Cali-forn-i-a

Laura went through the Temple for her first time and wanted to do it at the Oakland Temple. We were so excited for her Temple choice because Matt and I have attempted to go to this Temple a few times but circumstances never allowed it until now. That meant we finally got to check this Temple off our list and we got to go to California as an added bonus to visit family.
The boys amazed us by being so good both there and back. Never cried once, literally!
We left pretty late in the afternoon on Thursday so that made us travel all night but we weren't that tired. First thing we did was visit Grandpa Thompson. We did rest a little since we got there pretty early but he fed us and we were on our way for some fun. It was Julie's first time visiting so we took her to the Hilmar Cheese Company near Grandpa's house in Turlock. Unfortunately the top portion of the factory was closed due to a private party so we didn't get to see people making the cheese, but it was still fun sampling the different cheese's they had and walking around the place.



After that and having lunch with Grandpa we went our separate ways. Our family went to our Aunt and Uncles new house that we were staying at. They gave us the grand tour. I love their house! We had dinner with them and all of us together went to Josh's (cousin) Sport Banquet and had our second dinner. The banquet happened to be next door to Best Buy. After we were done we all went inside to show them the Kinect and to buy the new Michael Jackson Kinect game. It's fun splurging!
The next day was Laura's special day. It was raining pretty hard. We had an umbrella but I still managed to look soaked everywhere but my head. By the end of the session it stopped so we were able to take pictures.

Another great reason having Laura choose the Oakland Temple is that more family got to be there. I love that I married into such an amazing family and it made the sting of Mom not being there light. It still hurt but it made it easier. We had lunch together and went our separate ways again but got back together later that evening to go visit Grandma Haymore and have dinner.
Sunday we went to church and later went to our Aunt and cousins house the rest of the day/evening. We got to relax, play games and have yummy food.
Monday we planned to drive home early but we were stuck because there was a snow storm through Donner. We couldn't believe that we were snowed in and it was June but it allowed us to tour the Jelly Belly Factory :). We wanted to do it after the Temple Saturday but it closed early. If any of you are in the Fairfield area you need to take two hours or so from your time and go. It's free and it's an amazing tour for being free. No cameras were allowed but I quickly got a picture of this Jelly Belly sculpture of a duck. This is for you Julie!

I also got these of the boys and Matt with their hats before going in. Evan was excited!



During the tour we got to sample jelly belly's and some without the outer shell. The outer shell doesn't make a difference in taste but since they were so fresh they had more flavor.
Fun facts about Jelly Belly:
-It takes 24 days to make 1 jelly bean but it takes a second to eat.
-Blueberry flavor was created for Ronald Reagan's presidential inauguration in 1981 to make red, white and blue.
-During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Jelly Belly beans were served in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. A holder was designed for the plane so the jar of Jelly Belly beans would not spill during turbulence.
-The most popular Jelly Belly are Very Cherry, Butter Popcorn and Black Liquorish.
After the tour they gave us a bag each of Jelly Beans and we got to go to their taster table to sample as many Jelly Belly's as we wanted. That's a lot of free candy for a free tour!
We made it out just in time for the pass to open so it was worth it.