Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Southern California.  We've been traveling a lot this past summer and whatnot, and decided to just stay home this year.  My brother and his family were going to come down to visit us, but got sick just days before and decided to stay home.  So Kenneth and I celebrated our Thanksgiving by ourselves.  It was sad at some times, but great at others!

We spent Thanksgiving morning rockclimbing at our local Riverside Quarry.  Afterwards we came home to our little Thanksgiving dinner: ham, mashed potatoes, salad, asparagus and stuffing.

It was delicious!  Afterwards, while the kids took their naps, I headed to Michaels to do some shopping.  I was a little worried about the whole "Black Friday" craziness...but it was very anti-climatic.  Apparently most people don't ask for craft supplies for Christmas :)

The day after Thanksgiving we went on a short hike - make that walk - to a place called Big Falls.

While walking up some stairs to this final look-out spot, Danny tripped and bit his lip wide open.  Sad day!  Talk about a lot of blood...

Danny was also excited to see the snow up there.  He has a slight obsession with ice, and was happy to eat some (clean) snow.  It also helped with his swollen lip.

After our hike we did a quick climb or two up the same general canyon.  I kind of got concerned when the first climb we did was covered with wasps...YIKES!  Needless to say I stopped after that, and Kenneth did a second climb.

The following day (Saturday) we decided to head to the beach for some fun in the sun!  Only here can you play in the snow one day, and get sunburned at the beach the next!  It is fabulous!  We took a couple of family photos before changing into swimsuits and enjoying the water.

After the beach we headed to Malibu Creek State Park.  We hiked in a ways and I was very happy to finally see some fall leaves!  It was beautiful up there.  We did 1 climb and then had to head back because it was already getting dark.  It was a lot of fun, unfortunately we didn't get any pictures though.

Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful despite missing our family.  I am so grateful for all my many blessings.  I am blessed with a wonderful husband who has a good job which allows me to stay home with our two adorable kids.  I'm thankful for all of our family and friends and for our home.  I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!