Dustin competed in the Carson Triathlon on November 4th on the campus of CSU Dominguez Hills. It was a backwards triathlon with a 5k run, 12 mile bike ride, and 150 meter swim in the campus pool. He finished in 71 minutes, coming in 30th place out of 234 recipients. I was busy running around, taking picture of our 4 friends that also raced. It was very inspiring and now I am thinking about training for a race myself.

Yellow belt test

 Noah passed his test for his yellow belt! We were not allowed to watch the test, but we showed up with balloons afterwards. All the kids were sitting and meditating, eyes closed, while the instructor walked around putting their new belt in front of them. Noah reached out and felt his new belt and could not contain his excitement. He was trying very hard to hide his smile and keep a straight face. Normally, their belts are to be worn in the studio only, but they let him wear his new belt home. He did not want to remove it and continued around the house kicking and punching the air. He cannot wait until the next class when he can wear his new belt again.

Trick-or-Treat

We all dressed in costume for Halloween this year. Lucas and Alberto joined us for trick-or-treating. Noah was running from house to house and Karli tried to keep up. Before we were around the 2nd block she asked me if she could fall asleep on Daddy's shoulder. It's always fun to see all our neighbors kids dressed up and Noah was excited to see some friends from kindergarten also.

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving happened on Halloween this year, but I was happy to get it done before trick-or-treating. Noah actually carved his own pumpkin! Pretty scary watching him use a knife. He's a bit of a copycat, so they ended up looking pretty similar.

Christmas

Noah woke us up Christmas morning trying to go downstairs. We thought we caught him before he saw all the presents, but little did we know, he'd already been down and played with his toys from Santa. Santa left him a Woody guitar, a stomp rocket, and lots of small toys in his stocking. Santa left Karli a shopping cart with food in it. They received many more toys of course and were spoiled non-stop. Dustin surprised me with a house as a gift! It's a house we'd been looking at for awhile in Long Beach. We should close excrow by the end of January. It will be so great to have space for the kids to play again and be able to put our personality into it. We went to Dustin's Aunt Pam's house for Christmas dinner and the kids had fun with their cousins. It was a great Christmas with many memorable moments.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Noah was very excited to see Santa and ask him for a Lightning McQueen,.....Karli, not so much. However both kids really enjoyed the train ride with Grace and Caleb. Noah was very proud of his cookies for Santa and gingerbread house I helped him decorate. Karli was our little taste tester, sucking the frosting off cookies.

Beach Cities Dinner

It was the first annual Christmas dinner for beach Cities. The business is growing and it was a fun celebration dinner. Alan, Camille, and Linda are the employees attending. We shared many great laughs over dinner and hope for many more in the future.