Fall leaves in January

The last day of Christmas vacation, Hannah and Sarah decided to go play in the leaves at the park.  We used to do this in our front yard with our big old climbing tree.  We have missed that big tree, but the beautiful park across the street from our new house provides many trees with the biggest leaves we have ever seen.

  

The Petersons used to walk down to our house and play with us in our leaves, so of course we invited them to come play with us at the park.  It is an annual tradition now.

Hannah invited her cute friend Alison to join in the fun.  These are 5 adorable girls!

The sun was setting and my friend Melissa suggested we try some silhouette photos.  I thought these were pretty cool

 What a spectacular ending to a beautiful January day!

Christmas Kayaking in Newport

My parents came to visit over Christmas break and I wanted to do something fun in the sun with them.  I purchased a Groupon for kayaking in Newport Harbor with the intention to use it for their Christmas gift when they got here.  It turned out that Brittany and Missy were both here too, so we rented an extra kayak and invited them along.  Little did I know that my mom has developed a terrible fear of water and falling in.  I felt so bad, but she was a trooper and mostly put on a happy face for the camera.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we really did create a very happy memory.  I am so grateful I got to spend such a lovely day with the people I love the most!

Adorable, happy parents!

This is Mom's concerned face.





Really big barge in the harbor.

One chain link was bigger than Brittany's head.

Up close and personal encounter with a Sea Lion.
We tried to interact with him, but didn't want to get too close.

Up close and personal encounter with a Pelican.
  He dove in the water right near us and we watched him swallow a fish.

After a couple of hours kayaking around the harbor, some seafood was definately in order.
We love the Crab Cooker!

WICKED!

"Wicked" came back to town! A few years ago I took Hannah for her birthday and then a few months later, Brett took Brittany on a date.  We fell in love with the whole experience and I knew when it came again, I would be back.  This time it was close to Sarah's birthday and my parents were coming in town for a visit.  The timing was perfect.  My sister Missy is obsessed with this musical, so when her husband heard what we were doing, he secretly bought her a ticket to go with us and surprised her at Christmas with a plane ticket and a "Wicked" ticket.  It was so much fun to show my parents the beautiful Pantages theater and share this awesome musical with them all.  Sweet Sarah was enthralled and we squealed and squeezed each others hands through the whole thing.  I was once again amazed at the talent of the actors and the brilliance of the story.

Of course the Pantages theater completed the magnificence of the evening.  It was built in the 1930's and it has the flare of old Hollywood.  It makes you feel elegant and privileged to be inside.

This was the sitting area attached to the women's bathroom.



My little girl was feeling all grown up.



Sarah bought a souvenir shirt to remember the evening.
It was truly a night we will never forget!

New Year's Eve

We wanted to watch the last sunset of 2011 from the pier.  The fog was so thick, we could only see a short distance in front of us.  It was a different experience than we had expected, but still very cool.

Brittany really wanted to go get a Pizookie from B.J.'s, so we went and treated ourselves to some warm, gooey yumminess before heading home for our New Year's Eve party.

We ordered take-out chinese food for dinner and settled down to watch "Battle L.A." before Hannah's friends showed up.  Then Jonathan headed to the church dance and the rest of us went upstairs to play games while Hannah and her friends partied downstairs.  Matt, Brittany, Brett, Sarah, Caleb and I played a few games while munching on snacks.



Just before midnight, we dressed ourselves in glow sticks, armed ourselves with horn blowers and ran over to the park to dance through the fog.  We came home and watched the ball drop on t.v. Poppers, pop-its and a few small fireworks followed out front in the street.

Sarah, Brittany, Matt and Caleb put all the glowsticks on the trampoline and jumped around. It was a cool visual display in the darkness and fog.



We made our traditional New Year's toast and included Hannah's friends.

 

Last family photo of 2011.  So happy to have Brittany home!

Family Fieldtrip Day

During Christmas break we took a family fieldtrip to the Los Angeles Zoo.  This is an activity that we love to do as a family and we try to go once a year.  While Brittany and Matt were home for the holidays, we thought this would be a perfect time to go.  It was a little crowded, but the weather was perfect and the animals were active.  We decided this was a very good time to visit the zoo.

It is a tradition to go inside the gopher holes for a photo.  I found myself giggling as the kids popped their heads up and down.  It was our own personal version of Holbrook Wack-a-Mole!

Our favorite exhibit this time was the gorilla habitat.  The big silverback was very active and he put on a good show for us.

We had an unexpected sighting. We were walking through the crowd and Hannah stepped on someones foot.  We looked up into the face of David Arquette(t.v./movie actor).  I was so stunned that I sort of stammered and tried to tell the rest of the family who it was.  You would think of all the moments we had our camera ready, this could have been one of them.  But, it was not to be. We are just left with a good story to tell.

Brett takes amazing pictures with his new camera.  We have a whole memory card full of amazing animal photos, I wish I could post them all!

We were so surprised and pleased to see that the tiger had some new cubs!  They were adorable and very playful.  We spent a large chunk of time watching them play.  This exhibit is always at the top of our most favorites.

After the zoo, we always try to kill time in L.A. to avoid traffic coming home.  This time we went up to the Griffith Observatory to watch the sunset.  The views from there are always amazing and the sunset was spectacular!  The colors were enhanced by the layer of smog from the city.

We decided it was a perfect time to swing by the Los Angeles Temple to see the Christmas lights.  My favorite is the palm trees all covered in lights.  It was a perfect close to a very long and wonderful day!