A Wicked Weekend

It never rains in Ridgecrest, let alone snow. That is until this year. Rain and rain and rain, and the weekend I was supposed to go to Wicked in San Francisco, snow. It was cool, and cold, and beautiful. The problem was, if it kept up, we may end up trapped in this valley. All the roads out of our little valley close in a good snow, last Christmas it was for 3 days! The boys thought the snow was awesome, though. Omar couldn't get enough of it, he stood outside taking pictures and enjoying it for a couple of hours. My babies liked catching it on their tongues, and making patterns in it once it started sticking. (We did eventually put coats and hats and gloves on them, when it wasn't stopping!) They enjoyed it for about a half hour, and then decided they didn't like the cold and wet all that much after all. Little desert rats!

The snow really stuck more than this, but by the end Omar had switched to taking pictures on his phone, and I don't have those. I think there was probably a good stuck inch on the ground by the end of it. We were supposed to be leaving for Wicked the next morning, but watching the weather decided our best chance of getting through was going to be at 5 that night. One friend, Christina, was supposed to be flying into Inyokern from Utah (through L.A.) that night, but all those flights were canceled due to weather, so she changed her flight to meet us in SF the next morning. According to the weather on my phone, we made it through Tehachapi (up in the mountains) right before it started snowing hard there. We spend the night at my friend Carol's sister's house in Fresno, and woke up to a delicious breakfast the next morning. Then we left to go play in SF while we waited for Christina's flight to come in.

Well, good thing we left so early! It tooks us hours to get to SF because of traffic on the freeway due to an accident. We ended up creating our own detour and made it just in time to get Christina, whose flight had thankfully been delayed! By the time we got her, it was time to check into our hotel and get some dinner, since none of us had eaten in all the madness.

We stayed at the Hilton in downtown SF. It was beautiful and elegant, super fun! We found out from the concierge that all the restaurants around there were closed, but a few were having happy hour with appetizers. We ended up going to an Italian Restaurant in downtown that was great. Rebecca even had wild boar! Then we walked back to the hotel to get ready for the show. You can tell we were all mom's because we got ready way too fast and then didn't know what to do with ourselves, but we had a great time just sitting around talking.

And then to Wicked! It was fantastic! I've really missed theater since there is no more Music Circus for me down here in Ridgecrest. The show was great, the set was great, I loved it! The story was WAY different from the book, but they changed it in ways that made it a much happier story, and great for kids, even. I really enjoyed it! Then we caught a bus back to downtown and went and had a midnight dinner (for Carol, whose always wanted to do that!) at a downtown diner. I've never really been in that part of San Francisco before. It's pretty crazy to be surrounded by tall close together buildings. I had a hard time getting a sense of direction. But, I really liked it, too. I still think it would be fun to live in the city.

We were going to go to the Oakland Temple on Saturday. Carol and I were both sealed in that temple, and I was really excited to go back. I love that temple! But, it was closed for maintenance that weekend, so we decided to drive back to Fresno and go to the temple there instead. We got to meet 2 of Carol's sisters there and then go out to eat with them afterward, which was fun. I was really grateful for the chance to get to go to the temple. It's hard when you are 3 hours away and have two little guys to deal with to be able to go. It's so peaceful inside the temple, it's exactly the calm I need.

No trip out of town would be complete without a trip to Costco (at least for those of us who live in Ridgecrest). So after lunch we made a stop and filled up the van with groceries.

And then home. It was so good to see my boys, but I think Omar was the only who missed me. He kept the boys busy having so much fun, they keep asking when I'm going to leave again. I think they went out to eat every meal (including a trip out of town to Chukee Cheese). And he learned why I don't give them baths very often, and never together! I'm so grateful for my sweet husband who let me go and was such a good sport about it. I had a great time. I never realized how much I need girl friends, but it was awesome! Thanks for coming with me girls!