Giving Thanks.

I don't actually think I've mentioned it once on here, but I spent the last month or so in a 5th grade class in Lindon teaching. Let me tell you...they were one crazy bunch but I learned A LOT and by the end, I was pretty sad to leave them. There was one little girl in the class who reminded me SO much of myself when I was her age. One day when we were out walking the track (they do a mile every day), she asked if she could walk with me. We had a nice little bonding moment and on the last day I was there, she brought me this:

A sweet card and delicious homemade cookies! What a cutie!


Literally that night, we headed to California for Thanksgiving break! We lucked out with some amazing weather. We did a little pool-side chilling...


...and some snoozin.


I believe I've mentioned it before, but JD's fam left their home in Villa Park and are now living in a condo on the beach in Laguna. This is a little view from the balcony one afternoon (note the wetsuits...those would be from JD and the guys spearfishing all day --- a.k.a. JD's new favorite hobby. He wouldn't come in for the day until he had caught at least two.)


Another view, but this time at sunset:


I wish I would've taken pictures of the place setting for Thanksgiving, but each person (and he has a HUGE family, mind you) had their own little turkey with a personalized name! Thanks Ellie! :)


Spearfishing was not enough though... Kurt, Doug, and JD all went lobster diving on the last night. Hilarious!



Kurt and JD ended bringing home the bacon... I was just mesmerized by how these suckers would randomly start spazzing out --- it's as if they knew their little lives were going to end soon (...and they did). Everyone (minus me) had their pickings from it the next day. Yuck!


I have a few more pictures from break that I took on my camera (these were all on my phone) so I'll have to upload them later. We loved getting to see everyone though! It was the first time the WHOLE family has been together since our wedding last year. We sure are grateful to have such amazing family members.