Happy New Year!!!

On New Years Eve day the kids had a fun playdate with one of Mady's school friends and her little sister (who also goes to Noah's preschool). Mady's friend brought over her DS player so Mady finally got to play doubles with someone, which she really enjoyed. They raced in the Mario Kart game. Of course they also ran around and played with their younger siblings, ate snacks, and played up in Mady's room. All in all it was really fun for all the kids.

We had a quiet New Year's Eve and got the kids to bed on a normal schedule. We had plans to have my mom and Mel over for New Year's Day dinner, so the kids were really excited about that. We cooked a small turkey, had yams, and my mom even cooked a pumpkin pie. She makes the best pumpkin pie:


Here is our lovely dinner in the oven, roasted yams, bread, and Turkey!
We had a really nice dinner and I think we need to make a tradition out of it. So fun!

On Sunday we decided to do something fun on our last day of vacation. We decided (after quite a bit of discussion) to go out to Point Arena and go fishing off the Pier. I did some quick research and found out there is a light house a couple miles north of the Pier as well, that we could go to the top of. So we got organized, packed up the fishing gear, packed up some snacks and drinks, and headed out to the coast. It was a beautiful day - we could see miles of Ocean all the way there! It took us just over two hours to get there, but the kids did pretty well on the drive. Noah stayed awake the whole way and Mady only crashed out the last half hour or so.

Once we got to Point Arena it was lunch time so we stopped in at the Chowder House and had a fantastic lunch. Then, it was off to the Pier for fishing!

I am not sure what this pose was about, but at least they are looking at the camera

Again, they are looking at the camera and smiling this time!

Josh was so happy to be fishing!

It is a beautiful spot (my camera doesn't do it justice)

We caught a little crab in the crab net, that quickly went back to the ocean

We had fun, but didn't catch any fish! Noah was really sad and almost crying. When people asked how we did - he would just get a sad face and say "We didn't catch any fish" and "The crabs ate all our fish." Later in the day he changed his story to "The seals ate all our fish." At least as he retold the story (over and over), he got less emotional about it.

We had to hurry to get out to the light house in time, since it closed at 3:30. As we were heading out there it got really foggy, so that was the only bummer. The people there were really nice though and made sure to direct us right to the lighthouse so we would have plenty of time to get to the top. There were 149 stairs to the top and I am pretty sure Josh carried Noah the entire way up! Mady held her own though!

At the top!

The last 10 steps were like a ladder right over the drop that would go all the way down! I freaked out and of course freaked Mady out in the process, but we talked ourselves into going up that last steep bit and it was totally worth it! The guide stood in the drop off so we could relax a little. We had just enough time up there for a few quick pictures - too bad it was so foggy!

Josh took this one

The guide at the top took this picture of all of us. I was so nervous that one of the kids would run off an fall down the light house, I am sure I was gripping them super tight. I can't believe the picture turned out so great.
The kids had time to check out the whale bones and the museum too.

Mady in front of the lens

This is the best picture I could get of the lighthouse with my little camera!

We had a pretty good drive home, and of course Noah crashed right out. We got to Jenner just about in time for the sunset so we stopped and got a couple of pictures.


We also stopped for dinner at a Japanese restaraunt close to home. The kids both used chop sticks with the little helper things on them. Both Mady and Noah ate their entire dinner with their chop sticks and both even had great success with the rice!