The Big 3-0

In honor of reaching the big 3-0, we spent two amazing weekends experiencing some of Oregon's best. For John's birthday, we bundled up the kids and headed to a ski resort near Sister's, Oregon. We spent the afternoon sledding and exploring the snow with the kids. The boys loved sledding down the hill - Ryan especially loved sledding down with daddy on the super fast sled!

For Wendy's birthday, we headed west to Newport. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed driving along the coast, stopping at one point to walk down to the water where Ryan and daddy played tag with the tide. After some clam chowder along the wharf, we headed to the Oregon Aquarium. Both Ryan and Caleb were way in to walking through the tunnels of fish.

While we are disappointed to no longer be in our twenties, we have come to realize that while our 20's may have been filled with the excitement of independence and curiosity of what is yet to come, in reality, they were really just a chance to build the life that now, in our our 30's, we get to live.

Let it Snow

A couple of weeks ago, Caleb and I woke up before everyone else and headed down stairs. As we opened up the curtains of our living room window, we were greeted with a most amazing sight! Ryan was very excited and couldn't wait to go out and play. It snowed for most of the morning, but began to disappear by early afternoon. What a magical morning!

Over the River and Through the Woods...

With Christmas came our second trip back to California, this time for a little over a week. We began our stay in Merced where we spent the couple days leading up to Christmas and Christmas morning. As a family we had never spent Christmas morning in Merced with John's family, but luckily, Santa still managed to find us as we celebrated Caleb's first Christmas. It was such a blast watching not only Caleb make sense of all of the commotion, but to also watch Ryan begin to sense the spirit and excitement that Christmas brings.

Ryan and Caleb both enjoyed the car quilt that mommy made, although the real highlight was the amazing airplane quilt that Grama made. It is truly amazing and I will try to post a picture of it soon.

After opening presents all morning, we headed south to Clovis to spend the rest of Christmas and the next few days with Wendy's parents. Ryan wasn't in the house two minutes before he realized that there was going to be round two of presents!

Nothing beats the smile of a child with his first tricycle! Thanks Nana and Papa. Ryan absolutely LOVES his "motorcycle"!!!

So young and yet Ryan has already discovered the comfort of Papa's chair!

In search of something fun to do, us, the boys, and Nana found ourselves at Chuckie Cheese - what great time!

Family from all over the state gathered in Merced the weekend after Christmas for a surprise 60th birthday party for Grama. Here, our nephew Grant plays some songs on his accordion while Maile and Ryan entertain us with a dance. It doesn't happen very often that so much of the family is together and it was a time we would not have missed for the world.