A La Ferra Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we were invited to visit our friends the Christensen's in La Ferra, Texas.  These are some dear friends we met in Philadelphia and Caleb plans on marrying their daughter someday, so they are extra special!  They happened to move to Texas not long after we did, and live down at the southern most tip right by the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexico border.  We were excited to see a new part of Texas and see the Gulf of Mexico while we there.  It was a great drive down and it was a wonderful Thanksgiving!



Happy Thanksgiving!

Caleb, Emery, and Reese are all ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  Everything turned out great!  Stephanie was a wonderful host.

The yummy turkey!  Brydon is becoming quite the turkey cooking pro.  The beautiful flower arrangement Stephanie made.  She is very talented!

 

Thanksgiving was great!  We even braved Walmart on Black Friday (now really Thursday) to purchase the big Christmas family gift.  I was in line for over 2 hours but I scored the big surprise!

 

South Padre Island

The day after Thanksgiving, we were able to visit South Padre island in the Gulf of Mexico.  Our first stop was at the Sea Turtle Inc.  A sea turtle rescue center.  It was a really neat place and our animal loving son, loved it!

We got to see baby sea turtles and sea turtles with missing fins that needed extra care.

There were a lot of tanks of sea turtles.

This sea turtle loves lettuce and is great at poising for pictures.

These two boys are pretty amazing at poising for pictures too!

These poor guys are in the Intensive Care Unit and are recent arrivals that need extra help

This is Allison.  She has lost 3 flippers and uses the prosthesis on the left to swim.

You can watch her and other sea turtles on the live cam at

www.seaturtleinc.org

Our Cute Crew!

The Gulf of Mexico

There is nothing this boy loves more than the beach!  It was so fun to get a day at the beach.

Our Crazy Beach Bum!

Someday this boy is truly going to grow gills. 

This Gulf is beautiful.  The water was warm and it was an amazing day.

Caleb got to try out the boogie board this time and loved it!  He was so sweet with Reese and learned to master it pretty well. 





Best Beach Buddies!

My Two Favorite People!

My Beautiful Amazing Friend! 

We are so lucky to have them as friends.

We loved our day at the Beach!

 I wish I had gotten pictures but we went to a really unique Mexican flea market.  La Ferria is about 75% Latino and you hear Spanish almost anywhere you go.  The flea market was a great place to get fruit, clothes, jewelry, food, and any other random items you can think of.  I just didn't get any cool pictures but we loved going. 
 

La Ferria Zoo

A visit to a new place would never be complete without a trip to the zoo.  It was a great little zoo.



Fabulous Kiddos!

These two best friends are too precious.  Caleb still plans on marrying this sweet girl someday and they are both quite committed.  So far he as great taste!

At the end of our visit we even did a quick stop by The Bass Pro Shop to see Santa.  One of the best Santa's we have seen in Texas.

 

It was a great Thanksgiving and so fun to spend it with great friends.  We are so lucky to have so many wonderful friends in lives. 

Thank you Christensen Family for a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Last of the Sight-Seeing (San Fran part 5)

After Saturday's adventures, Brydon had to spend his days at the conference.  He did get to have Nancy Pelosi as the opening ceremony speaker.  He learned a lot and felt it was well worth his time.  I spent my time in the hotel working on some photobooks and did a little exploring here and there.  We loved getting breakfast in the city at the bagel shops and Jamba Juice.  There was also a great farmers market that had yummy pastries and locally made cottage cheese and the sorts. We had a lot of fun exploring the city in the evening and visiting Pier 39.  

San Francisco is known for its sourdough bread.  These fun sourdough bread creations are pretty unique.

A view of the Bay Bridge at night

Not a great picture but if you look carefully you can see the Gateway Arch or Dragon Gate.

San Francisco has the oldest and largest Chinatown in the United States.

View of the Bay on our walk down to the Piers

Pier 39 was a great place to hang out and shop.  We loved walking down in the evenings to eat and explore.

After many recommendations, we had to eat at Boudin's and try the clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  It was as good as everyone said it would be.  

We had to bring home this great Halloween Sourdough for Caleb!

Someday Brydon and I plan to own a boat like this.  When we are old, we plan to get in our boat and then just disappear in the ocean.  It is has been our odd family plan!

Had a great dinner at Bubba Gump's.  Another good recommendation!  We happened to be there the night the Giants won the World Series.  It was an eventful and noisy night in the city.

Gotta love the Forrest Gump poise.

Coit Tower

This is a beautiful memorial tower you can see from almost anywhere in the city.  It is said to look a bit like a fire hose nozzle.  It was part of a project to beautify the city.

Looking down on the Piers at night

The day we left San Francisco was the day of the World Series Parade for the Giants.  It was CRAZY downtown!  The sidewalks were packed and the streets blocked off.  Brydon went to his conference that morning and then we had to catch an afternoon flight.  When I noticed how many streets were being closed, Brydon decided to leave early from the conference.  It was a good thing he did.  The normal 10 minute walk to the hotel, took him over an hour.  He finally had to get a police officer to help escort him across the parade route.  In his military uniform this got him a bit of attention and shouts.  We were just glad that it seemed to be positive attention because many people did not treat him very kindly in the uniform during the week.  However he made it home and we made it to the subway to head to the airport.  We have now been in two cities when the teams win the World Series.  Philadelphia and San Francisco!

The San Francisco Airport is crazy.  The bridge on the left is the runway.  As you land you land right over the water and barely hit the ground.  

We had to get some fun pictures of this unique airport on our way out.

It was amazing to get to spend a week as a couple exploring a new city.  Most definitely a trip to remember and so many great adventures!  But we couldn't wait to get home and kiss those sweet cheekies we had missed.  Sure did miss our cute boy!