November Days!
I love November here...fall seems to shine out in Napa Valley:)
We decided to do a couple of little trips for Lucy before she started her mission on November 15th
St. Helena is my favorite little town...
I would live here
Lucy's love language is food:)
So, what better place to live and explore than the Bay Area?
We drove into St. Helena and eyed The Station...a bakery/cafe located in a refurbished old gas station.
I'm not lying, probably the best hot chocolate and scones and morning bun I've ever had in my life.
I'd make the drive all over again!
All the shops had these banners adorning the entrances :)
Finding yourself in paintings is fun :)
We stood in a long line to get some meat and cheese and fruit and salad for lunch:)
perfect food day for Lucy
Other November days include these two going to a postponed homecoming dance :)
They had a blast.
The high school held it outdoors in the quad, both met up with friends and danced the night away.
Clay still calls them "the nerds"...
We had plans to go to Yosemite and then the homecoming dance and a football game were happening...so we took a trip to see Grandma in Arizona instead!
She will be 83 soon :) We also got a chance to go to the Mesa Temple open house.
We spent some time going through old photographs of ancestors on my mom's side. It gets pretty tedious, haha.
But I'm excited to upload these photos to Family Search:)
Grandma looking good!
Arizona is easier to love in November :)
Veteran's Day in the city....for food and art for Lucy.
This was her personal request :)
Ferry Building for food:)
headed up Market Street
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Cannot leave a museum without twinning with art!
It's always a hard sell to get Chester to a museum but he does it for me:)
There was a fabulous abstract exhibit at the SF Museum of Modern Art.
He was complaining, "I don't get this" while saying he could just do this himself. Then he came upon this painting and spent some time before saying..."Mom, I get this one".
Thumbs up!
Audrey perked up in this architecture exhibit with small scale models.
She loves houses as much as I do :)
This was a cool one!
There were speakers playing Bach and they would come on one at a time until you were completely surrounded by different sounds.
This was the last day before Lucy was set apart as a missionary.
We surfed, we went to the movies, we hung out and she enjoyed A LOT of Taylor Swift :)
Her first p day...we took a hike at the Purissma Creek Reserve Trail
We collected leaves for our Thanksgiving table :)
looking up through the redwoods :)
Thanksgiving break...I dropped these 2 off for the movies
and took these two out for an early dinner per Chester's request to try a
new sushi place :)
It was a year ago today we moved here.
It seems to have flown by.
So many changes and more changes to come.
I loved how the sail caught the color of the sunset here.
I told the kids they would look back on me with gratitude for kicking them out of the house for the water.
Audrey is getting better and better!
She looks so at ease out there :)
I can't believe our Thanksgiving break weather.
It's been beautiful and warm in the day and crisp at night.
Perfect fall days.
I'll have to remind myself when it is socked in with wet heavy fog next spring.
Thanksgiving eve sunset :)
Thanksgiving Day going backwards :)
pies: apple streusel, lemon meringue, pumpkin with a gingerbread crust, and pecan
a game of Harry Potter Clue...I actually won for once!
I don't know what is going on here
haha
we have a roll master :)
and a mashed potato master :)
I am the resident tablescape master
It was a low key Thanksgiving but I have to admit I have been a jumble of emotions lately.
Some spiritual highs and lows combined with Lucy taking off for her mission soon while Henry puts in all his college applications.
I am looking forward to all the experiences these two older ones have in front of them but you know, my big emotional heart is bracing for the change. I like change...I just don't like it all at once, haha.
We have finally made friends with the horses next to our four acre wood :)
We are prepping for our first clearing of all these invasive plants but we are keeping some of these berry trees.
Sunset over the harbor from our deck:)
I wish I could get out my thoughts but as usual, I can't seem to find the right words.
I have displayed all the highlights of life here...
so I can look back and remember the good!
But there are some lowlights.
As Lucy was getting ready for her mission, we felt like it was good to talk about opposition in life with the kids. It is a fact of life that we need choices and experiences to help us more fully know ourselves and to know the nature of God and our purpose in life.
They have already experienced opposition for sure.
They just might not be able to see it in this context because they are teenagers....haha.
ANYWAY
This week has honestly been so nice but also so challenging.
Where you have such a strong and good thing happening in your home like
Home MTC...there seemed to have come a wave the 2nd week of opposing thoughts and feelings from the very source of all of this goodness.
It is not easy at times for me to not doubt or to distance myself from Heavenly Father as I contemplate how life truly is unfair.
I feel like I am holding different worlds for my family.
I wish I was one of those member families that seems to live in bliss...but I know that isn't real either.
That's just a photo in an church magazine :)
I don't know why things are the way they are.
I don't know why I live up here and Clay works in LA.
I don't know the answer to why it is working most of the time for us!
But I am grateful to have these moments in my mind and heart so that I can dig deeper, find peace and strengthen my relationship with the Godhead.
Each member is helping me...I know that, I feel that.
I am most grateful for these moments of growth.
I would feel like I were wasting my time here on earth if I wasn't growing.
But like I said before...I wish it wasn't all at once!
Anyway...gobble gobble :)
Everything is good...I just needed to write about the real.
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