New Year's 2015/2016

Okay, so I know today is the last day in January, which means this is a month late.  But better late than never right?  Here are the events of our New Year's celebration.

We had some friends over for New Year's Eve.  We had several couples, and then the most die hard couple, Jared and Breanna, stuck around for a sleepover.

As always, an important part of our New Year tradition is trying new foods.

The weirdest thing we tried was parsnip chips.  I don't recommend them.

Robyn was not a fan.

Jared was indifferent.

Breanna was also not a fan.

Various treats

Robyn talking to Jackie

Jared and the Barbers

Of course, for the die hards, the part continued into the morning.  Jared and Breanna joined us for breakfast before heading off to do some New Year's day adventuring on our own.

You know a party is serious when the Cthulhu mask comes out.

Flying Home to too much Snow

On our last day in Clovis, we kind of had a lazy morning since our flight wasn't until around noon.

When it finally came time to head out, we drove to the airport and everything went smoothly from there.

When we landed, we drove directly to the Bureu of Criminal Investigations to get our background checks done for our adoption home study.  Robyn was super stressed that we wouldn't make it, but we were there with like an hour to spare before they closed.

We talked about going out to eat but I wanted to get home as soon as possible to shovel a week's worth of snow.  I wasn't excited about doing it, but I wanted to get as much as possible done before it got too dark and cold.

What our driveway looked like.

 I was still sick, so Robyn was kind enough to help out which made me very happy.

Action shot of Robyn

Triumpant shot of Robyn

I ordered pizza before shoveling in hopes that it would arrive just as we finished.  It took forever to get there.  But at least when it got there we had a snow free driveway and I could relax and eat it.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

In my continuing write up of our trip to California in December, here is what I wrote about the day we drove to the coast and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The day we went to the aquarium, I wasn't feeling super great, so I didn't sleep very much the night before.  I think I got about 2 or 3 hours of sleep since we had to wake up early to head out.  Part of me didn't want to go, but I'm glad we went even though it wasn't as enjoyable as it would have been at optimal health.  It's about a 3 hour drive, and we got on the road about 7 AM which put us at the aquarium at about 10.  I'm glad we left early, because there were only 2 or 3 parking spots left and we nabbed one of them.

The aquarium was super cool.  I think my favorite was probably the octopus.  Usually, octopus just seemed to sit there huddled up in a ball.  This one was moving around.  The coolest part was that the octopus was orange and then it went and sat on a rock and turned grey.  Sooo cool!

Here are some of our pictures from the day.

I had to get some shots in front of the ocean.

There was a section about tentacles.  They even had a copy of Call of Cthulhu on display.  I thought this picture was funny.

This is the octopus that changed to grey.  I didn't get a picture of that, though.

Robyn taking a selfie underneath the tide pool.

I took a picture of Robyn taking a selfie underneath the tide pool.  That's how we roll.

 We ate lunch at the aquarium.  I had a delicious clam chowder in a bread bowl.  After we were done, we went walking around downtown Monterrey.  I saw this pirate, and needed a picture with it.  Robyn was super embarrassed to be taking my picture.

 We didn't spend a ton of time in the downtown area.  We quickly decided it was time to drive home.  But I wanted to dip my feet in the ocean, so I made Robyn stop at the first beach that was on the way.

I thought it was cool to see all these birds at the beach.  That was unusual for me.  Apparently it's not abnormal in the norther part of California.

I had to dip my feet in the water, even though it was 45 degrees.

Looking out at the ocean.  (Not really, I think I was taking pictures of my feet.)

Standing in front of the ocean.

Selfies are essential.

I had to take a selfie to send to Mellen to let her know I made it to the beach.

She sent me one back.  So it was like we were at the beach together even though we were several hundred miles apart.

We only spent maybe 10 minutes at the beach.  We got back in the car and headed home.  I was so tired that I just went to sleep in the passenger seat.  I told Robyn I might need a milk shake before we get home.  In my head, I was thinking that Los Banos would be a good place to stop since it's about half way.

I went to sleep and woke up in Los Banos.  I asked Robyn where we were and when she said Los Banos I yelled, "That's where we're supposed to get a milk shake!".  I hadn't told her that was my plan, so apparently I sounded a little crazy waking up and yelling about milk shakes.  But she loves me, so she bought me a milk shake despite my craziness.

We made it home just in time for dinner.  (They had ordered pizza.)  It was a good end to a good day.

Christmas Day 2015

I know.  I know.  I'm way behind.  Here is the next installment in my continuing series of catching up on documenting December.

Christmas Day was a lot of fun.  The morning was pretty leisurely.  When you share Christmas morning with young adults, you have to build in lots of sleeping in into the schedule.  Teanca wanted to sleep in so we didn't open presents until 9.  (I know there was a time when I would not have considered 9 to be sleeping in, but while in California, I was waking up around 5 each morning since that is 6:00 here.)  

The most important gift I received were lightsaber chopsticks.

Opening my lightsabers.

Me and my lightsabers

The most important gift I gave was a DVD with King's Quest 1-8 on it.  Basically, I gave Robyn her childhood.

"All 8 of them?"

While everyone else was opening presents, it was important for me to play with my lightsabers.  Alex even decided to do battle with me.

I suggest a new strategy.  Let the wookie win.

After opening presents the rest of the day was pretty chill.  Robyn pretty much spent the entire day playing King's Quest.  I was so proud of how much she liked my gift.

She did have a little trouble learning to not walk into the moat.

Isn't she a cute little gamer?

Of course, the best part of the day came when Jonathan and Anne arrived.  They gave Alex and Teanca their Christmas shirts.  I can't think of anything better than the 3 cat moon shirts they recieved.  That is love.

Snowflakes and Gingerbread

I know I got out of the habit of blogging, so I'm like a month behind, but I decided I should get caught up and record some of the events of the past month.

One of the fun things we did was our trip to California for Christmas.

Upon arrival in Clovis, one of our first activities was Star Wars Snowflakes.  It's pretty much the best idea ever.  It turns out I'm not very crafty.

This is my stormtrooper snowflake.  You can kind of see a stormtrooper helmet in it, right?

This is John's Stormtrooper.  He's better than me.

Teanca's Yoda (or Dobby the house elf, depending on your perspective.)

The other important project of our stay was the Gingerbread airport.  It was complete with Santa's sleigh getting ready to take off.  As I mentioned, I'm not particularly artistic, so I was in charge of documenting the process of its creation.

Apparently Teanca grew 2 extra arms during construction.

I helped by eating stuff.

The best part of the video is when I come in, eat some candy for a minute and then disappear.

So there you have it, the beginnings of my catch up documentation. We're so creative.