Brief Recap of yesterday

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Adjust your bookmarks and links folks and please check out our new URL at:

theyardleysyard.blogspot.com

It's new... and hopefully improved.

Charging the sheep!

Turkey in the Desert!

This year we decided to do something a little different for Thanksgiving... a vacation in the desert!

We arrived at Rancho La Quinta Saturday afternoon to a pleasant surprise... our house was awesome! It's always "hit or miss" with renting a vacation rental through the internet... and let's just say this one was a "hit"!

Views of our wonderful pool and house




Kacy and Otto relaxing poolside


Brian's mom enjoying the scenery. (Otto too)


Linden preparing to get in the pool on Nana's lap


Think she's having fun?




Linden drying off in the grass


We played a lot of Wii. Brian's mom had quite the back hand.
Kacy has a bruise to prove it.


Linden enjoying the swing at a local park.


The family joined in the fun.


Uncle Scott and Grandpa even decided to get a workout in!


Needless to say, we had a great week away as family!

Happy Birthday Otto!

4 years ago today, Otto joined our family! We love you little guy!

Daughter's first car...

Why delay the inevitable??

Eyes on the road kid!
(although, you may notice her hands at "10" and "2")


Giddy over her new ride...


Warning oncoming traffic about their impending doom.


Why not toss a ball behind your head while driving?

Dinner time flirting

Linden was in a playful mood during dinner tonight.

Yogurt smile...

Trying to lick up the leftovers...


She can't dodge the camera!

To bark... or to dance?!

Well a little of both actually.

We were a bit torn about what to dress Linden up as for Halloween this year... so we decided to take two routes.

#1. A Grandparent pleasing route:

Woof

Our little dalmatian climbing over Daddy's guitars

Dogs at play...

And...

#2. The FLASHDANCE route!!!

Trying out her sassy pose...

Does this headband accentuate my ears???

Mom was a Go-Go Girl (ala Foxy Cleopatra)

And Dad was... well... just weird.

We headed over to a friend's Open House and strutted our stuff over pizza... their neighborhood can be what's described as an "Isla Vista... but with kids" (in other words: Halloween chaos+children).

We then came home to what's become our annual tradition: "Scary Movie Night". We watched The Orphan. Not too terrifying, but scary enough.

Giant Orange Squash

Today, Linden experienced her first pumpkin patch at Lane Farms. We thought to ourselves, "no nap... no problem!"

Look Mom and Dad, a giant drum!

Oh, not a drum...

Then maybe a comfy seat?

Fine, then I'll sit here.

Well, if I must select one of these weird "not drums, not seats", then I pick this one.

Off to the corn maze...

Immediately got lost... (note the fear in Linden's eyes)

Look Linden, it sprouts magic pumpkins!

Despite the lack of nap, she seemed to enjoy herself. Truth be told, we couldn't complete the corn maze. How sad is that?

But at least we got a few magic pumpkins out of it...

10 years!?!?

We just had an action packed weekend catching up with old friends at our 10 year college reunion!

Although it is hard to imagine that over 10 years have gone by since graduating from Westmont College, it's comforting to know that we could pick up right where we left off.

On Friday night we hosted an Open House for people to gather and catch up.

Saturday we had the Homecoming Soccer Game and Class of 1999 Dinner.

And on Sunday we had our Europe Semester Reunion Brunch.

What a wonderful weekend!

Friday night Open House.
Linden familiarizing herself w/ Brian's old roommates/housemates.

It was 90 degrees in the house... hence the gathering outside.

Andy and Josh. We met in the halls of Page back in 1995!

Europe Semester 1998. Almost half of the group made it to the reunion!

Europe Group w/ their ever growing families!!!

Brian w/ Europe mates Matt, Josh and Matt

Europe Semester is where Kacy and I met... and was definitely the highlight of our college experience. What a great opportunity to reminisce with such great friends.

Here's a link to our "Europe Adventures" as documented back in 1998... when digital photography was very much in it's infancy.

Wordless Wednesday

First Wedding

This past weekend Linden got to attend her first wedding. Our friends Corrie and Jesse got married in a beautiful ceremony on an olive ranch in the hills between San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach.

We stayed the weekend in Avila Beach. It was a very cute and charming beach town that we had only been driving past for over 10+ years. We were pleasantly surprised... and maybe see a weekend getaway in our near future!

We had a great view from our little rental.

We got to witness a beautiful sunset...

Linden immediately went exploring.

She may have seen a bug or something else she shouldn't be trying to pick up.

Does she look like she's wearing shoulder pads?

These instantly went into her mouth.

Her first formal dress... with shiny shoes to boot! Wedding bound...

Our hands were pretty full during the wedding, so we were unable to take any pictures. Hopefully a few will surface from our friends.