Nutcracker 2010

Emily and Nathan participated in their schools annual Nutcracker performance. It's such a fun thing to watch every year. Grades K-3 are automatically part of the show and the 4th and 5th grades can volunteer to participate if they want to. Nate was part of the Spanish Chocolate Dancers and Emily was a Sugar Plum Fairy. It's kind of sad to think that it's the last time she'll participate in Elementary school. Ah, time is flying by.

Post performance. I wasn't able to get a close up in their costumes, darn it!

What do you think, does Nate look good in a mustache?

Emily is in back with the long sleeves.

I did not have a good seat, or camera for that matter, but here's Nate. Thankfully he didn't have to hold a girls hand this year. (If you see last year's post you'll understand this better)

Prior to their performance the chorus performed songs from the Nutcracker. Very cute!

Nathan's Baptism

We had a very fun Thanksgiving week. The older kids had the whole week off which was lots of fun. Ryan went one day and did a play at his school. It was pretty cute. Then we had family come into town. Mike and Amy came with their kids. Then Grandma and Grumpy Adams showed up Thanksgiving day. Mike, Amy and I all ran in a race Thanksgiving morning. It was a good way to start off the day; burn the pie off before you eat it! The day after Thanksgiving Nathan was baptized. I'm always amazed at how much our kids know at such a young age. It was a really busy week, but one where we were able to think about all we are grateful for.

Ryan in his Golidlocks and the Three Bears play at preschool.

Nate and all his buddies who attended the baptism. We are so lucky to have such great friends.

Nate with his siblings and cousin Blake. Tough to tell they are all related huh?

Halloween at Disneyland

Well this must be a miracle because I'm posting something that happened within the last week. We spent a couple of days in Disneyland to redeem our free "give a day get a day" ticket. Well you can't just go and spend one day there, so we spent two. One day in Californina Adventure and one in Disneyland and Mickey's Halloween party. It was so fun and was so worth spending an entire day at each park. Kate's desire was to meet Sleeping Beauty, so in the final hour we were able to catch her, phew! The older kids thought the trick or treating was so great, Disneyland gives out good treats! It was a totally fun trip, but Disneyland is a favorite destination of ours. I could go every year if it were possible. Enjoy the pics!

One last photo before leaving the park. We were all tired.

The castle looked awesome. They had spiders crawling on it. Can you see the web?

Lovin' the princesses.

Ariel was so nice.

I love this picture. Kate was so tired, but so excited to meet "Beauty" She had her costume on earlier in the night, but after a total melt down we ended up in this and you can't see it but a totally dirty face. I'm not sure Beauty was impressed, but Kate was thrilled and they are always so nice no matter how unkempt you are.

My little gypsy.

I like to call him Slick.

Tigger and the Knight!

The little spooks ready to head back to Disneyland for trick or treating!

Waiting for the Billy Hill and the Hillbilly's show. It's our favorite one to go to in Disneyland.

Another favorite of Kate's.

The tea cups, need I say more?

Oakland Zoo

We've been to the Oakland Zoo several times this year because of our pass, but this time was special because I met my good friend from college there! Tricia and I were roomies at Ricks. I would have to say it was one of my most favorite years at college, we had so much fun and did a little studying too. ;)

Tricia and I.

We found the monkeys!

Emily, Cameron and Ryan

Ryan and Madeline, so cute. Two little towheads!

Camping in the City

Who knew you could go camping in San Francisco! We went to a fun campground right in the Presidio. It was close enough to the beach that we could hear the big ships blowing their fog horns as they floated underneath Golden Gate Bridge. It's the first camping trip we've done with all of our kids and nobody threw up! (the throwing up goes back to when I was a kid, never a camping trip without it!) Not alot of pictures, but here's a few...

From camping to the beach, Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Kate and Ry.

The thing I loved about this campground it was clean, had bathrooms with running water and fire pits all ready to go. Nate loved the smoke, ha ha.

Natural Bridges

We took the kids to Natural Bridges National Park. It was lots of fun. The weather was beautiful and hikes were totally doable for the kids. It was fun to have my dad come with us too. A fun spot we'd like to go to again.

Kate was so proud of herself for climbing these stairs with out help. She'd get to the top and say, "I did it!"

Me and my daddy.

Is she cute or what?

My dad.

The ladder made the kids nervous, but they did great!

Snippets from the Ranch

I just realized that I hadn't posted most of our summer. Well, better late then never. We had a wonderful time in Utah in July. The kids loved spending time at their favorite place, Big Grandpa's ranch. The ranch sold shortly after we left and while we were sad to see it go we are happy for all the fun memories we made there and look forward to making fun memories somewhere else!

Doing what they love best, driving the tractor and four-wheelers.

A little gem we discovered while driving the four-wheelers. Well the kids knew it was there, but I didn't.

Not a great picture, but it has the sign in it. :)

How cute is that? Katie with her Big Grandpa (great grandpa).