I guess Rose and I technically had four days of travel, two by plane and two by car.  It was so worth it!  Someone is getting really close to walking, by the way!

 

While we were waiting for everything to get packed up at the cabin, Lauren asked me to do her hair.

Sometimes I even surprise myself when ideas turn out better than I expected!

We saw lots and lots of produce on the way home, some even in the process of being picked.  It was so cool to see!  These are trees loaded with oranges!

 

Someone loves to photobomb (Clarissa!), and again, Rose was ready for her morning nap when our day of travel began… perfect timing!

This is a picture of the sun setting taken from the van on the way back to the city!  California is breathtaking!

These are two of my best friends forever!!!

Rose’s favorite parts of the day are first thing in the morning and last thing at night!

I love this sweet picture of Rose and Corbin.

Rose always crosses her feet like this when she eats; It’s so cute!

Glamour girl!

Rose is so precious to me!

Lauren and Corbin were having fun feeding Rose her breakfast.

 

Clarissa helped Rose cuddle with Curt every night.  I call her “the baby whisperer.”

Curt was such a good sport letting Rose crawl all over him, and boy did she ever!  They had such a blast hanging out together!

Rose really came to life with Curt as her audience.  She knew she had his undivided attention, and she was really hamming it up!

 

Clarissa painted Curt’s thumb and Rose thought that was super cool!  Rose was so chatty with her California cuddle buddies!

This is pretty much how every night ended in California!

Little did we know, we had the best day in store!!!

We woke up to lots of baby lovin’!

Rose loved her cuddles with Grandma Celia!

 

The Ziemke boys are the real deal and a whole lot of fun!

Seriously, could these babies be any sweeter!

I saw Curt looking at the river with those dare devil eyes he gets, and I asked Cindy if he would drive into it and she said, “Oh no, his batteries are way too low” but then we saw him going for it!  Everyone was cheering him on. 

The awesome thing about Curt is he knows his limits.  He’s crazy, but he’s always kept everyone safe!  We were talking about that the first day I got there, and I asked him how he never got hurt doing all his stunts on wheels throughout his life.  He said, “You’ve got to know how to fall… and if you’re not falling, you’re not trying hard enough!”

This is one of Cayden’s favorite places!

Happy hour!

Aww… two sweetie pies!

So this is one of my favorite pictures of the trip… captures Corbin’s personality perfectly!

The Ziemke chicks know how to rock their Nacimiento flannels!

We saw lots of nursing calves… can’t get away from it!

Where’s Corbin?

It was Cindy’s idea to take this picture of me in front of this beautiful stone, and I’m so glad we did because this will remind me of God’s faithfulness.  After all, He is my rock…

…and then she made me climb up in this rock formation… oh the things I get into! 

And then dusk was upon us.  Check out the fog from the ocean coming over the tops of the mountains.  And the mossy delicately hanging on the tree.  Once you experience this place, you’ll never forget it’s beauty.

 

This was Rose’s first Thanksgiving supper, and although we weren’t with our family, we were right where we needed to be.  Noelle and Anna Kate made this craft for the Ziemke family and looking at it during supper warmed my heart!

Rose enjoyed every last bite of her dinner!

 

This was Rose clapping and making eyes at Curt from across the table. 

This was Rose’s Thanksgiving supper, and she ate every last bite!  My baby’s growing up! 

After enjoying a sunny California morning, we were on our way to the lake!

Isn’t this just perfect for the Ziemke family!?!  They are so cool!

I love the Ziemke’s new bonsai trees… these little trees have always fascinated me!

 

Rose was ready for a nap right as we were loading up the car – great timing!

Corbin and Lauren were so good with Rose!

This picture of the California countryside was taken from inside the car on the way to the lake.  Although the drive was 7 hours, it didn’t feel like it at all because of the beautiful scenery.

We finally made it to our ultimate relaxation destination, and Rose was ready to cuddle up with all her new buddies!

Lauren must have taken this picture because I found it on the camera when I got home – so cute!!!

This is the view from the deck of the cabin at Nacimiento.  It was the perfect temperature… not too hot, not too cold!

Rose and Grandpa Jim were ready to have some fun!

I brought a special pumpkin cupcake surprise and made it right off the bat so that we could enjoy them all week.  I topped it off with cream cheese icing and peanut butter cup chocolate chips!

Rose and Grandpa Jim had a crawling race across the room.  Rose was tickled to have so much attention!

These are all my treats!  I made chocolate pumpkin cupcakes too, some with icing and some with powdered sugar!  Cindy didn’t like them at all (she’s weird), but Curt ate one every day and even finished them off for breakfast the last day, so I’d call them a hit!!!

Clarissa and I have been sneaking around for the past month working on surprising her family for Thanksgiving!  All of our behind the scenes effort paid off with such a fun day of surprising everyone!

 

All of our Pond babies have always loved the Ziemke kids and cuddle with them right off the bat!  No introductions needed!  We ended up telling Cayden two days before I got there because we just had to tell someone else (Clarissa told her grandma Celia too)!

Cindy was at work when we arrived, so we got to surprise Curt first.  Clarissa walked in with baby Rose on her hip and Curt said he instantly knew it was a Pond girl and was looking over his shoulder for me!

This is how far back Cindy and I go, and Curt for that matter, because they were high school sweethearts.  I gave Cindy this magnet a few years ago because it has “Friends” misspelled on it and that just made me laugh and reminded me of how goofy we are together!

 

Corbin has been begging to meet baby Rose, and he was SO good with her!  This was Cindy getting filled in on the big surprise.  She was so shocked… she said it was surreal! 

Rose and Curt instantly bonded.

It was so incredible to see their little connection unfold before our eyes!

And this is how our week began, with these two so thankful for some time together!

For Cindy’s awesome “surprise” story, check out her blog at:

http://curtziemke.blogspot.com/2011/11/surprise.html

So this is what happened on Rose’s first airplane ride!  I prayed with Mike that morning that I would meet a sweet grandmother to help me on the plane…

And God brought me Brenda (and as a bonus an empty seat in between us for Rose to take a good long nap)!  Brenda was on her way to California to see her grandson and said she needed practice holding a baby on the airplane ride.  She was amazing, and Rose couldn’t get enough of her.  At the end of the flight, I told her about our prayer and asked her if I could take her picture to show Mike who we had prayed for that morning.  She teared up and said, “Isn’t God amazing!?!”

Word Origin & History

Cornucopia

1508, from L. cornu copiæ "horn of plenty," originally the horn of the goat Amalthea, who nurtured the infant Zeus.

Leave it to the Greeks to steal our thunder… I thought we had dibs on that horn!

Mike hosted Thanksgiving on the home front this year!  Mike’s parents, brother and his wife, and grandmother were all able to come over to celebrate! 

Noelle drew turkeys to give to our Thanksgiving guests!

Melissa’s Thanksgiving surprise