A visit from Kate

What a wonderful birthday gift I received this year.....a visit from Kate! She was originally supposed to come down Friday-Wednesday and I had made lots of plans for our time together....alas it was not to be. Kate got confused as to when school started and thought it was the 30th. However, to her surprise she discovered it actually starts this Monday the 23rd!! So once again, her visit was very short. I'm just so glad she got to come at all. She came in Thursday night the 19th around 8 p.m. and we enjoyed a nice evening just visiting and watching a movie. It was strange at first when Kate arrived...she looked SO SMALL to both Kevin and I both. She has been 5'2" tall for about the past 2 years now so we couldn't figure out why it was she seemed so small....until her now 5'6" brother Kyle walked into the room and stood next to her!! Kyle, who was only 5'1" at Christmas is now towering over Kate! So what we realized is that because Kyle is so much bigger now it makes Kate seem smaller!

 The next day (my birthday) her and I met up with my Dad, Step Mom and Step Brothers for breakfast which was a treat for my birthday from my Dad. They were passing through on there way to a family reunion with Polly's family in a near by city. We had a wonderful breakfast together and Dad and Polly gifted me with a beautiful 18K gold cross necklace from Mikanos, Greece as a birthday gift. It is EXQUISITE and I will proudly wear it daily!

After breakfast Kate and I went shopping and grabbed a smoothie before heading home around 3. I then took a 2 hour birthday nap....so refreshing!  When I woke up, Kevin was home from work and he and the kids had gifts for me to open. I received a book and CD that I've been wanting. We had a simple dinner at home before heading out to the movies to see Eclipse. I really wanted to see it twice before it left the theatres and Kevin had not seen it yet so we decided to go. Believe it or not it was Kate's 4th time to see it! Kate and I both love the Twilight books and movies so it was fun to see Eclipse together.

The next day we took the kids to the LA area to Knotts Berry Farm.

We had a fun day of riding roller coasters and other thrill rides, seeing shows and eating amusement park food! To save money, we had Taco Bell for lunch before getting to the park around noon. That did not stop us though from getting pretzels with cheese and ice cream sandwiches however later as snacks AND eating burgers and fries for dinner around 7 p.m. We ended the day at the park with watching a tribute to the Beatles show that was FABULOUS. They sounded JUST LIKE the fab four and we all enjoyed the show.

We left the park around 9:30 p.m. and  were home by 10:30. It's nice to live only an hour away from all that the LA area has to offer...(without living there)!

This morning after church my Dad, Polly and Zac (one of my step brothers...Clay went home yesterday on the train) came to visit on their way home. It was their first time to see our new house. They LOVED it! They visited for about and hour and then they left to head home as did Kate! It was great to see Kate, my Dad, Polly, Zac and Clay.