Thanksgiving in California---Part 1

Well, here I go again---way behind with posting on the blog. My excuse is that, now that I take more pictures with my phone than with my camera, it is a painstaking process for me to get my pictures from the phone to the computer so that I can use them.  I am sure there is an easy way way to do it, but I haven't figured it out yet.  I think I need some instruction from soneone.  Any volunteers? 

Anyway, we made a trip to California in November and were there for almost 2 weeks.  We missed Evan's 3rd birthday by one day, but we did get in on some celebrating.  The first evening we were there we went to a trampoline place (I don't remember the name of it) where they also had some arcade games.  And we topped off the evening with pizza in the restaurant there.

There was lots of movement going on, 

causing blurry pictures.

The only arcade game that I got a picture of

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the biggest kid on the trampolines, or of him playing the arcade games.  I think that most of the tickets that were won, came from Matt shooting baskets. :)  Josie and Evan loved pulling out the long strings of tickets that he won.

Our first full day there was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. There were some special things going on in the pre-school that morning, and I got to enjoy some of those.  There was a special Thanksgiving chapel for all the pre-school classes, which was very nice.  

Listening attentively to the story

I also got to spend some time in Josie's classroom and enjoyed their morning routines, and also got in on some special Thanksgiving crafts.  I'm so glad that I got to do that.

There was a special holiday festival in downtown Redlands the first week-end we were there.  There was a bouncy house which was a big hit with the kids.  No pictures, though, because they were moving too fast. A big hit with all of us was the funnel cake!  I can't even remember the last time I had one of those. 

We had to wait in line a while for this, but we got to have a ride in a horse-drawn chariot---sort of a Cinderella type of chariot.  That was a big hit as well!  We felt like princes and princesses!

Of course, if it's Sunday morning, there will be pancakes, even if we aren't at home. And Grandpa had a very willing assistant!

We took a drive up to Oak Glen on Sunday afternoon, and they took us to a place where we had some really delicious apple cider donuts!  And they could not have been any fresher---we could watch them being made!  This place also claims to have the oldest tree of its kind--not sure if it's the oldest in the state, or the oldest in the area, or what.  And I don't remember the kind of tree either---maybe chestnut?  (That's one of the problems with being so slow about doing my posts.) Anyway, we got a picture of Josie and Evan in front of a very old, and very large tree.

And I think that I'm going to make this the first installment.  More California pictures to come!