Merry Christmas!

It was another awesome Christmas around these parts. Corey celebrated in his new hot tub, I got a lovely two week break from work and the girls were spoiled rotten. Life is good.

Seemingly overnight, under the tree went from this...

To this...

The girls received a soccer ball and an amazing Lego hospital set to share. Audrey got a new twin bed (the cutest ever), black boots she's been begging for and an aquarium of jellyfish (it's the coolest aquarium of fake jellyfish you ever did see). Natalie got a Chromebook (I know, what?? But she's on the computer ALL THE TIME for school and she'll use it, hopefully, for the next three years through middle school), brown boots that she's been begging for and some cool new art supplies. Always a lovely day.

Annual Christmas Visit to SF!

We went into the city on Sunday for our annual holiday sightseeing visit in Union Square. The kids love finding our yearly nutcracker at Macy's Holiday Lane, checking out the gingerbread castle at the St. Francis Hotel and feasting on samples of candy and cider at Williams Sonoma. This is the fourth year we've eaten lunch at The Cheesecake Factory overlooking all the Union Square action below. All we do is request an outdoor table and we always end up right next to the glass with an unspoiled view! As Uncle Red used to say, "we must be doing something right!"

 The third little face in this picture is actually a school 

and soccer friend who we ran into at the St. Francis Hotel!

Busy Fall!

Our fall has been a whirlwind! Soccer, soccer, and more soccer, along with a major front and back yard renovation (later post on that!) ate up every weekend and most weeknights, too.  But the girls had a great season, ending in championship games, goals made, fun parties with friends and trophies half their size. They both really enjoyed the season and are excited to lace up their cleats again next fall.

 Audrey played for the Super Doodles

And Natalie played for the second year 

with the Shooting Stars

 Natalie plays goalie. And she's good!

 At her end of the year soccer party Natalie won the Golden Gloves award for her mad goal saving skills. Above she is pictured with her coach and our good friend, Bassam, and his daughter and Natalie's good friend, Diala. Her team had to earn their trophy (3rd place overall in their division) a few weeks later at a championship game.

Audrey won a trophy just for showing up at practice and games and smiling her contagious smile. 

First Day of School!

After an awesome summer we are off to 5th grade and 2nd grade...

Trip to Tahoe

The girls and I headed to Tahoe for a long weekend with Lala and Papa. We missed Corey, Ashley, Paul, Liam and Lily but we had a nice time enjoying a (relatively) quiet cabin together. While the cabin wasn't as cozy and crowded as usual, the beaches sure were! All that melted snow from our crazy winter filled the lake to its absolute fullest and shrunk the beaches to almost nothing. 

We started the trip with a visit in Reno with cousins

 and this lovely lady!

 And then we headed up to the Lake where we hit all our usual spots: North Tahoe Beach (no Speedboat Beach this year!), Jason's, The Robin's Nest, Log Cabin Ice Cream and Kings Beach Mini Golf (it was celebrating 60 years this year...I think we've played it for the last 40!). Such a fun, beautiful place!