San Diego

We are back from a trip to the dreamy palm trees of San Diego.  Coming back from vacation always makes me contemplate the meaning of life.  Why am I here (and not in San Diego)?  Where did I come from (how did I not always live in San Diego)?  Where am I going (preferably back to San Diego)?

There is much to say about this vacation, which usually results in me saying almost nothing (see my last 3 vacation posts here, here, and here), but I'm attempting to be more descriptive this time!

In the space of 5 short days we did the following (good things):

• Visited Sea World, Legoland, the USS Midway, Balboa Park (and about 5 museums therein), and the San Diego Zoo
• Did sealings and baptisms at the San Diego temple
• Visited the Mormon Battalion site & a Catholic mission
• Risked our lives racing go karts
• Rode electric bikes around Coronado Island
• Kayaked and snorkeled in the ocean
• Surfed
• Rode around the harbor on a cruise
• Visited many beaches (La Jolla, Silverstrand, Coronado, and Point Loma)
• Celebrated our 4-Year anniversary
• Ate delicious Mexican food at Old Town
• Spent lots of time in the car with Grandma and Grandpa
• Prank called the family pretending to be President Obama (...you had to have been there)
• Watched Full House marathons every night

In the space of 5 short days, the following (bad things) also happened:

• Scott's wedding ring got lost at sea during a surfing wipe-out. Sniff. 
• Brooke got stung by a sting ray.
• I made the mistake of asking Rach to sunscreen my shoulder.
• Many suffered through blisters from the amount of running walking we were doing.
• It felt like we spent close to $5,000,000 in parking fees.
• We got stuck under a tree during a freak rain storm.
• We went to the wrong museum for an IMAX movie, but it turned out the rest of the family just slept through it anyway.
• A forest fire blocked our route home.

Bruening vacations are clearly the best.  We crammed so much into that week, but who needs R&R on a vacation?  

You know you had a good time when you took 500 photos. Here are some highlights:

Normally I stick with just photos of Scott and I on the blog, since if I tried to include everyone in this family, there would be NO END to the megabytes of this blog, but look at that face! He is the funnest.

Somehow Scott is really good at surfing...who knew?

Slumbertopia #6

This year Slumbertopia included a few new and exciting things!  

One of the only things in North Salt Lake is a chocolate factory, so it was high time we toured this facility (and ate all their samples, which didn't disappoint). The only downside was Kimball clenched the samples in his tiny fists until they started to melt all over.

Another downside was Mrs. Cavanaugh didn't pick any of us to run the factory in her place...

Next we spent a lot of time feeding Kimball's appetite for climbing stairs. 

Then we ate a lot of delicious foods and played Ticket to Ride and watched Get Smart.

In the morning, we opened our eyes and immediately ate more food, followed by the best episode of Even Stevens ever, Stevens Manor.  Thank the universe for Youtube.

We may have to have a semi-annual Slumbertopia this year because we missed our brothers this time.  Until next time, Slumbertopians!

Summer

I never thought my boss would have to call me to discuss strategies of how I can actually use up my million hours of accumulated PTO this year.  Haha.  That is a first world problem, if I ever heard of one.  Unfortunately for Scott and his financial-goals-ways, this means I now need to plan an awesome vacation, or two, ... or twelve. ;)

In other summer news, we visited the big city over the weekend to go to a concert.  The concert was weirdly interrupted by what looked like a traveling circus but was actually the gay pride parade.  (I'm not even trying to offend, there were literal hoops of fire and jugglers.  It was a valid conclusion.)

Back at the ranch, Scott and I learned we are quite skilled at growing spinach.  Last year was the year of the yellow squash and this year is the year of eating leaves.

This year is also the year of the watermelon frosty. This is summer in a glass right here, and we're already on our second watermelon.

It seems like some years with a normal work schedule I don't even realize summer is here (I still had my space heater on last week...) but this year we are living it up with lots of hiking and barbecuing and eating summer treats and trampolining.  Summer has never been so awesome.

Holbrook Canyon

Hahaha.  Everyone needs a photo like this right?

Ensign Peak