January 31-February 7
We were so lucky and excited that Trav's parents came to visit us in Visalia. We had a great time catching up, relaxing, and exploring somethings around the area.
Thursday, January 31-They arrived after a 12 hour car ride. We welcomed them to the best accommodations we could come up with to make them feel at home. A king size double high air bed and a BYU flag on the wall. We also watched the BYU basketball team win Pepperdine 63-61.
Friday, February 1-Trav and I both had to work, so Ray and Marian met up with Travis to go to lunch in Tulare and Ray hit up the Boot Barn and got himself a nice pair of new cowboy boots. That night we enjoyed eachother's company at Red Lobster. They all enjoyed the Ultimate Feast (Lobster tail, shrimp, and crab legs) and I had a Marsala Chicken plate.
Saturday, February 2- We got up and headed to the Sequoias. Trav and I didn't know that Marian can get pretty car sick and the drive up to the park has a lot more back and forths than we realized. By the time we made it to the entrance of the park Marian was feeling pretty sick. We let Ray and Marian stay and rest at the Visitor's Center while me and Trav headed back down to Three Rivers to pick up some dramamine. Marian took some of that and we headed very slowly up to the General Sherman. Even though it took us quite a while to get there as we were going 10-15 mph, it was so nice to enjoy the views and nature.
The last time we went up to the Sequoia National Park it was in the Fall. It was really cool to see the moss growing on so many trees. I was once again in awe of how large these trees are. The pictures do NO justice. I guess you'll just have to come and visit us to really see their magnificance :) We took a little break before we headed down and ate our Subway sandwiches. Marian opted not to eat. Trav drove us out of the canyon and me, Marian, and Ray zonked out and caught some zzzz's.
-We had tacos for dinner which included the delicious homemade salsa that Marian brought for us.
Sunday, Feburary 3- We attended Stake Conference together where we got a new stake presidency. Brother Howard from our ward is the new Stake President and he is going to be great!!
-Watched the Superbowl-
Baltimore Ravens beat the SF 49s
-Veggie tray, little smokies, shrimp
Monday, February 4-I had to work, so Trav and his Dad went and golfed 18 holes at the Dinuba golf course. It was a beautiful day with a high of about 65 degrees. Marian and I were able to steal the TV to watch the Bachelor. Ray and Trav watched it with us and we had a good time laughing at the drama and trying to figure out who he was going to let go. We had my Grandma Tidwell's strogonoff at Trav's request.
After the Bachelor we played Ticket to Ride.
Tuesday, Feburary 5- Trav and I both had the day off. Marian has been focusing on family history work. She wants to finish Travis' Missionary Scrapbook and get Mark's done before he gets home. She was a mission to get all of Travis' mission pictures printed so Trav and I could go through them over the next little while and get them into his missionary book that she had started. We were so glad to find out that Walgreens can put old negative onto a disk. That way you can load them on your computer or get them printed. We got all of his picture printed and it was so fun to look through them because most of them I have never seen.
Such a cute and skinny missionary :) That is what you get for a 100% walking mission in Brazil.
Next we headed to the International Agricultural Center in Tulare, CA. This is where they hold the World Ag Expo. It is a pretty big deal actually.
Ray has a farm in Huntington, Utah. He has about 100 head of cattle and he grows alfalfa in the summer to make hay for the cows feed in the winter. He was really excited to go to the Ag Museum. He loved looking at all the old tractors and farm equipment. We had our own personal tour guide in Ray. He was telling us all about the equipment and how it worked. We had a great time and learned alot about farm equipment, how is a dairy is ran, prune farms, and such.
We hit up Bravo Farms next. I loved to watch and hear Ray all the way there. He just could not believe how much farmland there was. He was just in awe. Him and Marian just kept commenting how beautiful it was. I think Ray was in Heaven.
We walked around and explored the antiques of Bravo Farms. Of course, Travis had to pick up some local made jalapeno white cheddar cheese.
Marian and Trav tested their aim at a little shooting range. Thehy made the old car look like a car off of the Disney show Cars. The animations for if you shot the different targets were so creative and cute.
I took a walk up some of the tree house. Now this is what you call a tree house. It literally wraps around the this large tree and is several stories high. For dinner we enjoyed the Boston House of Pizza, which was all our first time trying and of course we came home and watched the extra 2 hour special of the Bachelor.
Wednesday, February 6-We decided it would be nice to do a endowment session at the Fresno Temple together. We headed up to Fresno to make the 5:00 o'clock session. The temple is always beautiful and peaceful. I enjoyed spending that spiritual time with Ray and Marian. They have made a goal to go to the temple at least once a month. They are such great examples to us!!
For dinner, since we were already up in Fresno, we hit up one of mine and Trav's favorite spots.....The Old Spaghetti Factory. We love the bread, the milk, the presto ranch salad, the spaghetti (meat sauce, mizithira cheese, clam sauce) and the spumoni ice cream. We enjoyed the great food and great company!! We were able to sneak in a game a Settler's and Ray won.
Thursday, February 7- Our company was originally planning to leave Friday morning, but because of a snow storm that was set to hit Utah, they had to leave Thursday afternoon. Colin, our nephew, was getting baptized on Saturday and Ray and Marian couldn't miss it as Colin wanted Ray to baptize and confirm him. Our time was cut a little short, but they met me for lunch at work. We headed to Pete's Grill in Exter, CA. They dropped me off and hit up a local fruit stand to pick up some in season navel oranges to take home. They also checked out an antique shop in Exeter before headed back to Visalia.
We definitely enjoyed having them spend time here with us in our town. It was fun to show them around and to have some family for company. We were sad to see them leave. Can't wait to visit Utah sometime soonish......I can never get enough of our families! Families really are the best and I feel so blessed to have some wonderful in-laws.
