2008 catch up

Whew, I am a bit behind. Thanksgiving was a semi- quiet affair with just us Miles. We went on a hike in the morning at Rancho San Antonio. We brought along a toddler pack for Beka, but she didn't like it so only spent 5 to 10 minutes in it. We were amazed at our energizer bunny. We stopped at the farm that is one mile in and looked at the animals and ate snacks. Once we were refueled we started on the gentle uphill trail to make a big loop. Beka outdid her younger brothers; they would get tired and complain and she would say "No! I walk" She did have a couple of rides courtesy of Nathan. The best part was getting passed by two horses and their rides. Beka was very excited, so when she started lagging we would say the horses went this way, let's go find them. Well, our hike was a least 3 miles and took a couple of hours with little legs, but we worked up a good appetite! We went home and cooked up a storm with lots of pies for dessert.

This is a picture of Grandma and Grandpa visiting us in mid October. We had a great time with them. This is outside the new Science and Natural History Museum in San Francisco. We had an interesting time finding it without specific directions in Golden Gate park. Their roads aren't well labeled. Our favorite was the South African penguins that loved following children back and forth in the water.

December 9 was Jaelyn's birthday! We had a family party with her boyfriend Christopher and her favorite dinner and cake. Jaelyn and I had a private party the Saturday before when we went to see "Twilight" and have lunch together. See received tons of snacks from her friends plus came home from school with an armful of cake, cookies, brownies and balloons, crown and boa. If I couldn't find or hear the little ones I would know they had snuck into her room to get into her large box of snacks!

I know that I jumping around randomly, but as I find pictures, I am reminded of events. Matthew came for a visit the week before Thanksgiving. He was attending an Anthropology conference in San Francisco. He did very well navigating Cal train and Bart everyday and would get home between 7 and 7:30 so we had a little visiting and movie time. The kids loved Uncle Matt swinging them about. On Sunday we drove him to Sacramento to visit Bobo for a couple of days. We took dinner to share with him and managed to keep little ones out of trouble. Lets just say no child proofing and a pool out back. When I find my camera cable I will upload pictures of my two December birthdays. Sadly, we left the camera home over Christmas by accident, so all we have are mom's film. I have to figure out how to get them in the computer.

Anyway, Nathan's 18th birthday was on the 11th. He had about 5 friends over on that Saturday for a gaming fest. If you can imagine two games systems, two TVs and one computer, you have it. I guess they were able to link the two game systems and battle each other. There was plenty of pizza, chips, sodas and cheesecake. Plus they got some quiet time while we left for our ward Christmas party. Maybe someday soon our "adult" son will get a job and a license to drive. We are still in permit mode. At least he was able to help drive home from Arizona.

We had a fabulous time with both families. Lots of new toys, a car loaded to the top with acquired goods, and wonderful memories of time spent with cousins. We had a trip to the zoo, to the park more than once, Temple lights where Jaden got lost in the crowd and gave his mother a heart attack, pony cart rides courtesy of Aunt Sandy and Heather. Dogs and cats to pet and pester - by Beka and cookout with Beka's birth family. We fell in love with Wall E and played lots of card games. Dale is fun to play with when playing scum. Read some books, talked lots and rocked a baby for a day. Only one sick child this trip! It was a treat to get to hold her uninterrupted - my busy toddler. Dale took the boys on a hike for the day and watched lots of football! Well that is a pretty good summary. Tell later...