I Love You, California!

Jim and Kathy were our first visitors of the year! We were so excited to have them visit; it had been a while since we'd had visitors! On Friday night we took Jim and Kathy to our favorite restaurant, Town. We had an amazing family style dinner. On Saturday we took them to the North Shore to see Will's orchard, eat some fish Tacos at Luibuenos, watch some surfers, and do a little hiking. Walking through Waimea Valley For dinner we stayed casual and had a nice home cooked meal. On Sunday we took Jim and Kathy on a scenic drive around the East side of the island on our way up to Lanikai Beach where we had a picnic.  After soaking up the sun we had to stop for some shave ice at Island Snow. And to end an excellent weekend we had sushi at Kona Kai! Thanks for coming to see us Jim and Kathy!

After being in the cold for weeks we (I) couldn't wait to get to the beach! Will has been wanting to try surfing ever since we moved here, so we figured why not today?! I lounged on the beach while Will took his first lesson. It was fun to watch him catch a couple waves! For dinner it was off to Kona Kai Sushi! One of our local favorites. It sure feels good to be back!

We stopped through Chicago for a couple of days after our epic trip to see more family. This time we visited with Jim, Hawley, Jim, and Kathy. During these few days Will, Jim, and Jim went to a Bears game, I got to see my sister, we had several great meals, we saw a show at Second City, and we visited the Shed Aquarium. What nice memories we made : ) (And hopefully I get more pictures from others at some point!) Here are some pictures from the Bears game. They look cold!

On New Year's Day we met Margaretta for one last breakfast before we left snowy Istanbul. We were so thankful to get out of town, as hundreds of flights had been cancelled due to the twelve inches of snow that fell over two days! We did have a short delay, but we weren't going to complain since therewere so many people stranded. So many grounded planes all over the place. We landed safe and sound back in Nuremberg where we were spending a night for a layover before heading back to Chicago on Saturday. We had one last German meal, which made Will very happy. Where we had dinner the last night.