happy thanksgiving

these boys are up there at the top of my list of things to be thankful for this year.
them, their brother, and their daddy.
also on my list, in no particular order:
the hope, comfort, and inspiration i get from my religion
my parents and sisters
our friends
my health! what a blessing
our home
mr. o's steady job
reliable vehicles
my families health
the beauty of the earth
my talents
my in-laws
our country

and i hope to think of a million more after i hit "publish"

wishing you all a wonderful holiday!

vacation photo dump

vegas, baby!!
although we didn't break out the camera much while we were there (unfortunately), we did get pictures of our tradition of seeing the fish at the silverton casino.

they have a gigantic fish tank right when you walk in- this isn't the best picture, but you get the idea. the boys love it, and there's a bass pro shop with lots of taxidermy, too- lots of cheap thrills.

we stayed with my sister & brother-in-law in their brand new house, and visited with mr. o's aunt, uncle and cousin. it was great to see family and enjoy the warm weather.

then, it was off to california and the ocean. it was sooo beautiful!

i think little leo enjoyed the ocean, too.

the boys watched their first sunset, thanks to daylight savings time (maybe there is one advantage) and miles loved it. he was amazed at the sun disappearing into the ocean, and told me that if he had floaties on, and a life preserver, and flippers, and a blow-up ring, and goggles, and a swimming suit that he would swim way out into the ocean to get the sun.

so cute.

the boys loved playing at the beach so much. none of us could get enough of it, really.

one endless sandbox with roaring waves to drown out all the screaming. perfect!

we went to L.A. harbor to see all the boats and cranes, it was really incredible to see the huge boats and thousands of shipping containers.

notice miles' helmet- he is SO into "gear" right now, especially helmets, so he was thrilled to find this (and others) at my aunt's house where we were staying.

mr. o tried to stage some family pictures while we were at the harbor, but the boys weren't cooperating terribly well..

on the way to the harbor we drove on a road with a sign that said "constant road movement". it looked like a patchwork quilt with all the asphalt repairs. we took a bump too fast and broke something on the car, so mr. o had to spend the rest of the evening fixing it in the parking lot of an auto parts store in some suburb of L.A.

while he was working on the car, my aunt took the boys and i to manhattan beach to visit a cousin of mine and go to the pier. it was so beautiful.

i nursed leo under the pier while the boys played in the sand in the warm evening breeze. it was so peaceful and we were sad mr. o couldn't be there, but so thankful he could fix our car.

we went to L.A. the next day and got to tour the theatre where a cousin-in-law works, and then had lunch in hollywood with some other cousins we rarely see. it was fun, despite the crazy traffic. i was thinking it would be fun to stop at all the tourist spots and take pictures, but with the traffic, parking, and a screaming baby we opted out.

we prefer the ocean sunsets, anyways.

it was so hard to leave the balmy ocean and come back to freezing temperatures! the boys' excitment to see the snow helped.

my sweet aunt sent us home with some fresh california oranges, which made it a bit easier!

and although this little guy was a trooper, i think he's much happier to be at home and (try to) have a normal schedule!

guess where

the boys got fortune cookies recently with these two fortunes.
we were already planning a vacation since mr. o had a substantial amount of time off of work, and we couldn't believe how accurate the fortunes were!
it's obvious where we went, right??