All in a Week's Work

We all celebrated Coco's 3rd birthday. She loved her Princess Cake.
Her brother and cousins helped to blow out the candles.
Unwrapping the presents requires a lot of help.
One of the favorite gifts was the dress-up trunk with Princess clothes in it.
Ethan decided that it looked like fun to dress up. . .but then immediately changed and started playing tag with Gavin.
The next day, we scheduled a hike around Crystal Lake up in the San Gabriel Mountains. . .another 4 generation field trip. Good job hiking everyone!
The kids found some of the snow along the road and had fun throwing snowballs.
Stephanie liked climbing on the trees with the little kids.
The 4 generations of hikers.
Taking Alana back up to Utah, we had alternator problems and had it fixed in Scipio, Utah - population 300. It is located in a lovely valley about 90 miles south of Provo.
Finally, we had hot fudge sundaes and shakes at the BYU Creamery with Steve's mom after dinner and Family Home Evening. . .and then proceeded to drive home in a roaring snowstorm.

Hawaiian Business Trip (and a little fun)

We took a break from going into Honolulu each day to buy condo supplies, to have Matsumoto's Shave Ice.
One night we had Kristine over for dinner. . .here we are in front of the Laie Temple. . .Margaret, Kristine, and Donna.
We also went to the Barber's Point Coast Guard Air Station and were able to tour the facility thanks to Lt. Garrett Faulkner. Dad is shown here in the cockpit of a C130 plane.
We are in front of the C130 plane right now.
Garrett is shown here explaining the rescue helicopter to us.
After a day of work at the condo, we had a short Happy Hour at Turtle Bay.
Sunset at Turtle Bay.
Dinner out at the Banzai Pipeline with Tat and Ryan.
We decided to try another shave ice at Aoki's. . .we thought it was just as good as the previous shave ice.

4 Generations Celebrate Chinese New Year

Megster's preschool classes this week focused on Chinese New Year. So we celebrated this week with a feast of Chinese food. Our friend, Shing, came over and taught the little kids about what life was like in China when she lived there. Thanks, Shing!
Grammie, Ed, John, Alana, and friend Charlene all helped celebrate too.
We all made good things to eat. Ian was here for dinner and interviews at a university. Alana was here for the weekend as well - Steve was glad to have his wife back here.
Ed, Charlene, and Stephanie helped to decorate.
Everybody ate their fill of chow mein, slippery shrimp, orange chicken, beef and broccoli, fried rice, and egg rolls.
Clever Charlene made little red dragons for dessert. . .Happy Year of the Dragon!
Afterwards, the kids all watched one of their favorite movies, Mulan.
Today, we went to see the Shanghai Acrobatic Circus at Citrus College. The little kids were amazed at what these young people can do with balance and strength.
Here is the group that went to see the circus. Another 4 Generation Field Trip.

The Utah Reception

Alana and Steve's second reception was at the Manor at the Riverwoods. Alana and Pat are shown here helping to decorate the reception area. . .and Alana still has the rollers in.
The outside area of the Manor was lit with thousands of lights in the trees.
Alana's dear friends, Paul and Sarah Scherbel and their adorable kids, came for the reception. They were Alana's adopted family over in Brussels. . .we will forever be grateful for their hospitality and kindness to all of us.
Ruben and Reyna Diaz drove all the way up from Los Angeles for this reception because they missed the one in Los Angeles, due to scheduling conflicts. We loved having them with us and being able to show them around Utah a bit.
Mel and Linda Reeves came also and it was so good to be with them. . .with great friends it is always like coming home.
Uncle Richard, Robert's (Steve's Dad) identical twin brother, came to the wedding. It was fun to meet him.
We also had Matt Cardon and his wife Lisa drive down from Idaho Falls. Matt Cardon was one of the missionaries that taught us the discussions. It was so much fun to see them again. He and Lisa have 6 handsome children. We also were so fortunate to have Roger and Christine Christensen drive down from Salt Lake for the reception. We love the Christensen family - and even if Megster hadn't married James, we would still love to spend time with Roger and Christine. We are very blessed to have wonderful in-laws for all of our four children.
Thanks so much to Scott for coming to greet us when we went to see The Spoken Word in the Tabernacle with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The moderator announced Ruben and Reyna to the audience. The program was outstanding today, with the emphasis on Martine Luther King. Some of the songs are ones that Brad's Southern California Mormon Choir sings.
After the performance, we walked around Temple Square, then went up to the This is the Place Historic Monument. Thanks to all of the people that drove so far to make this reception special.

Christmas Break Activities

As part of our Christmas celebration this season, Helen, Erin and Jeannie attended a performance of Tchaikovsky"s "The Nutcracker" at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.

A tradition that started last year is all the girls in the family heading out for a quick breakfast on Christmas Eve before all the cooking, wrapping the gifts, etc. begins. This year was especially nice because we had Alana just back from her honeymoon to join us. We are enjoying breakfast at Mimi's.

Christmas morning and all the gifts being unwrapped!

Relaxing after a delicious Christmas dinner at Margaret and Brad's house. It's great to have Evan back after returning from his mission and wonderful to have Steve joining the family this Christmas.

Another family tradition is having a competitive table tennis tournament set up by Ian. The weather was magnificent on Christmas Day and it gave us the opportunity to be outside for this event. Hey . . .who won the tournament anyway???

Since Jeannie had to work a few days, the Crumps drove back to Northern CA. We also spent a couple of days in the Fort Bragg area, along the northern coast. We hiked around MacKerricher State Park with it's beautiful ocean views and coastal prairie terraces. This northern coast of California was a huge logging area in the mid to late 19th Century and into the 20th Century. It is quite the tourist area today.

This is Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, just north of Mendocino. It was first illuminated in 1909 and is still used today. It was interesting touring the grounds. We also saw a few migrating whales off the coast in the distance.

Beautiful coastal views helped end our Christmas break in Northern CA.

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!