So, Glenn and I have been training for a trail half marathon at the end of March.

Here is the description of the race on the website
"You'll traverse the dirt hiking trails through scenic Bothe-Napa Valley State Park, located at the north end of Napa Valley. Along the route, you'll be surrounded by majestic redwood, oak, madrone and bay forests. The course is a bit challenging with the hills, streams and rocks - which makes it all the more exciting and rewarding!"

Sounds like fun right?!

We were so excited, or at least we were until today. Glenn already went up to check out the trail a week or 2 ago but today was my first day. It is insane. While running straight up hill for almost 2 miles (and when I say running I really mean walking with my arms swinging like I was running) I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. It is pretty brutal. We have already signed up for it, but the worst part about it is that we have talked a bunch of friends into signing up for it (most of whom it is their first race). So we are probably going to have a lot of people hating us in a few months. It's going to be tough but I am excited for the challenge. Check out the picture, doesn't it look so tranquil and fun- looks definitely can be deceiving. I'm pretty sure a bit challenging like in the description is a little bit of an understatement. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I was hoping to improve my time, now my expectations have changed to just finishing the race!!!

I love this picture. We went out exploring looking for salamanders. It was a rainy day, so Isaac ended up finding over 50 of them. But, to our surprise we also found a newt. Isaac wouldn't hold it in his hand for a picture, but he did let us put it on his head. I'm pretty sure I would have opted for having it in my hand, but he is a boy. I guess he thought it would be sweeter on his head.

Last weekend we went up with a few friends to the coast and stayed at our friends place. The weekend couldn't have been more beautiful. There was almost no wind or fog. The perfect place to spend my birthday, especially since it was my 30th (I'm getting so old)! We played at the beach, snacked all day long and spent late nights star gazing in the hot tub. It really was the perfect get away.

Second, Christmas and New Years... This year the holiday season seemed a little less festive since we were so distracted with the move. I would go shopping and catch a glimpse of Christmas lights and be thrown off and say oh yeah it's Christmas. We still had a good holiday. We were able to celebrate and do a mini Christmas with my parents before we left and then celebrated together in California. We took a video of Christmas morning. It seemed so chaotic I thought this rendition of the video was fitting, or at least what it felt like.

So much to say...

First, this should have been a post from a month again, but I just came across these cute pictures we took with my mom right before we left so I thought I would share them with you. We went to the local museum to check out the christmas train display which ended up only being one little track, but it was still a lot of fun and we got some good pictures out of it.

The day we told Bayley we were moving she teared up and said that she wanted to spend some time alone in her room. She came out with a letter to her best friend. She came up with it all on her own.

This past month has gone by so quickly yet so much has happened. Right after Thanksgiving we started packing our house and getting ready to move to California. Moving in the winter is terrible, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, especially right before Christmas. But, that is what we did and fortunately after many mishaps it all worked out.

The month was filled with packing and lots of late nights of game playing (trying to pack it all in before we left). We had a lot of fun and made some good memories that we will carry with us for a long time.




We got the moving truck on the 17th and started loading it up that night. We had some snowstorms a few days prior but fortunately everything was clear the day we loaded the truck. Glenn's brothers Roger and Andy came out to help with the loading and then to drive out with Glenn. But we we didn't luck out entirely. Our brother-in-law Jon was flying in on Thursday the 18th to help with the drive out which almost didn't happen.


There was suppose to be a winter storm warning for around 9 pm but kept getting pushed up until it was suppose to start at midnight. Jon's flight was scheduled to get in at 12. He got lucky and landed just as it started to snow. That night it snowed and snowed and snowed and when we woke up the next morning there was 16 to 18 inches of snow on the ground!




I'm pretty sure this was the biggest snowstorm we have had in the 7 and 1/2 years we lived there. It seemed like a terrible joke. They were still determined to leave, so we waited until early afternoon until the main roads were clear. The only problem was our road was not cleared at all. They started the truck and made it about 10 feet and the truck came to a stop. They ended up shoveling the truck out the entire length of our street and 2 hours later they were off. But the troubles didn't end there, an hour and 1/2 later I called Glenn to see how they were doing and he said they had to stop because the truck broke down. They had to have someone come and get them and they stayed at my parents house that night. The next morning they dove back out to the truck where Uhaul informed them that they would have to switch trucks. After transferring everything from a completely packed 26' truck they were on their way again. They decided to drive south to avoid the weather and drove straight through and made it to California mid day on Monday the 22nd. It took them 48 hours! Oh, and 2 and 1'2 before they got there the trailer malfunctioned and a wheel fell off. They called Uhaul and told the they were leaving it on the side of the road and left. Then to add to the problems, me and the kids were going to fly out on Christmas eve, but I got a phone call the night before from the airlines telling me that my flight was canceled and that they couldn't fly us out until Christmas night. Oddly enough my flight was the only one canceled. Glenn was able to find a flight on another airline and we made it there for Christmas. Minus all the mishaps, we made it there safe and are all together again.

We are now getting settled and loving the change of scenery and a little warmer weather (even though we are already missing friends and family).