It's been ANOTHER month!! :-) (Ridiculously long update below!)

It's so crazy that despite my best intentions...it's taken an entire month to get myself around to getting it done! :-) March was a fun month for our family. We all took a "spring break vacation"..and spent the week doing all sorts of fun things in CA. We left home on a Thursday and drove to Stonyford, which is in the Mendocino National Forest and has some pretty incredible dirtbiking. We were joined by our friend the Harmons and met up with the Dillon family and Brent's good friend Heath Hardcastle while we were there. Everytone spent the first weekend camping and riding, but we (Brent, Maddy, McKenzie and Me) drove south to Fresno...where we helped my grandmother (my father's mother)celebrate her 88th birthday! I was very very happy to be able to be at her birthday lunch. Relatives drove in from all over CA and one aunt flew from Peru! I miss my grandma dearly, and it was so wonderful to be able to see her and show her Maddy again.
Well...our trip continued...and we headed up to Oakhurst, CA..which is a quaint town just outside of Yosemite National Park. We stayed on Russ and Avis Martin's (long-time family friends of my parents) ranch which is a beautiful 100acre property. Two of the property's borders are Yosemite National forest borders...so the dirtbiking provided for some great scenery and challenging riding. Their property also has a couple of guesthouses, so my parents and my brother and Crystal came up and spent the night with us in one of the houses, and it was really nice to be able to enjoy hot showers and sleep in comfortable beds. We are so thankful to the Martins for opening up their place to all of us for the week. :-)We were also happy that Great-Grandma Edwards (Karen's Mother) was able to come up from Loma Linda for a visit with her brother and sister-in-law Barney and Dee. They enjoyed spending quality time with our little Maddy and we enjoyed their yummy oranges that they brought from their home in Lindsey, CA. On Tuesday, we all headed into Yosemite National Park. Some of our group rode their roadbikes (aka bicycles), while some rode their motorcycles and the rest of us took cars into the park where we all met met up at the Wawona Hotel for breakfast. After eating, we toured the park, hiked and enjoyed spectacular views of all the various waterfalls and rock formations.
Anyway...this entry is getting WWAAAYYY too long...so I'll sum it up by saying that before the trip came to a close we also enjoyed some fishing at one of my family's favorite spots. Brent represented our family while Maddy and I enjoyed some shopping with my mom. :-) We all ate the most delicious dinner at my house (fresh fish!!) for our last night in CA. The Chans came over and although we were able to see them multiple times during our vacation, it never quite seems like enough. Maddy definitely enjoyed seeing her Uncle Randy and "Grandma and Grandpa" Chan very much.

In a nutshell..there are various pictures from all the above mentioned events. Also included in the pictures are: Rori Fletcher at her house in Sutherlin, OR (we visited her twice during her 4-wk rotation at her father's medical practice) and random pictures of Maddy in the motorhome, wearing pink camoflauge overalls from her Uncle Christopher and also wearing cute sunglasses back at home after our big trip.

I apologize if this is tooooo long! Hope all of you are doing great! I won't even attempt to deny that it'll probably be another month before I take the time to do this again...but maybe I'll get more motivated....we'll see. :-) We miss you all...

P.S.-Maddy is such a chatterbox these days....I remember hearing how fun this stage is...and I couldn't agree more! :-)