Congratulations to the Newlyweds!!

We got to go to Idaho Falls for my little sister Traci's wedding. It was so great to see brothers and sisters, grandma's, aunts and uncles and cousins. People should get married more often so we can see all of our family!! Congratulations again to Traci and Scott! Traci looked beautiful and Scott so handsome--a super cute couple!
We got lots of snow while in Idaho and Isaac told us one day "We should probably stay here for Christmas so we can have a real Christmas."





A nice picture of Sabrina and Gary and family.

Another great picture . . . Vaughn and Tammy and Family.





My great Grandpa built this sleigh we are sitting in!! Isaac's not impressed. His hands are cold.













Isaac and his cousin Claire. Isaac said "She's not my cousin, she's my friend!"

The REAL Santa Claus?

We took the kids to meet Santa Claus on Saturday. Nicole and Isaac did great. These were the kids replies to Santa's age old question. Nicole--set of her own beads. Isaac--a race car. Ryan--candy. We spent the 5 or so minutes before it was Ryan's turn to sit on Santa's lap explaining that he would get a candy cane if he could sit on Santa's lap. He didn't smile, or really even move that much, but he didn't cry either!! Nicole and Isaac have spent the last day and a half discussing/arguing over whether that was the real Santa or just one of his helpers. Isaac says it was the real one, Nicole thinks it was a helper. Ryan has since added chocolate cake to his Christmas wish list.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with great friends and delicious food. The weather even cooperated enough for us to eat outside even though it had rained all day the day before. Some highlights from the day, the post feast soccer game, kids getting to help decorate the yummy pumpkin/banana tart pie (I forgot the real name, but it had a graham cracker crust and was pretty mouthwatering), the game of pin the hat on the turkey, setting up the Christmas tree, and video chatting with Great Grandma Peterson, Grandma and Grandpa Peterson, Gary, Sabrina, Traci, Scott, Grace and Clair. I asked Isaac why we have Thanksgiving. "So we can have Christmas!" Of course.

















Nicole AKA Pocahontas



I know, not a great picture, but Curt had just hopped off a skateboard he had ridden for 80 feet or so and around the bend in the pathway carrying both boys like that!! He's got skills.

I'm thanful for my children's artwork . . .

Ryan spends lots of time "doing homework" with Nicole, and drawing with Nicole and Isaac. Recently he's become much more serious about his work (see below picture) His favorite things to draw are the little people (faces with legs, and sometimes arms--he calls them whatever he feels like calling them that day, bunnies, friends, family, giraffes etc,) he also can draw an S, O and A and H on demand, and always asks me "what's next" like his four year old brother does when he's writing words.


Ryan's masterpiece




We had a big turkey on our wall that the kids added feathers to throughout the month with something they were thankful for on each feather. These were a few choice picks of Isaac's. He also was thankful for bikes and cars--no drawings so I didn't scan. Prophet, food, friends, seashells were a few others that he named.


This is a drawing Nicole did. She was looking at a statue of an Native American child we have out for Thanksgiving.

Camping & the Beach on NOVEMBER 15!!!

Curt called me up from school Monday morning and asked if I wanted to go camping. Of course I did! We didn't get to go at all this summer--besides the father and sons and father daughter campouts--because of our busy schedule. My only concern was that it was November and we might freeze overnight. He said the weather was supposed to be nice and close to 80 this weekend so we booked our campsite. We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful camping trip!! The kids were so excited to roast marshmallows, wield a flashlight and sleep together in the tent. After we roasted marshmallows we took a late night walk down to the moonlit beach and watched the waves. The next morning after breakfast we went down to the beach around 8:30 or 9am and had the beach mostly to ourselves until noon. We dug a huge hole, played in the waves, boogie boarded, found seashells, explored the beach, and searched for sandcrabs to name a few. A CA friend once told us the reason everything in California is more expensive is that we pay a weather tax on the awesome weather here. Well this weekend I was more than happy to pay our weather tax. It was AMAZING!!
(BELOW--Curt couldn't contain his excitement to be going camping)


















TOP LEFT--a few feet beyond this fence was a sheer drop off down to the beach. Our campsite was 50 yards from this fence. We went to sleep to the sound of the waves. It was SO COOL!
TOP RIGHT--Nicole and Isaac examining Rolly Pollies--or pill bugs of which there were plenty. This was a nice feature as there is a lot of poison oak in these parts, and the bugs kept them out of the bushes.
BOTTOM LEFT--Nicole and Isaac on the trail down to the beach from our campsite.
BOTTOM RIGHT--the trail from our campsite down to the beach.







I was playing with the panaramic setting on our camera. Do you notice anything unusual about this picture? Nicole is a twin!!



Our own little sand crabs










Quite a few big waves came up over the small ridgeline of the beach. We are usually safe at the top of the ridge, but today after moving our shoes and snack bag and blanket multiple times we got smart and put them on our chairs . . . not sure it mattered at this point, they were all soaking anyway!


Our big hole is a pool now!


After several big waves coming up over the hill onto our spot, Ryan was carrying the boogie board around and very concerned about "my board!"



Digging/searching for sandcrabs . . .








Curt skim boarding in our pool






Nicole says "Mom come see this piece of seaweed, it's moving!" Upon closer inspection we think a small trumpet fish was washed on shore for us to see!! It was trying to escape from our bucket, so Nicole speedily threw it back.


After we checked out of our campsite we headed over to the Santa Cruz pier for our ritual ice cream cone and watching of the sea lions.