Chelsey came to visit us a couple weekends ago. We took her to San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, and San Jose for shopping, eating, and sightseeing. It was great to have her here with us.

A couple days ago we went to the SAP Open tennis tournament at the hp Pavilion. We got to see Juan Martin Del Potro who is #6 in the world and only 20 years old, James Blake who is #11, Vince Spadea, and Andrea Stoppini. It was really fun to watch.

We have both been really busy at work lately. It feels good to work hard all day and have more responsibility. On top of his church internship program, Jonathan started an advertising class through Academy of Art University of SF and he is really enjoying it. I am opting to study Japanese in my spare time and taking a yoga class instead, and have recently picked up the guitar again for the first time in far too long. Shinobi has graduated from catching only squishy toys in his mouth to catching a full size tennis ball in his mouth pretty consistently. We miss you all! Come visit soon!

We went for a hike at Big Basin Redwoods State Park (sans doggie) on MLK Jr. holiday. That park is the oldest California state park, founded in 1902. It was a perfect, beautiful day. We couldn't believe how old all of the trees must be, they are huge. We also saw a coyote, he was really cute. He looked a lot like Shinobi.

It was too beautiful of a day not to take some photos. The sky was a gorgeous blue and the citrus trees in our neighborhood are starting to bear fruit. I have been at my new job for a week now and am enjoying it so far. Jonathan is in SF today taking a voice acting class that I got him for Christmas. Shinobi is curled up on our new (used) couch. And we are going to hang out with the Jonathan and Lindsey tonight. Sigh... we are quite blessed.

Shinobi made friends with two Havanese dogs. The black one is named Scout and the white and gray one is Lincoln. Their owners, Jane and Karl, go to our church. Shinobi and Scout are about the same age and they were playing like crazy. Jane and Karl's son got a camera for Christmas and was practicing his skills on Shinobi.

We had a busy trip North for Christmas. We went to Portland, Corvallis, and Eugene and got to see a lot of friends, and family too. We realized that we are really blessed to have such great people in our lives. We had a wild month with a new job and Lasik eye surgery for me, and lots of fun Christmas parties and events.