Happy New Year!

We began our 2012 year up in El Dorado, California visiting our good friends Dale and Tina and their daughter Jenna.  If you haven't heard our story then you won't know this but Dale and Tina have a very special place in our hearts and lives.  I first met them as a roommate of their daughter Melanie, but really became friends with them after Melanie passed away tragically in a car accident that we were both in during our Sophomore year at APU.  At that time they lived down here in Glendora and I spent a lot of time with their family.  I remember many Saturdays at their house and many Sundays going to church and lunch and just grieving and supporting one another during this time. Then, I believe it was within a year, they decided to relocate to El Dorado, CA and it was during this time that Brandon's fiance Courtney, again one of my roommates and a friend of Melanie's at APU, passed away from cancer.  Brandon also lived up in Northern California so as I made trips up to visit Dale and Tina we found more and more time to connect, often spending the weekends at their place.  Looking back those are some very sweet memories for us and we are so thankful to have Dale and Tina as a part of our story. 
Fast forward 4 years or so and Brandon and I are getting married, fast forward another year or so and Dale and Tina were adopting Jenna, and finally fast forward again a couple of years and here we are today driving up to spend New Years with this wonderful family and enjoying watching our kids play together.  Kind of weird I know.  Not what any of us would have predicted back when I was a freshman in college but so good none the less. 

 Wyatt, Jenna, and Sadie

 Sadie and Jenna had so much fun together.  On Saturday we took a trip to the Placerville Zoo.  The girls seemed to be only mildly interested in the animals.  They were mostly excited about running around with each other.

 Wishing we were a baby again :)

 Jumping on Jenna's new trampoline!

And yes we are girls so we also did our fair share of squabbling over who was the boss of who.

All in all it was a really fun trip and I don't think I've ever heard so much squealing and laughing from Sadie as she and Jenna chased each other all over the place.  We came home so thankful for our friends and our chance to get away and spend some time with them.