no longer keyless!

It feels good to have a place to call home.

Thanks for all your prayers...the flight went perfectly and we did not have to wait in any lines the entire day- not at the check-in desk, not to board the flight, not in immigration, not even to pick up our bags. Suzy did awesome on the 5.5 hour flight and was sooo excited about being in a plane, she didn't sleep a wink the whole time! Traveling together with Elvis and with a toddler in her own seat is 8 billion times better than traveling alone with a one year old lap baby who is crawling all over your head.

Kelly and Brian picked us up (welcome home sign and all!) and the first order of business was to get some real California fish tacos. YUM. Then we found our new apartment where we opened the door and were speechless with what God had provided for us. A beautiful, spacious, fully furnished apartment (i mean, even toilet paper, sheets on the bed....the only thing we needed was food in the fridge!) The manager told us we should just plan on staying here our whole time in pasadena, and we eagerly agreed! It is incredible and ridiculously cheap for Cali and there our 24 families from around the world staying here too, most of them are students at Fuller as well and everyone has kids for Suzy to play with in the playground with is approximately 5 steps from our front door.

One of my favorite parts is that Trader Joe's donates food to us twice a week! This week we scored lamb steaks, spinach and feta stuffed salmon, ready made fancy salads, muffins, pizza dough, etc etc etc.

Here is our street, lined with palm trees and with a beautiful view of the San Gabriel mountains in the background:
Our house is just a 0.5 mile walk from Kelly and Brian's house! We passed many orange trees on the way there:
And here are some pictures of our house!
The living room:
Dining room/kitchen which is attached to the living room (I love how it is all open which means that Suzy can run around while we cook)
Guest bathroom (with a bathtub! yes!)
Suzy's bunk bed!! She has been too excited to sleep sometimes, but has not tried to get down from the bed thankfully.

Our bedroom...there is another bathroom off of our room and closets, dresser that you can't see:
More living room/back deck:
The view of the playground from our front door!

Suzy's new kitchen set (I bought it from another fuller student when i came in july)

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday with Brian and Kelly, who Suzy is attached to the hip with now!
We ate some yummy sushi, and hit up several grocery stores to see where is the best place to buy stuff. We have found even-cheaper-than-El Salvador produce prices which is amazing. We also got Elvis' social security card, which took approximately 5 minutes to do. Love efficiency. And we both got cell phones, so let me know if you need our numbers or address!

I dropped off Kelly and Brian at the airport on Wednesday night, and they oh so graciously gave us another set of keys- to their car! We get to drive it while they are in NC for a while, which takes the pressure off of buying a car right away. We can walk to pretty much anywhere we need to go, but it's nice for carrying groceries, etc. THank you McPhails!!!!!!!!!

We are so thankful for all that we have right now, including my parents who were able to come visit for Christmas/New year's. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to have to be running around, trying to find furniture during these first few days. We feel so blessed. We are also so thankful that Suzy is adjusting so well. She is captivated by all the new stuff, and loves her new house and new sights. We feel like this is such a perfect fit for us right now. We love the multi-cultural feel of the city and its people, and Elvis feels right at home which is also very important. There are hints of Central America on every corner but many new things as well for both of us and we are loving this new adventure of exploring a new city together!

So, we have a top bunk available...who wants to come visit?? ;-)