A California Christmas (Part 3 - The Final Installation))

During part of our Christmas trip we also went to visit Matt's family in Atascadero and San Luis Obispo - The weather was AMAZING! It was nice to be able to go without a jacket for a while.

Our first stop was at Grandma and Grandpa Parson's ranch. We all had a great time enjoying the fresh air and visiting with Matt's grandparents and his aunt Pam. Roberta made me a couple of the Lynn's mini-pies and I am not ashamed to say that I happily ate them both - one hot out of the oven, and one the next morning for breakfast (And let the records show that I tried to share them with Aaron and Matt, but Aaron was too busy playing with Legos and Matt was too busy playing with the "Bill Ding" toys. Yes, that is a real toy - feel free to Google it - they're pretty cool). She then gave us a full sized Lynn's Pie to take home, and yes, we ate that one too! =) And for anyone that doesn't know what a Lynn's Pie is - they are simply the best pies in the WORLD! Anyhow, it was nice being able to visit everyone - we just wish we could have stayed longer!

Here are a few pictures Matt took of the Parson's Ranch:



This one is my favorite:


After that we went to visit Matt's Grandma Davis and to our pleasant surprise his Uncle Craig was there visiting as well. It was fun chatting for a few hours and listening to the story of how Matt's family became members of the Church.

Here are a few pictures of everyone:



And these ones were so funny - I was trying to get a good picture of everyone, but either Aaron or Lorraine always had their eyes closed...maybe one day we'll photoshop a composite picture so everyone's eyes are open. You know, now that I look at it, these two pictures would be great as a set of "Can you spot the differences between these two pictures" game! =)

A California Christmas (Intermission - Random Christmas Photos)

Christmas pictures of Aaron:

A California Christmas (Part 2 - Suprise Baby Shower!)

A few days after we got to Brandy's Dad's house we went to what we thought was just going to be a small family barbeque at Brandy's Aunt and Uncle's house. Since we hadn't seen some of Brandy's family in a while, and since they can make some awesome barbeque, we were ready to eat and casually mingle. However, when we got there we found out it was actually a surprise baby shower for Brandy put on by her dad's side of the family (Thanks Aunt Cynthia, Uncle Joey, and Brandy's dad!). After the initial yelling of "SURPRISE!" the first thing we noticed was Brandy's face plastered 3 times on a huge banner hanging over the sliding glass door - I guess they didn't want anyone mistaking who the party was for. Haha! You can see it in the picture below. And I love how the pink tree just went with the theme perfectly! (And by the way, we were all having such a great time at the party that most of us forgot to take pictures - My dad's cousin Frank to the rescue with his camera phone! So these pictures are all courtesy of him. And although you can't see her face too well, that is my Aunt Cynthia standing up in the middle of the picture. She really knows how to host some great parties!):



Playing the Cotton Ball game. This was such a hilarious riot! Everyone was cheating and egging each other on but that is what made it so much fun to watch!:



Playing Pass the Present:


Party favors:


The night progressed with more games, food, and more teasing between family members (all in good fun though). This was a very special night for me and I am very thankful to have such wonderful family!

A California Christmas (Part 1)

As we promised, here are the details from our Christmas trip to California. Enjoy!

So usually for a couple of weeks during every Christmas we make our annual trip to visit our families in California. And every year we always have to be extra cautious about the snow as we travel. In 2010 we had snow all the way through Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and some of California all the way until we got down into Sacramento.




And just when you thought that the long stretch of road from Oregon to Winnemucca and beyond couldn't get any more boring....well....guess again...


Yep...about 2 hours of good ol' fog....

But again, the good news is that those crazy road conditions were only during our 2010 trip. However, our hopes still weren't high for our 2011 trip. But somehow, some way, Mother Nature decided that there would be no snow during the course of our most recent trip, and we were blessed with the company of the sunshine instead:



When we finally reached California we stopped at Aaron's Uncle Jeff and Aunt Yolanda's house. We also got to see our old friends Tink and Bob (2 of our family's dogs). And anyone that knows Bob - you'll know what I mean when I say he's still the same ol', same ol'. =)

After our visiting with them we stopped to get some dinner before reaching our final destination of Brandy's Dad's house. We immediately went to the one place that we had been missing so much:



Hungry?


After our In-N-Out fix we made it to Brandy's Dad's house on Friday night and had a wonderful time hanging out with him the for the remainder of the week before Christmas. Brandy's family even ended up surprising her with a baby shower during our visit!...but we'll tell that story later.

During Christmas Eve we had a huge party with Brandy's family, and by huge, we mean about 30 people-huge! It was so much fun though and it was nice to see everyone again.

It started out with a pull-string Christmas Pinata for all the kids:


Aaron's turn:


Everyone gathering their Christmas Candy loot:


And a few family-friendly Christmas games. This is a picture of a candy cane game in which a person has one minute to pick up as many candy candy canes as possible - the catch: you can only use one candy cane in each hand as your tools.



Aaron playing with his cousin Chris. They got along so well and had so much fun during this night! If you notice Aaron's excessively rosy-cheeks and sweaty, matted hair throughout any of these pictures it is because him and his cousin Chris were busy chasing each other around the house the WHOLE night! Needless to say...Aaron slept really well that night after the party.


Santa even made an appearance and gave everyone at the party a Christmas gift!


Every year we have a gingerbread house contest between all of the families. Each family gets exactly the same bag of supplies and 15 minutes to complete a gingerbread house. Brandy's dad judges the houses and selects a winner. Since he was unable to choose his favorite this year (due to so many great entries), he resorted to picking a number out of a hat. This was the winner! $100 in prize money!


Aaron opening gifts at Brandy's mom's house Christmas night:


Again, this is only part 1 of our trip. So....to be continued.....

Happy Halloween!

Although you may be inclined to look over your shoulder and double-check the date on your calendar, please rest assured that it is, in fact, January 2012, and yes - you are seeing Halloween content in the midst of all of these Christmas posts. We were going through our many, many pictures and realized that we never posted pictures of Aaron's Halloween 2011 costume. So here are a few pictures Matt took of our little Sock Monkey during our trip to Boo at the Zoo in Boise. If I remember correctly, Aaron's costume cost about $10 to make. All the fabric was either clearance fabric or remnants. And somehow it all worked out even though I didn't have a pattern to sew by. I simply took one of Aaron's old jumpsuits, turned it inside-out and traced the outline onto my fabric. The hat took me a couple of tries without a pattern, but the end result came out great I think. His Halloween pail was originally an orange jack-o-lantern, but with a little bit of extra fabric and a lot of hot glue, it morphed its way into a Sock Monkey.

Christmas Parade

So this time around we have an excuse for updating our blog so late - we have been out of town visiting our families in California for the past few weeks. We had a great time, and we'll get to all the details about that trip a little later.

For now we thought we would show you pictures from the Christmas Light Parade that we went to before we left on the trip. It was so much fun and the floats were really elaborate. We left in the early afternoon to attend a Christmas event that was being held at local fire station. They gave the kids tours of the firehouse and firetruck and served punch, hot apple cider, and cookies.



Rumor had it that Santa was going to be making an appearance there, which he did...only, Aaron had more interest in the "Firehouse Dog" than Santa. Here he was giving him a high-five:






Aaron sitting in the firetruck:



For the record, although Santa did not receive a high-five, we did all take a picture with him. Unfortunately the printed picture is still hiding somewhere in our unpacked luggage. And since I have never used the scanning feature on our printer, I'm not even going to bother going down that road of frustration just for one picture at the moment. Anyhow, it was a great little event they put on for the kids - a nice prelude to the fabulous parade that was about to begin.

Now, maybe it's because I am indoors for a large chunk of the day, or maybe it is because we are home-grown Californians, but geesh - I completely forget how dang cold it can get here in Idaho at night. Luckily the bright lights and fun music of the parade distracted us from our frozen flanges for about an hour. I have to be honest - we were expecting to see some 20 minute long, rinky-dink parade consisting of a few cars decorated with lights and maybe a marching band or two, but I will admit I was totally surprised at how much thought and Christmas spirit that was put into these floats. For example, the first float blew us away; It was a whole stage set up with the Pinocchio theme. And get this - Pinocchio (a real boy) (...no pun intended) was actually hanging from some kind of large mechanical device that would swing him off of the side of the float and dangle him there in the audience for a few seconds at a time. It was such a neat thing to see and really set the tone for the rest of the parade.



Since we couldn't show you all of the 100+ pictures Matt took of the floats, here are a few of our favorites:





The marching bands were awesome! Although you can't really tell in the picture, not only was the music great, they were also lit up from head to toe with lights and glow sticks:






Of course the Grinch had to be there to steal Christmas:




Although you can't really see it in the picture, this float was set up to look like a mock-crash - an out of control jet-ski that crashed into a Christmas tree. Very clever!:






If only all school buses could look as cool as these...:




An awesome Winnie the Pooh float:





This was supposed to be Alvin and the Chipmunks. Even though I don't remember Alvin having a mustache, it was still pretty cute to see three grown men singing karaoke and dancing around just to get the spectating kids to smile:


Needless to say, be will be going back next year. And this time we will be prepared with chairs, blankets, and a few large thermoses of hot chocolate!