The beginning of the Christmas Season

Yes, Thanksgiving is over and that means that we can now listen to christmas music and make fudge and put up the tree! We had a very nice Thanksgiving holiday at Shan's, Aunt Kathy and Robyn came and it was so good to see them and visit with them! It was such a nice day.
On Friday, we bundled up the kiddos and took them downtown to see the Christmas Parade and Lighting show. It was extremely cold, but so much fun. We met at the some friend's house and had hot chocolate, and then headed to the parade to see Santa! It was so nice to have that small town community feeling again, everyone talking to each other, big "rigs" and work trucks decked out in Christmas lights..... Brady and I laughed because the second night we were here we went for pizza at Papa Murphy's, and everyone who came in for pizza was dressed in Carhardts, flannel and workboots---and it was so refreshing and familier!
Anyway, after the parade we headed over to the resort and watched the amazing fireworks and all the beautiful Christmas lights come on.
We're planning on taking a walk along the boardwalk and seeing all the lights sometime in the next few weeks. Hmmm.... then maybe we'll stop in for some hot chocolate.......
Ahh, Christmas is my favorite time of year!

We're so thankful to grandma and grandpa for letting us borrow their home for a few months while we settle in. We love you guys!
We're hoping for snow this week, supposedly tomorrow night is the night! The boots and snowsuits are ready and waiting...

Love to all!

Road Trip'n

Normally, I dread long tedious drives, but in this case, my photographic senses were going crazy on this beautiful trip...through 5 states no less. It took driving through 24 hours of varied weather, from snow blizzards, to rain, to just wind, clouds and the open road, to pull myself from the monotony of 80 degrees and sun. I have decided that I am now ready for all the "I told you so's" because it is just great to be home. Many people had said that we would be back within the year, which was almost true. At least we have come back with a new appreciation for the great northwest. I wouldn't trade our adventure and experience for the world though. I can now say that I've seen fire and I've seen rain, I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought I'd see you again. Also, thanks for the warm welcome?
Here are a few more shots from out trip. Just click on any image to view it larger.

Fires

This is a picture over the ridge from our house on the day we were evacuated from the fires. I think it ended up coming to within 4 miles or so, but at this point it was probably 10 miles from us. It was too smoky so we "evacuated" ourselves to mom's house,where they had the humidifier going full strength, and then got the mandatory evacuation order shortly after we arrived there. It was a crazy day! We tried later in the evening to go back in but they had everything completely blocked with Police cars and National Guard and weren't letting anyone cross the I-15 back to Scripps Ranch and Poway. So we spent the night at Jerry and Jessica's, and were able to go back the next afternoon. It was crowded, as Jer and Jess had Johnny and Brooke Pearson in town for the weekend, so we were all crowded into their 1 bedroom apartment. But, they were so nice and hospitable and fed and sheltered us until we could go home. :>)

In other unrelated news.....

Everyone probably already knows that we are moving back this weekend!
We are very excited to go home, and have snow for Christmas, and see all of our friends and family again!
See you all soon!

It's a......................

GIRL!!!
Yay! Her name is Lilah.

Halloween

We took our adorable little ones to our Churches Harvest Party on Halloween. They bring in all kinds of carnival rides and games and give out loads of candy (of course). They had tons of fun and ate way too much candy and promptly got sick with colds by the weekend! It was fun.