Yosemite National Park, California

We are in Modesto, California with the Woodfield family. We go back more than 20 years and have not caught up with one another for quite some time so it has been great spending time with them. They took us up to Yosemite National Park for the day and it was incredible. It is an amazingly beautiful place.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our wonderful friends and family.

A White Christmas

This is the view from the lodge window where we just spent the last couple of days. We are in Northern California spending several weeks with our good friends Ben and Chelsea Saunders who we lived with in Louisville for a year. Every second year they get together with extended family at this camp up in the mountains. It was an incredible time, in an incredibly beautiful place. We are very thankful to the extended Saunders family for allowing us to enjoy it with them.
Joel snowboarding.
The snow cat that we came in on. With so much snow you cannot drive all the way to the camp.

The cabins where we slept.
Matthew and Joel spent hours making tunnels in the snow.

This is us with the Saunders family. Ben and Chelsea with Noah and Eden and Ben's parents, Scott and Dena. They are such wonderfully hospitable people.Rachel with Noah.
Noah and his cousin with Santa Clause (Uncle Mark).
The children acting out the Christmas Story.

Anna-Marie's 16th Birthday

Cathy kindly allowed Anna-Marie to have a party here and she even provided all the food and a yummy cake. This is the first time since we have lived here that we have had snow before Christmas which has made everything very pretty but at the moment it is VERY cold. Anna-Marie had a lovely evening and then all the girls slept over and went, in the snow, to the mall and the movies. It was a sweet time with her friends and was very sad for her and Rachel to have to say goodbye to her Louisville friends.

Anna-Marie and all of her friends who came to help her celebrate. She has such sweet friends.




Around the table ping pong.



The chocolate game, of course.

Yard Sale

Several weeks ago we had a yard sale and sold all our household goods. It was quite a mission to pack up and move out and get rid of everything. The Lord blessed us with a nice warm day and the yard sale went well; we only had about three boxes of stuff left over to donate or throw away. Here are a few random photos of the kids and some of their friends. We are now staying with a sweet friend of ours who has a house big enough for us all. It is a relief to us to have that part of the journey done and we are now pretty relaxed at Cathy's just enjoying our last few days here.

Sad Farewells

Our wonderful friends, the Trebilco's, hosted a farewell in Louisville for us last weekend. We spent our last Sunday at Immanuel Baptist Church and spent time with friends in the afternoon. It was a sweet time but very sad to be closing this chapter of our lives.

Joel is at that, "Don't take photos of me" stage.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday was thanksgiving here in the States. We have now moved and are living with a wonderful friend, Cathy, who has generously let us take over her house. We have three more weeks here before we fly to California. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day at Cathy's with some of her family and with some other dear friends, the Bishops. The Bishop family leaves on Friday for the Ukraine to adopt a little girl so we will be saying our goodbyes early but we are very excited for them. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday and we certainly have so much to be thankful for.

Cathy had the table set beautifully.

Adam cutting the turkey.


This is what most of us did after lunch. Anna-Marie took over the spot by the fire.
Cathy, Anna-Marie and Rachel.
Mark and the boys play fighting.

Exchanging gifts.