A Visit with Papa

Papa Gossman was headed down to Los Angeles area for Thanksgiving and stopped by for an overnight visit in Shell Beach on his way down. Even though our visit was short, it is nice to see everyone!  Crazy that we took around 10 pictures before these turned out!  Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Exploration Station

In Grover Beach there is an old fire station that was coverted into a science/exploration place for children. This is a great little place to take the kiddo's when it's raining at the beach!  Aunt Shannon and I took the boys to play for a bit in the afternoon.  Gannon loved the little tractor station and Garrett was all over in love.  Cousin Dante enjoyed the air ball machine.  It's fun to watch them explore each in their own little way. 



Christmas before Thanksgiving

I know we are worse than the retail stores!!! Since we aren't going to see Dave's side of the family at Christmas time this year we decided to talk our gifts down with us when we visited at Thanksgiving.  The boys exchanged gifts with cousin Dante so we could see all the boys enjoy their gifts.  Garrett got a new Barbie set, thanks to Toy Story 3 he really wanted one! Aunt Shannon fulfilled this wish!  Gannon is really into trucks and since Garrett never really went through this stage we don't have many.  Now we do, Garrett and Gannon both got new big trucks from cousin Dante.  Dante was equally as excited about his new airplane. 

Horsing Around

Cousin Karley has been in love with horses for a long time now and she now has her very own!  Dave, Shannon, and Karley took the boys for a visit to ride the horse.  Gannon wasn't too sure about this experience, but Garrett went for a ride after some convincing. 

Monarch Butterflies

The Monarch Butterflies visit Pismo from November through April every year.  We have been when the trees are SO full that all you can see is the butterflies.  This is the first time that I remember taking Garrett and Gannon to visit the butterflies.  My parents were down to visit also so they joined us.  It had rained quiet a bit the night before so some of the butterflies can fallen off the tree onto the walking path.  This is where you find out if you have gentle boys or not....our boys are gentle.  They were very careful to watch where they were walking to be sure not to step on a stuck butterfly.  The man would then take them by their wings and place them back on the safest area for them.  It is amazing to see how many there are.  Gannon could even say butterfly by the time we left.

A Night Out

My parents came down to visit for the first time since Dave and I started dating so Dave's sister Shannon said she would watch the boys for us to go enjoy a nice dinner.  When we went to take them to her house she said, "oh, just leave them over night".  Since we don't get a night out very often you think I would be all over this, I wasn't.  I had to think about it over dinner and then we called after to check on them and said okay!  They boys love Aunt Shannon and Uncle Joe and they are always so FUN for the boys.  They had a great time and so did we.

After a nice dinner with my parents we met up with Juan and Heather who were out celebrating her birthday.  We had a few drinks with them at a wine bar before heading to Bill's, a local bar.  Bill's is a crazy little place, lots of freaks and karaoke!  It was a fun night out without having to rush back to relieve a babysitter, we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves!

 Juan and Dave

Heather dancing!

Cousin's Visit

Dave and I had the week of Thanksgiving off so for the first 5 days we headed down to camp at Pismo Sands and we got to spend lots of time with family!  First stop was breakfast with Gramma Toni and then off to visit Dante.  Dante was in shock with my big boys taking over his toys at first.  Gannon was in heaven because Dante had a few big trucks, which he loves.  Garrett had fun with the farm toys and computer toys.  It was so cute, by the end of the visit Dante was mimicking Garrett's actions!  It's always so fun to watch the boys play.

 Not so sure about this visit!

 Gannon in love this with truck!

Gramma Toni and Dante