Winter in Pasadena - "cold" weather, new friends, family fun

God's gift to our family for the quarter - Ruthie Stratman (along with her mom (Kim), dad (Nate), and sister (Ellie) moved out to Pasadena from Colorado Springs.  Our girls love playing with Ruthie and Ellie.  Kim has been a gift to Janelle. Nate has been a blessing to me.  Wow!

At the Huntington Gardens - Funny faces!!

Minnie Mouse with Snow White while Dadda and Esther ride the roller coasters.  Esther loves all the roller coasters and took me on Space Mountain for the first time a couple weeks ago.  We both loved it!

We are so thankful for the gift of going to Disneyland!

Our "backyard"

A visit to the Getty - an amazing art museum.  Esther is sketching from a 20 foot painting of a beetle...focused!

Our girls in front of a Van Gogh.  Our baby boy is 7.5 months old now!  Janelle is doing great.

Pretending to be statues outside at the Getty.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our "front yard"- you can see one of our two hummingbird feeders and you can see by Esther's feet our pumpkins that we planted last fall - they haven't grown much yet, but we are hoping the warm weather will bring us some pumpkins!

I'm so thankful for fun family time.  (Special shout out for the Dawson Basketball team!)

I'm so sorry that I have not posted for so long.  I will try to get a post up at least every couple weeks from here on out. 

The pictures tell most of the story of January and February for us except you don't see me sitting at a table in the Library where I spend much of my time studying away.  I am enjoying my classes this quarter very much - Colossians (from the Greek text with one of the legendary teachers of Fuller), Homiletics (preaching - I have learned SO much and see how much more I have to learn to be a good preacher), Hebrew quarter 2 (with a really excellent, young prof), and Missional Churches & Leadership (challenging me to rethink many assumptions I have had about "doing church").  We only have 2 more weeks of classes and a finals week.  Before we know it we will already be starting my last quarter out here!

Janelle and baby brother are doing great.  Due date is April 10.  His "room" is all set up in our closet in our bedroom.  It feels a little crazy having a baby out here away from all our family and in a 2 bedroom apartment, but we know that God is going to take care of us and we are thankful for the community out here that continues to form.

Last thought - you know you have become acclimated to Southern California when you look at the weather, see it is going to be a high of 59 in February, tell your kids that it is going to be cold today, and put on your wool socks.  Sheepishly I admit that all of those things happened today!  I am a Coloradan still but my inner thermometer has been reset!

I do hope you are well and know God's grace and love in Christ this day.

Forrest