Our little baby is all grown up!

Although we have had an exciting couple of weeks, with three birthdays and tons of good times, the purpose of this post is to share the photos of Hannah’s first date. After a full day of fun – bowling, Café Rio, decorating, primping, preparing and enjoying dinner at our house – I stood on the porch, waving goodbye to my baby as she drove away in a car with a boy. Now they are dancing the night away at the Sweethearts’ Dance. This is a lot harder than I ever thought it would be!

It seemed like the hardest part was the awkwardness of trying to get all the flowers right.

Once they got that all figured out, they looked fantastic!

Before they left for their lunch date earlier today, Josh gave Hannah a gorgeous bouquet of flowers (behind them on the piano).

The group

On their way out the door - as Mom is fighting back the tears. Now I guess I just sit and wait for her to come home....tick, tock, tick, tock....

Coming home

Our drive home was uneventful, despite the enormous amount of snow the guys had to shovel just to get the Bumble back up the driveway. We started seeing evidence of what awaited us as we entered southern Utah. Doug said he had never seen snow that far south before. Seeing snow on the red rock was gorgeous!

La Pacifica!

The most anticipated activity of the vacation was our trip to the beach. We spent several hours in La Jolla, where it was way too cold to swim, but beautiful nonetheless. For Jared, Rebekah and Abigail, it was their first time seeing the Pacific Ocean. The other kids were too small to remember the last time they were here - Christmas 1997.

Jacob and Josh celebrate our arrival!

Although it was freezing, there was no keeping them out of the water.

Abi, Doug, Rebekah

Jared, Hannah, Josh, Jake

Josh is either trying to impersonate a beach model or being blown over by the wind.

Hannah

The old folks

Abigail wants to "fwim"!

Jake

Christmas in San Diego

It was snowing like mad when we pulled the Bumble out of the garage. Luckily, we were loaded down with luggage, gifts and provisions, so we made it through the accumulating snow to the interstate. (The fact that we packed lanterns, sleeping bags, plenty of food and water, a snow shovel and chains should have been a good indication that we should have not have ventured from the garage to begin with! ) Fortunately, an hour south of home, the weather cleared and we smooth sailing the rest of the way. We spent the rest of the vacation working around our mountain of provisions and wondering why we packed them in the first place - better safe than sorry, I guess.

We arrived in San Diego safe and sound. Naomi and Dirk had been slaving all day over a delicious Christmas Eve dinner of roasted turkey, smoked turkey and yams, cranberries, rolls, stuffing, ambrosia salad and other yummy things I am forgetting. You can tell what my favorites were! Just for the record, when Naomi cooks, it puts all the rest of us to shame. She has a way of making standard fare into a complete gourmet event. It was wonderful!

Dirk, Naomi, Dawn and Mom mom went in on ROCKBAND for the kids. Unfortunately their mom forgot to bring the PS2 for them to play it, so they had to wait until they got back home.

Dirk and Naomi got a Wii from Santa, so the brothers spent many hours dueling.

Abigail's Christmas Surprise!

SNOW! And tons of it!

Frosty, eat your heart out!

Baby Shower!

We are so excited about the anticipated arrival of our newest little addition - Shay and Eric's baby girl is due January 19! Before we started the baby shower, we had to take care of some important business - like....taking pictures of a very cute baby (OKAY! toddler...) and having Eric open his birthday presents.

Miss Abigail loves her Christmas Tree, which is one of the reasons why she pulls off the bottom two feet of ornaments and redecorates the tree at least three times a day.
Eric opened his University of Utah pj bottoms with a card that said, "This is the RIGHT place!". We are hoping this will help as he is interviewing for cardiology fellowships!

Maybe a doctor like her papa??

Shay loves opening presents almost as much as I do!

It's hard to imagine or to remember that she will be that small!

Papa loves the tiny sneakers.

A perfect fit!

Shay has been hoping for a pair of rubber boots to take the dog out. Mom mom found polka dots! This is super model material, right here!