More Pictures...

 Enjoying time with Uncle Doug

 We love that happy face!

 John Deere has been the family for five generations now!

 Beautiful smiles!

 the whole family

 Mr Rockstar, in action!

 A teachable moment

 On Sunday, Bec and the girls joined us for church and an afternoon together. The weather was so nice that we took the girls out for a walk to a nearby park.

 K enjoying the big slide

 All the girls--Chuck and Penny also joined us in the afternoon

 Doug and Margarethe with K. (Just a funny story: when they first came, K had a hard time saying Doug's name and it kept coming out as "bug" but with some practice, by the second day she was able to say "Doug-g" and was so proud of herself that she repeated it as often as she could!)

 Chuck and Penny

 Bec and Margarethe

 This little girl loves purses right now, even "heavy" ones! She also loves to fill them with what she thinks is important in life. When she was getting ready to go home, she started to put her jewelry and toys into her new little purple purse, then she reached for the chocolate spread and looked up at Nana and said, "Choco-bread?" Oh yes, she has already manifested the chocolate "gene" and loves her choco-bread! I was able to convince her that the chocolate spread would be waiting for her when she came back to visit--and it was agreeable that that was OK!  

I just love the looks on these precious faces! Grandkids are the best thing that happens to people!

Happy Birthday--2 years old!

 This little girl just celebrated her 2nd birthday last week. Her mommy made a beautiful "castle" cake and invited the family for a small party. We started with the cake (very delicious) and later we had dinner. 

 helping daddy blow out the candle

"cool chick" 

 yummy frosting

 the birthday family

 cousins in the "cool car"

We had a wonderful time together as family, and were able to take alot of pictures, so just enjoy... 

 praying before the meal

 The kids table, it will be interesting to see this table grow in size as time goes on!

This picture was out of focus, but these two were so very cute together, I just couldn't pass it up!

Sightseeing

After our day at the beach, we traveled east to visit our boys. But on the way we stopped in Riverside to visit the historic Mission Inn. We have been here in the past during December when it was beautifully decorated for Christmas. So it was different to see it in all it's "normal" splendor. 

 A Pagoda in a nearby park

 the majestic palms surrounding the historic buildings...

 inside the Inn- the Tavern was located to the right of this picture

 the gorgeous furniture in the lobby

 Doug really liked the feel of President Taft's chair, but he shared it with his wife...

 ...and the rest of us! Just behind us is the President's Restaurant--notice the photos of many of those who have visited this place.

 Another restaurant in the outside courtyard; we admired all the elaborate architecture in this building.

 Two parrots are also part of the history of this Inn.

 The primroses lining the sidewalks were so beautiful.

 The women started walking through the Inn and came upon a local Farmer's Market, then just beyond that street, we found a Dicken's Festival taking place! We noticed people dressed in many old costumes, and then we saw the offering of these carriage rides. (we didn't take time for that,--we just kept exploring)...

 and came upon this fair lady and her small suitors...

 a blocksmith shop with hundreds of fun building blocks...

 (castles were the specialty)...

 with dozens of round tables where kids could build with the blocks!

 We decided that this young mom and her babe were the most beautiful ones present!

 I love the irony of this picture--old costumes--and their specialty coffee drink and bag in hand!

 Just shopping...

 We had to cut our time at the Festival short, and try to locate a park for our picnic lunch. When we got to this park just down the road, I realized that it was the same park that Bec and I had walked through last year on the March of Dimes 5K walk. Unfortunately, we had spent too much time downtown and did not have time to walk around the lake that is located in the middle of this park.

We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch (D&M really enjoyed the fact that they were having an outdoor picnic in January!) and then hit the road once again for the rest of our Saturday outing.