Yup! It’s Still Winter

It’s hard to believe that less than 24 hours ago, we were on a sunny beach with only a vest on and were not cold…

Everything looks so much prettier in the snow! But it’s already stopped and isn’t supposed to last… :o(

Isn’t It Still Winter???

Today was such a gorgeous day that we decided to head west to the coast. The Astoria Column is open again so we hit there first. One hundred and sixty-four stairs don’t sound like that many, but it feels like TONS! Will didn’t make it all the way up, he doesn’t like heights, but he enjoyed the view from the parking lot (which is still beautiful)!

the guy who took our pic told us to say “whiskey”, it seemed kinda weird but it worked!

I love this shadow pic

    

that’s Chris and Will down there (yeah, those tiny specks in the corner of the square)

and that dark blue speck to the left of the gift shop is our van… :o)

looking up the steps from the bottom

Will’s checking out the map

those two tiny specks waving up there are Chris and Andy

Then we headed south to Seaside to walk the shops and see the ocean. The beach was perfect! Sunny and no wind… we’ve been on the Oregon coast in July when it was colder than today!!!

the fog on the beach was so cool

    

we could see the moon all day

that tiny speck is the Astoria Column lit up for Christmas

After all the walking and exploring a really cool thrift store in town, we went to the Pig N Pancake for supper. The halibut fish and chips were fantastic!!!

All in all, it was a lovely day!

Family Christmas Take Three

Sunday we had Chris’ side of the family come for family Christmas. Tom, Ben, Leslie and Chris’ friend Mark all came on Saturday, spent the night and came to church in the morning. Then after church, Cindi and Dennis joined the celebration.

It was so nice seeing everyone again (we missed family Christmas last year). In fact, we gave some people last year’s gifts plus this year’s gifts, too. LOL

nice Santa hat Tom!

Leslie got a Snugglie

No Ben, it’s not a DVD player…

it’s a Storm Trooper hoodie

What did Cindi and Dennis get?

Santa Ninja!

RC cars!

We got lots of great gifts, ate more wonderful food and enjoyed having the company! Mark even spent another night and we spent Sunday evening watching “GI Joe”.

We Celebrate the Day

Christmas this year was a wonderful celebration of Christ’s birth! We pray that we would celebrate it every day in our hearts and in our lives!

Again, I didn’t take hardly any pictures. Still too busy having fun!!!

Since we all had a late night, and no one is 5 anymore, we started out Christmas Day by sleeping in a bit! We made some hot cocoa and cracked open our stockings first.

Zack took video footage of his stocking

  

no time like the present to try out Will’s new flint (or better place for that matter) LOL

This Christmas it was pretty hard to pick our favorite gifts. There were so many great ones! The boys were excited about their BB pistols and took them out right away to shoot up my broccoli in the garden… :o)

now Will can go treasure hunting with his new metal detector

Chris can now “feel human again” (according to the box)

Zack can now take 300 minutes of video and…

listen to music in peace

this is as close to a white Christmas as we got this year

Andy has to see which drumsticks he likes best

Betsy loves her new toy (thanks Ella)

 

With all the delicious leftovers from Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a really yummy breakfast with no work!!!

Then after a relaxing morning and early afternoon, we headed south to Portland for Christmas Dinner at Grandpa and Grandma’s. We made a stop on the way to check out the new shelter at the creek and to show off the new guns to Grandpa.

  the shelter is ready for the fireplace

nobody would stand next to it for a picture this time… :o)

the creek isn’t as clear since the cement truck lost it’s brakes on the hill and fell into Deep Creek

Mom hosted Christmas dinner yet again this year. Frank, Amy, Ada,  Theresa, Grandma Ide, Aunt Kackie, Dennis, Nancy and Bethany were all there to help us celebrate.

 

I love these pictures of Ada

Grandma Ide gave me two blasts from the past this year. One was a bird Christmas tree ornament I made in the first grade. The other was a stack of retro Christmas cards. I put the cards out as soon as I got home! I can’t wait to think of something fun to do with the rest that she’s giving me!!! Thanks Grandma!

No staying up late last night. We went in the hot tub, the boys messed around a bit with their new stuff, we set up our new airbed by the Christmas tree (in 3 and a half minutes). And then I crashed for the night right there in front of the Christmas tree for our annual Christmas tree sleep-over!

testing the bed to see if it’s ok

Yup! It’s good!