New Years

For New Years, my little brother and sister (Nathan and Whitney) got to come visit.  We enjoyed exploring the Getty Museum.  Apparently the dress code was to wear pink and stripes:) 

We picked citrus fruit in Ian's Grandparent's orchard.

We had breakfast at the Santa Anita Race Track and watched the horses warm up for their races.

We had a pizza party at Larry and Lisa's house with their pizza oven.

My mother-in-law, Margaret, helped us get in special to see the Rose Parade floats.  

They had their first experience throwing marshmallows at cars on New Years Eve on the Rose Parade route. 

We then went back in the morning to watch the Rose Parade.  I am always blown away with the incredible floats.

Some Spartan fans getting excited about the game.

Ian's favorite part is always the fly over to start the parade.

Ian still has four living grandparents who both came to the parade.  It was fun to also spend time with them over Christmas and New Years.  

At one point a float broke down and we had to wait a while for the parade to start moving again.  Luckily, the Harlem Globe Trotters were stopped in front of us so we were able to get a picture.

We drove down the coast and had breakfast at Las Brisas with my cousin Taylor and his wife Brooke.   

Afterwards, the boys did a little surfing and the girls got to relax on the beach.  

We sure enjoyed Whitney and Nathan's visit.  Come back soon!

The Rose Parade

This year Ian and I got to help work on the floats for the Rose Parade.  For those unfamiliar with the Rose Parade, each float in the parade is decorated using 100% living matter (seeds, leaves, flowers, and of course roses).  The detail is incredible.  While we have seen the floats nearly every year, this was the first time we got to work on them.  Brad (Ian's dad), Ian, and I spent all morning gluing eucalyptus leaves to this pole.         

Evan and his girlfriend Valerie helped too.  

We were working on the City of Hope float.  Margaret (Ian's mom) got to ride on this float in the parade representing the city of Duarte.  

The night before the parade, Ian's family has a tradition of sleeping out along the parade route to save a spot for the next morning.  It has become tradition to throw marshmallows, tortillas, silly string, etc. at cars driving by to pass the time.  

This is what the cars look like driving down the road.

Unfortunately, I started throwing up that night with a bad stomach flu and wasn't able to watch the parade but Ian said it was great.

Christmas

We spent Christmas this year in California with the Finlays.  We started the week off with a girls only breakfast at Mimi's Cafe.

We toured some of the floats being made for the Parade of Roses.  As you know, everything that goes ont he floats for the parade must be living material or once living material.  The details are incredible.  A woman was putting cinnamon on the cheeks of this monkey to add color.

The Finlays neighbor, Larry, invited us all over for homemade pizza in his outdoor pizza oven.  

Christmas Day.

 The annual ping pong tournament.  We never did find out the winner...

 The whole Finlay and Ferguson families on Christmas Day.