Willy Wonka

Last Tuesday I flew to Utah to be there for Clark & Jessica's law school graduation and to help Cali the few days before her show opened.

She was doing Willy Wonka Jr.  I arrived in time to take pictures at her dress rehearsal and help her run last minute errands.

It is so fun to see her in action with her students.  It is very evident that they totally adore her!  I was affectionately called Mama Wilkes.  When Jim arrived later in the week the students called him Papa Wilkes

 Cali is not only the director but also the head choreographer,  music director, set designer and costumer designer!  The set turned out amazing! She was lucky to be able to borrow a lot of the costumes from Westview.

 The cast did an awesome job!!

 Charlie was absolutely darling!!

 Totally love the oompa loompas!

Such a fun show and so glad we got to be there for it.  The whole family was able to see the show on Saturday night.

Tip Toe Through the Tulips

For our weekend adventure this week we decided to head out to the tulip fields in Woodburn.  We decided to go early Saturday morning and are we ever glad we did!  We got there at 8:30 a.m. and parked in the front row.  Friends that we know that went later in the day spent over 5 hours just driving, traffic was so bad.  We only spent 1 1/2 hours driving round trip.

This weekend was the perfect weekend to go.  The tulips were at their peak.  When we got there the only other people there were the photographers with their tripods and big expensive lens!  It was still overcast so the lighting was perfect and there weren't lots of people to get in your photos.

Jim and I enjoyed walking through the fields and of course I took photos!

Last  year we were in Monet's Garden this time of year admiring the tulips so Jim wore his hat we got in Paris.  It was a bit chilly still and Jim was wishing he had worn long pants - that's why he looks a bit cold!

I made Jim get down on the ground to take this photo - no easy task for him!

 This is what I hope heaven looks like - fields and fields of tulips.  Who needs streets lined with Gold when you can have tulips!

The sun started to peek out just as we were leaving.

Since the outlet malls were just across the freeway from the exit we got off we had to make a quick stop!
It was a fun morning.
That evening we tried a new restaurant in the Pearl District with our friends the Jensens called Tilt.  It has a fun industrial feel and look to it and the food was great!

Marsha and I had the fried chicken burger with swiss cheese, bacon and jalapeno slaw on it!  And a side of onion rings.

Jim is still going gluten free so he had his burger naked.

Larry had fried Prime Rib!

 Oh and a piece of lemon sour cream pie too!

We wandered around The Pearl for a bit and made a visit to West Elm and Anthropologie and then stopped by Salt & Straw on NW 23rd because lemon sour cream pie wasn't enough for dessert!

San Diego Day Three

The weather warmed up a bit (70 degrees) for our third day and I even got a little sunburned.

We started the beautiful day with a trip to the Farmer's Market in Little Italy.  We had street tacos for breakfast!  We hung around there when Logan was waiting for his car to be finished which was in the repair shop.  We also found some amazing cookies at the market.   Logan picked us up at the market and we headed out for a hike at Torrey Pines.  A beautiful reserve area near the Torrey Pines golf course.   It was a popular place that Saturday with lots of hikers.

Tessa and I tried not to freak out too much when we saw this sign.  I heard someone say that since it had been a mild winter and not much rain that the rattlesnakes were out early this year - nice!

From there we drove over to Torrey Pines golf course and went into the pro shop so Jim could buy a hat for his collection.

From there we headed up the coast a bit to check out this donut shop a friend had recommended.  The Buttermilk bars were warm and amazing!!

We had to get in one more California sunset so we decided to watch this one from La Jolla Cove.

So pretty!  I could totally get use to this!

For dinner we headed to a Mexican restaurant that I can't remember the name of.  We certainly got our fill of Mexican food and especially tacos but I'm not complaining.  We loved it!  We even converted Tessa to fish tacos when she thought she didn't like fish.

Sunday was our last day in San Diego.  We spent the day at Logan's house watching conference, eating cinnamon rolls I made, playing a game, taking a walk down to the beach and eating more fish tacos before heading to the airport.

And of course one last walk on the beach.

Sad to leave this guy behind!  We had a great visit and can't wait to go back.