Thanksgiving in San Francisco

Luckily the weather was good enough that we were able to make it down to Ali's 8th birthday. We all saw Tangled on the day it opened- Love that movie!

We had a delicious, beautiful thanksgiving dinner. For some reason, I did not take any photos with people at the table. Trust me we were all there!

The day after we drove into the city with Grandma bonnie and went to Ghiradelli for huge sundays.

It was soooo good! This is always a must for us when we are in town.

We also went to the De Young to see this exhibit. It was amazing!!!

Of course back at the house there was some serious rocking out!

4D

Eric,
Do you remember the conversation we had in New Orleans discussing what specialties you were interested in and how many years they would take.  Very discouraged you said "I will be almost 40 by the time I am done with my training, I will be an old man!"

Well as of today you are officially 40 and have like 7 gray hairs, but you are far from being an old man. I have to say I totally agree with you... you are smoking hot, ruggedly handsome and yes, you look GOOD!

Thank you for always making me laugh, loving me so much and of course for being my arm candy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!

A very sad day

Ming Ming hanging out with Haley

Ming Ming right after Gracie was born

Ming Ming and Rico sleeping and keeping warm

When Haley woke up this morning she noticed that Ming Ming did not look right and Rico was licking her. Haley quickly realized the Ming Ming had passed away.

She asked if we could bury her under my dogwood tree, and we did.

Ruby wrote Haley this condolence letter.

Haley was having a really hard time so she stayed home from school for a few hours to help get all the tears out. Eric quickly cut a grave marker before he left for work and Haley painted it. Haley asked if we could go engrave a dog tag with Ming Ming's name so she would have something to remember her. Then I took Haley out to lunch before dropping her off at school.

I am a little nervous about Rico. If she had an infection there is a good chance he has already been exposed to it. I am just going to have positive thoughts for now.

My tree girl

Ruby has been climbing all the trees in the yard.  I was driving up the driveway coming home and I stopped to take this photo.  Other then the fence, I could not have gotten a better shot of Ruby in her natural habitat.

Grandma Bonnie is in town for Halloween

We had a huge windstorm here. Living on a hill at the bottom of a canyon, I felt like we were going to loose some trees or perhaps the roof.  All the prayers must have worked because the winds died down for about 30 min right when my Mom's flight was landing. As we were driving home from the airport the wind started back up and lasted the entire next day.  This photo was taken before the girls left for school. They probably could have ridden the wind to school, but they ended up needing to take the bus.

While my Mom was here she helped me bake three beehive cakes for the Relief Society board meeting at our house. It was great to have her help in the kitchen, because I had a lot of cleaning and leaf raking to do.

We did let Grandma have some fun. We had breakfast at Morning Glory in Ashland (her favorite stop when she comes) and went shopping in Jacksonville.

She also got to go to our church's fabulous trunk or treat party. Eric was a pirate and I was Amelia Earhart (wearing my Grandmothers Tutu's flight hat).

Cheyenne went as a groovy witch, her friend Mariah was a princess.

Ruby was a fashion witch.

Haley was a hippie... in honor of Grandma Bonnie who is always quoted as saying "I hated tye dye in the sixties and I still hate it today!".

Lucy went as a panda doctor. Right before we left she put on black lipstick and a diamond necklace. She said the other girls had make up on so she wanted some.

Grandma wore her Halloween sweater and scarf and was the candy lady that passed out all the candy to the kids.

After trick or treating the kids all had to pour out their loot and negotiate for trades. Lucy and Cheyenne scored since Haley has braces and Ruby has a space maintainer they can't eat a lot of the candy.