Gingerbread

We spent this thanksgiving with my Mom, Steve, Aunt Jan and Uncle Bruce at my Mom's home. We had a great time and it was so good to be all together during the holiday. I brought with us a Gingerbread house kit. My mom and I helped set up the house but it was up to the artists, Jake, Luke and Auntie Janie, to create and decorate the masterpiece. As you may be able to tell, poor Jake was still swollen from the poison oak in these photos :(

Calavaras Big Trees

At the end of October we went to Calavaras Big Trees and had a wonderful time. The trees were in full fall colors, the weather was cool and comfortable and the trees were just wonderful! I had never seen Giant Sequoias before, but they really are HUGE! We were able to explore the forest, go on bike rides and took a fishing trip along the river.
Here are some pictures around the forest floor. The trees are so large that you can actually walk or crawl through some of them. It was really fun to crawl through, it was like a tunnel : )















Fishing along the Stanislaus River.




And, finally, here are just some pretty pictures of nature around us : )

Poison Oak

Poor, poor Jake got poison oak on our last camping trip. One of the other little guys that went on the trip also got poison oak, but not as bad as Jake :( His face was so swollen you couldn't even see his jaw line. I took him to the doctor twice and they finally gave him a prescription and it went away in about 4 days. Here are some pictures of the poor patient . . . .

A little catch up . . . .

The months of October and November were so busy, I haven't had a chance to post all the great pictures we took. Here are a few of the highlights;
Jake played flag football for the first time this year. It was a bit of a struggle to get him to play something other than "real" (tackle) football, but he ended up really enjoying it. Check Jake out trying to look tough with his mouth piece in :)



We visted Uncle Jerry and Auntie Julia and Carrie to celebrate Jake's birthday. Jake loves his Ripstick and keeping thought in his journal. The boys also had a great time playing the drums!




We had a great time at Halloween. Here are some pictures from Luke's preschool parade and Jake's parade. Luke was Batman and Jake was the joker; what a pair!




Here are some random pictures of the boys doing some art and looking cute together. I was amazed at how well they were playing and cooperating together that I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. I actually posed Sadie and Ginger together for this picture. By no means did this come unprompted : ) They are better together but not really friends. : )

The Happiest Place on Earth!

We went to Disneyland to celebrate both Jake's birthday as well as my mom's. We were also celebrating my Mom being cancer free. We have tried to bring her with us to Disneyland several times and she finally made it. We all had a great time. We arrived in L.A. and our first visit was to the RainForest Cafe. It was so much fun. Only Jake Andy and I had been before.






We went at the beginning of October so it was totally decorated for Halloween as you can see in many of the pictures. We had a great time on Autotopia, Honey I shrank the Audience and the Haunted Mansion. Since it is Halloween time, it is decorated like the Nightmare Before Christmas.













We went on the Winnie the Pooh ride and met Pooh and Eeyore.







The Jungle Cruise has always been one of my favorite rides. Here are some pictures including some of the animals : )








Our first day at Disneyland was also day that Miley Cyrus had her sweet 16 party right there at the happiest place on earth! LUCKY GIRL! Here are some pictures we took of her purple carpet and some signs. They closed the main park down early and we went on over to California Adventures for the rest of the day.


Over at California Adventure's it was candy corn central! Most of our evening there was spent watching a wonderful parade of Pixar characters. We also went on a new Toy Story Ride, The Muppets Show and a fun water ride. The big gift Jake recieved while we were there came from Auntie Rachelle. She gave Jake some Disney Dollars to spend while we were there and he bought his now famous Goofy Hat. I really believe that was Jake's best birthday present this year. Later on in the trip he had characters sign it everywhere we went.












Wow! That was sure a busy day : )