I drove to Sacramento on Thursday to pick my sister up from the airport and it was the most enjoyable two-hour drive I've made! I drove through the hills of Pleasanton, over the Altamont, through Tracy, hopped on I-5 and headed north to Sacramento. The trees were turning colors and even though it was warm, there was that autumn haze hanging around (or was that just smog?) As I drove through Stockton, I thought about the majority of my dad's ancestors who lived in the area. And as I passed by all the farms I thought about that onion smell that I love this time of year. (The only smell I get out this way is gasoline and exhaust!) For a couple of hours Prop. 8 wasn't an issue, no one was protesting outside the temple and the economy was great. And I just enjoyed California. Where is all this nostalgia coming from??!
Anyway, having my sister out here was awesome. If I had to come up with one word to summarize the weekend it would be ROSS. We went on Thursday, Friday, Melissa went again on Saturday then we went again on Monday. Ross doesn't exist in Ohio so my sisters have to take full advantage when they come to visit. Our Thursday trip was just okay. I came away with a shirt for $4.99 and a dress for $13.99. The next day we went to a different Ross and SCORED. Among other things, Melissa found Christmas dresses for the girls, we got matching purses and I found some brown closed-toe shoes to wear to church in the winter. Melissa went back on Saturday with our brother and on Monday, we rode BART to San Francisco and hit up the mother of all Ross stores. It was three stories. There were rows and rows of size 8 1/2 shoes. There were more purses than the two Ross stores in Modesto combined. It was awesome. I came away with a different purse because the zipper on the original one broke the first day I used it. And Melissa found enough outfits for the girls to last 5 years. We were in shopping love. Until.... we got home and realized the check-out lady duped us. Some of the outfits Melissa bought for the kids were marked down but upon inspecting the receipt, we noticed she was charged full price and the checker tore the tags off! That was pretty annoying.

Other than that, we had a great day in San Francisco and thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Mel's. That chocolate oreo shake was killer! I could have had two more of those. I'm so glad Melissa was able to spend a few days out here. Thanks Nate for "letting" (I know you hate that) her come! See you in a few more weeks!! These pictures were actually taken when my other sister came to visit earlier in the year, but I couldn't have a post without pictures!