Jennie-Kay's 1st Birthday

This sweet girl celebrated her first birthday today.  The Niemeyer's were sweet enough to invite us to the celebration.  

We enjoyed catching up with all of the family and watching Jennie-Kay smile as we sang "Happy Birthday".  She really enjoyed her personal "smash" cake and loved being the center of attention!

Torrey Pines

The weather was too good for a night at the drive-in, so we had a sudden change of plans for a hike at Torrey Pines!

Tank tops in December...I'll take it!

We hiked the beach trail down to the water, with a few nice overlooks along the way.

After about a mile, we ended up hiking down this trail that led to the staircase and onto the beach.

 We walked along the water and played with some sea anemones in a small tide pool area before walking along the beach back to the car.

I've been wanting to try Las Olas in Cardiff and everyone agreed that sounded good.  Leslie and I split this yummy flight of margaritas 

 and my tostada was delicious!  We all loved this place!

The day wouldn't be complete without dessert.  Reanna found this gem on her phone...Handel's Homemade Ice Cream in Encinitas.  The line out the door was a good sign and the wait was well worth it!

Holiday Bowl

Matt got free tix to the Holiday Bowl through work so we picked him up at work and headed to Qualcomm this afternoon.  Washington State Cougars were playing against the University of Minnesota Gophers.

Some naval divers made quite the entrance and 

 the National Anthem was pretty powerful.

 The pre-game ended with military helicopter fly by.

 We weren't really cheering for any team in particular, but happened to be seated in the WSU section so found ourselves cheering with those fans.

 It was a low scoring and pretty uneventful game, but the half time show was pretty amazing with music, fireworks and both bands performing.

I think the highlight was the streaker who stormed the field in the 2nd half that faked out numerous security officers and made it all 100 yards of the field!  Minnesota got the win and we had a fun family night!

Christmas 2016

 After all of the hustle and bustle that takes over most of December, this is the time that makes it all worth it. We got a few quick pictures before heading out to Christmas Eve service.

Papa picked up Grandma to go to St. Catherine's and we went to Rancho for the candlelight service. 

We had a little time before our dinner reservation at Francesca's so we went to check out the lights in Old Town.  City Hall and the ice skating rink looked so pretty!

On Christmas morning, I made a breakfast casserole and some banana bread and we enjoyed a mellow morning before opening presents.  Kaia was excited too!

The girls opened their stockings and did the traditional scratching of the lottery tickets. No big winners, but they each claimed a few dollars.

Papa got some new coffee, books, some movie passes and clothes

 Grandma loved her new calendar and earrings and cap and gown picture of Taylor.

Matt got basketball tix, a My Pillow, some shirts, new pens, grill accessories and lots of little goodies.  He especially loved that Taylor wrapped her Varsity soccer and academic letters for him!

Allison seemed to get all things Nike and sports related and she seemed quite happy!  She is excited for some extra shopping with her gift cards and her upcoming trip to Disney.

Taylor got stocked up on some winter clothes and jackets for college and got a few things for her upcoming travel to Europe.

 Even Kaia got some new toys and treats!

We spent most of the afternoon watching basketball games and doing this fun new puzzle, while waiting for dinner to be ready.

 Done in 1 day!

After dinner, we ate pumpkin pie and played our new favorite game from the Brink's, Tripoly.

Merry Christmas to all!

Holiday Spirit in SD

Leslie and I were looking for something to put us into the Christmas spirit.  Unfortunately, Lauren couldn't get the day off of work, but we took the rest of the girls down to SD for the Festival of Lights Boat Parade.  We made a day of it with some shopping at Horton Plaza and lunch at Panera.

Then we parked near Petco Park and spent a few hours at the ice skating rink next to the Hilton BayFront.  It was a beautifully clear, warm San Diego day and the rink wasn't crowded at all.  

 We loved listening to the Christmas music and looking at this fantastic view.  

 We popped into the hotel lobby to check out the life-sized gingerbread house before walking down to Seaport Village to get dinner.

 The sun was setting over the marina and it was such a pretty night to walk around.

The line for pizza was quite long so the girls walked ahead to get us a good spot to view the parade.  We ate our pizza along the rocks while we waited for it to start.

Most of the boats had very festive decorations and Christmas music and it was a fun event to put us in the Christmas spirit!

Future Aztec?

Taylor's 3rd college acceptance came by email today!  She was offered early admission based on her achievements!  Will she be a future Aztec?  I don't think it is at the top of her list, but SDSU has gotten pretty difficult to get into so she should be very proud.  2 more schools to go and then hopefully she can finally confirm her decision!

It's Official!

This keeper of ours made the paper everyday last week for her efforts on the Varsity team!  It has been so nice having the coaches praise Allison and help build her confidence.  She was asked to play Varsity in all 4 games last week and did an excellent job!

Today, they made it official and asked her to join the Varsity team permanently! Coach Lanie (JV Coach) announced it in front of the JV team and then Coach B and Coach K shared the news with the Varsity team.  The support has been wonderful and I'm anxious to see her shine.  She traded in her JV jersey and picked up this Varsity one today at school.  She came home to donuts and a balloon bouquet.  Way to go Allison!

And to top it all off...this was her fortune tonight!