It’s been a long time since we’ve put anything on the Blog!  This is Jo, btw…..We’ve been relaxing and loving every minute of this awesome time together!  After an amazing time in Gilbert, AZ, we headed to Anaheim, CA.  We spent 4 days in Disneyland and/or California Adventure. And we played HARD!!  We went on almost every ride, saw a bunch of shows and enjoyed tons of parades!  The weather was perfect!  Let me tell you that I totally felt my age at Disney!  We walked around 42 miles according to Dennis’ Fitbit!  Our feet hurt by the end of the day!

We were blessed at the beginning of the Anaheim trip with a surprise at the restaurant in Downtown Disney.  Some random strangers paid our bill!  Wow!!  Such a humbling experience!!

The girls had a blast!!  They LOVED all the roller coasters and went on as much as they could!  The highlight for me and Dennis was watching the wonder in the girls’ eyes as they saw characters and simply enjoyed the rides and shows.  They are such good girls – so polite and kind!  Can you tell we are proud?  I think the best part for me was seeing Lydia meet her favourite character, Sofia the First.  She was mesmerized!  She actually cried tears of joy after seeing her!!  It was so sweet!!

We are now chilling out in our little 580 square foot beach cabin in Santa Cruz.  Once again, we’ve been fortunate to have amazing weather!  We spent the day at the beach and on the Boardwalk.  We walked, played, watched the seals, dolphins and birds.  The girls just loved playing for hours in the sand. We ended our day with a gorgeous sunset.

Tomorrow we leave for our 11-hour drive to Portland.  We decided to drive straight through instead of taking 2 days to do this.  We are anxious to see family and enjoy the week with them.  It will be the first Thanksgiving we will spend with my mom and my sisters/brothers-in-law since we moved to Alberta 16 years ago!!  Really looking forward to this time together as well as devouring my mom’s famous potato salad!!  We will also be able to spend time with Dennis’ sister, her husband and our niece and other family members.

After the week is over we will be heading back to reality in Alberta.  It’s been an awesome trip and while I’m sad it is coming to a close, I am SO excited to see our older kids!!  We’ve missed them!!

Thanks yet again for the prayers and thoughts along this journey with us.  We feel rested and relaxed and renewed.  We are also feeling prepared to get back to work and real life! God has been speaking to us both along the way!

Much love to all of you!!  Jo

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