Our Last Weeks in California

Once we made the decision for Nathan to accept the position at Harvest, life got crazy! Nathan had less than 2 weeks to wrap things up in California and we made the most of that time - packing, painting, putting our home up for sale, visiting with friends and family, and celebrating his birthday. Then Barb and the kids had a few extra weeks to finish up the rest of the packing and have as much play time with friends as we could possibly fit in. Here are LOTS of pictures from some of the things we did...

We celebrated Nathan's birthday a few days early at Lure Fish House in Camarillo. We love this place, so it was fun to enjoy one more dinner there with the Thomas family.

After dinner we went to Universal City Walk where these 3 kiddos ran til they dropped

While the others were running around, Nathan and Micah suited up for a flight in the wind tunnel. Nathan's request for his birthday this year was for him and Micah to do this together.

Nathan had a lot of time in the wind tunnel at Ft. Bragg, but it's been many years since then. It all came back easily though and he had fun flying around and showing Micah how to do it!

Next came Micah's turn. He did GREAT! And he even had good form with his arms! Good job Micah!

After Nathan stepped out, the instructor flew him up high. Micah loved it!

Way to go boys!!

Ashlyn enjoyed one last trip to our pool, but she insisted on wearing her new boots that she gets to take to Chicago! I don't think she'll be wearing this outfit there though - at least not this winter!

We were excited to be able to enjoy one more Harvest Party with our good friends, the Sedy's. It was a beautiful day to hang out outside!

Good Friends!

Although the kids were eager to carve pumpkins, the Daddy's ended up doing much of the work.

Having fun in the dirt

However dirt is never quite enough for Micah. He found a way to make mud and brought Bethany along to join him in the fun. These were two muddy kids!

We love to spend time with the Sedy family!

Kristin has grown to be one of my closest friends over the last several years. I am so thankful for her godly example, encouragement, and friendship through many ups and downs in our lives! Her friendship is such a sweet blessing from the Lord and I will miss her terribly! But I'm thankful for the many means of communication we now have to keep up friendships across the miles.

 

 

We made a quick trip up to Sacramento to visit Aunt Tasha and Grandpa Tom. And we discovered that we'd never taken our kids to a buffet before. Micah was on overload with all his choices at the Golden Corral.

Celebrating Nathan's birthday with Doug and Matt. Thanks for the wonderful dinner Jenny! It was such a blessing to have a place to celebrate in the midst of our craziness.

Tea Time with Aunt Bonnie! Bonnie bought Ashlyn this beautiful princess-like dress for her birthday and it was perfect to wear for a dress-up tea party. This was actually a late celebration of Bonnie's birthday, but we finally made the time to get it into the schedule. Ashlyn sure does love her Aunt Bonnie! Ever since she was a baby, Bonnie has been the only one (aside from Nathan and I) that she is always willing to go to.

We are so thankful for the many wonderful Sunday School teachers Micah has had during our time at PBC. A few of them are some of our closest friends now. Here's Micah with his most recent teacher, Miss Kimmy. We will miss her!

Ashlyn called this our "Chloe Date" and she was so excited about it. Taking kitty in the car! What could be more fun than that? She had played with Chloe's cage for a few weeks prior to this and was thrilled when it came time to actually put her into it. I don't think she quite understood what it meant though. We decided that it was going to be too difficult to take Chloe to Chicago with us so Bonnie and Micah graciously offered to take her for us. Not easy for me, but it was really the perfect solution - Bonnie lived with us when we first got Chloe over 10 years ago and she also lived with Bonnie for 6 months during our time away in Israel - so Bonnie and her family is who she knows best, aside from us. And she has adapted beautifully to her new home. Ashlyn, on the other hand, is having a harder time. She has gotten very into animals in the last few months and was more attached than I thought. I realized today how very much she is missing her kitty when she tearfully asked to see her again. I tried to tell her that maybe we could get a fish like her friend Bethany's when we get to Chicago. She looked at me with a very disturbed face though and informed me, "You can't pet a fish."

 

 

Both kids got one more haircut with our favorite hair stylist - Myra, at Kids Cuts and Waves

Moving Day! Micah was so excited about packing up the truck. But the best part about it, was that the truck being delivered meant Daddy was home again! It was only a few days in the midst of several weeks of being apart, but we were sure thankful to see him again. And we are counting down the days until he joins us in Idaho and we don't have to be apart anymore.

We were so grateful for the 10 men who came to help load up our truck! God graciously answered many prayers in relation to our moving experience and this truck and it being loaded up in about 4 hours was one of them. We had some great packers - they filled up every little space they could and we used less space on the truck than we had anticipated, which means we saved a little from what we had budgeted. Yay!

All tired out at the end of a busy day

Micah enjoyed watching the trailer get loaded onto the truck

One last family picture in front of our home. It was harder to leave the house than I had thought. So many memories that we made there. We're thankful for God's hand in each one of those and the wonderful blessing that this home has been for us. And we were thrilled to get an offer on our home the day after we moved out! Now we're praying for God's hand in working out the details to finalize the sale.

Nathan was home just in time to celebrate my birthday. But with nothing left in our home, our kids were concerned about how we were going to have Breakfast Birthday Cake, our family tradition. Nathan had it under control though and didn't miss a beat in planning an alternate location to continue on our tradition. Thank you Nathan! You were so thoughtful to be focused on my birthday in the midst of such craziness! And thanks for sharing your home Robinsons! We are going to miss having such wonderful neighbors!

The celebration continued at lunch with a special meal and dessert at Bonnie's house

And when Nana offered to watch the kids so we could all go out to eat at Lure, we jumped at the chance! I branched out and tried the Idaho Almondine Trout. It was wonderful! But my favorite still lies with the Salmon.

~Sisters~

 

 

It has been such a blessing to live near my sister for so many years! Thanks for doing so much to make my birthday special this year Bonnie! I love you and will miss you more than words could ever say! I'm so thankful to the Lord that He made you my sister!

Thankful I was still here to celebrate Baby Morales. Auntie Vonna has been such a special part of our family for several years. We're sad that we're moving so far away just as she is awaiting her own little one, but we're looking forward to seeing lots of pictures once she arrives! (Hint, Hint)

Good buddies ~ Micah and Daniel

Micah and Daniel first got to know each other in Cubbies when they were four, when both their moms were Cubbie leaders together. With not too many boys their age at church we were eager to set up play dates for these rambunctious little boys. They really got to be good friends though when their family moved closer to us and we worked out a date night swap. When Micah took Daniel to AWANA as his guest last year he was proud to introduce his friend as he exclaimed "We're good friends because we have date night together every week!" What a blessing for the adults and for the kids! God was so gracious to develop some precious friendships all the way around with that arrangement. We are really going to miss the Velikorodnyy family!

Our last Sunday at church was difficult as saying good-bye is hard to do. We have been blessed by the love, care and support of our church family. And in those relationships God has given us many wonderful friendships.

And since saying good-bye at church is hard to do, Kristin and I decided we'd rather go somewhere else to say good-bye so we headed to the play place at McDonald's. The kids had a ball running and climbing and we enjoyed our last few moments to talk in person.

We spent our last few nights in California at the Lotz home. It was a blessing to share that time with friends rather than be in an empty home. And Ashlyn was thrilled to sleep with the big girls! Thanks for letting Ashlyn sleep in your bed Courtney!

Kelly has been Micah's best friend since they were together in the nursery. There weren't a lot of little boys and Kelly is always lots of fun, so he gravitated toward her. Because of their friendship, God has given us a wonderful friendship with the whole Lotz family. They have loved our family and cared for us in numerous ways throughout the years. Thank you Lotz family! We'll miss you!