See? The bag says so.

We spent the day doing whatever he wanted to do. Lucky us! After cards and gifts… there was lots of picniking, bbqing, lounging at Lake Cuyamaca, and bike riding through the historic town of Julian!

Hubby was asked a few weeks ago to attend and sit on a panel at the California Republican Party Convention (since he is providing services for them). Of course he said yes! I tagged along and we took a couple extra days to go sightseeing in San Francisco and the surrounding area! It was such a blessing to have time with him and to reconnect. Who doesn’t love spending a few days with their best friend?

~The two of us happy as clams with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background~

~Alcatraz Island~

~lovely stables and horses near Bonita Bay~

~Union Square~

~ropes on the pier at Fisherman’s Wharf~

and yes, those are pictures from my phone… and yes, I used the ever popular polaroid feature! But hey- I like the old timey feel they lend…

Christmas Eve is all about family- first at my maternal Grandparents (Rowe Ann and Arne-in Huntington Beach) and then at his paternal Grandparents (Vickie and James- in Carson). At my Grandparents we continue the odd but delicious tradition of having Italian deli sandwiches (complete with every kind of “salad” imaginable- fruit, pasta, potato…etc…) yum! Its a wonderful time of fellowship, catching up, eating and celebrating together

Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews and Cousins all together again!

Various pictures of…Four generations…

Grandpa Berg and my handsom hubby…

Mama chattin with Aiden…

Mama and Michael…

and The Gill families! Later that evening we headed over to Carson where we spent the rest of Christmas Eve with Michael’s side of the family! As always we had a wonderful time. The food was so good here that we couldn’t resist another meal! Turkey, prime rib, greens, potatoes, rolls… we came away stuffed! Again we caught up with those we hadn’t seen in awhile and just had a great time with everyone. We talked a lot about Aiden- especially since this is their first grandbaby (for Mom and Pop Gill) and nephew (for Aaron, Brandon and Kianna)!

Thank you Lord for yet another wonderful Christmas Eve together!

After about 11 hours of the 5 freeway we made it to our destination-Oregon! Just a couple of weeks ago baby experienced his (or her) very first roadtrip (in eutero that is). Michael, baby and I took five glorious days off and spent time with our cousins in beautiful southern Oregon. We traveled everywhere everyday, we visited the Smith River (which runs all the way into the Pacific Ocean), the Illinois River, the Rogue River -in Grants Pass, and a few small ponds and creeks were stumbled across too! Near the end of our trip we visited my most favorite place-the Redwoods. You just can’t appreciate their majesty until you’re standing underneath the massive grandness of one of these regal trees! Some of the oldest and tallest trees in the world grip the earth with their brothers and sisters in this relatively small forest along the Pacific Ocean. You must put this on your list of “places to visit”.

After visiting the Redwoods we went to Brookings Beach. It is probably one of the prettiest beaches around- and it has much to offer! There are many rock formations that offer a challenge to crawl over (or you could be normal and take the trail around them- but thats not near as fun!), and the rocks near the water offer beautiful tide pools! We saw hundreds of sea anemone, sand crabs, hermit crabs, little tiny fishies, and a few orange and brown polka-dotted starfish!