On the way to Leslie's family home for Christmas, we stopped at "Oxbow Lake" near Blythe to run around & explore.

Rachel is pushing the fluff off of the cattail to make it "snow"

Joanna decided to just whack her cattail to make the fluff come off!

These waterways are the wintering grounds for a lot of migratory birds

 

Joanna is excited about her Hello Kitty socks

Rachel is surprised to get a DVD

Leslie is shocked to get an MP3 player!

One of Rebekah's new little friends

Mike & the girls enjoy a new book

Leslie has a pretty new necklace

Joanna takes care of her new baby

Rebekah hugs her new My Little Pony playset

Elijah is glad to have some new weapons...watch out!

Mike has to dig deep for one of his gifts!

ooh...a new rolling pin!

Watch out...now he's armed AND dangerous!

Family fun

Rebekah & Rachel rock out on Mama's new MP3 player

 

Since we don't have room to transport all of our gifts for our kids to Blythe & then bring them back PLUS all the loot they get there, traditionally we open our gifts here at home before travelling to Blythe for Christmas. We keep all of the gifts in our room, and then after the kids go to bed the night before our Gift-Opening Day, we bring them all down & arrange them around the tree. Jaime & Mark also sent their gifts here, hence the Amazon boxes surrounding the tree, and the cards on the tree are from Mike's parents!

Baby Jesus gets put in the Nativity scene.

The stockings are stuffed & hung on the stairway with care, in hopes that that children soon will be there! :)

 

If you’ve kept up with our blog, you should have no problem completing a little crossword puzzle, but if you’re stumped, Les has included the month where you can find the answer on our blog. We hope that you enjoy the puzzle—-Les had fun reminiscing while making it! The answers are posted below, so don't peek until you have given it a good try.

Crossword Puzzle

Open the puzzle as PDF

Across

5. BEACHCOTTAGES—location Labor Day family reunion (2 words; Sept)
7. HAIRCUT—a first for Rachel (March)
10. WILLIAMSBURG—Big Fat Meetup location (May)
11. ANZABORREGO—desert adventure location (March)
12. REBEKAH—January birthday
15. MOM—Mike's ____, visited in Oct
17. BALLET—Joanna's new class (Sept)
19. SHOEBOXES—We filled these for Operation Christmas Child (Nov)
22. TARPITS—smelly & sticky in La Brea (July)
23. ELIJAH—June birthday
24. NEWYORK—city girls visited (2 words; May)
25. SOCCER—Pink Rattlesnakes play this (Sept)

---

Down

1. FAMILYANDFRIENDS—reason to visit the Midwest in the middle of the summer (3 words; June)
2. ZOO—location company picnic (Aug)
3. CABIN—family lodge in mountains(April)
4. DEKALB—Huskie Country (June)
6. SPRINGFIELD—Lincoln sites
8. CORONADO—favorite beach (Jan)
9. JOANNA—April birthday (April)
13. ADAMSACADEMY—best school in the land (2 words; July)
14. RACHEL—September birthday
16. FEATHERSTONE—Royal Ranger Camp name (Feb)
18. SISTERCHICKS—girlfriends at cabin (March)
20. EARRINGS—Rebekah's new jewelry (Sept)
21. WILDFIRE—San Diego natural disaster (Oct)
26. OMAS—pumpkin patch (Oct)

 

Time to come home. Our last "hoorah!": quick photo in the airplane.

We got some pictures as we were coming in for the landing: Cystal Pier in Pacific Beach, near the site of our annual Labor Day weekend festivities.

Coronado bridge

Balboa Park

We went to Uncle Matt & Aunt Lizzy's to pick up the kids, but found them engaged in XBox 360 with Amanda

For dinner, Elijah tried using his new chopsticks from Chinatown.

We had a wonderful trip & have great memories (and hope that it's not 10 more years before we can get away together!)!

Labels: anniversary

 

On Saturday morning, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. My friend Nikol lives in the area & met us there. It was a gorgeous day!

Without the kids with us, we kept arriving places early. Mike took this pic of the time on his cell phone so that we could look back & prove that we actually arrived BEFORE the aquarium opened at 10 am!!

First we went to the otter display. They were being fed, and it was so neat to watch them! Mike got this great pic of one of the cuties holding her food on her chest.

Here is a video of the Great White Shark in the huge aquarium that they have. It was amazing!

The Aquarium has a neat outdoor viewing area where you can see the whole bay. We even watched wild otters cavorting in the kelp! It was a truly gorgeous day!(Oh, and I realize that Mike is holding me in the "pregnancy stance"; I don't know why he did that, and I am NOT pregnant!)

Nikol & I had fun with the interactive touch pools!

Um, you don't have to worry--if there's an earthquake, I'M OUTTA HERE! :)

After our fun adventure at the Aquarium, we went to a lovely dinner at a restaurant that Nikol recommended called Passionfish to eat some of the unlucky ones that didn't make it into the Aquarium! The food was DELICIOUS and we highly recommend this restaurant.

Labels: anniversary

 

Enjoying a quiet morning in our luxurious surroundings...

We decided to drive north, over the Golden Gate Bridge

The views back toward the City were awesome!

We drove up into the mountains, and to the Redwoods (Muir Woods). What a wonderful place, with amazing scenery!

The "wildlife" is a bit loony, though

The redwoods are simply amazing! Since we were childless on this trip, we were actually able to enjoy the ranger talk, and meander about as we pleased--and we enjoyed every minute of it...!

...though it was a bit chilly!

After the redwoods, we drove back across the Golden Gate Bridge & throught the City (including a lovely loop around Golden Gate Park), and then headed south to Monterey, where we had reservations to stay for the last 2 nights of our trip. (See Days 3 & 4)

Labels: anniversary

 

(text by Leslie)
For our 10th wedding anniversary, Mike & I flew to the San Francisco Bay Area for a few days, with our kids in the capable hands of my cousin & his wife for a few days, and my aunt & uncle for the rest of the weekend. We had SO much fun, and it was a great experience. Join us on our adventure; here are a few of the 155 pictures!

After flying into San Jose on Wed night, we picked up our rental car & drove into The City on Thursday morning.

We checked into our room at the Queen Anne Hotel (which was lovely!) and got some recommendations from the concierge regarding our day's activities.

We rode a cable car to Chinatown, and did some browsing.

Mike thought these swords were really cool, but didn't want to deal with trying to get them through airport security, so he had to pass up that purchase!

This tearoom had excellent tea, and a very knowledgable staff!

Hmmm...another souvenir we decided to pass up

We seemed to see this graffiti truck wherever we went!

Waiting at the trolley stop

We stopped off at Lombard Street to take in the views

Alcatraz

Lombard Street, "the curviest street in the world"

Mmmm....must save room for Ghirardelli chocolate after dinner!

We had a scrumptious anniversary dinner here; I highly recommend the "Lazy Man's Cioppino" at Scoma's on Fisherman's Wharf--it's excellent!

Full & ready to head back to our elegant hotel!

Labels: anniversary

 

As tradition requires, Les took the kids to the mountains to play in the first snow of the year! On their way to the mountains, they had to stop to see the little bit of snow that was on the side of the road. Wait for the next picture.

Now that is snow!

Let's go boarding ...

... after getting ready.

Rachel's sledding made quite a "rooster tail" that got snow all over her face!

Joanna with her snow buddy!

 

Another creation of Elijah's. Remember Les's birthday cake that was enhanced?

 

For Leslie's 29th birthday, the kids made her breakfast -- bowl of ceral, glass of juice, bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce, sprinkles and brownie bites. She was also offered the cake I made for her. Oh, we can't forget the peanut butter sandwich. The cake was tricked out with Joe Joe's and caramels.

At what is Rebekah looking? Oh, the cake!

 

We are finishing up our Christmas cards. I thought I'd show you some of the behind the scenes action shots.

We got a bit of a late start to the park, so we had to really work to find enough natural light for the pictures!

Cute picture, but they were in the shadow and I couldn't get them to focus on the camera. 12 pictures of this pose to find out it won't work.

I was trying to be creative. 4 pictures of this pose to find out it won't work

12 pictures of this pose, which produced ONE to use for the Christmas cards. Ah, the stick didn't make the final cut.

The kids thought they were going to play, but I had to snap more shots.

Now they can play

 

Working together to build a gingerbread house. Our church sponsored an event for several families to come together to build houses together and spend time with each other. It was a good time with too much candy and treats, but still a good time.

Rachel couldn't keep up with us.