A Little Trip

We took advantage of a long weekend to take a little trip to St. George. It was nice to get away from the smog and see the sun for a while! Oh yeah relaxing, playing games and just hanging out was pretty good too. The kids would say their favorite part of the trip was swimming at the new pool in Washington. After 5 hours they STILL didn't want to leave!

It was about a week before Great-Grandma's birthday, so we stopped on our way back home and surprised her with cake, presents and a bunch of grandkids. She's probably still recovering from the craziness, but it was sure fun to visit with her and Grandpa!

Grammy & Papa T, along with our cousins Brie & Amy were also in St. George for the weekend. Grammy took us bowling one day. It was all good until Spencer just about took out the unsuspecting bowler next to us with a wayward bowling ball! We all had a great time though.

Ben waiting patiently for his turn...

Brie with her beautiful turquoise ball

Watch out for Spencer, he could throw that ball just about anywhere!

Grammy (the Queen Bowler Woman), Spence, and Amy

Ben, Brie, Spence & Amy spent a couple of afternoons "feeding the turtles" in Grammy's backyard. In case you are wondering those are rocks from Papa T's landscaping. He was not too thrilled about the rock usage but it kept the kids entertained for many hours, and oh, those turtles were hungry!

Good-Bye Friends

We are so sad to say good-bye to our dear friends the Fellows. They were our neighbors for several years and Aubree and Claire have been BFs since they were 3 years old! Now they are headed out for an new adventure in Vermont. We are sad to see them go but know they will have a great experience in a new place! Our last "hurrah" was a fun trip to Kangaroo Zoo with some of the kids. We had a great time and we miss them already.

It's embarrassing to admit but the moms got in on the action too and we found out, those giant slides are FUN! No wonder the kids love this place. You go, Kim!

Sledding

The kids took advantage of the fresh snowfall over Christmas to go sledding at our favorite place, Happy Hollow. It was all good unless you ended up in the ditch filled with muck! Here's Cam & Ben in the ditch, luckily not in the muck.

Spencer was Energizer Bunny Sledder. He never wanted to stop!

Christmas pics

Santa found us despite the unbelievers of the family, and he left us presents whether we deserved it or not! Cam could hardly wait to go snowboarding, but ended up with the flu for most of the Christmas break. Not fun! We're glad he's feeling better and is planning to go snowboarding with friends tomorrow.

Looks like Ben's ready to hit the slopes too?

Our annual Christmas program at Grammy's house, complete with hooded and masked elves...

Polar Express

Grandma & Grandpa took the whole family on the REAL Polar Express. It was so fun! It was just like the book. The kids pointed out it was NOT just like the movie (meaning, the train went really slow and there were no roller coaster parts). But we had a great time singing carols, eating cookies and hot chocolate, visiting with Santa and playing with cousins.

Santa brought everyone a real, jingly silver bell from the reindeer's harness. Awesome!

The elves came around and visited, told jokes and brought hot chocolate.

Happy Elves

The Happy Elves have been busy in my kitchen making lots of yummy Christmas treats these days! They can hardly wait for Christmas to come, so we're trying to keep them busy doing good things so they (and I) don't go crazy.

I think I have made more Christmas treats this year than I ever have in my life! Adam has been out of school since Thanksgiving with a pesky case of pneumonia that just doesn't seem to want to go away! Sometimes he feels good, and then we cook. The rest of the time he just lies around feeling miserable. I can't wait till he gets better, and neither can he.

Here is one very happy elf---you are looking at the winner of the elementary school's Geography Bee! Way to go Aubree! I couldn't believe how hard the questions were. I didn't know the answers to most of them myself. Aubree says she won because of a "lucky guess," but her teacher reminded her that it was an "educated guess." Now she goes on to take the state geography test. Good luck, and happy studying Aubree!

Kicking off the Season

We kicked off the Christmas season last night with our annual gingerbread house party. The little boys were plenty excited, and then they got all hopped up on candy till they were running around the house like little monkeys. I gave the camera to Little Cam since I was busy squeezing frosting, and he only took about 75 pictures. Here are a few:

Aubree taking her job VERY seriously

Watch out for the lady with the frosting--she can be deadly!

Poor Adam missed out on the festivities. He has been quite sick with pneumonia, but I am happy to say that he is feeling better this morning.

Wow. Time to brush Dad.