A Beautiful Fall Day

A Beautiful Fall Day

Monday, April 7, 2008

Vacations are a WONDERFUL thing!!!

Scott quite frequently has CLE's (continuing legal education). These range in places from Salt Lake City, Ut. to Hawaii. This one in particular was in Dana Point, Ca. Sometimes he goes alone and other times if he will be gone long than I get to go with. Generally he will go with a couple of fellow lawyers and so with the longer ones the wives all go. It is fun this way because while the men are in class then the women will play! This CLE was an amazing resort in Dana Point. Its called the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort. Talk about incredibly posh and it was fun to stay there but I personally would not pay the money to stay there on vacation. Don't get me wrong it was wonderful being called Mrs. Petersen all the time and not being able to do much of anything without an employee trying to help. The pool was gorgeous as well as the view. However since I am more of a go go go person I like to do things for myself (for the most part. I mean there is a part of all of us who love to be taken care of hand and foot, regardless it can be a bit too much.) We went with the Kelley's, and the Hague's. Stephanie is on the left with her beautiful baby boy Alexander, and Michelle is on the right. Both are great woman and friends and it was fun spending 4 days with them without our kids.
While we were there we went to a Mission that is still in use. It was beautiful!!! I had no idea that we still had some in use in California. It has been there since the 1700 and the buildings are the originals. A lot of it they have made into a place for history buffs like us to come and see, but they still use the church, the school, and some of the other buildings. Scott and I love history and could spend hours just visiting places and reading and learning. We are the dorky couple who stands at every little marker to read it and find out as much as we can while we are there. Thanks to Dave and Stephanie who located it for us. It was on my list but I didn't know where it was until they came to the rescue when they ran across it accidentally and visited it as well.
I love the place where Scott is standing. It is the original church that collapsed during an earthquake in the 1800's. It has a couple walls standing and some of the paintings still in place. When it collapsed it killed some 40 people by trapping them inside. They actually started restoring the place in the 1800's but did cause some damage and actually blew up part of one wall because they weren't sure what they were doing, but you have a lot of the building.
We also went to the beach. The water was really cold, so we didn't swim in it but we did walk around barefoot. The weather was really nice. I wore shorts the whole time but Scott didn't. He totally fluctuated. He calls me Nanuka of the North because I constantly seem to be hot.
This is the center court at the Mission. It is the same fountain and Garden as when it was first founded. The just continue to take care of it. There are catfish inside the fountain and they are definitely not scared of you. They would swim right up by you hoping that you are going to drop something in. We love to vacation. A lot of the time we do and only go for 3 days or a weekend and this is the longest trip we have taken since our Honeymoon. Scott was gone 6 days I was gone 5 days. We are realizing that it was nice because we started to relax on about day 2 and normally the next day you come back home to the grind but the couple extra days makes a huge difference. Scott attended a lot of classes and I read 3 books, we played, saw a movie, went swimming, did some historical stuff, it was really a perfect week.

3 comments:

we share: said...

How fun!!! I am so jealous in a way... isn't that horrible to say?!?! I am so sick and tired of being a poor college student! I am so happy you got a fun trip- and I have to say you look like such a total babe. You are georgous! Do you ever get tired of people telling you that??? Anyways, I am so happy you got a few days off- you totally deserve it, and heaven knows you need it with 6 kids to stay sane girl! love ya!

stephanie said...

It was cool reading about our cool trip--especially the review of history on the mission. It sounds like you caught some details I missed. That picture of the three gorgeous girls and the baby isn't too bad either!

Sheila said...

Looks like you had a ton of fun! Cute pics! I really need a vacation... just four months and Tony a I will be on a Mexican Cruise with no kids! We love our kids but it is so nice to get away:)

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