plans changed

So every memorial and labor days my aunt and uncle have the tradition to go camp up at pt. arena north of San Francisco. Jason and I have been planning on going for months. I have been itching to go camping, which I've never really been before. We have been looking forward to spending time outdoors and at the beach and just relaxing with family...We were set to leave at 1pm last Thursday and at 1:06pm my aunt calls to tell me that she, my cousins Rachel and Lizzy have the stomach flu. :( I was so bummed, we were literally packing the car! Plus, we had bought a tent that very week. We've never had a tent and we thought that it was finally time to get one! So needless to say, we didn't end up going camping, but we did end up having a wonderful weekend at home! It started Thursday night when we set up our brand new tent up in the backyard. We had dutch oven peach cobbler with our neighbors and then spent the night in the tent! Needless to say, sleep wasn't all that wonderful, but Tessa loved it!
On Friday we went to Henry Cowell State Park in Felton...we went walking through the redwoods and enjoyed the fresh air. We totally took our time and savored spending time together. It was really relaxing. I called my good friend Amy who lived near by the park and we stopped by to say hi and have some hot chocolate. Our intention was to go to the beach for the morning, but it was freezing! Cold enough for hot chocolate! After Amy's we still decided to head to my favorite beach in Santa Cruz. We stayed all of 30mins. because it was so stinkin' cold. We stayed for even that long so that Tessa could play in the sand. She loves the beach. I can't wait to go back with her when it's nice and warm! We were home by 2:30pm and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon lounging. We had friends over for homemade pizza that night!
Saturday we decided to go on a walk at Sycamore Grove in Livermore, but we detoured on the way to Alden Lane Nursery. What an incredible place! I had no idea. It was a beautiful nursery with a gift shop and endless plant possibilities. Jay and I spent an hour walking around dreaming about our dream backyard. Tessa fell in love with a turtle that was in the one of the display waterfall ponds, which we had to go back several times to! After walking around we drove around until we came upon a cute little (clean, I might add) park. We ate our lunch, which Jay had packed earlier and Tessa played on the play structure. It was so relaxing and fun to be spontaneous! We had dinner again with the same friends, this time at their house. It was great spending time with friends!

Okay, so I've had mixed feelings about Sunday in the last few months. My calling at church is in nursery and sometimes it's hard going from taking care of a screaming Tessa before church to taking care of a bunch of kids for 2 hours during church. But, really I have discovered yet again, that it's only my attitude that makes the difference. So I've really tried hard to be happy and love my calling and enjoy the time that we do have at church to lift my spirits and meet with wonderful people. Church has been much better since I've had that change of heart. And we got to have dinner with the Willey's, an extremely sweet family in our ward Sunday evening. It was so fun to get to know them better!

Monday, we went to a Memorial Day breakfast in Pleasanton and then I got to scrapbook at Kerry's for a few hours! It was a great weekend and I truly feel blessed to be married to my bestest friend. He is wonderful and I enjoyed every moment that we spent together! I'm grateful for the change of plans and the chain of events that occured over such a beautiful weekend!