CHRISTMAS!

This year we were lucky enough to get to go home again for Christmas.  I am so grateful that even though we live away from our families we get to go home often enough to re-fill our cup.  I absolutely love living here but sometimes I get a little home sick and I ask myself what is the purpose of living away from the most important people in our lives?  I know we will look back on this time in our lives and be so happy we lived away for a while but people, don't kid yourselves its not always peaches and cream.

This year for Christmas we spent the holidays going back and forth from family to family.  The holidays are always jam packed full.  But we wouldn't change it for anything, we love it!

Christmas day with Cody's whole family.  Including all of Davey's kids.

4 wheeling with Cody's dad.

At my parents on Christmas Day.

 Some of the kiddos.  Very excited for Christmas.

 Kate, Jim, and Madi

 Sara, Cody, Matt, Amberly, and Ben

 Typical Matt picture.  Always likes to add his touch.

Love that Lauren is always up for jumping in for a quick picture.

 Cody and Chaddy on the slopes!

Mar, Cody, Chad, Syd, Trav, and Davey playing games the night before we left.

My picture taking was a bit sad.  But there you have it, our not so white Christmas in Utah.

PRE CHRISTMAS VISITORS

The week before Christmas Ben, Lauren, and baby Blair came for a visit.  They had been talking about coming out for quite a while so when Lauren booked a surprise birthday flight for Ben in hopes of making it to the monday night game we were more than thrilled!  The weekend of the game happened to be the same weekend as Lauren's birthday so we got to celebrate with her too!

Lauren and Ben were perfectly happy hanging out, playing games, and eating good food but because Ben had never visited San Francisco before we hit a couple of the tourist spots too.  We went to The Golden Gate, went into Sauselito for some dining and shopping, and that night we got lucky and got tickets to the Oakland vs Sacramento game and got to see Jimmer in his first game as a profesh!  Since we had baby Blair we had to plan our days so she could get a little bit of nap time in.  So we hung out in Palo Alto a bit.  Went to Fiesta Del Mar, a must if you ever visit! Ate lots of yummy food, played games and hung out.

 The sun was so bright that day!

 Hanging in Sausalito

 Before the Warriors game at Fentons.  Blair was in a sugar coma.  I love this face!

We have a huge swing in our backyard that never gets used because we have no small children to play on it right?  Well, wrong.  My husband is a kid at heart and loves to push people on the swing.  Here is Lauren practicing her acrobatic skills!  We didn't have to twist her arm too hard to get her to play too!

 Baby blair loved it too!

On Monday we ended up going to the 49ers game.  I am so happy we made Ben's birthday a success!

Cody and Ben doing the Heisman.  Ben was a little reluctant and first but then he came through!  So funny!

Thanks guys for coming to visit!  Can't wait until next time!!!  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

THE LAST 2 MONTHS

I'm not sure exactly where the past couple of months have gone but they snuck away from me somehow!  Every once and a while my blog would come to mind and I would keep putting it off until today.  I had to catch up!  So this could be a doozy!

We have been lucky to have some of our family come for some fun visits.  First of all in September we  had Chad, Syd, Mar, and Car.  Syd had never been out to see us and had also never been to San Francisco so we showed her around.

 Rode bikes to the Golden Gate

Visited Alcatraz

 And hit up a Giants game

 No pictures of shopping but as you can assume we did some of that too!  Always fun to have the Johnson's/Beck in town for a visit!

Then two weeks after Cody's fam came to visit us, my Mom, Kate, and Sara came for a visit too.  My sissies had never been out to visit so as you can imagine we had a blast.

We spent most of the time doing this!

 I still laugh out loud at these pics....kate pouring herself some tea inside Teavanna and passing me some through the window!  ha ha We get a little silly when we are together!

 Then of course we had to head to the city.  Food, shopping, etc.

Oh...and the weekend would not be complete without a flash mob...right?

Then in October Cody's step sister Lauren got married so we went to Utah for the wedding and join in on the festivities. 

The best pic I had of the two of them.  Maybe I'll post a better one later.  

Hanging on the temple grounds.

Us, Carly, Chad, and Syd at the wedding dinner.

Then the day after the wedding I flew to Florida to help the Young's out in Disney World.   

The whole gang meeting Aladdin and Jasmine.

Me (Vidia, Tinkerbell's friend) and the two Tinker bells, Summer and Laila at the Halloween party.

Me and Barb being sassy!

Me and Ariel aka Lara

Even though we already celebrated Halloween Disney style when we got home we had to do our annual tradition of carving pumpkins.  It wouldn't be Halloween without it!

My Edward pumpkin and Cody's minnie mullet man!  ha ha He cut the top as if the pumpkin had a mullet.  Who say's Cody's not creative!

 The finished products!

Whew!  So there you have it!  Hopefully you didn't fall asleep!

CAMPING

A few weekends ago we decided we wanted to go on another adventure.  We basically threw some clothes in a bag and hit the road. We have been talking about going camping for months if not years so we finally decided to take a crack at it.  The camp ground was near Santa Cruz so we didn't have to drive too far and it was the perfect place for amateur campers like us.

As soon as we got there we pitched our tents!

Then we went on a nice little hike of the area.  It was really pretty with a view of the ocean!

Cody was so excited he even remembered his camo shorts and his pocket knife

After we got back from our hike Lara and I played cards while the boys looked for fire wood.

This is what Harv came back with.  Meet Gandalf!

Our camp site

That night we hung out by the fire and roasted hot dogs and smores!

Like I said amateurs!  Our roasting sticks were a bit flimsy!

The next day before we took off we played with the fire for another few hours and had breakfast. 

It was a quick trip but well worth it!  Hanging with the Barenz is always a good time!