Family, Fun and Surprises...

We were able to visit both the Greens and the Baldwins this year for Christmas, which was a nice little treat.  We made the trek to Atascadero the Friday before Christmas, driving through the night, all 13 hours, which I decided is not the way to execute the trip seeing as it took me 3 days to recover fully AND I got my first cold in 2 years after the drive.  Excuse the little complaint moment...

We arrived at the Greens Saturday morning, ready to go.  We started the weekend off with a hearty breakfast at the Beef Palace followed by an attempt to see The Hobbit only to be turned away because I did not have my ID on me, which apparently I needed in order to get to the theater the movie was showing in on the other side of a bar.  Honestly, if they are serving alcohol at 11:30 in the morning and worried that people are going to illegally consume it, they might want to rethink their approach to having a bar in a theater.  Just saying.  Since the movie did not pan out, we went home and slept... a lot.  Then got to see the niece and nephew ice skate for their first times, then slept...

The rest of the trip was spent enjoying time with the Greens, a wonderful dinner on Sunday and recovery from the drive.

We arrived at mama B's Christmas eve, just in time for the traditional crab feast.  This was Dallin's first experience with fresh crab, still in the shell, so we had to give him a crash course on how to get the meaty goodness out and into his belly.  His comment "I feel like I am being very messy" to which we all replied "That means you are doing it right!" 

Lexi with Obi/Poopy/Ruby on Christmas morning.  He is in LOVE with Lexi

Getting Christmas breakfast ready

Christmas was spent with mama B in the morning and then daddy B to celebrate his birthday, as well.  At the end of the week we went to Bodega Bay where we spent a night at a beach house in celebration of my dad's 50th birthday.  The view was gorgeous, Quelf was played (of course) as well as a pretty intense game of double's ping-pong. 

It was a little windy at the beach.  Note Terri's hair on the far left

Quelf at sunset

The otherside of the Quelf group.

My dream windows

Daddy B was having a little anxiety attack while we posed for this photo

Lex and Brad liked the shower so much they ate their cake in there

Ping pong

It is on

Brad trying to capture some deer

One of the best parts of the each visit was FINALLY getting to let our families know that in June we will become a little family of three.  By far, one of the hardest secrets I have had to keep over the past 3 months.  All parents were thrilled, brothers and sisters excited to have another little one to spoil and grandparents excited, as well.  We only got reaction shots for grandma Dunning and daddy B, but I promise all were excited. 

Gma Dunning's reaction when Uncle Bruce showed her the picture of our sonogram.  Great picture courtesy of Faye.

Instant reaction

That is all for now. Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday and felt the love of their Savior!  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays!