big trip to Los Angeles

in the middle of the worse raging fires (both wild and arson related) that southern california has ever experienced, we drove down to LA last weekend. we had been planning the trip for a couple months and didn't want to cancel. thomas was just recovering from croup, i was getting over a cold and william was on the verge of getting the same cold.... but we went anyways. sadly, it kept us from meeting the newest member of the Kim family (our friend's joanna & johhny), but we'll make sure to catch you guys next year!! don't want to be responsible for getting any new babies sick. scary thing was that the fire was only 5 miles away from their home at one point. thankfully, it moved in a different direction or they might have had to evacuate as well.

anyways, it was a little smoky on friday, but the winds shifted a little and by saturday evening the air was not bad at all.


thankfully, thomas did really well on with the drive. we only stopped twice on the way down, and once on the way up. really amazing for a little guy to sit strapped down for that long. we were really glad that we didn't end up having to stop every hour like we expected.


we walked around campus on Friday. it was the first time i had been back since 1998! so much has changed on the perimeter, i really didn't recognize much. luckily, the center of campus, the main quad and bruin walk haven't changed too much. the top pic is a shot of thomas peering at a large group of middle school kids that are getting a tour of campus.

we stayed in this little motel right in westwood, easy walking distance from campus and our old church. our room had a little fridge in it that became thomas' FAVORITE play thing ever. open close open close, take something out, put it back in, take milk out, take one sip, put it back in, repeat. several times. just because he could. at home the fridge door is too heavy for him to open.

snack time on the hotel bed :) ha ha...


on sat evening and sunday at church, we got to spend time with many old and long time friends. it was so nice to see everyone and to see all the kids! at the dinner on sat they had childcare, so i was able to actually talk & relax without having to worry about thomas. the hard thing was that there was not enough time to talk to everyone. i tried to make sure i had good conversations with at least a few people. just not enough time! but it was so nice to see everyone and to catch up with Pastor Soon and Esther. I still can't believe that their oldest, Faith, is 15!! amazing that that much time has gone by. our college church is blessed with some truly talented worship leaders, who made the worship/song time a really wonderful blessing for william and I. they are such amazing singers, i felt like i could have just sat and listened to them sing for hours. they do have a CD, but the CD really doesn't do them justice.


it is always nice to know that there are friendships that don't change and no matter how long it has been since the last meeting, you slip into them again like a pair of comfy shoes. thank God for comfy shoes :)