Christmas in Cali

All in all we had a blast at Mom and Dad K's this Christmas!

Every other year we fly over to Southern California to spend Christmas with the Kirkland side of the family and 2009 happened to be a Kirkland Christmas year. So, we packed up our things (and with 2 kiddos in tow it ends up being a LOT of "things") and headed to the airport. I was a little nervous about flying with 2 lap infants--ok, not just a little but a lot nervous. As many of you know who have flown carrying an infant, the flights can be a bit difficult. People are not understanding and kids are not always willing to cooperate.

However, we flew Continental on the way out to L.A. and that was WONDERFUL! I am going to use that airline from now on! Seriously! The check in line was like 5 people and they had all "lanes" open with just as many check-in attendants as there were people in line! We had the most helpful lady who checked our bags in while we were using the e-ticket kiosk! It was awesome! (And, did I mention this is the weekend before Christmas when everything is usually CRAZY!) Also, Ian talked me into one of the best travel decisions ever...first class tickets! Let me tell you, with two kids on your lap, the extra leg room is VERY useful! I was soooooooo glad we did that and it made the traveling with 2 infants that much easier. The boys actually did very well, considering. We had no major fits or outbursts and the people around us seemed pretty "goo-goo gaa-gaa" over our boys! :) I was hoping they would conk out, but Elijah fought it until we touched down in L.A. Of course he was knocked out when we first saw Gamma and Gampa; couldn't even wake him to stand up so we could grab our luggage! (Side note...I also had NO idea that first class means your bags are specially labeled and they come off the conveyor FIRST in line, I kid you not! And, there was no weight limit for bags for first class passengers!) OK enough about first class on Continental, but they really do know how to make your flight niiiice!

Christmas with the Kirklands was even better though! All four brothers and sister were home for the holidays and we had a FULL house! 7 adults, 2 infants and 3 dogs! :) It was so much fun running around the house, hanging out in the kitchen together, shopping at South Coast, having marathon wrapping parties with champagne, movie nights, and good conversation! It was also special because most of the family had yet to meet Joaquin. He got to make his debut to his God-parents, Marsha and Craig Stoneman on Christmas-Eve as well!

Since Elijah really wasn't aware of Christmas last year, this was a first time for him to learn about Baby Jesus and the manger, St. Nick, the Christmas tree, and of course actively open presents. (Even during his first birthday Elijah wasn't really into opening gifts, so this was a fun new experience for him!) Little Bubba, loved everything, of course, though he was totally oblivious about this day being any different from the rest! The boys got so many gifts we had to mail 3 boxes home to get them all back! Seriously, you guys went above and beyond!

As I was writing my thank you cards this year I realized that the thing I was most thankful for from all my family was the time they each spent investing in my children. I was incredibly touched to see Elijah and Joaquin playing and learning from their aunt and uncles and grandparents. It is really one of those feelings I could never imagine had I never been a parent. It somehow reaches deep down in your soul and softens you to see someone else loving your children so much.

Here are a few pictures from our time in Cali. They may be a bit out of order because I uploaded them at random times...

Christmas Dinner

Gampa and Elijah on Christmas morning. The fun starts early around the house with Gampa, the "everybody loves to hate what a good mood you are in" early riser! Elijah didn't seem to mind though.

The boys among the stockings after Saint Nick had come!

Barely made it through the first half of the Christmas Eve service. Daddy and Uncle Stu had to take the boys outside to run around about 1/2 way through the service.

Ian's childhood park

Elijah had a blast!

So did little bubba!

This is Flower Street. It is the street where Ian grew up and his parents still live. It is so quintessential Southern California with the palm trees and beautiful houses!

Outside the Kirkland house; on our way to Ian's childhood/neighborhood park

Elijah teaching Joaquin how to dance

All my precious boys. Daddy got a haircut if you didn't notice. :)

The boys first time on a merry-go-round. Elijah wasn't really as impressed as I thought he would be. :)

First Time in the Disney Toy store! Ahhhhhh

Gamma, Elijah, Ian, Joaquin and Chris all heading to South Coast to go Christmas shopping

Joaquin loved all his Gamma time!

Elijah and Uncle Stu hanging out around the house. This was a common site during the holiday! Poor Stu got dragged into a lot of play time!

But oooh how Elijah loved his Uncle Stu!

Joaquin with his God-parents, Marsha and Craig Stoneman

Gamma showing Elijah that Santa had come and filled all the stockings with gifts

Joaquin's special stocking

Chris, Gamma and Katie all during the unwrapping session

The boys going through their stockings

Christmas morning trying to crawl around on the floor. There was no room, however, due to the crazy amount of presents lurking around the tree.

Joaquin and Lita (Ian's grandmother)

Joaquin just loved being with Lita, if you can't tell!

Look who finally got a haircut!

I resisted cutting Elijah's curls for a long, long time, but after this Christmas and all the pony tails the cousins put on him, I decided I had put it off long enough. His little surfer-do is cute though. :) And, I have to admit, he does look more like a boy this way. :)

Skydiving Videos Are Up!

Here are the skydiving videos for your viewing pleasure! Please do this at least once in your life! I apologize for the music; it came with the videos.

Rachel's First Skydive!

(I have to say the autofocus gets bumped at the end of the video so it is a little blurry on the landing, but the free fall is beautifully clear!)

Ian's First Skydive!

Tupperware Drummer

This video was taken during our recent Christmas with the Kirkland's in Cali. in the same house Ian grew up in! I have this wonderful picture that Ian's parents scanned and emailed to me a while back of Ian sitting in the same spot, in this same kitchen when he was 2 years old, doing the same exact thing. I looked and looked through my pictures to try to find the corresponding image to go with this video (sorry Dad K), but I couldn't find it. It seemed so appropriate to attach it with this video, but alas, I couldn't find it. Sorry. I guess you can imagine the whole connection I was going for, like father, like son. :)

It's Over the Seas for Cory!

Here is a pic from Cory's goodbye party.

Just a little shot out to Core-Core (phonetically speaking). Ian's good friend since childhood, Cory Hill, is heading off to India. He recently made a huge life change when he felt God's leading; he quit his job at Hurley, sold all his belongings and bought a one way ticket to India! We were so glad we were able to make it to his goodbye party in Cali this Christmas before he left! Cory is an amazing man and we are so proud of him!

Can't wait to hear about all the adventures God leads you in!

We love you Cory! -ian and rach

Ian's Christmas Present

First, I want to apologize for being off the map for so long. My photography business was crazy busy for the holiday season and to top it off Ian and I and the boys were traveling and living out of suitcases for a month during Christmas and the New Year. I didn't touch the Internet except to check my email a few times via my iPhone. So, needless to say, the blog got put on the back burner. However, that leaves us a lot of fun stuff to catch up on!

I got Ian the best Christmas present ever, skydiving tickets for two, and guess who got to go with him! :) It has been something we have both wanted to do forever, but just never got around to it. So, as a surprise to Ian, I booked us two skydiving tickets for Jan 2nd at 9am. The early morning probably wasn't as good of an idea as I originally thought. I just planned it around the boys naps, actually, so that mom wouldn't have too much trouble watching them. However, I completely forgot how much colder it is in the morning than in the afternoon. So, needless to say, it was about 30 degrees on land and just got colder and colder the higher we flew! I had on 3 shirts and a sweatshirt, stockings and jeans under my skydiving suit and I still needed to defrost when we landed!

It was such an amazing experience though! One I will never forget! We both decided to jump tandem since it was our first time and I loved the people we got paired up with. My guy, they called him Chief, was huge and I was like his 4,000 and something tandem jumper to go with him! I felt completely safe. Ian's guy, Johnny was totally chill and so much fun. Ian and he hit it off automatically.

I want to get to some of the pictures quickly and I will narrate through them, instead of telling you all the details first. We did get awesome video footage of our jumps, but Ian has to show me how to convert them to files that can be put on here or YouTube or something. Until then, I figured the stills would do.

Here is Ian getting geared up to go in the plane. You can see the shadow of the camera man. The camera and video were attached to some sort of hardhat he wore. It was crazy!

The plane is tiny! Just enough room to kneel down and jump out!

There they are crawling out of the hatch door.

Ian and Johnny, his tandem coach, did a back flip out of the plane! Crazy, I know, but Ian was like "go for it!"

There is a picture of them heading out upside down!

Right side up now and just dropping out of the sky!

It was crazy to see your videographer just fly up in front of you during your free fall. You are like "wow, someone else is out here flying around!"

Things are beautiful from up there!

Thumbs up!

That is I-35 underneath them

Ian had this crazy perfect landing! It was like they just floated down and stood up perfectly together!

Ian seriously was a pro! Everyone loved him, of course, and kept saying he had an amazing jump! Within minutes he was ready to do it again!

Here we are leaving the training area and heading out to the plane. I actually went first and Ian got to watch from down on land. :)

Chief was explaining to me how we are going to climb out on to that little pedestal on the top of the wheel and jump from there! Crazy! Actually, a side note, our plane didn't start at first because it was so freaking cold outside! We had to have it jumped! :) ha!

This was amazing! The most thrilling part for me was getting to open the door of the plane! He was just like, "ok, we're gonna open that door, climb out on the wing and jump for it!" It was awesome to open the door and feel the wind flying past you! All those times looking out plane window, you never imagined you could just open a little hatch and jump out if you wanted! :)

Here we are climbing out on the wing. This is one of my favorite shots! To me THIS was the crazy, death-defying act, walking out on the plank. Once we jumped it was just beautiful and almost a stress release.

And, there is the jump, my friends! Free falling for about 1 min! It feels like forever though!

I believe we were at about 10,500 feet at this point, just dropping out of the sky!

Still free falling here, there is a tiny round shoot that lets out and stabilizes you but doesn't slow down your free fall at all at this point.

I was trying to blow kisses to the Ian and the world far below. :)

Here the parachute starts to deploy and we get to float around and world-watch from a bird's eye view.

I held my feet up for the landing, since he was so much taller than me anyway. So, once he established the first contact to the ground, he told me to stand up and that was that. It was so much easier than I thought. You feel like you are some sort of self-controlled puppet, pulling this string to make you go left and the other to fly to the right, etc.

My tandem coach was awesome! I would do it again in a heartbeat. Although, for some reason, Ian and I were crazy sore for the next few days. I think it was the wind resistance or something. It didn't feel like we were using any major muscles, but apparently we were.