Nov. 2010 - Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving Day with John's family in Chino Hills.  It was a little bit of a potluck but John's Mom ended up doing most of the cooking.  She always makes really good food! 

All dressed up and ready to go!

Where's the turkey?

Our official photographer.  Trying to decide whether to take pictures or eat ... eating won!

Look at all the delicious food!  It was definitely a feast!

John's Dad carving the bird

Visiting and relaxing after the meal. We were so full!!

The cousins

The next day, we drove to Pomona where my family was camping.  We spent the day out there doing some more visiting, watching the UCLA football game at a local bar, and enjoying scrumptious chili that was simmering all day long. 

The kids were so funny because they became obsessed with this rope and getting tied to a tree.  Tyler (my cousin Teresa's son) was asking for someone to tie him up, so Bobby didn't hesitate and ran over to do it!  Tyler was so happy!!  Soon all the kids were joining in.

Tyler is all smiles!

Taylor says "what a weirdo!"

Here comes the rest of 'em

Leah is so cute!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, John and I made all of my Nana's Thanksgiving recipes and had my brother's family over for dinner.  We had a really great evening together and stuffed ourselves once again.

Makin' the dressing

It was a great Thanksgiving and a great reminded that we have so much to be thankful for!

Bad Blogger

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've been a bad blogger.  Over the past week I've had to catch up on FIVE MONTHS of happenings.  It was a lot of work!  I still have a couple of events to go (Thanksgiving, Disneyland at Christmas, ...) but we're almost there.  I'm not going to ignore the blog for this long again.  Catching up is a killer!

Nov. 18th - Nala Plays With Her Cousins

We all gathered at my parents house for a rare Thursday night UCLA football game.  As usual, UCLA didn't play well, but we still had a great time.  Nala was decked out in her official UCLA jersey.

Dixie (Bobby and Renee's lab) and Nala hadn't seen eachother in quite some time so they were running around and playing like wild things in the backyard!  And loving every minute of it.

Kisses!

 

Man, we're pooped!

Taylor's watching the dogs from a comfy spot.

She loves to wear hats, but a bowl will do too!

Come on Nala, let's play!

Nov. 13th - Playing With Nala

Nala is such a character.  She cracks us up on a daily basis.  We love her little expressions and cute face!

Which toy?  Decisions, decisions.

How about we just play with all of them!

Smilin' for the camera

I know, I know ... I'm super cute!

Nov. 10th - Grandad's Memorial Service

My Grandad passed away on November 2, 2010.  A memorial service was planned for him on November 9th.  My Mom's cousin Les traveled down from Northern California to officiate.  Although I'd give anything for us to be together for some other reason, it was nice to see all of the family.  The service was wonderful!  It was truely a celebration of his life with tons of laughter.  He was such a joker and lived life to the fullest.  My Aunt got up and read a letter to him that included all kinds of funny memories and words of wisdom he'd imparted on all of us.  My Grandma asked me to put together a slideshow of pictures to be shown.  I was honored to do it. 

Click here to watch the video.

I feel blessed to have had so much time with him and to have so many great memories of him.  He will be sorely missed.

Nov. 8th - 1st Anniversary Trip: Day 3 - California Adventure

Monday dawned a very exciting day ... it was our anniversary!!!!  We could hardly believe it had already been a year since our magical wedding day.  John decided to give me my present in the morning.  The traditional gift for the first anniversary is paper.  John decided to go "green" and bought me a Kindle.  I was so excited and I love it so much!!!

Good job hun!

We decided to spend a few hours in California Adventure.  That park is never usually too busy, but it's apparently practically empty on Monday morning's in November.

After eating lunch and the Lucky Fortune Cookie we checked out our fortunes.

Since we had never been on Toy Story Mania we decided today would be the perfect day to try it out.  John demolished my score but I did pretty good (for me)!

Mmmmmm ... churros!

After going on Soarin' Over California, we decided to head back to the hotel to hang out.  It was a beautiful day out:

John (being the fish that he is) decided he wanted to go swimming.  The pools were heated, but it was COLD outside.  I wasn't about to go in the water.  Instead, I hung out in a comfy lounge chair with my Kindle.

Eventually John started to even get cold so he chilled in the jacuzzi for a bit.

Once night fell we got all spiffed up for our anniversary dinnner.  Right before we left I gave John his present ... concert tickets!

We had made reservations for the 5-star restaurant in the Grand Californian called the Napa Rose.  It's very fancy-schmancy.  We'd never been but had heard it was amazing.  Everything we'd heard was right!!

Bread basket

Salad

Soup

Pork, Macaroni and Cheese, beef

Homemade ice cream with a special chocolate message

And we also got a cute little box of truffles as a gift.

The day was fun, the meal was outstanding, and the company was amazing ... couldn't have asked for a better anniversary!