THANKSGIVING

This year the day after Thanksgiving we traveled to Merced, CA to visit Steven's Aunt Donna and Uncle Bob. We stayed until Sunday morning and had a wonderful time spending time with family we don't see very often.

Uncle Bob works with glass as a hobby. He makes bowls and platters in a kiln as well as stained glass windows and just about anything you can think of. These two windows are in the master bath in their home. My favorite is the sunflower.

This is a mural in their kitchen. I love it!!

Uncle Bob is a dentist and so are all of his sons. This is his biggest project in the office of one of his sons.

Thanks Aunt Donna, Uncle Bob, and clan for entertaning us!

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Thanksgiving day we had lunch with some friends in the ward. Here are some pictures of my first Thanksgiving away from home successes:

Gi-normo-rolls:

Pumpkin cheesecake-Yum!

Cranberry-turkey gravy. YUM!!

Even though we are going home for most of December, I put up my Christmas tree this year the week of Thanksgiving so we could get in the holiday mood. Here's picture:

And what you all really want to know: What has Jackson been up to?!

Reading the Book of Mormon

Sweeping the floor.

Checking out the wildlife up close and personal.

This is a sealion/seal that came up on the beach. The surf you can see is the edge of the water where the beach starts. He came up and looked at us for a little while. He is swimming away in this picture.

One more fish to the list

We tried really hard to get a calico bass. But they are more ellusive and hang out in deeper waters were weanies like me have a hard time getting to them. I hit one but my spear didn't penetrate. then Bridger shot one and took it off his spear to put on the stringer and it slipped out of his hands into the blue yonder. Next time the calico bass is on the hit list.

This is a rubber lipped surfperch. it is almost 15 inches long and just over 2 pounds. I dont feel to bad about the size considering the state record is 18 inches.

The ugliest fish in the sea

This is a fish I shot spear fishing on tuesday.

It is called a cabezone, and as you can tell the head is huge.
Next on the list a calico bass. Wish me luck.

It is a type of rockfish but to me it looks like a glorified bullhead from a stream in idaho. I shot a bigger one the second time i went but it got off the spear and swam away.

common stuff

I've been getting up early to take a few kids to early morning seminary and then I meet up with some girls in the ward to go running a few days a week, and so my wimpy self likes to take naps when the opportunity arises!

Jackson has been pretty tired too, it seems!

Jackson has also reached a point where he refuses to let anyone else wield the spoon in his behalf. It can be a very messy ordeal. Although I'm pushing for a compromise, it's a fight to assist him. It comes with screams and tears.

Love that applesauce!

As the anti-shopper-for-clothes person I am, I would like to announce that it was decided that Jackson really needed some new jammies since his bedroom is FREEZING at night and his feet popped out of his old footie pajamas. So I am happy to say that I found the cutest little monster pajamas for Jackson (at Ross, my favorite store). I have included pictures for your enjoyment.

Here is Jackson throwing away his own diaper. He does this regularly.

The other thing Jackson loves, is to help out in the kitchen. I can't make anything without him wanting to be in the middle of things. I try to let him stir whenever possible.

Jackson is developing such a cute little personality, just love him!

more than just instinct

Today Steve was sitting on the couch putting on his socks, preparing to leave for school. Since our beach trip Saturday his shoes have been in the bathroom. Jackson disappeared and reappeared, walked up to Steven and handed him his shoes! We both were amazed! Unprompted Jackson found Steven's shoes, which were NOT in their regular place, and helped dad get ready for school. As Steve was leaving Jackson waved and said bye-bye and then gave him a kiss (thanks to Aunt Jenna for teaching Jackson to give proper and nice little boy kisses at appropriate times!) Our little boy is growing up fast!

jenna says goodbye

Saturday we invited some friends from the ward to go to the beach and of course spear-fishing. It was Jenna's last hoo-rah before heading back to the snowcovered Idaho. To celebrate she saved the life of a star fish, who was being carried away by a seagull, the kids (and adults) thought it was pretty cool to play with.

Steve spent his time (after becoming sufficiently hypothermic and killing a perch) burrying the kids in the sand.

I played volleyball with the Sorensons (and Jackson).

It was just another relaxing day at the beach. Sometimes I feel like we are wasting our time sitting around at the beach, but then this quote by President Uchtdorf from conference comes to mind, "Listen for the voice of the Father in the bounties and beauties of nature..." (The Love of God) So that's what I claim to be doing, listening for the "gentle whisperings of the Spirit". And Jackson is just having a lot of fun!

Thanks for staying with us Jenna, it was a lot of fun to have a perma-buddy! We miss you!

more spearfishing

Wednesday Steve got out of school early so we made the trek to the beach so he could do some spearfishing. I will say, this was the first time Jackson was able to just run around and enjoy the beach, he had a great time playing in the sand and chasing the seagulls.

I'm not quite sure what Steve is doing, because the spear tip is in the air, but he looks cool!

Here we are just watching the waves and enjoying the evening! It was just one of those good days.

The Huntington

Since Jenna's nanny-job fell through end of October, she's been staying at our place. She is now our slave. She gets to baby-sit Jackson on the days after I work. Here they are hanging together.

Thursday we went, for the first time, to The Huntington Library and Gardens. It was AMAZING. I was blown away. There are acres of themed gardens and beautiful buildings. The Huntington is an estate that belonged to a wealthy businessman in Pasadena who dedicated himself to collecting rare books and art work, leaving it all to a trust dedicated to education and research. They have some old books that people study from along with many other educational seminars and exhibits and school programs. Not to mention the beautiful gardens. Jen and I were able to take Jackson to free day, and I can't wait to go back! Visitors, you now have something new to look forward to, this is definitely a must-see!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Ok, so I am a lame parent- this is my poor excuse for a halloween costume for Jackson. This sweatshirt with a pumpkin face hood that Jenna brought Jackson from Idaho. Added to it Madison's orange and black striped pants.



Steve went spear-fishing Halloween morning. This is the perch he caught in the way of the ancients! I had to work, but Steve and Jenna tried it out, I heard it was tasty!

Family, here is a halloween teaser, us in our costumes. I will edit this post later, add more pictures. Tired, worked all night. Yes, that is a real mullet.