventures. Here are some pics!

California friends: We had to make a regretful decision not to see any friends while we were in town, as our time was so limited. We thought of you all! And missed you!

Lunch at the rest stop on the way out: 

When you see a sign like this.....

.... it definitely calls for a snake hunt! No snakes were found, unfortunately! 

Napping in the car (this child cannot nap without a blanket pulled over his head!):

Napping? I think not, at least for this one! He was wired.

Stopping at Hadley's for a date shake (I won't say whether or not we stopped again on the way out for another). If you have not had a Hadley's date shake, you have not truly lived.

My childhood home (not pictured) backs onto a beautiful golf course.... or at least, it used to - until the golf course owners packed up shop and abandoned the place. Let's just say it's gone au naturel since then.

Our son's first time at the beach!!

This....

Soon turned into this....

He came home with a nice sunburn and a great enthusiasm for the beach.

Me, trying to take care of two babies (one of whom refused to nap) while DH and DS wade in the water.

Visiting my university, which had changed so much that I almost didn't recognize it. New buildings everywhere! We wanted to make a day of it and go over the whole campus, but it was more like 20-30 minutes of dragging a complaining 6yo around before giving up and going home.

By my old stomping grounds, the (extremely ugly) new music building:

Since we couldn't visit my choir professor, we took pictures in front of her office!

Visiting the church where we got married - an extremely rushed trip, as we now had three impatient children on our hands. There were still Sunday church-goers around, and I think we must have totally made their day by our mysterious behavior: We raced into the parking lot, jumped out of the car, ran over to the front of the church, photographed ourselves, and then ran back to the car and drove off.

At DH's favorite fast-food place in my hometown, where we ended up eating three times over two days. 

Nursing at Burger Basket! 

At some local splashpads:

 

We had an eerie experience at these splashpads. While we were standing watching the splashpads, we saw a panicked mother running past us toward the fountain (pictured above), and, turning around, we found that her small child had gotten into the fountain and was on his way to drowning within a stone's throw of us - we couldn't hear him because the noise of the fountain was thunderous. It was an extremely frightening experience - thanking God the little fellow was okay. 

Some random pics: 

At my childhood home, with the ex-golf course in the background. 

We had a great time, and thoroughly enjoyed our trip. This was the first time we have been to California in over five years (since our eldest was an only child and a baby), so a lot has changed. We are not likely to be going back soon, so we are thankful we have a lot of lovely memories from this trip!!