Thanksgiving, Keeping busy

When we woke up after an amazing day of Disneyland we packed up and headed to the beach. We walked out onto the pier and watched the waves and looked around in the tiny shops. We had lunch at base of the pier so we could enjoy some clam chowder. Real Clam Chowder. It was so good. 

 Ben had to work that morning so we went to his golf course to see him and meet Cannon, his dog on the course that gets rid of the ducks that make a mess on the greens. 

 Then we headed to Bakersfield. I loved watching the mountains as we drove by, even though they were far away.

 Then we made it. Bakersfield. 

 The night we got there we went over to the Buntings to meet little Max and get caught up with old friends. It was so nice to chat with them and for the kids to play with Sarah and Lincoln.

 Mom had lots of ideas to keep us busy. The kids made hot chocolate sticks with candy canes and marshmallows dipped in chocolate. 

We stopped at Jesús's old office to see Judy and cut out some paper. It was nice to see Judy and chat with her. I definitely wanted the kids to have a picture with her. 

 Then we played Grandma's bells and the kids did such a good job. 

 And I couldn't get enough of Afton. Would you look at that sweet face?

 We went to the park and enjoyed the warm weather and played soccer and played zombie tag. 

 Bryan was also pretty entertaining. The kids had a good time with him.

 We made street tacos and beans for everyone and they were quite tasty. 

 Dad had bought a couple of old motorcycles that we could all take turns riding. I was afraid to ride but it was fun when I did.

 Sara had planned out a whole minute to win it game and it was so funny to watch. 

 Jesús did a good job shaking it

 We went to The Crystal Palace for a date night and it was a fun time. Sara and I got the ribs to share and we did a little line dancing.

 We had to make a stop over at the Gabbitas house to visit and say hi. Patrick and Elena are always talking about Stevie and Michael and Sarah and Kate. They adore them. They were so excited to see them.

 Elena and Hannah played so well together the whole time. They were best friends and so sweet. I was sad to split them up.

 The day before we left we went to Katy and Tylers house to visit and see their new house. It was so fun. The kids had such a good time playing out in their backyard. I'm glad I got to see Katy too. We got married a week apart from each other, we lived next door to them in our first apartment, and our first babies were born a month apart while we lived down the street from each other. We walked together every morning. She's my good friend and I miss her.

 Then we left. I hate leaving. I'm not good at leaving family. Its probably the hardest thing I have to do. The drive home was a difficult one. We drove really far the first day because we were going to stay with my cousin Kristin like we did on the way there but her youngest was sick so we figured that it was a blessing in disguise so we could go farther. We got a hotel room in Deming New Mexico. The Hotel had only been open for 3 months so it was really nice. 

 We finally made it back to Texas. It was good to be home but hard to be away from my family. It was  such a long drive to get home and we were relieved to be there.