Monday, January 28, 2013

January Updates

We had two nights in a row of late night sledding.  The snow was fun and fast on the hill alongside our house and the weather was right around freezing, so it was very pleasant to sled in.  We let the kids stay up past 10  two nights in a row to take advantage of the great opportunity!

I got a call from the Tristan's school while I was teaching from the nurse saying that he wasn't feeling very well.  I had an aide cover for me so I could pick him up and take him home.  He composed this while he was at home that day.  :)  Not too many opportunities for him to write this.

A trip up to Oroville to stay with the Thompsons.  The Barnes' were there too!

We went a mile up this logging road and then sledded down. It was amazing!!!!  The most fun sledding I've EVER had!  It was nice because a truck took us up and dropped us off.  :)  The snow was fast, the hill just curvy and steep enough to make for a GREAT ride!  We did it over and over again!

Josh and Branson

Owen and Jason

Tristan on his own.  These snowmobile sleds worked great!!  They have a front ski that you can steer and brakes to slow you down. They were just what the boys needed to make it safely down the hill!  Regular sleds were too fast and hard to control for them to go on without an adult, but the snowmobile sleds were just perfect!

Tawn and all "3" of her girls! :)

The guys had a race.  Tristan and I followed behind to clean up the pieces.  The only thing that broke was one of the sleds and one of Mike's metacarpals.  Ouch!  

The view while sledding!  I know! Amazing!

An attempt at a kid picture on the slide.

The end of our attempt.  :)

Blood oranges have been on sale and we've been purchasing a bunch.  I really like the taste, but I do have a little trouble not thinking of blood every time I bite into them!   Owen really likes them, obviously.  :)
So does Wade!

The neighborhood sledding hill.  I hope no one actually tried to ride that trike down....that would be rather dangerous!


Penguins!

At least they don't go as fast like this!

We had our annual Winterfest festival. It was a lot of fun!  I hope I have more pictures on my phone, because this is the only one I found on my camera!  We had a make-your-own pizza get-together and then went downtown and looked at the sculptures before heading to the park for the fireworks.

We had a heavy frost and the trees looked beautiful.  We are in the doldrums of January.  We actually have stagnant air warnings out!  The problem is that with the lack of movement the clouds have settled in low on the lake so we haven't had much sun.  :(  haha I just realized I'm complaining about lack of air movement and in a few months you will probably hear me complain about the spring wind that we get!  :)

Eric is a good uncle.  Practicing up!  :)

The boys used some of their Christmas money to purchase the air hockey and table soccer tables that you see.  They were really cheap, $30 total for both tables!  They have been providing hours of entertainment!  Landon, the neighbor boy, likes to play too!

Oh boy!  "Boys will be boys" his shirt says.

I love evenings like this!

Saturday, January 05, 2013

Holiday Trip 2012

We started off on our trip by stopping in Portland and staying a night with Sam and Julie.  The boys were having a wrestling match.  Uncle Sam let each boy pick out three rocks that he is tumbling for them in a rock tumbler.  They are very excited to see their rocks in about a month.

We had only been on the road about 4 hours after leaving their house when we hit a big delay.  The freeway was closed due to several cars in the ditch and jackknifed trucks.  We sat for about 5 hours at this truck stop.  Once we were finally going, we made it over that first pass only to have another delay at the next pass while we got chains and put them on.  Finally around midnight we were on our way.  We had planned to stop for the night, but by that point we were so happy to finally be on the road that we decided to just keep on going.  Jason drove for 4 hours through a blizzard and roads thick with snow and ice.  He only covered 120 miles in that time.


We got to Fallbrook, CA (just north of San Diego) in time for a delicious meal outside with our kind hosts, the Garners!

My mom and dad had flown in the day before.

Smores around the fire.

The next day we went to La Jolla, I need to get the pictures of that off of my phone.  And then on to Torrey Pines.  We enjoyed a picnic on the beach.

My crazy boys have to be in the water!

Doing the Hokey Pokey with Grandma!

My Baders!

Did I mention that ALL of my boys like the water!





From the beach we hiked up on the bluff.  The view was spectacular!

Holding hands after 33 years!



Owen did an excellent job hiking!






A huge pine cone from a Torrey Pine.

Nothing quite like a sunset on the water!

Lane, Alesha, and Annika joined us for lunch on Sunday!!

So did Jacinda!

The boys like their buddy "Big Tristan"

They remembered each other!


At a hotel in Phoenix, our next stop.

3 of the Loes sisters

We joined Kale and Jaspar and Jaspar's family for a delicious meal on Christmas Eve.  They had fun toys for the boys!

The Loes' minus one!

The Lepak's minus 2!
Our second day in Phoenix we spent with Ernie and Linda, Mark and Karol, Carolyn, and Bob Anderson.  It was wonderful just to visit!

On Wednesday we met up with a bunch of cousins.  There were a whole slew of kids!


Heidi reading the kids stories




Pretending this was their birthday cake in Palm Desert.

Back in CA, the boys are ready to hit the pool!


Jason pretending to be surprised on his birthday!



Shrimp, steak, and Twice-Baked Potatoes for Jason's birthday dinner!
We celebrated Tristan's birthday twice so everyone could join in the fun.  

Can't believe he's six already!




Back in Fallbrook, the two Tristans not only share a name, but a birthday!  Which they got to celebrate together for the first time!





Krisit made these awesome owl hats for the boys!

The loot!
We left after lunch the next day to head for home.  The roads were much better!  We stopped in Portland again to celebrate New Year's with Julie and Sam.