Happy New Year!

The last sunset of 2006 at Big Bear Lake. Happy New Year everyone!

The last day of 2006 in Big Bear

We spent our day in Big Bear today...shopped around the village (bought some ski pants for a steal for future visitors!), saw the sights, enjoyed the snow etc. etc. A great day to end 2006:)

Mom and Sara with their mouths full of candy apples!

The lake was really iced-up in some places...look at all the shards of ice behind Sara! The ducks were so cute cause they were walking on the ice and their little feet go sliding across the glassy surface:)

Playing around in the restaurant.

Sabbath at Home

Today was our first Sabbath at home since mom's been here so we took her to LLU Church so that she could say she'd experienced it. We were also invited to lunch by our SA friends, Vaughn and Lorissa Grant, so spent the afternoon there with some South Africans.

Outside our little housie:)

Where we take all our visitors:) the Good Samaritan statue at LLU Church.

These are our friends, Vaughn and Lorissa. We really enjoyed our time with them - good food and good company:)

Christmas Day

We got up early on Christmas day and went over to uncle Ivan and aunty Shirley's house to have breakfast and open gifts. Boy - were there a LOT of presents!!!! It took us quite a while to get through all of them:) After presents and breakfast, we all headed back to aunty Nat's place and had lunch! Yes - we ate a LOT! Around 4pm we left to head back to Loma Linda.

Merry Christmas!

There always seem to be so many girls around!

Opening one of our gifts (wind chimes). It was so nice to receive and open gifts together and we were spoiled with some lovely stuff - thanks again everyone!

Examining Janine and Carly's gifts:)

Janine got a portable DVD player from Carly, and Sara bought Janine the final episode of "Friends" so we tested the DVD and the DVD player out! That's what we're all up to in this pic - watching Friends on a tiny screen:)

Lake Tahoe

After playing in the snow, we piled back into the RV and headed further up the mountain to Lake Tahoe.

The girls taking a little nap on the long drive:) So convenient to travel in an RV - Clark loves them!

Taking a pic of ourselves at the lake:) excuse the close-up!

Look how beautiful the lake is surrounded with snowy mountains. It was so peaceful to stand there and listen to the water and breathe the fresh air.

We had a late lunch at a hotel in Lake Tahoe - big group hey?!

Christmas Eve (Day) in the Snow

The 24th of December was a day packed full of fun:) We loaded everyone into the RV and headed up into the mountains in search of snow! We snow-boarded, had some snow fights, enjoyed hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy canes (real Christmassy stuff!) and had an absolute blast! Thanks to everyone esp. aunty Nat who organised most of the day and made all the yummy treats and uncle Merv who had a truck-load of people to drive around all day!

The snow was beautiful. Behind us there is a river flowing through the snow - so lovely:)

Heather made mom a "seat" in the snow and Janine joined her for a quick time-out.

Carly and Sara taking the snow-boards up the hill to come racing down again!

We really enjoyed our first snowy Christmas:)!

Mom and aunty Viv.

The girls pose for the camera:)

Clark and Sara about to go snow-boarding. Carly's there to lend a hand.

Christmas in Sacramento Vol. 3

Sabbath afternoon we had a scrumptious lunch at aunty Nat's place and played games on Saturday night.

Clark is very intrigued with Heather's knitting...

Mom with aunty Yvonne, Uncle Ivan and Carly.

Playing "Apples to Apples"

Mom with Sara and Janine.

Christmas in Sacramento cont.

Some more pics of our time in Sacramento...

Mom with her two cousins - aunty Viv and aunty Natalie. Long time - no see!

The Piercy grand-daughters and great grand-daughters. Aunty Viv's two girls are the blondes - Janine and Carly and aunty Nat's girls are Samantha (on the right looking over her mom's shoulder) and Heather (right in front). On the Piercy side - Sara is the eldest great grandchild and Heather is the youngest with 15 years between them.

This was taken at Sacramento Central church where we went to see Ps. Doug Bachelor.

Our 1st Anniversary

It's our very first wedding anniversary today! We made it a whole year!!! Had lots of fun together and have loved being with each other. We're looking forward to many many more anniversaries to come:)

One year ago today! Can't believe it!

Clark surprised Sara with a big bouquet of flowers:) and he is taking her out somewhere tonight (it's a surprise!) to celebrate!


Sara made this lovely frame to display our invitation since the gift for your first anniversary is supposed to be paper:)

Christmas in Sacramento

Just some Christmassy pics of us - our first Christmas as a married couple:) These were taken Sabbath morning at aunty Nat's house.

Visit to Visalia

On our way up to Sacramento to spend Christmas with family, we stopped over for the night in Visalia and spent some time with Dr. and Mrs. Pierson. Sara finally got to meet them! We had a lovely time, stayed up late chatting and catching up and then were off the next morning to Sacramento. Thanks for having us - we really had a great time:)

Grand Canyon Vol. 4

Our final day at the Grand Canyon - it snowed! We got up in the morning and looked out the window to see remnants of the snow that had fallen during the night...needless to say - it got even colder!


One last look at the canyon. See the snow in front of us? Brrrrrr!!!!

The car thermometer is registering 30 degrees fahrenheit!

The interior of our hotel - The Grand Hotel. Looks like a real winter log cabin.

Merry Christmas from the Grand Canyon!

Grand Canyon Vol. 3

We visited the tower which offers 360 degree views of the canyon. There is also another gift shop with a fireplace to warm up:) The view from the top of the tower is truly awesome especially since you can see the Colorado river snaking its way through the canyon.

The tower.

Mom and Sara inside at the top of the tower. You can see the large windows on either side of them where you can get great views.

The Native American art that decorates the interior of the tower.

We spent a lot of time just enjoying the view and taking in the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon. You really begin to appreciate how small you are compared to the vastness of creation!

The old-fashioned train station with the train that runs between the town of Williams to the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Vol.2

At Hermit's Rest - one of the stops along the South Rim. Here there is a souvenir shop with a cozy fire to warm the tourists and boy did we need some warmth!

Clark had to nurture his inner boy-child and climb a tree:) He insisted it was because we could get a cool picture of the canyon in the background!

Warming up in front of the fire:)

It's nice to cozy up to your handsome husband when it's cold!

Mom shows the temperature - the high for that day was 47 degrees F and only 8 degrees C but the wind was icy! The low for that day was minus 3 degrees celcius!