Thanksgiving!!!

This year we had Thanksgiving at Kathy's house! It's always such a fun day preparing food while we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade! I made rolls, sweet potato casserole, green been casserole, and Josh made another sweet potato casserole and a pumpkin pie for me to take. So nice. This year we also had 2 of Kathy's family members Dave and Debbie and her family there with us. We sang songs around the piano and had a wonderful day. Then we left and headed up for the hotel in Logan but the weather wasn't super great. Kind of scary driving. But we made it there and the kids got in their swimsuits and headed right to the pool. They swam and swam and they we went back to the room where I got my black friday shopping in. The next morning we grabbed breakfast at the hotel and headed to Preston to get our trees! Unfortunately Toby recently hurt his back so he drove us to the spot to get our tree but he stayed behind and took a nap while we got in the back of Josh's truck and went to find our tree. Jace actually found our main tree this year and it was gorgeous! Our living room tree was pretty great too. Then on to the church for soup, salad, rolls, ice cream pie, cousins, and our program. We were in charge of it this year and we did a little reading of a nativity book and dressed up. Then we got an early start to head home because the weather was just awful. It was a really scary ride home. Jamie and Jace actually spun in the middle of sardine scary which is just terrifying. I was so grateful when we got texts from everyone that they got home safely. That was on Friday and we headed out to Cali on Sunday so Saturday was spend doing our best to get the trees up so they could be in water and packing for our trip to Cali!

Kemp's Notes to Mom

I had to take a picture of these "notes" Kemp made for me. I was working on my computer and he was sitting at the desk next to me. I heard him keep getting frustrated and he kept asking for one more strip of paper. I kept cutting him more and then I'd go back to what I was doing. Finally there were tears and he said he couldn't do it. I gave him a hug and told him I knew he could and I cut him a few more. After a minute he said "there! I did it!... Here mom...this is for you."  My heart melted. He said "Mom plus Kemp plus Tate equals Love." He may have gotten it out of order a bit but he hit the nail exactly on the head. Tate plus Kemp completely defines LOVE in my book. Thank you for my notes Sweetheart!!!!!! I'll treasure them always!

San Francisco Day 3 Raiders Game!

I forgot to add that on the way home to the hotel...which was in Oakland this time we stopped at the Oakland Temple. Such a beautiful Temple!!! - The next morning we woke up and found a church nearby that we could go to Sacrament too. It's always kind of neat going to a different ward in a different place but having the same wonderful feeling and listen to some beautiful talks. Then we went back to the hotel and got ready to head to the RAIDERS game! Our hotel was only about a mile away so we just decided to walk. Toby couldn't hold back his excitement. His steps were much faster than ours. haha.   Also there was a stark contrast between the Sacrament meeting we were at and the Raiders tailgate party! ha.  We walked around some of the fans and then went in and got our wrist bands. They let us down on the sidelines which was so awesome to watch the players warming up. Cash even got to take a picture witch one of their best players. Then we headed up to our seats. The actual game was awesome and we won but my favorite part was one of the timeouts where the big screen had a trivia question on it and the correct answer was "Todd Christensen." Toby yelled that's my Dad! And a couple of the people around us started asking lot of questions. It was so neat to see him up on the big screen. Super cool for my kids to see their Grandpa up there. That was a really neat experience and I know how much it meant to Toby to have his 2 kids go to the same stadium his dad played in all those years. Then we walked home and packed up and got on the road! At one point our car was acting up a bit and we had to make a pit stop to get the tire fixed but we made it home and we were so happy to be reunited with our little boys again. They of course were super excited for their "souvenirs" and we loved giving them the biggest hugs. It was a quick trip but loved the fun memories we were able to make together. 

San Francisco Day 2 Cash's BIRTHDAY!!!

Just like Elle's birthday in NYC we woke up the next morning to Cash's birthday in San Fran!  Balloons on the ceiling and gave him a gift to open of new basketball shoes which he of course LOVED. Right under the hotel was a crispy creme so that's where we took Cash for his birthday breakfast. Then we walked back to the wharf because Toby had bought us tickets to take a boat right out to Alcatraz! All the times that we have been to San Fran we had never actually been out to Alcatraz so we were really excited to do that. It was a foggy day but such is this city. The island was amazing and not at all what I pictured! It was absolutely beautiful! Greenery and exotic plants and massive succulents everywhere! We put on headphones and took a tour of the city and learned a lot about the history of the prison. It was fascinating really. Pretty cool pictures as you can see. On the boat ride back we saw some dolphins swimming by the boat too which was pretty cool. - Then we went back to the hotel and got the car and took a drive out to the Golden Gate Bridge. We had to park and get out and walk the bridge a little although it seemed to give Elle a lot of anxiety. I think that bridge is absolutely breathtaking and I don't understand for one second how it was every built. I loved walking it and taking pictures and then we headed out to another place that I have been so excited to visit...Muir Woods. I have never been to the Redwoods so being that close I really didn't want to miss the chance. I hope the kids and Toby loved it as much as I did. The trees were incredible. I totally felt like I was I was in the middle of the movie Return of the Jedi. Massive trees and ferns everywhere...it was gorgeous. We got some great pictures and then headed to Fenton's for some dinner. It was slammed so we decided not to wait and went and found a Panda Express for dinner which made Elle super happy. Then back to the hotel. Crazy all that we seemed to fit in in one day.