Christmas Vacation

This year we drove out to California to spend Christmas with my family.  My parents rented a beach house at Half Moon Bay so that we could all be together.  It was nice to be so close to the beach and it was also nice to have everyone under the same roof.  With such a large family and everyone being married and having kids and stuff, everyone being in the same place can be pretty rare.

The drive out there went pretty smoothly, except for the parts where the speed limit was only 30mph, those were pretty slow parts.  But, we got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge for our first time!

Our first day there was Christmas Eve.  That morning we went to the beach, Olivia snuggled up with Nate the whole time, she loves him.

When we first got there, we were walking around on a pier watching people fishing and catching crabs.

Then we went to see the Mavericks.  It was a beautiful sight!

Of course, the next day was Christmas.  We only managed to take one picture of Christmas Day and it was right after Olivia ate a nice big lunch and fell asleep so she was drooling milk

After everyone else left (except Neil and Ashley), we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Everyone else went before we got there.  Apparently we didn't get very many pictures of it, but it was really fun.  Nate took this awesome picture of some jellyfish.  I want to make it the computer background, it's so mesmerizing!

Outside, looking at the bay

Of course we had to get lunch at the fish hopper, it's tradition!  Or so we're told.  Either way, the food was absolutely amazing.

The next day (our last full day), we went to the Jelly Belly Factory.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures during the tour so we just got these 2 right before we went in with our Jelly Belly hats on.

They told us that Olivia had to wear one too.... So she did!

We had a very nice relaxing Christmas break.  Thanks for having us, Mom!