Dennis and I decided to travel to San Diego, CA for Christmas to visit Nate and Emily this year. We had made plans earlier to have all of the Mel Smith family together for Christmas - but those plans fell through. We had a wonderful time, the weather was gorgeous, and Emily's family was very hospitable towards Dennis and I.
Apparently Kitty didn't want us to leave
I moved him from my suitcase to Dennis' suitcase and then ...
He climbed INSIDE mine! He thought that he was going to come with us!
Ollie is sort of huge!
Our 20+ pound cat!
The start of our roadtrip! This was the first time that I've driven to Southern California. I rode in a van to Disneyland as a kid.
Yes! We actually plan our trips around IN-N-OUT locations!
Midnight arrival at Best Western in downtown San Diego. After getting the wrong kind of room twice I was able to get us upgraded to the 11th floor on the Bay side! Wahoo! Beautiful room!
Bathroom!
This car had the best paint job. In some lights it looked blue and others it looked purple!
This was the view from our room! Beautiful!
Nighttime lights in a busy city
Our camera takes some pretty awesome pictures
City lights
Look who we saw on our way to their house! Yay! Grizzly is the CUTEST dog ever!
Not a bad view for December 24th Oh and the weather was perfect!
This guy was balancing rocks - he was so good!
Dennis did very well too!
A poinsettia Christmas tree! It was huge and beautiful!
Christmas dinner!
Such good food!
Yummy!
The Christmas dinner party! It was so nice of Ward's to let us invite ourselves to their family Christmas dinner!
Such a fun day!
Thankfully this note disappeared when it was time to actually eat the desserts
Nate carrying on the tradition of Grandpa Smith and dad Smith!
The puzzle masters
Grizzly - Nate and Emily's German Shepherd dog is the absolute sweetest, most loving, obedient, awesome dog!
He's sort of big!
A HUGE table at a wood shop ... amazingly long!
Christmas tree with the Pacific Ocean in the background. It seems like there is something wrong with this picture - the sunshine looks abnormal for December! :)
Apparently Bruce didn't want us to leave!
Nate and Emily (if you've made it this far down our blog) thank you so much for hosting us for a couple of nights and including us in your family Christmas. We had a great time and are already looking forward to the next time we get to see you guys!
