Puerto Rico

Orlando Pena, Andy Miller, Aaron Feil, StuartMacDonald and I at a resort in Rincon Puerto Rico having a team dinner.

 Spent about 10 days in Puerto Rico in early Dec.  First part of it was for a face to face meeting with my new boss and his team.  The second part I was finally able to bring Maria down to join me on one of these trips to PR. 

Andy, Stuart, Gwen Jones, Valarie Pascalis and Maria at Eclipse Restaurant.  This is my favorite place to eat on this side of the island.  Great food and ambiance, even better when you have coworkers you can call friends.

This is the resort in Rincon where we had our team dinner.  It's where the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans meet.  We got their a bit late and missed the sunset, but it was still a bit light so we could still enjoy the views.

Orlando, Andy, Aaron and Stuart on the beach.

Valerie, Tanis Liomin, Gwen and Claudia Johnson getting wet from both oceans.

The Scotsmen and I.

Manny with his home made moonshine.

Here we are with Andy.  I played golf with Andy when I was in Scotland, with Mike Cottle.  My wife had called Andy and asked when we were coming back, he casually responded that he had dropped Mike and I off hours before, which sent Maria into a panic.  Very nicely played.  This was her first chance to meet Andy in person.

Formal Christmas photos

By now, most everyone has seen some of these on their Christmas cards.  But the shoot contained a few other photos as well, some of which we really enjoyed.

Our kid is such a ham.  In the middle of the shoot, he had to start posing and making funny faces.

Gathered around the Xmas tree.

Love how happy he looks in this shot.

We're all in the Xmas spirit.  Although next year, if we do it again, we should all be in one of those horrible holiday sweaters.

All I want for Xmas is...

He really does pose well.

Family fun shot.

The Polar Express

All aboard, the Polar Express

Hopefully everyone has seen the Tom Hanks movie, the Polar Express.  This train ride is one of 22 in the US and the only one in CA to attempt to duplicate the movie for children and adults.  Tickets go on sale to Railroad museum members first and are usually sold out before they go on sale to the general public. After missing out last year, we joined this year and were able to get 10 tickets.  We had an amazing time.  Nene, Dani, Claudia, German, Barbara, Jimmy, Emily, Baba, Nate and I had an amazing journey to the North Pole.  

Ready to board the Polar Express.  PJ's strongly recommended.

We signed up for a first class cabin.  We got the Hot Chocolate mugs to bring home.

Claudia is very difficult to get a good picture of.  I loved this shot of her.

Santa came by and said high to the kids.  Gave out the first gift of Xmas, a bell from his sleigh.

Claudia, Emily, Nate and Jimmy ready for a trip up north.

We brought our Polar Express book, had it signed by the conductor.  One of the parts of the trip is they read the story to everyone.

Nate and Emily enjoying the Hot Chocolate.

Barbara and Emily

We made it tot he North Pole, got a chance to see Santa and his team loading up the sleigh, preparing for the Xmas eve trip.

Thanksgiving program

Nate and I after his performance in the school program for Thanksgiving.

 Thanksgiving performance at Blue Oaks Elementary school.  It started with all the kids singing some songs and a few performances by selected kids.  Then we had a big feast, featuring stone soup, amongst the more traditional foods.

The 4 Kindergarten class on stage to perform a series of songs for the parents.

Nate trying to be seen.  Since he's one of the tallest in the class, he gets put in the last row.

Nate dressed as a pilgrim.  Kids were dressed as either Pilgrims or Indians.

Getting a shot of Nate was difficult as he was usually either moving to much or hidden by the kids in front.

All the kids had these little characters that they made.  This was the one Nate made of himself.

Happy 5th Birthday

While Nate's birthday isn't for a couple of weeks, the challenges of a birthday slated for the day after thanksgiving necessitate some creative planning.  Compound that with a class full of kids and a week off of school, we moved it up a few weeks so Nate could have a big party with all his friends.  We booked it at the Roseville aquatic center's indoor pool.  We had about 22 kids and associated adults.  It worked out amazing.  We had the full use of the pools as a private swim party.  Kids had a great time and Nate was exhausted by the time it all ended.

We brought in sandwiches and fruit for the adults, cake, ice cream and pizza for the kids.

All the kids jumped in the pool, some with the help of a life vest.  Many hung out by the steps here.

Others took terms jumping into the pool

O rin some cases falling in the pool?  Looks sort of like a reverse Nestea plunge.

Rudy spent much of the party looking for Nate

Nene tried not to drown.  As the only adult in the water, he got lot's of love from the kids.  I can only speculate how difficult it is to be a buoy.

Erik didn't swim, but had plenty of company as Barbara and the Green's kept him entertained.

Jakob and Logan enjoying the pizza and fruit.

Rudy have some soda, ready for the cake!

While most of the kids were from Kindergarten, the neighborhood or adventure club, one of his old pre-school classmates made the trek.  If you recall,Angela and Nate were peas in a pod.  At the Pre-K graduation they both claimed the other as best friends.  Angela is going to be a bird when she grows up.  Nate spent most of the party with Angela and Logan. 

Happy Birthday Nate from all your friends!

The funny part here, is this is the 2nd time he blew out the candles as he started blowing before we finished singing. 
We got them all re-lit before everyone finished singing.

Nate and Angela sharing a bit of cake and ice cream.

Halloween

Trick or Treat!

Maria made what has become out traditional Halloween dish, Pastel De Choclo.  

Nene, Dani, Claudia and Ben (Not pictured) joined us.  Claudia swapped out costumes because Tinkerbell was too itchy.

Emily and Claudia all dressed up ready for a candy hunt.  Emily was nice enough to loan Claudia her costume from last year.

Nate and Logan ready to battle for the candy treasure they were set to plunder later in the evening.

Jakob proudly displaying the feather in his cap.

Jimmy ready for his trip to the moon.

Claudia bouncing and pouncing in her new costume.

All the kids gathered in Barbara's back yard for the group shot.  They were great hosts to have all the parents and kids over for a tremendous pre-trick or treat party.

The king and his maidens.

This was taken in front of "The Scary House"  Everyone has one, that house that goes all out for decorating.  They do a great job toning it down for the little ones.  Funny to see them battle their fears for that piece of candy.