California, Here We Come (Part 4)

(Sorry for the delay in finishing the recounting of our recent trip to California. We've been dodging tornados around here! It was hard being without power 12 hours and without internet access 18 hours, but I still feel blessed that we and our loved ones and our home are all safe. One house on my parents' street was split in half by a tree. :-( )

Anyway, back to sunny memories...

Thursday of last week was our built-in rest day. We didn't have any scheduled plans except a possible get-together with our friends Glenn and Sara. Glenn was John's roommate in college and post-college, as well as one of his groomsmen. Sara is due with their first baby on June 8. Thus, we didn't know if we'd be visiting them at their home in Carlsbad, or at the hospital! This was especially true when Sara started experiencing mild contractions the same day we were to visit them.

Thankfully for us, they were just warm-up contractions, and we got to have a nice afternoon with Sara, including some beach time, as well as a delicious sushi dinner with Sara and Glenn. We specifically requested this sushi restaurant since we'd been there before and LOVED it -- and we recommend it to anyone visiting Carlsbad! Sushi Taisho is YUMMY!!!



We had a wonderful time with Sara and Glenn, and Katie had a wonderful set of naps that day for the first time on the trip. Life definitely started looking up at that point. And to cap the whole night off, my brother Stephen's fiancee Lindsey arrived that night, and we absolutely loved getting to know her. Here's a photo of her meeting my parents for the first time the next morning:

Click here to read more about our trip. And tales from the rest of our adventure are to come...