The Leon's 2009 Photo Album

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Updated: 2009.12.31

December

Diane prepared a beautiful Christmas dinner

"Hurry up with the picture, and let's eat!"

Peanut is a great gift!

Although, he doesn't seem to appreciate the symbolism here.

Guitar stringer

Jessica bought a tool to help Zachary sring his electric guitar

New books

The kids always enjoy a new book for any occasion

Peanut was a good boy this year

Santa brought him a squeaky bunny rabbit. He has already managed to chew the tail off. He mostly just likes us to chase him, and this is a good excuse!

Christmas Eve dinner

at Dave & Jill's new place in Alameda. This was like Thanksgiving all over again! Mmmm... Turkey.

The family Christmas picture

used for the Christmas card we sent out this year,

and the traditional group photo picture.

suitable for framing. ;-)

November

Thanksgiving dinner at The MacAfee house.

Ready to enjoy a delicious Turkey Dinner by Jill! Dave & Jill moved up to Alameda, and are living on the old Naval base in a Captain's quaters - very nice!

Playing in Alameda.

The gang looks like they are posing for an album cover, don't ya' think?!

Celebrating Diane's 39th Birthday around the house.

The kids made a treasure hunt so she had to work to find her Cavalier calendar this year!

October

Jessica getting ready to go to the homecoming dance.

I guess you could call this the home-leaving picture.

September

School Pictures

Jessica is a Junior in High School

Zachary is in the 8th grade. He didn't order school pictures this year, so this was actually taken at JCPenny with our Christmas pictures. Yup, wardrobe change!

August

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July

This was a busy month!!

Zachary's 13th birthday party.

We celebrated his birthday early, so we could get it in before Diane's surgery. We went to Great America theme/water park, and then came back for cake, ice cream, and presents.

Mom & Dad Leon Visit

They came for a visit to help out during / after Diane's back surgery. They also brought Hannah (Nate's sister's daughter) which was a treat. It was so great having them here!

They took us out to McCormick & Schmicks for dinner the night before Diane's surgery. The name doesn't quite roll off your tongue, but the menu is impressive!

Of course, we had to find a way to take them so San Fran for a tour, especially since this was Hannah's first visit. Dislcaimer: Zachary enjoyed the day - he just decided to see if he could look the same in all pictures, and they came out looking pretty serious! :-P

Zachary hardly heled me at all trying to get this cable moved into place!

It was a beautiful day for hiking across the Golden Gate Bridge.

We got a few sprinkles which made for a nice rainbow behind Pier 39. Notice how it heads off to the right... where will it touch down?

At the TransAmerica Pyramid - where else would you expect to find a pot of gold in SF?!

Alcatraz Sunset - I wonder if any of the guests there got to enjoy such a view?!

Returning from a bay cruise just in time before dark!

Happy Independence Day

We celebrated the 4th of July with a parade and BBQ with our neighbors.

Jessica making our traditional July 4th Jello

I'd give you the recipe, but it is Top Secret. ;-)

After the BBQ dinner things are winding down - time to rest up for the fireworks!

It seems Peanut is learning to tolerate us decorating him! Or he was just distracted with all of the other dogs at the parade. :-)

Blueprints for a rail-road yard? Or Diane's post-surgery x-ray??

It is amazing what they did to her. The middle rod is the old one, from when she was 16 years old. You can see how it is split in the middle. Her nerves had grown around it, so they could not remove it. You can still see an impressive amount of spine curvature, even with the rods. See if you can spot her wedding band!

Here's the side view

Those screws are three inches long and very coarse - kinda' like the ones I use to hang sheet rock in the garage! You can see here how the Dr. went in from the front and back. Her vertebrae were too small at the top of her spine for them to use the screws, so they had to use hooks instead. The surgery took 10 hours to complete. He added some arch to her back that didn't used to be there - it took her a while to get used to her new posture.

April

Jessica's Sweet 16 birthday party.

She took a bunch of friends to Seacliff beach for a BBQ/party.

Almost time to eat.

Diane ordered a really nice "boquet" from Edible Arrangements.

Playing in the ocean.

They didn't know I was taking their picture from the wharf above.

We stayed until after sunset.

It was getting a bit chilly after the sun went down. Time to head back to the house for...

Cake!

Diane ordered a really cool beach-theme cake, with actual beach sand. Well, maybe that was just brown sugar, but sure looks real! The shells were made of white chocolate. Mmmm... good.

The obligatory cake smash

What kind of friends would they be if they didn't smear cake in her face?!

On her actual birthday, we celebreated with...more cake!

No, she's not a huge San Jose Sharks fan, but her favorite color is teal, so Diane managed to mix up some teal frosting!

Peanut soaking up some rays.

He loves to lay in the sun.

March

Nate getting ready for take off.

Nate still tries to fly R/C aircraft once a week or so, although he took a few months off. Lately, he has been flying helicopters more. It was a fairly cold winter morning, at least by California standards.

Here we are headin' out

Hope we will see it again!

Here's a close-up hover.

A fellow R/C flyer took these pics w/ a very nice Nikon camera. (Thanks Scott!)

February

Trip to the snow.

We had fun with the giant ice-cicles this year.

Snow dudes.

Besides tubing, the kids dug a maze of tunnels out back. And of course, it wouldn't be a trip to the snow without a snowman or two!

January

Henry (far left) came for a visit.

Henry (our nephew on Diane's side) was on his way to New Zeland, and stopped thru for a few days. We had an unusually warm 70 degree day in San Fran, especially in the middle of Jan! When we weren't dragging him to all of the tourist attractions, he would entertain us on the Mandolin.

Ghiradelli is always worth the trip.

Who needs dinner when Ghiradelli serves up giant Hot Fudge Sundaes?!