Thanksgiving in California

The rest of  Wednesday we made it Manteca in pretty good time and stayed with Dan's cousin Mary. She has a beautiful house and was so welcoming and kind to let us stay there. Plus the bed there was much more comfortable than the one we have in Bakersfield! Two of Dan's other cousin's kids were there, Lindsay and Natalie were staying the night. We all watched the Lorax, holy cow what a cute movie! I loved it!

This is a picture trying to show the backed up traffic going south bound.

Thursday we drove to Placerville where everyone was gathering for Thanksgiving. We got to take Lindsay and Natalie in our car- they are so awesome! Such good kids and they're so adorable. I'm pretty sure it made Dan want a daughter, they were great. We had such a good time meeting everyone! A lot of the family Dan hasn't seen since he was about 4 so who would remember that anyways?  We were basically meeting (almost) everyone for the first time and they were nothing but kind! I had a great time getting to know who everyone is, who's children were who's, shared funny stories and watched some good football all before dinner! Well I guess it was more of lunch. It felt so homey and I felt like I was with family, I loved it. As we were all talking plans started to formulate for the next day. We were like, we have plenty of time, we're up for anything! So we decided Friday we'd go up to Lodi to hang out with Karen and John (Dan's cousin) and their children Lindsay, Molly, Natalie and JT.

Dan playing catch

The kids making their turkey cookies

Friday we slept in, got ready, online shopped a little bit and got Dan some AWESOME Christmas gifts. He might cry they're so awesome. We had lunch with Mary at a sandwich shop called Mr. Pickles. It was really good and it reminded me a lot of Port of Subs (which I just found out has a location in Bakersfield?! How did I not know this??) Then we headed out to Lodi and spent the afternoon with Bruce (Dan's uncle), Karen, John and their family. We played games while decorating the house and the Christmas trees, looked at old photos and listened to the kids play the piano. They're so inviting I feel like I've known them longer then I actually have! They were so nice and took us out to dinner as well! They took us to a wonderful Chinese restaurant and let me tell you, it was bomb. Their youngest and only boy, JT just loved Dan. I guess it makes sense because he has three sisters but he just wanted to do everything with Dan. It was so cute.

Natalie and Scout. Guess who's winning?

Aww aren't they cute :)

Dan got his work out in wrestling with that dog

Won't some on play with me? :( Aww poor Scout

John was winning here

Putting up the trains around the tree

After dinner John let Dan drive his 1969 Corvette. Woo!

What a pretty car! It's loud and I felt really bomb in it 

We spent some time in the hot tubs relaxing and finished the night off with some delicious ice cream.

On Saturday we left Mary's right before ten in hopes to reach the Frenso Temple in time for their noon session. As we got to Frenso we rushed an got some lunch (In n Out) then made it to the session. It is a small adorable temple (smaller than Twin Falls!) but the smaller the better because I won't get confused or lost as easy (as if I could anyways right?) There weren't that many people there but it didn't matter, we were in the Temple. As always, it was a lovely experience :)

We made it back to good ole Bakersfield around 4 after stopping by the store then unpacked, cleaned up etc. Then I started dinner. What did we have for dinner you ask? Second Thanksgiving! We wanted delicious leftovers at our house too so we bought a rotisserie chicken (tee hee) and I made rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce and apple cranberry stuffing.

 Delicious huh?

This is the Cranberry Apple Stuffing

It's my favorite and the one we always have at home. It calls for pecans but i just don't add them. It's quite delicious!

Sunday had been good so far too. There was a really great quote that was said in sacrament today. "What if you woke up one morning and the only things you had are the things you thanked God for the night before?" Wow right? That puts things into perspective for me. You can always, always, ALWAYS find something to be grateful for. If you can't, then you need to do a lot of thinking and watch this video.

That's always been one of my favorite videos :) Happy Sunday!

Gratitude Journal

I am grateful for...

November 22 - Thanksgiving. Today I was most grateful for the family that we haven't met that invited us over, took us in and treated us like family. I felt so at home and so included the whole time we were there. It was so great to have people to share the holiday with :)

November 23 - I feel like all these posts are going to be about family but I just can't help myself! The love and kindness that was shown towards us today was just more than I could ever say thank you for. But I'm especially grateful for Dan's cousins the example of righteous parents and families they shown us. It's fun to parent watch because I try to observe and learn for when we're parents. It's great to see the blessing of the gospel in families around you

November 24 - The Temple. Although I'm not perfect, when I go to the Temple I feel peace. I feel like my efforts are known and that I am loved. I'm so grateful we were able to go to the Frenso Temple. It's been an interesting experience having the Boise Temple closed for the last year (the closest temple being 2 hour away), then going to Rexburg where the Temple is right there, the coming to Bakersfield where the closest temple is roughly 2 hours away. I am grateful for the Temple and I'm excited to live so close to one next year.

November 25 - Marriage. Today is our three month anniversary  I know some people are thinking, pffft! Three months? But don't kill my joy, you gotta learn to celebrate the little things to be happy in life and in your marriage. I am so thankful that I married a man who would do anything for me and our family. He is a dedicated hard worker and I'm so grateful for his worthiness and his priesthood authority in our home. Marriage is instituted by God and I know that it is apart of His divine plan. I'm so grateful I got married, to one of His worthy sons, in His house and on His time.