Troy’s sister Dana lives all the way on the other side of the country. It’s a big deal when she comes to visit California! She and her husband and two boys used to live in Las Vegas, and they still have friends there. Earlier this week she flew to Vegas for a visit, then drove here to stay with us for the weekend.

We’ve been so busy having fun that I have not had the chance to blog about Dana’s visit yet. But I wanted to at least get some photos up here for the family who might want to see them. (Hi, Carol & Tom!) The rest of this post will be very photo-tastic.

We went to dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. We actually took Dana and Leslie (Troy’s other sister) to dinner here when they came to visit in 1997.

Dana and Annalie made lots of wishes in the fountain.

We browsed a couple of the shops in Old Town. We were looking at wind chimes and hummingbird feeders, and when we’d decided to buy something, Dana stepped in and said, “Let me buy that for you as your Christmas present!” Not only did she guarantee we’d love her gift, but she saved on shipping too. Verrrry smart.

Of course I can’t let a whole visit go by without suggesting one of my favorite activities: pottery painting! Dana had never painted pottery before, and she thought that sounded like fun. Again, she cleverly had Annalie pick out something that she liked, then said she would paint it for her as a Christmas gift. She painted a little treasure box with a butterfly on top. I think it’s going to turn out really cute, and Annalie will love it.

Annalie was a tiny bit squirrelly, because we had her out rather late. But overall she did great. I think she was having too much fun painting with her Aunt Dana to mess it up with a silly thing like bedtime. The Starbucks kids’ hot cocoa she got to have while she painted probably didn’t hurt either.

Troy is the one who walked down to Starbucks and got us all coffee and cocoa. He kept us company till Annalie was done with her heart plate, then he took her with him to the bookstore to look for something while Dana and I finished up. I don’t get to spend time with Dana as often as I’d like, what with them living on the other side of the country, and it was really nice to have the chance to chat with her one on one.

I got the idea to paint a plate like a slice of lemon, but wanted a picture for reference. I searched through the books at the pottery studio to no avail. I called Brenda, she sliced a lemon from her mom’s tree in half, took a photo, and sent it to my phone. I love technology.

Here is the hummingbird feeder Dana bought for us, hanging from our lemon tree. Isn’t it pretty? We see hummingbirds in our front yard on a regular basis. We hope they like the feeder too.

Troy took this photo of me while messing with the 50mm lens. I thought it was kinda funny, both the look on my face and how the focus is on my zipper tab of all things.

We got doughnuts this morning and wanted to take them up to Snail Mountain for a breakfast with a view, as is our tradition. It turned out there was some big activity scheduled and there were a lot of people up there and no parking spots left. We took our doughnuts to the beach instead. Not a bad substitution.

Despite the fact that Annalie had on a dress and was therefore guaranteed to get sand everywhere, she climbed up and slid down dunes, and dug in the sand happily. She seemed much less freaked out by the ocean than last time we were at the beach, even though it was high tide. Progress!

This shot cracked me up because it looks like she’s trying to blend into the sand.

Dana took this photo for us. The sky was so blue! It must have been good surfing weather because there were a bunch of surfers there.

Dana even braved the chilly water. I guess if you come all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific you’ve gotta at least get your feet wet.

Thanks for coming to visit us, Dana! We hope you enjoyed hanging out with us as much as we enjoyed hanging out with you.