December 30 (Tues.) - We had fun going to the Fresno zoo with Jared, Danielle, Janessa and their families. Luckily we all had zoo passes which made for a free/fun activity. The weather was awesome - how nice to be where the snow isn't and enjoy being outdoors in December. One particular animal that we saw really left an impression. I have never seen anything quite like it and had to take pictures.
Aren't these just weird - Looks like a cross between an anteater and a horse.
Bradley and Tavis enjoying a stroller ride.
All of the cousins in front of the giraffes.
Bradley, Camille, Lindsay, Carter, Parker & Johnathan at the petting zoo.
Hailey, Ashley, Parker, Jared, Carter & Camille enjoying in the play area at the zoo. 
Carter & Parker loved the rock climbing wall and were pretty impressive - they could climb up to the top with little problems. 
Bradley being cute as always.
Jared & I playing Guitar Hero. Jared was really good and beat me every time.
Tanner is holding cute Jade & Bradley.
Tanner is holding cute Jade & Bradley.December 31 (Wed.) - We decided that as a family we wanted to see if there were any dairies/factories that we could tour for free. We ended up getting to see 2 separate dairies. The first place was located about 45 miles away by Fresno. It was called Organic Pastures. They have raw milk which isn't pasteurized. During the tour we were able to actually go out into the fields where the cows were and be right next to them. The kids definitely thought this was cool! The cows were very nice - most of them kept their distance. There was one in particular that loved being by us and was letting the kids pet her - her name was "Holly". She even followed us about 300 yards as we were walking out of the field to leave. This dairy smelled awesome - no awful smells like most dairies. The cows are not herded into a milking area, but actually have a portable milking station where they come around to the cows and milk them in their own environment. After the tour we were able to try some of their whole and chocolate milk. The chocolate milk actually has real chunks of chocolate in them. We ended up buying some of their milk and the kids were in heaven - Bradley especially couldn't get enough of it.
Bradley in front of the dairy.
All of us inside of their offices - Tricia, Tanner, Carter, Parker, Bradley, Camille, Johnathan & Byron.
Carter & Parker enjoying the cows.
Holly - the very nice cow - loved following Parker & I as we were leaving. We had to turn around and take this picture.
Bradley & Byron
Parker enjoying his chocolate milk - YUM!On the way back we came upon a small orange stand on the side of the road. We ended up buying 2 large bags of oranges. Can I just say WOW - What amazing oranges! They were so good and fresh. I wish we had bought 4 more bags to bring home with us.
We enjoyed playing games in the evening to break in the new year. We played spoons, Wii, and pictionary with the adults. We enjoyed relaxing and spending time together. We definitely had a house full - about 26 people, but fun times! The floors were wall to wall children - my kids were in complete heaven being able to see their cousins.
The adults playing above and the kids playing below.
Johnathan, Michael, Tanner, Elizabeth, Camille & Rebekah enjoying playing games together.
Mom using her expert skills to draw for our pictionary game.January 1 (Thurs.) - Mom, Dad & Michael Jamison came with us to Hanford to watch "The Tale of Desperaux." We had the whole theater to ourselves (never had that happen before.) I was worried about Bradley not behaving, so the empty theater was nice to let him wander. Luckily he ended up falling asleep during it, which added to an enjoyable experience. Very cute show - the kids were quiet the whole time:).
I have never been able to take a picture in a theater before, but enjoyed taking advantage of the moment.
That evening the adults that were at my parent's house all went out to eat dinner together. The older kids were so nice to babysit their younger cousins and siblings. We had so much fun being able to be away from the children for a couple of hours and have really adult conversations without interruptions.
I have never been able to take a picture in a theater before, but enjoyed taking advantage of the moment.That evening the adults that were at my parent's house all went out to eat dinner together. The older kids were so nice to babysit their younger cousins and siblings. We had so much fun being able to be away from the children for a couple of hours and have really adult conversations without interruptions.
Mitchell, Jared, Danielle, me & Byron eating dinner.
Hethaer, Dallin, Allyson, Dad, Mom & Janessa January 2 (Fri.) - We went and had a tour of another dairy at 10:00 a.m. near Corcoran. This dairy has around 50,000 cows and milks each of them 3 times every day. It was amazing to see the area where the cows are herded in and milked. The cows knew exactly what to do as they backed up into the milking area ready to get the machines put on them. My kids really loved this part. The dairy was just four years old and so clean. I have driven past so many dairies in my life that have the grossest smell and somewhere I would never want to set foot - so this was a happy realization. We were also able to go see where all of the pregnant cows were at. One of the cows had just had a baby a few minutes before we arrived and we were able to see this small calf take its wobbly first steps. There was also a cow that was in the process of giving birth not far from where we were at. We could see part of the calf coming out, but were unable to see the birthing process since we had to leave before this happened (probably a good thing:). My kids all enjoyed this experience and hopefully won't soon forget it.
Behind us are the cows that are going to be giving birth soon. The kids were all so fascinated.
Tanner, Johnathan, Camille, Parker & Carter in front of the cows getting milked. 
The kids LOVED going over to the church building and playing games. Jared & Byron were nice enough to play with them endless hours.
My brother, Adam, was supposed to return from his mission from Portugal at 9:40 p.m., but due to some weather issues he was stuck in Salt Lake City of all places for 24 hours. Luckily we found out about his change of plans before we headed to the Fresno airport. Him and his companion were put up into a hotel for the night and were able to enjoy Temple Square the following day.
January 3 (Sat.) - The long awaited day had arrived to finally see Adam. After looking at his flight online we realized that he wasn't going to be leaving at the departure time from Salt Lake City. The plane that was coming to SLC from another city was getting maintenance, so his flight was delayed again to come in at 12:05 a.m. Crazy to keep kids up this late, but we all headed to the airport around 11:00 p.m. The fog was really bad, but we made it there with time to spare. The kids had made some cool "welcome home signs" for their uncle and were happily holding them as he walked towards us.
Tanner
Camille
Johnathan
Carter
Parker
Janessa, Lindsay & Ashley 
Adam, Bradley & I - Bradley was fast asleep while at the airport.
Adam talking with Tanner, Parker & Carter
Adam and his companion, Elder Nelson. They both are from the same stake, went into the MTC the same day and then came home together.
January 4 (Sun.) - We got up early to pack up our van, clean up our living quarters and get ready for church. Church started at 10:00 a.m. (such a great time). We took some family pictures before it started. It is always weird to go back to the Corcoran Branch, especially since so many of those that I grew up with have since moved away. There were very few I recognized. Adam did a great job at bearing his testimony about his mission. He has grown up so much while he has been away. I love him and am grateful for his wonderful example to my children. He closed his remarks by bearing his testimony in Portuguese. After he spoke, all of the children sang both verses of "Called to Serve." They sounded great!
The whole crew before church started.After the kids sang we had to hurry to drive back to Utah. The kid's start school the next day and we had to get back for that. We were sad that we wouldn't be seeing Adam for very long, but are glad that he came up to BYU-Idaho the following day. We plan on going up and visiting him. We also hope that he plans to come down for different holidays/General Conference so we can see him. We love it when family lives close by:).
We had such a wonderful vacation, but after being gone for 12 days we were ready to be home. The weather was great allowing us to make wonderful time. We are glad to be home other than the fun snow we came back to - the weather in California made me anxious for spring to come.
5 comments:
How fun! It looks like it was a delightful time.
I have to mention that we've been to the Fresno Zoo, too! Twice, in fact. :) The petting zoo area was a definite hit.
How nice you could be there when your brother got home.
And now I really want some chocolate milk. :)
Okay, it stinks that we have to go between families because we miss all of the fun when we are gone!!! Wish I was there to play all of the fun games. Oh well.
I love the video of Adam's homecoming that you have. What fun tours, you guys truly know how to take advantage of a vacation!!!
We enjoyed reading and seeing pictures of your Christmas Holiays in California. We would have loved going to the dairies with you. I esp. would have liked going to the organic dairy.
Adam looks like he had a good mission and has grown up a lot. That's great that your whole family was there, Tricia.
What a fun vacation! We were in Fresno the same time. It would have been fun to run into you somewhere. My kids loved the weather and played outside as much as they could.
Thanks so much for coming and Thanks Byron for videoing Adam's arrival. It was great to watch it again. It was such a long wait and so many delays, I think I was numb and exhausted by the time he really arrived. It was great to see what really happened.
Your family really packed the week with great things to do.
I hope that they will have great memories of their stay. It seemed like that many days just flew past in a hurry.
You have given me a renewed appreciation of the Fresno Zoo. Where is the climbing wall?
I had a great time and I feel that we were able to relax, visit and have good old fashion fun.
I'm so glad that so many of you took a lot of pictures so we could enjoy all of what everyone did during that time. It was awesome!
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