Happy Thanksgiving!

Well as some of you know we were out of town last week visiting Brian's family and at a conference for our job, Campus Crusade. Six days in a hotel definitely did us in and we are all very happen to be home. Good to see family and friends but good to be home. It's funny how even little people get drained and out of sorts when away from home for a long period of time. And then just like us love being back in familiar surroundings. My most favorite part of the trip was the quality time I was able to spend with one of my closest friends, Kyra. We used to work together here at Chico State. She is an amazing mom of triplets who are almost 1 1/2. Like ours, her life is chaotic so it's always nice to share in the craziness of life together. Our time together (lots of time in the hotel hallway while 6 kids were sleeping/crying) made me miss her a lot and realize even more how special she is to me. Thanks Kyra!

Brian is home with us all week (lucky him!). No bible studies, library time or anything so it has been nice for us all to be home. As you know from the video posted yesterday we've had some fun outside, more pics to come. And side note, I'm officially addicted to our leaf blower! I could do it for hours, just blowing everything away. It's a great feeling. Mmmm, what do you think this says about me??? We've been preparing for our first family Thanksgiving meal. We had the traditional meal in Long Beach with Bri's parents so we decided to put a little twist on the menu.

• Rib roast- Brian is in charge of this and I'm not sure of the details but I do know it's is going to be stuffed with goat cheese and chorizo. With that said, how could it be bad?
• Sweet potatoe casserole
• Stuffing with sausage
• Asparagus- one of the few veggies my husband will eat
• lots and lots of crescent rolls
• Pumpkin cheesecake

Yummmmm I can't wait.
But first before we get down to business with the T-Day Feast we have some other important things to do. We are running in the local Run for Food race. It's a 3 mile fun run, with over 2000 people signed up! Yep all 5 of us. And then when we get home I'm continuing the tradition that I did growing up, which my mom didas as little girl too. We will watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, eat cinnamon rolls and little oranges and sip egg nog!

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your day, there's so much to be thankful for!

Monterey recap

I'm happy to post with all things considering the weekend was a success in Monterey. I realized that I hadn't really thought through the realities of traveling with 3 kids. The last time we did it we had just one. Three is quite different and obviously harder. But once I let go of what my ideal trip would look like and embraced the fact we are a family of 5 and therefore we need to travel like one, things were much better. We had a great hotel, M loved swimming. He has absolutely no fear of water which is a little scary. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (along with 3000 other people that day) and had fun. We saw pretty much everything. Some favorites were the sharks, sea otters and tunas! Brian's bike ride was quite intense with some major hills right at the end but he completed his 100 mile ride in 6 hours and 27 minutes! So proud! When we get around to downloading pics we'll post them.

I left the weekend with wonderful memories and loving my kids, husband and family as a whole so much more!

Now we are on to road trip #2 (I know crazy!). We leave early tomorrow morning for southern Cal. Tomorrow we are celebrating Brian's grandma's 80th birthday and it will also be her first time meeting the girls. Friday-Sunday we have a regional conference with our job, Campus Crusade for Christ. We are really looking forward to seeing friends and showing off the the girls! If all goes well we may make a stop to see some friends in LA. and then head home on Monday. Wooooweee! Hold on tight, here we go!

Road Trip!

It's 10:30 at night and I've just finished packing ( I think ) for our first family road trip. We are headed off to Monterey for the weekend bright and early tomorrow morning. We've had this planned for awhile and literally, with Mason, have been counting down the days. The reason we are going is Brian is doing a century ride (100 miles) on Sunday morning at the Sea Otter Classic. It's a pretty big bike weekend with all kinds of bikes races and things to do. On Saturday we are going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! We are all so excited :) Brian's parents are meeting us there for the weekend so we are looking forward to seeing them as well. I'm just excited to get out of Chico. It's been over a year and a half since I've gone anywhere. I love Chico but I'm getting a little stir crazy. We'll let you know how all it goes and some pics when we get back. Have a great weekend!

Check out the following link to see where we are going!
SeaOtterClassic.com