Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving this year with just the four of us. We missed all of you terribly, and wish we could have come home, but we sure do enjoy spending time together with our beautiful kids. We had an excellent day of feasting, football, and family fun. Brandon cooked the turkey.....all by himself.
Kyla made the pie.....all by herself.

Casey waited patiently until all the food was ready, then tore through a turkey leg like a champ. Don't worry, I made him eat his veggies too, even though the evidence suggests otherwise!

We had lots of fun as a family this Thanksgiving weekend. One of our favorite things to do now that the kids are older is to play family games. Casey won this particular high-stakes game of Monopoly.

San Francisco

Knowing that we will only be in California for a year and a half more at most, we have been trying to get around and see the area as much as possible. We took a trip up the coast to San Francisco for the day. It was a beautiful, clear day and we were able to see all the way across the Golden Gate Bridge.

We decided to take a walk part way across the bridge, and if you zoom in, you can see Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge in the distance.

After our walk across the bridge, we stopped at the San Francisco zoo. Kyla kept her distance for this exhibit because she thought the giraffes were way too close, and Mr. Adventure savored the moment as the baby giraffe in the distance ran down the hill to her mother.

Casey and Kyla spent some time feeding, petting, and brushing the farm animals.

Brandon was trying to fake this guy out with a handful of nothing. It worked.

Happy Birthday, Kyla!

Well, it finally happened. Our little, baby girl turned into a teenager this past weekend. Kyla is officially 13-years-old. I'm shocked at how quickly time passes us by.
This year, Kyla chose to have a party at the house with friends. She had set in her mind that she only wanted to invite two guests. I tried for weeks to encourage her to invite more people (for fear the two may not show up), but she stuck to her guns! Her two good friends from school were both able to come and spend time with Kyla. It was simple and quiet, just the way Kyla likes it!

Kyla chose to have a Halloween themed costume/movie party.

Kyla was spoiled this year with some wonderful gifts, gift cards, and cash to spend on what she wanted. Thanks so much to everyone that sent her something and everyone that was thinking about her on her special day; she really appreciated it!

Point Lobos

As I posted these pictures and prepared to tell you all about my visit to Point Lobos with the kids, I was struck with how incredibly blessed I am to have these two people in my life. I am amazed every single day with how wonderful Kyla and Casey are. Just look at those precious faces! The kids are at the age now (9 and very soon to be 13) that we can do just about anything with very little plan time or preparation. I love it! With our possible move next summer, I decided I want to make sure I do and see everything I can in California before we leave. First stop...Point Lobos.

The kids and I spent our last day of fall break at one of the most beautiful places I have been to in a long time. We had a nice picnic and then hiked for a couple of hours along the coast of this beautiful nature preserve.
We spent a little time watching patiently for the fluke or spray of a gray whale, which are migrating along the coast right now. We didn't see a whale, but definitely saw plenty of seals, lizards, and other creatures.

Well, I knew it was time to head home when I viewed this picture Casey took of Kyla and I. Good fun like this can only last for so long!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We had a fun visit to the organic farm to pick out pumpkins, see the animals, and grab some of the most delicious tasting strawberries I've ever had. Casey was on a mission to find the biggest pumpkin, and Kyla was on a mission to find the most perfectly round one!

We invited a few friends to come along.

Kyla sat near her perfect pumpkin for most of the

afternoon to make sure no one else would take it!

Casey was admiring the piles of pumpkins and gourds.

Great America was... GREAT!

We were given some tickets to Great America (thank you Sheryl and Travis!!), so we made good use of them this past weekend. We escaped the cool weather of Monterey for a trip up to 95 degree Santa Clara for a day at Great America.

We had a great time riding lots of family rides and even tried our luck on some of the roller coasters. I nearly ruined my day after riding "Top Gun", but I'm still alive!

We stopped at the new water park after getting all sweaty on the regular rides. The kids loved the wave pool and played at the deepest end for most of the afternoon.

Kyla and Casey's favorite ride was the swings. They rode it a couple of times and couldn't seem to get enough. Although this used to also be my favorite ride as a child, I just sat and watched this time to save my stomach! It's amazing how much more "action" you can handle when you're a kid!

Diving in Monterey Bay

Kyla had an extraordinary opportunity last week. She was selected, along with 3 other students from her school, to go for a surface dive in the protected tide pools of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She had her own personal dive instructor that helped her from start to finish.

Kyla had fun putting on all of the gear and wasn't nervous at all about using a regulator or putting her head underwater.

Kyla got to see starfish, decorator crabs, sea cucumbers, and other various types of fish. She was having lots of fun until a flounder moved unexpectedly below her! She was pretty much finished after that!

Kyla was very brave and had a wonderful day with her dad and her friends at the aquarium. The organization that sponsored the dive, Accessible Events, will have more pictures and video of the dive on their website soon, so I will post the link once they get it set up.

Ladies Man

My little boy takes great pride in being a real ladies man. His friends, Mackenzie and Manon, showed up at the door the other day with a surprise birthday party for Casey. It didn't matter that his birthday is actually in February, they just wanted an excuse to surprise him with a shower of balloons.

The "party" was complete with lots of goodies! Even after they went home for the day, they called and talked on the phone with Casey for a while. I am not ready for this!

Back To School

I can't believe I am the mother of a 7th grader and a 4th grader! It really does blow my mind and I have no idea where the time went! The kids were a little nervous about starting school this year, but once the first day was behind them, they felt much more secure. Both kids got to see friends from their classes last year, and are already making many new friends. It helps tremendously to have daddy home now as well!

Not a bad picture for a delayed timer with a bunch of 6-year-olds! I am blessed to be teaching up at the same campus where Casey goes to school. You can actually see his classroom from mine, so I get to see him all day long and keep a really close eye on him! I think he's still trying to decide whether that's a good thing or not!

Carmel Beach

Aren't grandmas great? We think so. Brandon has been out of town this month and I have been busy trying to set up a classroom, so we invited grandma out to spend some time with the kids. They have been having so much fun with her, and I am so grateful for the help!

We went out to Carmel Beach last night to watch the sunset. Well, in true Monterey Bay fashion, the fog rolled in and there was no sunset at all. The wind and cold stayed away, so we had fun anyway.

After a few failed attempts at starting a fire, we finally got it going (we are women....hear us roar!!!) and enjoyed way too many smores by the fire.

My beautiful babies.

Casey and Kyla laughed their heads off at grandma's funny ghost stories once it got dark. We had a great time together!

Vacation Bible School

We just finished up our final day of VBS today. We had five fun-filled days of crafts, snacks, singing, and most important of all, exploring God's Word.

The first grade "coconuts" earned the most points on Tuesday, so the leaders in our group, including Kyla, had to wear (I mean, were privileged to wear) grass skirts the following day.

All 3 of us made many friends this week, young and old. This is one of Kyla's special friends, Hannah. Hannah was one of about 10 children in our group alone that surrendered their lives to the Lord this week. It was a privilege and honor to see so many children earnestly seeking Christ.

The picture isn't zoomed in very far, but Casey is the cute one in the front row with the green hat. You can click on the pic to enlarge. He was a "gecko" this week and memorized 5 new verses from the Bible. He also learned all of the books of the Old and New Testament through a song which they performed for the parents.

Tonight we performed our VBS program for the parents and then enjoyed some ice cream! It was a great week and I was truly blessed to be a part of it.

My two little buddies

I definitely do not have a green thumb, but apparently my children do. Kyla's gardening project for this summer was to try and grow carrots. I wasn't sure how well they would do in sand, but we mixed in a bag of potting soil and.....voila! Kyla was pretty proud of her carrots, and they were actually quite tasty! We were also able to have a handful of sugar snap peas with dinner the other night from our makeshift garden.

Brandon has been away for a couple of weeks, and sometimes those separations can make Casey a little sad and clingy. To cheer him up one night and help him sleep, I told him that when I get lonely for daddy and can't sleep, I close my eyes and imagine disco ducks jumping over a fence (my little version of counting sheep). You see, Brandon's new fantasy football name for this year is "Disco Ducks". Not only does this name make us laugh, but it also helps us think about dad while he's gone. It kind of turned from a funny idea to a private joke between Casey and I. We laugh everytime we see or hear anything about disco or ducks now. This is a picture of Casey in his bubbly "disco hair".

Lovely Utah

When I downloaded my most recent pictures from our camera, I realized that there were some more Utah pictures on there that I had forgotten about from one of our last days on vacation. This is a four generation picture of my grandma, mom, myself, and Kyla in Zion.

Kyla and Casey explored the hyroglyphs with their great-grandmother and my dad.

This is our literal "family tree". If there are any environmentalists in the crowd, I caution that this image may be disturbing. When my parents first got married, they carved their initials in this tree (KM + LM) up in the Cedar mountains. Years later, the boys and I carved our names in the tree below our parents initials. Brandon's initials were next, and every few years we visit the tree and carve the initials of each new member. Casey's name was added this trip.