Visting California Friends

We were able to see a handful of friends during our time in California. We never can see everyone we want to because of time constraints and schedules. But we were thankful for those that we were able to meet up with. Here are pics of some of the people we visited:

Autumn and Karis have been friends since birth. She was excited to see her and they all had a great time together. 

Auntie Linda and Uncle John

Friends from our old small group. Karen helped me tremendously by coming over once a week to watch the girls for me so I could get a break. 

We had lunch with them in Irvine, our old stomping grounds.

We visited our old church and saw old friends and how much the church has grown. We had lunch with the campus pastor and his family. Here is a picture of the kids in the church lobby. 

Afterwards, we met Julie at Mocchilato so Julie could take the kids home while Derek and I continued to visit with friends. 

Derek hung out with Joe 

I went to Redondo Beach to visit my old roommates. 

Thanksgiving with the Hong Family

We woke up Thanksgiving day and packed into the car. We were headed to California!

We arrived at Julie's house and settled in a little bit before heading to the Hong Thanksgiving dinner and family reunion. This year, our relatives from Northern California, Washington, New York and Pennsylvania joined us.

Derek shared a brief Thanksgiving message with everyone.

The food was delicious!

Our gathering was also to celebrate Auntie's 80th birthday.

Kyle devoured an adult-size piece of cake. It was so quick and we were both too distracted to stop him in time. He paid for it later in the middle of the night as most of the cake came back up.

The night ran long as we went through a slide show and reminisced about the old days. Kyle didn't make it to the end. 

Although many of our aunts and uncles have gone on to heaven, it's great that we can still gather together as a family (60+ people). It's always good to catch up with everyone and to hear about what they are doing. We sure have missed celebrating every year with them and were thankful we could do it this year.

Family Vacation

The day finally came! The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we headed to the airport for a long 12 day vacation to visit with friends and family. The trip started out on a sad note as the kids didn't get a chance to say good-bye to Ryder. I rushed him off to a friend's house and the kids, especially Karis, were sad to leave him. They couldn't understand why we didn't bring him with us (like we did on our trip to Colorado).

The airport was crowded but the kids did great with rolling their own suitcases, exercising patience and having good attitudes.

The flight was pretty easy. We thought for sure the kids would take naps, but we were wrong. We arrived late in the night and it took awhile to get our suitcases and to get picked up -- the airport was packed!

We were planning to drive to California the next day but since most of us (including Karis), didn't get to bed past midnight, we decided to stay in Arizona for the day. That allowed us a day to relax and unwind and visit with Nana, Aunt Stephanie and Aunt B. 

We also got to go out to dinner to celebrate Aunt Stephanie's birthday!

The Great Rakesgiving

Every year, the students at Mockingbird arm themselves with gloves, rakes and trash bags a week before Thanksgiving. For two hours, they rake and bag leaves at as many houses as they can in the surrounding area. It's their way of giving back to the community and thanking the neighbors for dealing with the traffic and noise from the school all year long. 

They younger classes work with their buddy classes. Here is a picture of Karis' with her 5th grade buddy class. 

Karis had a great time picking up leaves. 

Thankfully it was a beautiful day! Last year it was cold and all the leaves were wet. 

Maverick of the Week

Makena was Maverick of the Week for November 13th! We are so proud of her!

We celebrated our sweet girl at Chick-fil-a!