We made it

For everyone who gets confused when I talk about being worried about driving through the snow to get to California:



Have you ever heard of the Donner Party? Well this is Donner's Pass.Can you imagine being in a covered wagon trying to go through this?

We were very thankful for the snowplows and 4 wheel drive.

The highway had been shut down the day before and we were prepared to spend the night in Reno, however right when we were getting close, they opened the freeway for cars with 4WD and chains, so we went for it and were grateful to make it safely there.

In the middle of the winter I get this anxious feeling that I need to go to California, kind of like cabin fever. This year I waited until the very end of March/ first week of April to go and we still hit the cold weather. Now if we went to Southern California, we would have had nice weather. However, I am from Northern California, about 6-7 hrs north of Disneyland. So the weather isn't always sunny and perfect. Once you get down to the foothills of Cameron Park, the snow is gone and replaced by rain, so it isn't too bad.


We had fun visiting Maga and Paki.

I think this trips themes were robberies and fevers:
Coleson got to plan some new and some old favorite activities this time. He read this book about the gold rush and learned it was in California. He asked if we could go next time we visited. Coloma is about 40min from my parents home, a fact I had failed to mention to him sometime ... "how come you never told me?" More history for you-Sutter's mill is in Coloma, where James Marshall discovered gold and the gold rush began. When you grow up with neat history around you, you kind of forget how cool it is until you show your kids. We went to the museum and walked around the sites. We panned for gold and Coleson came down with "gold fever"



We did the toursity pan for gold in a trough(the river was really high with all the rain, not a good time to pan for gold on your own) and you pay for 45min. I had to drag him away before his full 45 min, to get Ammon his meds and food on time. Coleson still feels jipped. I told him I will take him real panning next time we visit. Coleson in a serious voice "Mom I think when I get older I am going to move to California" Me-That sounds good. "Well since I am so good at finding gold, I think I could just do that for my job and make enough money" :)Coleson is always planning his future job. He did walk away with a few flakes in a vile. He had to ask all about the security that goes into keeping the gold nuggets safe in the museum and what happens when people steal gold. One of the tour "actors" said they used to just "shoot ya" if you stole someone's gold. I don't think Coleson was expecting that.




We returned to Johns Incredible Pizza factory, where we get "ticket fever" Brynn caught on too this time.


My parents took Coleson and Brynn to the Train museum. Coleson came back telling me all about how the trains were robbed and what ammunition they carried on it.


We all loved the new trampoline mat.


The last place Coleson got to go was the Lego store. He patiently waited the whole two weeks to go. You can buy Legos anywhere now, but it's not the same experience as the Lego store. Maga took him and guess what he came back with.. a set with a robber stealing from an ATM. I just laughed. The whole two weeks worth of activities and questions all came together. Even at the Nature center "so does anyone ever steal stuff from here?" Paki even showed us this great show called Bait Car to top it all off.

Going back to fevers.. well Ammon came down with a fever while we were there and we had to spend a Saturday in the ER to find out he had a double ear infection and pneumonia. (I have a new appreciation for Primary Childrens and the other hospitals in Utah) We all took our turns being sick, but Ammon and I took the worst of it. The anti-biotics kicked it pretty fast, so by the last day or two we were doing better. Luckily, my parents helped me and Brian flew out for the weekend to help too.

A cool side note. If you heard Elder Ballard's talk in conference(I was in the ER so I had to listen to it at: www.lds.org..menu..general conference..view now..sat.afternoon), he started out with a story from the gold rush, something that Coleson could now understand and was able to listen to a little better. We actually got one of those rocks with the gold veins in it. Isn't the gospel wonderful?