All the good names were taken.: Big Month!

The original title of the post was going to be "The 236th Marine Corps Ball, Thanksgiving and Dad's First visit to Cali" but I couldn't fit it all in, so I just went with the above.

November 19th we had our first Ball with 9th Comm at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical, but it was an amazing evening! FOLLOWED by an amazing nights sleep in a hotel without our kids and a wake up with out having to throw waffles at them. Thank you so much to Aunt Ashley for helping out, it was huge!

Us at the Ball!

The Man in the sword detail...again.

My dad came out for the week of Thanksgiving for his "First Retiree Vacation". We had a blast!

This amazingly was caught out the backseat window while driving through San Clemente

Caspers National Park

(don't be alarmed, a small cut on the forehead after falling on Thanksgiving day never stops Grant)

Watch out! Cacti Bite!!!

Seriously good photography work dad! Thanks for the great pic of us!

mmmmmmmmmm.

I know there's one that matches this of me on his shoulders :)

Grandpa catching Ethan being silly!

He really enjoyed the beautiful 80 degree weather IN NOVEMBER!!!!!!

Gramps and E

Hannah had so much fun in the sand

I'm telling you, I don't know why this man lives in MI, he's in love with the ocean!!!

Got a Fabulous sunset on Sunday night.

This is Dana Point at night from the San Clemente pier. (I assume it's dana point, don't quote me on that)

Us on the pier

Thanksgiving went awesome as well! We had originally planned on Ashley and my dad for dinner, but when I heard my good friend Susan and her family (of five) were just gonna be home by themselves, I invited them over and we had a HUGE Family Thanksgiving!!!!

OK, most of you know we try and build something when he visits every time, but this time, we went big! I'm so impressed we got as much accomplished as we did AND had time to enjoy the scenery of southern Cali and some relaxation as well!

I am so excited to show what we worked on the whole week, and even more excited that it turned out so awesome!!!! I know my dad does great work, but I did not have high demands for this and he went above and beyond what I could have ever dreamed!

We built beds for the boys!!!!!!!!

Thanks to AnaWhite and her "Simple Bed" plans, with a few modifications, we made 2 twin beds and one of them converts into a low loft bed for Ethan!

I still need to add a few finishing touches (guard rails, paint, etc) but here's some pics of the progress!