Over the River and Through the Woods....

We were lucky enough to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving! It was so fun to be in Albuquerque with them in their beautiful new home. We had a wonderful visit. We missed seeing Jordon & Sara, be we got to visit with Dane & Emmy, had fun playing with Eden and got to meet baby Zia (so cute!). We also had a great time hanging out with Kellie & KC and the kids had fun wrestling with Isaac and playing with Eliza. We're so glad they stayed around. Thanks everyone!!

Early Christmas present! Grandma and Grandpa got the kids a rocket blaster! Once we figured out the rockets we had a great time blasting them off and trying to catch them.


Maggie really loved it.


Thanksgiving Day. A perfect meal as always, thanks Mom & Dad! We are always so well taken care of at Grandma and Grandpa's. They really make it a vacation for us.:)

Huge excitement, it snowed!! The kids we're thrilled! It came at night in big chunky snowflakes. So they had to go to bed and wait until morning to play. And bright and early they dressed warmly and headed outside.

What better way to play in snow but to have a huge snowball fight! It was kids against Grandma (what a good sport, as always). It was so fun. S. Californians don't get much snow.

Grandma got out the clogging costumes she MADE for Brookie and Kellie when she used to run a clogging school. Yes, she had 5 kids, babysat more kids, was Primary Pres., made the girls clothes, ran a clogging school and made the costumes!! And that was just the tip of the iceberg. We seriously don't know how she did all that she did. She is all of our idol.

The girls looked so cute trying them on. Bring back memories Brookie?


To get the Christmas season going, Grandma and Ellie got out the Christmas decorations and went to town while everybody else went to the movies. Yeah, Christmas!
Thanks again for a wonderful trip-we love you!!

East Coast Trippin'!

We had such a wonderful time in the East Coast. It was filled with so many memories. After all, it's where Chris went to school, where I was a nanny, where we met, had our first home and had Sam! It was also fun to make so many new memories. We walked A LOT and wished we'd had many more days each place we went.

New York City was our first stop! We took the redeye Halloween night and arrived at 5:30 in the morning (2:30 our time-yikes!). We found a mini-van taxi that could hold us and all of our stuff! We checked into our hotel and we hit the pavement. We spent the first day doing some shopping and seeing the Empire State. Let's just say EVERYTHING takes more time with kids. But it was worth it. The next day we spent in Central Park and the Museum of Natural History. Later we went to Columbus Circle and saw the sights. The last day Chris and I had to sit through a time share spiel and we waited in line for a Broadway show. Then we took the subway to the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero and Wall Street. Later that night we saw Mary Poppins. And then we packed up our stuff and headed up to Connecticut!

We got to Stamford, CT. late Saturday night. The next morning we went to our old ward, the Stamford 1st Ward. It was fun to still see some familiar faces, though most had no idea who we were. Our singles ward bishop's wife did remember us and it was so great to see here. Then we took a tour of our old life. It was amazing to see how many things had changed and how many things had stayed the same. We showed Sam where he was born, where we lived before and after marriage and visited Tod's Point. A park area on the water where Chris and I spent a lot of time while we were dating. My favorite part was driving up to W. Redding and dropping in on my Nanny family, the Archers. Two of the three girls I nannied were there (the third is at Notre Dame!). It was so fun to see them and they were so nice. The only bummer is I forgot to take pictures! It was a nice day and a bit emotional too. We left that night for Boston.

Our final destination-Boston! Chris had fun visiting all his old haunts and showing us around. We stayed in Cambridge and spent most of the first day at MIT. Geek Central! Dad told us fun stories and showed us around. There were a lot of new things to see too. Then we walked across the bridge and into Boston. We spent time in the Public Gardens and Boston Commons and met the friendliest squirrels we had ever seen! They walked right up to us and we had a bag of crackers that the kids fed them. They took it right out of thier hands! Well, that's all the kids wanted to do for the rest of the day. We could not pull them away. It really was cute though. We visited an old gravesite-which both Sam and Maggie hated. And then went to Fanueil Hall and to Pizzaria Uno for dinner and went and saw the Bee Movie for Family Night. Our last day it was raining. But we were so fortunate to have awesome weather for most of the trip. We packed up, did a little shopping and flew home! It really was a great trip-I hope we can get out there more often.

Halloween!

We didn't have much of a Halloween, but we didn't want to miss it. The kids only got to trick-or-treat for about 1/2 hour before we had to leave for the airport. But they got a few goodies to take on the trip, and they looked so cute!

Maggie was Annie, Sophie was a Spanish dancer (in honor of Papa & Maki serving in Spain) and Sam being undecided wore his Tae Kwon Do uniform.

Papa & Maki sent Sophie the comb, fan, flower, and earrings from Spain! They were the perfect touch for her costume.Maggie just loves the movie "Annie" and we think she makes a cute little orphan.

Thanksgiving Reader's Theater

I will get to the New York trip, but for now....

Sophie's class had a Thanksgiving Reader's Theater in her classroom. The kids read fun little stories in groups. They all did a great job and Sophie was awesome!

Sophie with the Mayflower pictures. Hers is second one up from the bottom.

Bits and Bytes from the Bay....

Okay, we are getting back on track....we had such a fun time escaping from the smoke and heading up north!

|
Friday we went with Brookie, Cambria, and Maya to Half Moon Bay to the Lemos Farm pumpkin patch.

Our friends, the Posners also escaped up north and we got to see them there too! It's always fun to see people you know from home in a different place.

Maya looking cute in a wheelbarrow.

Feeding the ponies.

Posin' cuties

Ellie and Maggie on the hayride.

Stick 'em up!

Little Punkin!

We then went to the patch and each of us picked out a pumpkin. Sam got a good one. It was such a fun day, hanging out with cousins is the best!

On Saturday we had our Daddy all day! We drove down to the little town of Felton near Santa Cruz. We went to the Roaring Camp Railroad where you ride an old steam train in the Redwoods.

We had taken Sam here once when he was obsessed with Thomas trains. He was about 3 and Sophie was 5 months. We loved it then and it was still a great time now.

Trains coming!!

He couldn't scare a fly:).

It was unanimous - mom's going to jail!

Sophie's favorite thing was feeding the ducks. We could not pull her away, she just loves to be with nature.Later we drove to Santa Cruz, went to the Boardwalk, saw sea lions on the pier and had dinner at a fun pizza place downtown. It was a great day.

Update

We are heading out of town! The air quality got worse and worse as the day progressed and is now filled with ashes. We got a call from the school district and they have closed down the schools due to the yucky air. So we are piling in the car in the morning and heading to San Fran! We can't wait to be with Chris and to breathe! Whew! Just say prayers that our house will be here when we get back:).

An Eerie Sight

This is what our sky looked liked this morning looking out over Aliso. The sun is red and the sky is a murky brown. I went outside last night and it was a little spooky too. Black skies and then at least three huge blazing fires burning in the near distance to the south and the east. I felt surrounded by it. We have been a little worried because if a fire hit our neighborhood it would be gone so quick! It's been hard to think about with Chris not being here what I would grab and where to go.

The kids are not allowed to go outside for recess or lunch and we're all going a little stir crazy.
But it looks like for now they are starting to get a handle on things. Our prayers are with everyone with losses.