Wedding and Christmas Activities

About a month ago, Steve's Mom, Pat, and Alana flew down so that Alana could go to the temple. Alana's dear friends, Roxy and Larry, drove down from Utah to go to the temple also. It was pretty wonderful having all of these great people with us. Evan also had his homecoming talk about his mission in Argentina in Sacrament meeting the next day. Many dear friends and family members attended and we are grateful for their love and support - it meant more than they will ever know. We are pictured above in front of the LA Temple (thanks Roxy for some great photos).
About a week later, Alana's sister and Megster, aunt, grandmother and cousins threw a bridal shower for her. She received lovely gifts and got to see some dear friends.
Then we transitioned into Christmas mode for the weekend. Gavin and Coco are shown here looking at the Christmas town. . .sure, it's cheesy but the little kids love it.
I had a meeting downtown and the little kids joined Evan for dinner and looking at the Christmas lights.
I worked the Rotary Breakfast with Santa and the kids, Meg and Erin got to talk with Santa about what is important.
At the ward Christmas party, Ellie and Gavin were Joseph and Mary in the Nativity play.
We also got to see Santa again this past week at the Leven Oaks Christmas Party. Santa has been really busy this year going to a lot of places.
Then it was off to the Brush Christmas Party, the best Christmas party ever. The food is delicious, the decorating is over the top and Santa always shows up there too. Thanks so much, Dan and Mary.
Just look at all of those desserts - and this is just a small sample of them!
James and Lisa couldn't believe their eyes. . .all that sugar in one place.
Uncle is shown here with the little kids when they left the party after seeing Santa. . .what fond memories we all have of this party.
Santa always comes to our house when we are at the Christmas party and he leaves some early packages for the kids.
Santa always knows that the kids need some new pajamas and he gives the pj's to good boys and girls ahead of time. Thanks, Santa!

Thanks at Thanksgiving at the Marin Headlands

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend up in the Bay Area, specifically, Marin County. But we stopped first at Fenton's, the iconic ice cream parlor featured in the animated film, "Up". We had some delicious ice cream sundaes.
We stayed at a hostel, which was built in the early 1900's and was the Bachelor Officer's Quarters for the army. Evan is shown here sitting with Grammie and Grampie on the front porch of the house.
We smoked our turkeys this year as usual.
Our group attending to the turkey.
Helen, Evan and Brad in front of our hostel. We overlooked this big lawn and Rodeo Beach.
The work crew in the kitchen just prior to dinner.
Finally, we sat down to our feast, all 18 of us.
Since most of my family was here, Alana and Steve opened their wedding presents from them.
Steve and his new cousins-in-law.
We played games in the living room after a great dinner.
The following day, we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin County and went to Fort Point, the fort at the base of the bridge.
The inside of the fort is shown above. It is now just part of the National Park System.
From the top of Fort Point, looking back at San Francisco.
A view of the bridge from underneath.
After a trip to Ghirardelli Square for hot fudge sundaes, we went to Rodeo Beach in front of the hostel to watch the sun set.
Steve, Alana and Evan doing a silhouetted jump shot on the beach.
Steve and Evan found a log to play with as a teeter totter.
Sunset from the bridge in front of the hostel.

The End of a Great Trip to Argentina

On our way home from Iguacu Falls we stopped at the ruins in San Ignacio, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We took a very informative tour of the property. The Europeans, in the 1600’s, specifically the Portuguese and the Spanish, settled this area. The Spanish settled more the western part of South America and the Portuguese more the Eastern part of the continent. The missions were primarily located in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, in this Misiones area. The Catholic Church benefited by spreading their religion, the Indians benefited because they received protection from marauding people, and the Spaniards were able to benefit financially. Throughout the 18^th century this mission grew to become one of the most important in the region, inhabited by more than 3,000 indigenous Guarani converts. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, however, San Ignacio, along with all the missions, fell into decline until in the 19^th century it was destroyed and its occupants ejected.

We stopped in a small town for the night. Jeannie and Gavin decided to ride a fake bull.
The next day we took a tour of a mate' (tea) plantation, one of largest in the province of Corrientes. On the plantation, there were a lot of capybaras just roaming around. They are the largest rodent on earth.
On the plantation there was a small chapel dedicated to the owner's daughter who passed away many years ago as a small child.
Along the highway, we saw many shrines dedicated to Gauchito Gil. He was like the Robin Hood of Argentina, who the people believe has caused many miracles to occur. So they erect these small red shrines to him in hopes of a miracle.
We went to the famous cemetery in Buenos Aires called Recoleta, where many of the rich and famous are buried. Eva Duarte, aka Evita, is bured in this cemetery.
Just before we left for the airport we stopped for a milanesa sandwich at one of the sidewalk cafes in Buenos Aires.
Evan and Gavin posed in front of an Argentina flag made of Legos at the airport.
We had a large contingent of family members at LAX to meet us and welcome Evan home.
First stop after leaving the airport? In and Out Burger on Sepulveda for Evan's first In and Out Burger in two years. . .fortunately he was in a country where good beef was ubiquitous so he didn't suffer too much. It was a fabulous trip and the best part is that Evan is finally home after serving a great mission.

Happy Anniversabirthary at Morro Bay!

Earlier this week, Grammie, Grampie and Helen spent a few days in Morro Bay enjoying Fall in the Central Coast. The weather was awfully nice with warm days and cool, clear nights. Here is one of the spectacular sunsets from the deck in front.

One day we drove north to the elephant seal colony, just north of San Simeon. The male and female elephant seals were doing what they do best which is resting, occasionally grunting and flipping sand on themselves.

It was fun watching the elephant seals just lounging on the beach. The afternoon was nice and warm.

Erin and Dan drove to Morro Bay on Friday evening and of course, no trip to the Central Coast is complete without an outing to Bali's for some yummy frozen yogurt. Pumpkin with caramel sauce was a favorite that night. And despite the rain that night, Bali's was actually packed.

At McLintock's on Saturday night, we all enjoyed a delicious dinner celebrating Grammie and Grampie's 61st anniversary and Erin's 26th birthday. Happy Anniversabirthary!

The Good, the Bad and the Best in Argentina

We went to church with Evan's ward in San Pedro this past Sunday. It was a lot of fun to see the people that helped him with being a missionary in this wonderful town.
Gavin had such a good time with the Maru children. Here they are together right after Sacrament meeting. Gavin will miss his new friends along the rest of the trip.
The ward building in San Pedro.
The usual "jump" picture right outside the city limits of San Pedro.
We stopped at a truckstop along the way up to Iguacu Falls so Gavin could play. Gavin will have to gain a bit more weight for this teeter totter.
We decided that we all needed a new country so we decided to drive through Uruguay on the way to Iguacu Falls (which is about a 15 hour drive from Buenos Aires).
We ran into a huge rainstorm while driving up to the falls and since it was late at night, pouring rain, and we were on a two-lane road with lots of semi trucks bearing down on us, we stopped for the night in Mocoreta. Here was the "hotel" we stayed at. . .it was the only game in town so we didn't have much of a choice.
This was the inside of the rooms. . .definitely not a highlight along the route. But we could all laugh about it afterwards (and hope that we didin't pick up any critters to bring home with us).
We took a detour for Gavin's potty stop into a mate' plantation and saw this capybara walking across the field. Gavin wanted to bring one home as a pet.
The trip was totally worth it when we got to our rooms. This is our view of Iguacu Falls from our hotel at the Sheraton - thanks to Ian for that surprise!
The inside of this room is slightly different than our "hotel" in Mocoreta. We loved sitting out on the balcony and just listening to the thunder of the falls.
Brad and Evan out on our balcony.
We celebrated Evan's birthday with dinner at an Argentine restaurant called "a Piacere" in Puerto Iguacu - great Argentine beef.
Breakfast the next morning was very pretty overlooking the falls.
All of the day was spent walking amongst the falls on the Argentine side. Gavin and Evan are shown here at Devil's Throat, where the drop is 270 feet.
More of Devil's throat.
The coatimundis are so cute. . .they will approach people and are very accustomed to humans.
Evan and Gavin at the falls on the Upper Circuit.
Of course Gavin wanted to bring a coati home for Ellie.
We walked down the catwalks so that we could take the jet boat up under the falls. Really amazing view from under the falls.
Here we are getting ready to go up under the falls.
We're in the boats and getting ready to get really wet.
We all got soaked we got so close to the falls.
Right under some of the falls. The falls stretch for a mile or so along the Argentine side of the river.
Here we all are after our jet boat trip up the river.