Snow in December!

Yeah for snow!! It snowed today, probably about 3 to 5 inches at our house! There was enough snow that I got a snow day and got to stay home! Sadly, Patrick had to go to work. It snowed a little last year (just a dusting) in El Dorado Hills, but not at our house. We were so excited to have snow, Patrick woke up at 5 am just to see it.

This is our street and house!

From Snow in December

From Snow in December

From Snow in December

And us playing in the snow!

From Snow in December

From Snow in December

New Orleans Summer 2009

We spent some time with our church working in New Orleans. We had a good time serving and working on people's houses. There is so much damage still left. There are many abandoned buildings, people are living in buildings that are not safe because they have no where else to go.

From New Orleans

We worked on a few different projects while we were there. The first place we worked was Ms. Barbara's house. We put up ins insulation and dry wall on the back side of her home. It was unbelievably hot and humid. Over 100 degrees with humidity!! And the place where we were staying didn't have air conditioning. Surprisingly, you get used to it after a while. On Ms. Barbara's street three people had been murdered the week before we got there. We got to talk with a guy next door one day and he told us about the neighborhood.

From New Orleans

I worked at a house where a family had rebuilt it completely themselves and they were currently living in a FMA trailer in their front yard. We helped them finish the kitchen, grout the bathroom, install wood floors, paint, and anything else we could do. They showed us their pictures from Hurricane Katrina. They had a house that floated from two blocks away in their backyard. They said that when they came back to their house there were vehicles on tops of roofs, they actually watched one roll off their neighbors garage. It is crazy to think that this happened in our country.

From New Orleans

We also worked at the Big house, which was purchased for $12,000. I got to use a nail gun, which was quite an experience! We also passed out fliers for a free barbecue we were having in the part to the neighborhood around the Big House. It was a pretty eye opening experience when some of the neighbors said they wouldn't go to the park "because people get shot at that park." Also has we were walking around the neighborhood cars would come rolling up behind us and the windows were so black that you couldn't see anything inside the car. Drive by shootings crossed my mind.

From New Orleans

The outreach was successful. We played with the kids with footballs, water balloons, and face paint. They loved playing with us and having our full attention. We gave out drinks, chips, hot dogs and chili. People who came were very thankful. As we were leaving (before it got dark) there were more and more people showing up. It made us trust the Lord a lot!

From New Orleans

From New Orleans

From New Orleans

From New Orleans

While we were in New Orleans, we got to see a lot of great things, we took a walking tour of the French Quarter and learned a ton from our guide. We were there the week before July 4th, so there were lots of people in town.

From New Orleans

From New Orleans

We learned so much! We can't wait to go back next year.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii

We had a wonderful time spending 5 nights in Hawaii. We stayed on the Big Island at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel. It was awesome!! Our resort was right on the beach. So our biggest decision was laying by the beach or by the pool. We ate fabulous food and enjoyed the time to rest and relax.

Santa Barbara

We took a weekend to go visit our friends Erin and Erik in Santa Barbara. It was so great to see them and their son Josiah! He is so cute! The weather was cool, but it was nice to get away from all our heat. Erin and Erik leave a couple blocks from the beach. We had a great time walking to the beach and hanging out.

Summer is here!

Patrick and I are both officially out for the summer! We are so excited to be done with school and we are looking forward to the summer months. I started off my vacation hanging out with friends and enjoying the summer weather!

I went swimming with my friends Kelly and Becky and Becky's son Cooper. It was his first time in the pool and he had so much fun splashing around and kicking his little legs. He is so cute! Check out that little face!!!

Shamrock

I give two versions of a test to my statistics class and somewhere on the test it says to draw something next to their name so that I can tell what version of the test they had. So in March around St. Patrick's Day my statistics class took a test, so one version had to draw a pot of gold by their name; the other version had to draw a shamrock next to their name. Patrick told me that not everyone would know what a shamrock was, but I didn't believe him, I thought that everyone would know what a shamrock is. So as students turn in their tests, some of them had these rocks by their name with "shamrock?" written at the top. Once everyone turned in the test I asked one of them what a shamrock is and they didn't know, so we all got a good laugh out of it!

Valentine's Day in the Snow

For Valentine's Day, I surprised Patrick and took him to South Lake Tahoe. We stayed in our favorite bed and breakfast. It was snowing and beautiful. We went to a nice dinner at a great Italian restaurant. The next day we went snow mobiling. It was so fun! We took a bus to the location where we got on snow mobiles. We were in a group of 5 other snow mobiles. We got to share one and we took turns driving. It was so beautiful going through the trees on the trails. We followed the guide and they took us all over the mountain. At the top, we stopped and had hot chocolate. It started snowing and it was perfect!

When we left on Sunday, so did everyone else. It took us over six hours to get home, when normally it takes about an hour. So we inched our way out of South Lake Tahoe and back home. It was a great weekend filled with fun memories!

View all

Get your own

Manhattan Beach in January

We went to our friend, Braidy's wedding in January down in Manhattan Beach. It was so wonderful to be in warm weather in the middle of January. We had fun going to the beach in the morning and watching some beach volleyball. Then we went back and got ready and went to the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding on a bluff over looking the beach. They had perfect weather and the bride and groom looked great!!

 

 

 

 

New Year's Eve Gangster Syle

We got to ring in the New Year at our friends house, Stacie and Mitchell. They planned a murder mystery dinner. We were all dressed up in 20's costumes. Patrick played the mayor and I was the mayor's wife. We all had roles to play. One of the characters was "murdered" at the party and then we had to figure out who was the "murderer." It was great fun! And check out every one's costumes - it was awesome! We had a great dinner and dessert, we got to spend time with friends, and there was even some swing dancing. Happy New Year!

Fun in the snow!

We went skiing in North Lake Tahoe at Squaw Valley with Colleen's parents and brothers. We had the best weather! We were afraid it was going to snow all day, but we ended up with blue skies! I got some great pictures from the top of the mountain, where you can see Lake Tahoe. We had a fun time skiing and playing in the snow. It was a great day!

Christmas

The weekend before Christmas, Nanny (Colleen's grandmother), aunt Anita and cousins came to visit our house. We had a good time having brunch, taking pictures and playing a fun game of twister! We also hosted Christmas Eve at our house. We had both Patrick's parents and Colleen's parents and brothers over for dinner. It was fun to have both families together to enjoy the holiday.

Changing Colors

We have these beautiful trees in front of our house that changed colors the week before Christmas. I love living in Northern California and experiencing all four seasons!