Dance Dance Revolution

James and Paula own a Wii and we had a great time competing against each other in DDR and the other sports games.

Here Niel and James, two of the better players, in a super intense moment of DDR.

Dance little Leprechauns--DANCE!

Catherine and Joy--less intense but very entertaining!
April and Jens getting ready to rumble.
The champions, Neil, James, and Paula, smugly watching as the rest of us make fools of ourselves.
Sweet, sweet Loryn watching all the madness from the safety of grammy's lap.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning at the condo was really fun. Everyone packed into the little livingroom with presents piled everywhere.

Kristen and Loryn were mostly in a state of confusion and awe.

Rise and Shine Kristen!

Loryn wondering what all this stuff is. Allison sitting amidst her gifts.

"What is all this stuff again?" asks Loryn.
As a trick on Jens the tags for his and Rachael's presents were switched. This is Nielson's reaction to Jens receiving a yoga mat. Of course Jens's face was twice as good. He was very confused but trying to pretend to be thankful. Shortly thereafter Rachael, who was in on the trick, exclaimed, "I think this is actually your present," as she handed him an iPod Nano.

You have got to be kidding!

Ashton and Allison enthusiastically help the very tired and less enthusiastic Loryn open our present from Catherine. It was a great dominoes set.

Rip it!

Christmas Eve Nativity Play

Our traditional nativity play starts with Mary (Allison) riding on her donkey (Niel) with Joseph (Ashton) walking beside her.Ashton holding baby Jesus (Kristen) with Allison and the faithful steed, Niel, watching.
Shepherds ( Hunter and Joy) are visited by the angel and go to worship Baby Jesus.
Wise Men (Hunter and Joy) arrive to see Baby Jesus. The angel (me April) in the background.
Brooke and the alternate Baby Jesus (Loryn). Every good production should have an alternate baby.

The INDOOR Pool at Bear Lake

They had a very warm and welcoming indoor pool at the condos we stayed at by Bear Lake. It felt sooo good after being outside earlier.



Everyone took turns holding the babies. They seemed to have a great time playing and splashing around. Dave is holding Kristen and Niel is holding Loryn.


Before I even got into the pool both Allison and Hunter had tried to drown. Hunter had somehow done this in the very shallow kiddy pool to the side of the regular pool. Allison recovered quickly but Hunter, though only under for a few seconds, was traumatized and stayed on the steps except for when we forced him to come with us out into the deeper water. He had a pretty good death grip on us though.

A few people (Paula, James, Brooke, Rachael and my parents) didn't bring their swimming suits. Paula, James, Brooke and Grandma Robin sat on the sidelines for a while watching. Come to think of it now...we should have thrown them in.
Hind sight is 20/20!!!

Ashton enjoyed playing with his uncles and practicing his swimming moves. As he says he can swim under water, it is the swimming above water he is still working on.
Niel throwing Ashton through the air to Jens.

Fly, little birdie. Fly!



Allison loved the pool. Despite trying to drown herself at the beginning, she practiced swimming all over the shallow end.

Smile Princess!



The hot tub was especially great. You felt like a lobster in it about to cook. The sign said the max temperature was 104 but it felt warmer than that. Niel, Jens, Ashton and Dave boiling away in the hot tub.
LOBSTER TONIGHT

Sledding at Bear Lake

For Christmas this year we went to a condo at Bear Lake. We had a wonderful time sledding.
The one bad thing about sledding is that every time you go down you have to come back up again. Jens, Catherine, and Niel making their way up the hill with the beautiful lake and mountains in the background.

Almost there...Huff, Puff...gona' make it!

We Love Snow Clothes!
Hunter loved sledding, except the time he went down behind Catherine on his back. Here he is showing off his new gloves and wearing the Big Bird hat from when I was his age.
Allison going down the hill with Niel.


Hang on Tight!

Joy, Paula and James... It's ok Paula. You can open your eyes. You haven't gone down yet.


"Race ya to the bottom!"

Ashton speeding down the hill. (Be sure to click on this one for a closer look of Ashton's face.)
At the bottom there were some snow banks, then an asphault road, and then landscaping with two trees and a light pole. Several people hit the road and a few (Paula & James, Cath & Rachael) actually met the trees.

"aaahhhh!!!"

Longing for the Warm N.C. Beach

It has been cold and snowy lately so it has been fun to look through the pictures from our trip to North Carolina in July. I am sorry I am not adding more current stuff, but remebering our vacation has been a lot more fun. I added a few more pictures and journaling to the July entry. You can get to it quickly by clicking on the "July" link under the "Archive" section to the right.

Playing with HTML

In case you haven't noticed, I have been playing with the layout of this blog. By trial and error I was able to change the HTML coding to make the page layout wider. That was my one gripe about the standard layout I chose. I am so excited, but this is a little addicting. Stopping before I completely mess it up is probably a good idea.