Thanksgiving 2013

This trip down was kind of a last minute decision.  A buddy of Clint's growing up passed away in a tragic surfing accident in Hawaii where they never found his body.  Clint decided he really wanted to go to the funeral and then decided that we should just stay down there for Thanksgiving.  Which I am never opposed to going down there.  We left late on a Friday afternoon and got in, in the middle of the night.  The kids are always great in the car.  They always wake up in Vegas to see the lights which they love!  I stayed awake this entire drive down, which is pretty rare for me.
We got up the next morning and took the kids straight down to the beach and Clint took them over to the jetty's to see the "ophi."  I took a ton of fun pictures of the kids on the beach that day which we ended up using for our Christmas Card.
The funeral was later that morning.  We left the kids with Clint's Dad.  This was one of the neatest funerals I have ever been to.  He had many non member friends who spoke and then they tied it into the Gospel at the end when his Dad and Brother spoke.  Kirk had recently just come back to the church and was embracing it.  The missionaries were at the funeral knowing there were going to be a lot of non members there.  Because of the missonaries being there and all the non members they had about 7 referals which I thought was absolutely amazing.
After the funeral they had what you would call a "paddle out"  Where surfers from all over swam out on their boards to do one last tribute to Kirk.  They formed a giant circle and were out there celebrating his life.  It was pretty amazing to watch it and watch the giant circle form out in the ocean.  Clint was really glad that he participated in it.
We had the chance to go to the "Mormon Battalion" in Old Town San Diego,"  It was a pretty amazing experience.  It's interactive and it has you feel like you were apart of what it was like to be around at the time the Mormon Battalion went on.  The kids thought it was pretty neat.  We walked around some of the old homes and buildings there as well and they were absolutely fascinating.
We had Thanksgiving at Clint's sister Jills house.  She has an amazing home.  She is an amazing host and a great Cook.  The kids had so much fun together.
We took Callie down to the mall one afternoon and she LOVES to spend her time at the Disney store and Bath and Body Works looking at all the lotions and hand sanitizers.  As we were on our way out she saw Santa and wanted to go say hi to him.
We really did have a great time and so glad we were able to be there for Thanksgiving.  It's been several years since we have been there for Thanksgiving.