Hearst Castle

 We decided to explore a gem of the Central Coast this year.  We took a tour as a family of Hearst Castle.  What beauty!  Between the landscape and the artifacts that are housed there, it is all breathtaking!  The little kids hung in really well and the big kids enjoyed themselves too.  Here are some highlights. 

Christmas at the Coast

We were able to meet up with my family at the coast again this year.  It's a nice relaxing time spent by the ocean.  The kids were excited to continuing gift giving with more cousins.  Bright orange soccer balls, gift cards to the local mall, tractors and dolls were highlights.

Merry Christmas-2012!

Merry Christmas from the Elgersmas! Wonderful worship, family together, music, laughter, gift giving, and good food filled our festivities this year.  Thankful for Jesus and the ultimate gift he is!

 Love the excitement over Troy's new Packers jersey.

 Those who know Scott will appreciate the appropriateness of this gift.

 Hmmm...technology anyone?

"Shoot Hoops, Not Drugs!"

Troy and Kamryn were selected from their school to participate in the local Elks "Hoops Shoot" a couple of weekends ago.  This is Kam's third year and she has gotten progressively better at it each year.  Both of the kids did great.  We always enjoy the Elks announcer with some of the slogans for the event and also his mis-pronunciation of the kids' names. Troy took second in his age group sinking 18 out of 25 baskets.  Kam took a strong first place with 20 out of 25!  Nice work!

 Troy enjoyed competing against Matthew, one of his best friends.

Kam's 13th!

The 21st of December is a big day...Kamryn's Birthday.  This year it was supposed to be the end of the world because of the Mayan Calendar or some such thing.  We were also remembering that Kamryn was born in December of 1999, right during the Y2K scare.  But we all survived and we know that God is in control. :)  Anyway, we had a great day celebrating Kam.  This year it happened to be the last day of school before Christmas break.  So bowling and a half day of school with her classmates made for a nice day.  We went out to Riverside for a family dinner and she answered some phone calls to top it off.  Congratulations on reaching teenager-hood, Kam!  You're a great daughter, friend, sister, student, athlete and much more!  It's been fun to watch you become more of a leader this year.  I also love your sensitive side in regards to others.  Awesome!  I know you have a fun year ahead!  Thanks for being such a blessing to us!  The last two pictures are of a late birthday trip to Santa Monica with her friend, Ellen.  We had a great day shopping, sight-seeing and people watching!

RCS Christmas Concert

We just had the annual RCS Christmas concert at the University chapel.  It is a beautiful place to have a concert.  I always forget how loud it is, though.  I need to snap a picture of the whole auditorium sometime to show the vastness of this place.  It's huge and we fill it!  Each year that we have been here, Scott has been invited to join the stage crew, so that means that he does a little work and we get to sit up front.  Score!  This year Scott had a special costume.  There was a shepherd. There were sheep.  And Scott was the donkey!  (Many people enjoyed substituting the other name for the animal.)  Anyway, we are thankful for our talented music teachers and the time they put in to enable our kids to worship through music.  Pretty cool!