Thanksgiving 2014

This year, for the first time ever, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my Uncle Ron's in Canyon Lake.  He has a beautiful house on the lake and a great boat to enjoy the amazing lake. My cousin Coul and his family were visiting from Montana and my Uncles Mike and Damon came up with us also. 

In addition to a lovely scenery, we enjoyed great company and a wonderful turkey dinner with contributions from all  We have so much to be thankful for but family, health and happiness truly top it all.

The kids getting ready to go out for a sunset boat ride.

Out on the lake. I alway love being out on the water- especially in a boat.

Road Trip to Lake Tahoe

Matt and the kids had the week off for Thanksgiving so I booked our time share in Lake Tahoe and took a few days off too!  We invited our neighbors, the Dennys, to join us and we caravanned the 10 hour trip.  We were both pleasantly surprised that neither stopped for the first 4 hours.  We made good time and the kids kept busy coloring, playing various games and asking us, " how much longer?".  They were pretty good but after the 100th time Abby asked how much longer we practically begged her to watch a movie and she had no interest in it which was amazing since she could probably watch movies for hours at home if we let her.  Kids?!

Z kept busy with legos

There was an amazing double rainbow that we admired for a while. 

We arrived at the hotel around 3 and the kids were in and out before we started unpacking.  we had a great first floor until where the kids could roam around and explore their surroundings.

After a full day the kids loved their slumber party and the adults were happy to be in the other room:)

Playing Jenga with my girl:)

Day 1: It was so beautiful out but not quite cold enough for snow.  We enjoyed the food, ice skating, music and great company instead.

On day 2 we drive up to Mt. Rose, which had a few runs open and was much cheaper than Heavenly.  The kids got lessons in the morning and Chris, Matt and I got a few runs in on our own and then watched the kiddos in ski school.  

Zack and I took a break and had lunch and then practiced on the bunny hill.

Abby wasn't quite getting stopping down in ski school and I thought she would be done for the day but she went up on the  lift with Matt and had no need for stopping she just charged all the way down!

Zack and I joined Matt and Abby and we skied down the mountain for the next few hours over and over.  One of my favorite moments of parenting is snowboarding down the mountain with Abby next to me totally loving cruising down the mountain and Zack between Matt's legs right next to us.  I can't wait to get back on the mountain with my family!

After a full day of skiing we drove an hour back to the hotel and the kids were set on hiking up the mountain to see the sunset. I'm so glad they pushed us to do it.  It was so beautiful up there and a great hike!

It was  great trip with new friends that feel like old friends.

Little Scientists

Matt has been making soap, and many variations of it, with his high schoolers in Chemistry class.  One day he brought home some stuff to try out and made soap with the kids.  

The kids do  better job explaining the process than I could in their video below.  It turned out to be a great family project since I documented it all and had the kids narrate the pictures in an App called Shadow Puppet.  

Some of my favorite pics of my little scientists! I am so thankful for Matt's love of science and that he continues to teach and get the kids excited about it.  I learn a lot too!

After the soap was such a hit, Matt decided to make chapstick.  It has been fun but we all have blue lips now since we didn't realize how potent the coloring would be:).

November in San Diego

Luckily when we left Hawaii we din't have to give up year round beach trips.  Granted, they aren't as frequent but thankfully they are still possible.  We  had planned to stop by the beach to play and watch the sunset before dinner.  I din't bring suits for the kids because it never crossed my mind they would go in but I guess it never occurred to them that they wouldn't.

On Veteran's Day we took the kids to Legoland.  It turned out it was a pretty popular place for many families that day:).  Even thought here were longer lines than we were used to it was a fun day!

Climbing rocks in Cardiff before dinner.

My cheer coach from high school passed away at the beginning of November from cancer...he was 46 and way to young!  It was great to see old friends but I really wish it were under different circumstances.  Coach C was a great man and will truly be missed!

Just a couple of crazy kids at Grandma & Grandpa's house

Halloween Festivities

We had tons of fun getting ready for Halloween this year.   The kids get so excited and  were counting down from the 1st of October.  We met up with the Archards at the pumpkin path for a hot, dirty and very fun afternoon.

Abby found her pumpkin right away.

Z found his too.

It didn't take long before he was a complete dirt ball.

We had our 2nd annual picnic and Abby's tooth, which was a little loose, became looser as she was trying to open her Pirate's Booty.  It was wiggly but still in pretty good and she said, "I'm just going to yank it out" and walked away. a few minutes later she came back with this grin and a tooth in her hand.

Jen & I- so thankful to have wonderful friendships that keep getting better through each stage of life.

The first of many pumpkin decorating activities.

Moving on to painting pumpkins... We actually never got around to carving them this year and now we still have lots of decorated pumpkins.

The annual Libelle Ct. Halloween party did not disappoint this year. We had crafts, games, face painting, hay rides, contests and lots of fun!

More face painting at school.

Halloween night.  Belle and Captain America were ready to get some candy!

We had a neighborhood potluck to get the festivities started. 

Celebrating 35.

Getting ready to Trick or Treat

The kids hit all the houses in our neighborhood and we moved on to the next street thinking they would want to keep going but to our surprise their buckets were getting full and they were ready to go home and check out their candy.

It was a month full of Halloween fun!  Until next year...