Payne Family Visits!

We were THRILLED when we found out that my Mom & Dad and sisters wanted to drive out to see us for the Thanksgiving weekend! 

This was a big surprise to us because we didn't think we'd be seeing them until Christmas- but HELLO! How could they not miss us? We are pretty awesome! Haha. And we were missing them lots too!

They had Thanksgiving dinner in Utah and then drove through the night Thursday night to get to our house at about 4:00am Friday morning- Phew! They are rockstars!

They got some sleep and then we put together a second Thanksgiving feast- I even made homemade pies and rolls and cooked a lot of food (with help from mom, of course), but the day was busy, and I forgot to take a single picture. 

After dinner and naps, we headed into Petaluma to show the girls some of our favorite spots in quaint Downtown Petaluma.  

Saturday, we took the family into San Francisco!

 This is now our favorite spot to take pictures with the Golden Gate Bridge and we've been lucky to always catch it on a clear day.

(We had to get a picture of the baby in there- now cooking at 28 weeks!)

A drive down Lombard Street. Next time, we'll stop, get out, and take pictures. It's really cool!

We did the normal awesome Fisherman's Wharf activities including lunch, shopping at Pier 39, and a hot fudge sundae at Ghiradelli. Our cousins Nate and Shelby (living in South CA) met us here and stayed with us through the weekend!
Hannah was in love with place-

Pier 39 had a beautiful giant tree! 

Next, we went to a spot that I hadn't been to! UNION SQUARE.

The massiveness of this mall is incredible. We didn't even see half of it!

It was also beautiful- lit up with Christmas lights with a giant tree in the middle and outdoor ice skating in the park- definitely on my Bucket List now.

We spent the bulk of our time in the Disney store because it was huge and magical! Drake was in pure. heaven.

We spotted Santa too!

Rob had fun with the camera Sunday morning getting a kick of out Drake lining up his toys (always does this) and playing with his guns)- he caught some darling moments.

Sunday was spent relaxing, playing with grandparents and aunties, and attending church.

Nate & Shelby spent the day with us and we loved seeing them and having them here with us!

We had a THIRD Thanksgiving dinner- mostly leftovers from Friday and a yummy ham!

Then we spent time talking about the things we were thankful for and putting them on our Thankful Tree- This was a fun tradition Rob & I started last year where we'd place thankful leaves on the tree all through the month of November- it just didn't happen this year with the move, so we were excited to do it on this day with our family!

We each wrote down 2 serious and 1 silly thing we were thankful for.

Mine:

1. My family / 2. The move to California / 3. Chocolate

(and I'd like to add the Gospel of Jesus Christ in there as well)

Rob's:

1. This new adventure of moving / 2. My family / 3. (can't remember)

Drake's:

1. Hunter / 2. Missionaries / 3. Hunter again

In conclusion, we had such a great time with the Payne family here!
We loved showing my sisters the things that we love about living here since this was their first time out.
Spending a day in the city was fantastic!
 It was wonderful to sit and have family dinner together knowing Hunter was just a couple hours away on his mission (and we missed Staci's husband Ty dearly!)
And, we loved just spending time together with family in our new home. :)