8th Grade Grad

Christina and I took Courtney to her first Mariners game, and a dinner at 13 Coins to celebrate her graduating from Fairhaven Middle School. Then we headed to Pike's Place for a bit, and then the game. The M's won, and she is now officially a high schooler!

Cabo Adventure

So, the trip ruled. We played in the pool- a lot! Went to the best desert place ever, called Senor Sweets twice. Christina and Courtney went parasailing. We went out to dinner a couple times. The girls had a blast. I payed some guy $2 for Courtney to hold a lizard. We bartered for jewelry. Did I mention we played in the pool?

Heading to Cabo

Mark and Rebecca invited us to join them in Cabo again this May, and this time we got to bring the girls. Chloe was very excited on the plane! We flew in to the airport on a smaller plane, and exited from the outside. It was about 90 degrees when we landed, but felt like 115 to me. THe gils are happy for sun! Rebecca's mom and step dad own the timeshare "La Playa Grande" which is just beautiful. We will be celebrating the renewal of their vows, and getting some R & R.

Here we are on the Universal Studios Boardwalk in Orlando after winning our trophy!

Christmas Card Pic

So, everyone keeps asking us about our Christmas card, and Chloe's stone cold smile. The deal is, we got all dressed up for our photo shoot, and headed to CTK to take the photos in front of the Christmas trees. By the time we got there, we didn't have a ton of time to take the photos, and Christina and I took a few with two to three of us in them. Then, my friend Ryan was taking the group shot, and we could not get Chloe to smile. First time in her life. Christina thinks Chloe is going all "high fasion" and trying out new looks for the camera (as displayed in the last picture here with all three girls). We then had to run to Courtney's school for parent-teacher conferences, and so the first picture above was about the only one we could use for the card that had all four of us in it. We concluded the day with a trip to Win's Drive In, which Christina is now addicted to (for those around Olympia, Win's is a lot like Big Tom's). Hope you liked the picture and had a wonderful Christmas!

Had an interesting Christmas afternoon...We planned on having Christmas lunch with the Millers (Baron and Cristina live next door) but they decided that they would rather be airlifted to Seattle, and have their baby ten weeks early than have lunch with us! Here is baby Calix Miller- healthy and well! Our prayers is that he will be home with the family soon.

Christmas this year was a blast! Courtney got the big stocking- someone gets it every year, and it is a treat, because it holds the most. Chloe loves opening everything- "Oh my goodness!". The big surprise was that we are taking the family to Cabo- for sun, sand and pool time in May.

Our friends Mark and Rebecca got matching Christmas dresses for Chloe and their daughter Charli Kate. Here they are in all their splendor!

I just got these, so thought I would share. My nephew Jonah is a rockstar.

For Thanksgiving we went to my sister's house to visit her and her husband Chris and their three boys, Christian, Jonah and Max and Trevor was there also. Chloe loves to play with both Jonah and Max. (Christian was being a big boy watching football games with Dad and Uncle Derek- he will be nine on New Year's Day.) Max and Jonah showed Chloe the ropes- what is fun to play with, helped her get extra snacks- the three of them pretty much had the run of the house (the picture on the right shows them doing horsey rides.)

I must say, my sister put together quite a spread. The turkey was incredible, and we had 4 pies, and homemade cranberry sauce. Wow. I remember when she couldn't make mac and cheese...

Well, right on cue, Chloe got fussy needing a nap, so we loaded the family in the car, and went an hour south to Olympia. My youngest brother Dallen and his wife Chrissy, and three kids, Kaiden, Kailee and Kairah (allpictured with Chloe) were all at my mom's house, along with two foreign exchange students that are staying with them. My mom had made a full spread as well, and since we were full from Dani's, we waited a bit for a second dessert, and then ate turkey, stuffing and potatoes the whole next day (well that was my breakfast- the girls had pie).

We watched movies all day long with my mom, (her husband Chuck works graveyard, so he got up around 2PM) and had pretty much a wonderful holiday.

The girls seemed to have quite a bit of fun putting up the Christmas tree last weekend. Christina and Courtney unwound all the lights, unpacked all the ornaments, set up the tree, unwound the beads, hung the ornaments, thebeads, the ribbons and bells (yes we have a festive tree) and put up the lights.

My job was to keep Chloe from touching the above mentioned items.

I had the tougher job.