ONE YEAR "IN THE USA" ANNIVERSARY

As of today we have been living in the USA for a whole year! We can't believe how fast the time has gone. Here is a quick run down of our past year, complete with twelve pictures....

MAY

 First time to San Francisco: Got our house and cars: Tour of California: Macintosh arrived!

JUNE

 Andrew's birthday: Our stuff arrived from England: First baseball match: Saw Fyfe Dangerfield: Went to Hollywood: Took Macintosh to his first dog beach 

JULY

Andrew went to Florida (again): Celebrated our first 4th July: Enjoyed the heat!

AUGUST

Keble's visit: San Francisco again: Lots of touristy things: Andrew came home from Florida

SEPTEMBER

Elisha was born: Saw AFI, 30 Seconds to Mars and Linking Park: Went to Sacramento 

OCTOBER

Went home to surprise family: Hannah's birthday: Said goodbye to our neighbour: Did some local exploring 

NOVEMBER 

Went to San Diego: Saw Switchfoot: Our friends got a beagle: Stayed at Big Bear Lake: Andrew grew a moustache: Celebrated our first Thanksgiving 

DECEMBER 

Got our first American Christmas tree: Watched Christmas parades: Saw Handel's Messiah in LA: Visited Santa Barbara: Celebrated our first American Christmas: Visited the Getty Centre

JANUARY 

Rang in 2015: Went snow tubing: Explored the Pacific Crest Trail

FEBRUARY

Watched our first Super Bowl: Saw Ben Howard: Explored more of the PCT

MARCH 

Woodruff visit: Did some touristy things: Travelled the entire West Coast by train: Saw Seattle: Watched the LA air show: 

APRIL

Visited Filmore: Dog sat a few times: Celebrated our first American Easter: Hiked to the Devil's Chair: Made it to a whole year in the US of A!

We genuinely can't believe how insane this past year has been. Writing this post and looking back at all the photos showed us just how much of this amazing country we have seen, whilst Andrew has been working full time too. We have many exciting things planned for the next three months so we know year two will be just as exciting. 

I think though we are just amazed at how God has blessed us in sending us over here for this period of our lives, providing us with such brilliant friends (both American and British) and sustaining us when we are homesick or just feel like we are missing out on life in the UK. We are excited to see what He has in store for us in the next year, so bring it on!

A&H 

SAYONARA 2014

2014 is almost over here in California. It's already ended in Britain and they are all peacefully asleep ready to wake up of the first day of the new year....2015!

Well this past year has been a pretty big one for us as it involved a life changing move across the world, but there's also been some other pretty big happenings. In no particular order, here are our top 10 things from 2014...

1. Being reunited after living apart for 6 months. 
2. Moving to California.
3. Taking our first trip to San Francisco and seeing the Golden Gate bridge. 
4. All the concerts we have been able to go to, including Switchfoot, Fyfe Dangerfield, 30 Seconds to Mars and Linkin Park amongst others.
5. Our nephew Elisha being born!
6. Having Mummy and Daddy K coming out to visit in California for 3 blissful weeks. 
7. Seeing Sir Bradley Wiggins in the Tour of California. 
8. Surprising everyone in England by just appearing on their doorstep!
9. Buying the largest Christmas tree ever. 
10. And possibly the best event of the year......Ben getting engaged on Christmas Eve!! Yay!

We are already looking forward to 2015. It holds our 5th wedding anniversary, special wedding anniversaries for both sets of parents, Elisha's first birthday and a certain husband turning the big 30!! But for now 2014, you've been a pretty great year!

A&H

A FACELIFT

Thought the blog could do with a little freshen up, so whilst you were all asleep in England we had a bit of a play about. We created a new logo that involved placing the beagle on pride rock in front of some fluffy clouds, paired it with a clear cut font that stands out and tweaked a few other little bits to create the new look. Voila! 

Enjoy the holidays!
A&H

OUR CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas day has come and gone already, can you believe it? We spend so long gearing up for it and its over in a flash! Well our Christmas day was rather different this year as you can expect. We had no Christmas day service to attend and no family to meet up with which are two of the things that usually define our Christmas day in England. So we knew it would look a little different this year but we really loved our day. There was present opening, skyping/facetiming, Christmas dinner eating, game playing, dog walking, film watching and lots of enjoying. It was a great first Christmas in the USA.

H

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We hope you have a wonderful day, but we want to challenge you to remember the whole reason for the Christmas. We celebrate Jesus' coming into the world. The video below shows you (in the cutest way possible) the nativity story. But remember Jesus didn't stay a baby and Easter reminds us of His great purpose on Earth; to provide a way for man to be right with God. This is the fundamental truth to our life and we really hope that if it isn't yours already then it will become yours! 

Merry Christmas again! Don't eat too many mince pies!!
A&H

SANTA BARBARA

As Andrew has been given a few days off before Christmas so we decided to we should make the most of the free time. We have a whole list of small day trips that we want to do around Christmas that will allow us to see more of beautiful California without all the faff of packing up for bit. 

So on Monday we went off to Santa Barbara for the day. It was really weird playing Christmas music as we drove down and yet looking out the car window at bright blue skies. It felt even more strange being on the beach with the sun beating down on us. The temperatures during the day reached 24 degrees so it was really warm! Not at all what a Brit is used to at Christmas!

We spent the morning on the beach allowing Macintosh to have some time exploring, meeting other dogs and jumping around in the water. It really is so strange how much Mac loves the beach. For a beagle who won't allow his belly to get wet normally he just abandons all reason at the beach and piles into the waves! Granted he doesn't enjoy being wet afterwards as he spends a lot of time shaking out every single droplet of water he can!

The afternoon and evening was spent wandering around the town of Santa Barbara, seeing the old Mission and wandering on the pier. We really enjoyed it and managed to see more of the town this time than last time.

I loved the old Mission. It was really beautiful. They had a nativity outside it with live animals that Macintosh was obsessed with wandering up too. There were some amazing plants growing too and some great architecture to enjoy. I think Andrew loved the pier best, just watching the sun go down and enjoying the time together. It really was wonderful. 
H

ROSAMOND ELECTRIC LIGHT PARADE

Now I know what you're thinking, maybe this area has finally caught up with the rest of the world, but contrary to popular belief electricity has been at for Rosamond for quite some time now. This was more of a Christmas themed event than a celebration of electricity, even if some of the floats were somewhat rudimental and felt like something from time past. 

On a freezing cold evening last weekend after debating whether to go we finally decided to give it a go. So we wrapped up warm, grabbed the dog and stomped down to the main street to watch the wonder of electricity and light bulbs! Thank you Mr Edison. From a car with fairy lights to light up snowmen or go-karts whizzing around with an electric glo, it was definitely a laugh and despite its oddness we felt very christmassy after.

Let me share with you some photographs taken as a record of the evening. (photography was invented by Mr Niepce, so thanks to him I can share this). I'll stop there though otherwise I'll end up listing every inventor that created something which now enables me to post this on our blog. Enjoy the photographs!
A