Good Times in Porterville, CA

After going to church Sunday morning in Madera, we drove over to Porterville to be with the Marchbanks for their evening service.

I got to see these to little ladies...

Hailey and Brookelle

We got to see our wonderful friends, Cherie and Stephanie!! Can't even say how happy I was. :)

I don't have many pictures of our Sunday with them, but we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking and laughing then got up the next morning to go have fun! 

We wet to Dicky's Barbeque for lunch...YUM!

We then went to go see the Sequoias, but the roads were closed because of bad weather!

The little monster, tied up

Instead, we stopped at a little candy/souvenir shop on the way up. They had cute little trinkets and yummy sweets! Sis. Marchbanks bought me some caramel apple salt water taffy candies...they were absolutely delicious. I ate a couple there then put the rest away to eat when I got to Mexico. So glad I did! I ate the last one just a few days ago ;))

Fudge!

Me and my dear friend!!

Making memories in the cooold!

Where's Dad? LOL

 I imagine these guys are going to be friends for life and are going to laugh about the "travesuras" (mischievousness, antics, pranks) they've played on each other. We cringe now, but they will probably STILL think it's funny when they are 50... Haha!

Austin and Justin

 Thank God for good, Godly friends!

Bro. and Sis. Marchbanks

Bro. and Sis. Wakefield

We then went to Panera for some much needed hot soups and salad :)

Every night around 8 o'clock, Nicole would disappear for hours and we all wondered WHERE she was....hahahah! So one night, we mustered our courage up and went to see why she was hiding. Much to our excitement, she was on the phone with her lover boy! We were overjoyed to fulfill our duties of singing "It's yo birfday!! It's yo birfday!" Loudly and obnoxiously, along with other songs and quickly recited/rapped songs.

Monday night I did Miss Stephanie's hair. Her hair is extremely long and thick and beautiful!

The finished product :)

Thank you to the Marchbanks family for being so kind to us and letting us stay with you all. We had a such a wonderful time! We love you all so very much.

~Bethany~

 P.S.--Cherie is the one that makes the beautiful, awesome banners for this blog!! She is so creative and I LOVE and appreciate her so much! If you've ever opened this blog up and gotten a thrill of pleasure at the new blog banner (I HAVE-lol!!), then it's all thanks to this gal! She texted me last week asking me if I wanted a new banner for the month of December. I did so she she replied with, "Ok! Get some pictures together!" And that is where the roadblock usually comes in. Haha!

After a few days of me having not sent pictures, I wake up in the morning and there sitting in my inbox are 2 beautiful new Christmasy banners to choose from. What a wonderful Christmas surprise!

First Week in the US (FOOD)

The first week we were in the US, we met up with Pastor Garza to go sight-seeing in San Francisco! We had such a good time. Food, food, food, and lots to see.

The first place we went was to a Burmese restaurant. It was like Thai food, which is our favorite! We really enjoyed this place. 

Austin got a coconut drink and it came in this real coconut. 

Some kind of delicious soup

Coconut walnut shrimp...delicious!

It's sad...this is the only picture I got of Pastor Garza... :-/ Whoops!

 Coconut  and mango icecream...yummm!

We found a Quickly (boba!) but were soooo stuffed from the Burmese food, we couldn't fit one more thing in our stomachs. 

 

After this we went walking around. We found some fishies...

We also went to Sausalito to walk around and look at the shops. 

We saw this interesting little bus...

Adorable little puppy!

 

Mom and Cole

 Of course we saw the Golden Gate Bridge!

The adorable, fat, obese little sea lions

 

 Dinner - Clam chowder in a bread bowl!! *mouth watering*

 The chocolate factory 

To end the night, we got our picture taken in the elevator :) 

Sunday morning we went to church in Madera at Pastor Garza's church. Afterwards we went out for Thai food. WOAH, was it delicious! We were having a great start to our trip to the US--haha!!! 

The Garzas sure do know where to find good food! 

Some kind of delicious food :P

 

Pad Thai

 

While we were in Madera Dad found us our faaavorite treat: caramel apples! 

These ones were absolutely loaded down with caramel. 

(Loaaaded down!!!) 

 

  

~Bethany~

First U.S. Post...Get the Ball Rolling!

 I'm just going to start wading through my US pictures from the past couple of months. These are the first few random ones where we were just traveling, headed up to California. That was a LONG drive! I knew this, but didn't exactly know how long it was until I looked at it on a map. In red, I have highlighted our journey (approximately). May I repeat...THAT WAS A LONG DRIVE!!! Hours upon hours of just sitting still....the silver lining to all of this is that once we DID take a break, I felt as if I had been healed of paralysis! Walking was a whole new experience! Felt like running and leaping and praising God!

The Drive

 First American meal....steak, potatoes and corn! So healthy..haha :P

At the Oliver's house in El Paso

Bro. Oliver playing the guitar for us :)

We made a special stop in Los Angeles so the two love birds could see each other

 Our final destination was Sacramento. The purpose of this trip originally was to do some doctor appointments and check-ups for Austin. Of course, we were not all planning on going until we found out about a change in the laws that forced us to leave the country as a family to renew our visas. (That's the mini version--ha!) 

One of the days we were in Sac for some doctors appointments, Nicole and I decided to go strolling around the city. It was a nice little area with shops and restaurants. We got hungry and decided we wanted Thai food. So I pulled out my trusty little iPhone, opened Yelp, and searched for a Thai place! It was perfectly providential, there was a Thai Palace .8 miles away. Woo hoo!! We had our first Thai tea and delicious Thai food...our favorite :)

The whole pulling-out-my-phone-to-search-something might not seem like a big deal to you, but it was to us because I've never got to use the maps app on my phone before! It is useless in Mexico, as is Yelp. So to be able to look for a specific restaurant, see reviews, and then to see on a map the little pulsating dot that shows where you are exactly and perfectly exact directions on how to get to your destination....was just amaaaaazing!! We felt quite proud of ourselves. 

My sweet Grandpa and I

Cool little gas station selling hot chocolate....they also had a can of mini marshmallows for you to put in your hot drink. How perfectly ingenious!!! Coolest idea ever. 

A very cool firetruck we saw in New Mexico

This is barely the beginning of our trip, shall we call it the "fat" that I didn't want to leave out. LOL. Next post, we will be getting into the meat of the word. So bring your pillows and comfy bean bag chairs. We are going to have story time with Beth. (Or Nicole...depending on who gets inspired first!)

Have a great day everybody!! This is our last week of school before Christmas break. Woo hoo!!

~Bethany~