Wow A Lot to Report. Oh and Happy New Year!

Well our family had a very merry Christmas! I was so spoiled. The girls got luggage from our parents so that we would have something to carry our stuff to California in!!!! On Christmas Eve our family had a light dinner and then we played Bingo and Wackee Six. I won a magic deck of cards and that entertained us for a while. Chelsea was so confused as to why it worked and how I could do it. I think we all had fun laughing with her!
The Saturday after Christmas we went to Pocatello to have a little Christmas with Grandma and Tom Montgomery and the rest of my mom's family. It was really nice even though we couldn't stay very long due to the snow storms. On the 28th, we went to Salt Lake to stay the night at the Whites. We had another little Christmas party with them and then we stayed the night there. Ann took us to the airport on Monday morning to catch our flight to Oakland, CA!!! It was all of the kids first time on an airplane. It was a really small airplane too. Our flight attendent was really nice and guessed all of our ages (he guessed me & McKenna right!) and spoiled Chase. We flew into Oakland, picked up our rental car and headed to Monterey. We got to Monterey around 4 pm and we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a couple of hours. It was really cool!

(This is Chase laying under the shark tank)

Then we stayed the night in Monterey and went back to the aquarium in the morning. Because my parents bought a membership, we could get in a half hour before the public. This provided a perfect opportunity for Dad, Chelsea, and Chase to take pictures without people in their way. We went to some souvineer shops before we left town and then we headed down the coast to Arroyo Grande. The winding road in the dark made all of us very carsick. We got to Aunt Pat's around 8 and spent the night there. The next morning we went to the Monarch Butterfly Grove and watched the butterflies. We also went to the beach for a couple of hours. Never had we imagined ourselves sitting on Pismo Beach on New Years Eve without jackets and sticking our feet in the water!

We also ended up having breakfast both New Years Eve and New Years Day in their outdoor kitchen. Pat made us a delicious pasta dinner on New Years Eve and then on New Years Day we went back to the beach and then we went to a restraunt with Pat and Morley. It was really good food.

Friday we went to Hearst Castle in San Simeon. It is really cool!! Everyone should try to someday go visit. On Saturday we headed back to Oakland and flew home. We finally arrived back in Cache Valley a little after 9 pm. We weren't excited to be back to the cold and snow. School started today and I am not quite in the mindset to be back. My mind is still on vacation!

Although a good jolt into reality occured this morning just before 6 am when my roommate came in to tell me that the water heater was leaking all over the hall and that I needed to take care of it. We got the water turned off and our water heater is being replaced this afternoon! Welcome to life and Monday morning!!!