Christmas break is over!

It's hard to believe that two and a half weeks passed so quickly, but here we are on new year's eve looking back on all the good times we had. Christmas was wonderful with my mom and my brother in town and Katie back from Georgia. Bindi got a cute little bumble bee car from Grandma Mitchell (Denise) which she's been buzzing around in. Lots of great presents from all the family - thanks to everybody. Derek and I went to the Monterey area for our anniversary. We went to the mission at Carmel-by-the-Sea, did the 17 mi drive at Pebble Beach, and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had planned to go whale watching on our last day, but the trip was canceled. Guess we'll have to go back a different time. Overall it was a great Christmas break and we're looking forward to another long hard semester before we get to go see our family in Singapore!

Merry christmas!

It's over! My first semester of medical school is over! And as far as I know I passed all my classes, although I won't get final grades for awhile yet. To back up a little, Thanksgiving break was great - my mom came down and watched Bindi for us so we could take a little break. We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Derek's family in Gridley and Derek fried his first turkey. We hiked Feather Falls near Oroville and we posted some pictures below. Also, we visited Apple Hill near Sacramento for our fried Ryan's birthday. It's a place where everything is apple- apple pies, apple turnovers, fresh apples, apple jam - it was delicious and fun. In other news, my mom and brother Jesse are coming down for Christmas - Jesse is coming all the way from Japan. Bindi is growing up quickly - she's learned to stand up (with assistance) and to sit up from a laying down position. She jabbers all the time (as demonstrated in the video) but no real words yet. I'm sure we'll have some great new pictures to post after Christmas.