Meeting Amari

 We finally got a chance to get down to California to meet our new nephew, Amari. It was a short visit, but we got to spend a lot of time holding the baby and visiting with Joy and Solace. He is a sweet little guy and such a cutie. 

Uncle Joshua holding him for the first time.

Friday afternoon we met up with my side of the family in Fresno to go ice skating. It had been a number of years since I had ice skated, so it was a lot of fun to do it again and the kids all loved it. Emery was pretty hesitant at first, but once she got out there with some help she loved it. Most of the following pictures from the day are from Heather.

 Notice that Natalie and I are wearing matching jeans. Apparently, she dug hers out of the closet so we could match and they were exactly the color of the jeans I happened to be wearing that day.

Can't get enough of these beautiful ladies!

Here's the ice skating group. The session at the ice rink was from 3-6pm, so after we got done skating we met up with Dad and Isaac at a restaurant that served Chinese and Thai food. It was great to get to visit with everyone while we skated and than at dinner. I think we all felt the time was too brief because we lingered in the parking lot after dinner for awhile. Nevertheless, it was a good visit and nice to see everyone. I was really thankful that we were able to work out a way to all meet up during our brief time in California.

Back in Modesto, we enjoyed more time with baby Amari. We had a second family dinner with the Kerrs on Saturday and enjoyed a more relaxed day around the house. Gayle pulled out a number of the quilts that she has, including some of her first quilts and some made by her grandmother, and we had fun admiring all of them and taking pictures.

More pictures with the baby! These ones were taken by Lamar.

After everyone else left, we settled down to a game of Hearts with Dave and Gayle; a good way to end a great visit. The next morning we hit the road and came home. Although it would have been wonderful to have more time to spend with everyone, I kind of liked the short visit. It just felt more normal because we were there for a few days and saw everyone, then said see you again soon.