Day trips

As much as we miss everyone, I must confess that, we are not letting that get us down! We have a good cry (yeah, right) and then we load our things in the truck and head out for no particular destination! Those are the best kinds of trips. We get in the truck, I get out the map, Mike drives, and we never know where we will end up! Several weeks ago, we left one Friday afternoon when Mike took off early, and we headed up the coast. Mike had a destination in mind, but didn't tell me until down the road a piece.

The California coastline is breathtaking and diverse. There are beautiful sandy beaches, steep cliffs, and rocky shorelines. About 3 hours north of Ventura is a little spot on the coast where elephant seals congregate. We had discovered this little treasure a couple years ago, and this was our destination for the afternoon. We weren't disappointed. There must have been hundreds of seals all over the beach. They are fascinating to watch and listen to as there barking sounds echo across the water! It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

I have always wanted to live in the hills of north Georgia, but have had to settle for the hills of CA, which has great hiking trails. Last Saturday we had plans to drive up I-5 to see all the snow which has fallen. It has been an unusual winter here, and just a couple miles down the road from where we live, I could see snow on the hilltops. However, we got sidedtracked along the way while trying to find a skeet/trap shooting range, and discovered a nice trail. I almost didn't make it to the top (5.1 mi.), but after a little "encouragement" from Mike, I was able to conquer the mountain (hill). Along the way we notice two places where oil was bubbling up from the ground. First time I had ever seen that before!

When I don't have time to go anywhere, I step out on our balcony and take in the beautiful sunsets!

Christmas 2009

Recently, Mike and I were able to visit Florida and had an early Christmas with our family. While in JAX, we had a low country boil dinner at Melissa and Ray's house for our Christmas dinner. That is Ray's speciality! He always does a good job on the cooking and everything was quite tasty.

Melissa and Melanie spent one whole Saturday baking Christmas goodies for the "Grands" and friends.

I had been in FL for almost a month when Mike arrived for a weeks vacation. Since the girls had plans for Christmas, I decided to return to CA early. I wasn't able to get on the same flight with Mike, but left 5 minutes ahead of him. I went through Charlotte, he through Dallas, and I beat him back to CA by about 15 minutes! It really worked out well because he flew into Burbank, got his truck, and by the time he reached the Flyaway in Van Nuys, he had to wait only a few minutes for me to arrive from from LAX by shuttle.

This was our first Christmas being so far away from our girls, but we definitely weren't alone. Mike's mom has a whole bunch of family in the LA area, so we had Christmas dinner at the home of Mike's cousin Iva. There were only about 84 family members there!

We certainly hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas taking time to celebrate the reason for the season: Jesus!