A day on the slopes

We went skiing the day after Christmas. Needless to say it was very busy. We got up there mid-morning and got the kids into the ski school for a couple of hours. Brent and Dale took off on the extreme slopes and Mom, Carrie, Ash and I had fun on the less extreme runs.

The kids all suited up for lessons.

After Lily's lesson she wanted to take a break so Grandma and I hung out with her at the lodge.

After a lunch break the group tried to throw me a shaka. Unfortunately Dale was wearing mittens.

The New Year

On New Years eve we had no plan. Everyone was lounging around and it didn't look like things were going to change. I decided it would be fun to TP someones house. I did not get a good response. Brent thought I was childish and said he hadn't TP'd since high school. I didn't pay much attention to the complaints and rally everyone into the car. With little TP we set out to find a victim. We decided on the Roelofs, I know really creative. We even sat down the street and door bell ditched. I have never seen Dale run so fast. I am sure Christa suspected us but we never talked about it. I guess the cat is out of the bag.

Here I am teaching the girls my TP skills. Please note Carson is not in any of the TP photos. He was upset with the reckless behavior and refused to get out of the car.

DQ we love you. We thought it would be a great way to ring it the new year.

Brent and Carrie fascinated by the menu selection.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and for the first time in a while it was white. We had my mom, Dale, Carrie and Ashley for the holidays. We forced the men to do things that they were not too happy about like Christmas eve caroling, watching a dance that Carrie and I put together with the kids, and going roller skating. When it was all said and done I think they enjoyed it but they probably will not admit it.

Lily and auntie Carrie

Carson, Ashley, and Emma

Grandma Ruthie made matching scarfs for everyone and we wore them caroling.

The traditional Christmas eve gift from Grandpa and Grandma Farr.

I thought we had a great Christmas morning until I looked in the background of this picture. I guess only some of us were having fun. It looks like Ashley is pretty mad about what is going on. Sorry guys.

Sweet Emma J. in her new coat.

Notice there is no Carson in this picture. He got some Lego's so he was busy, but Brent enjoyed the remote controlled truck.

This is where you could find Carrie and Ash for at least an hour on Christmas morning. The playmoblie assembly really took them for a ride. Good work girls.

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with the family. As you can see Carson was thrilled.

Once again Carson not at all interested in the photo thing.

We had to find things to do out of the house and Carson insisted we go roller skating. One of his friends recently had a party at the rink and he fell in love with it. If you were to watch him you probably wouldn't think he was enjoying himself. He was dead serious, red faced, and sweaty, going around and around with very few breaks.

As you know, I like good competition so I decided along with Carrie and Ash to participate in the limbo. Ashley went first then Carrie and I. Will you please notice the size of the young girl next to me. I had no chance. We hung in there for quite a while, this happened to be the end for poor Ash and I.

Lily got some gum in her stocking and mastered the art of bubble blowing.

Home away from home

We love to visit Auntie Carrie and Uncle Dale in Kona. We have been very lucky over the past 3 years. The kids school is on a year round schedule so we have August, December, and April off. We like to spend the first half of December and some time in April in Kona. This year we left Thanksgiving weekend and stayed until the middle of December.

Carrie and Dale sold this house and Emma will be starting middle school next year (traditional schedule) so our December visits are over for now.

Kua Bay is a favorite because it has soft white sand and beautiful water.

We love to see the temple.

In a cave at the Hilton after swimming with dolphins.

I call this the pier beach, there are no waves so we can kayak, snorkel and paddle board. I don't know what it is really called but I know for sure Carrie is anger about all my nick names for the beaches.

This year we spent spent a lot of time at Hapuna, another favorite. The waves were perfect for the kids. Emma and Carson were in the water from the minute we got there until the minute we had to leave. Emma did a lot of body surfing and boogie boarding. She started to get pretty brave and took some big waves, this was the result.

Emma is tough and recovered quickly.

Carson was none stop surfing on the boogie board.

Lily did a lot of playing on the beach and body surfing. She did spend some time in the water with uncle Dale and he took her on some nice waves.



It was getting close to Christmas even though when you are at the beach and it is 80 degrees it doesn't seem like it. I tried to keep some Christmas traditions, so we decorated a gingerbread house.

These pictures are actually from our April trip but it is one of my favorite Hawaii memories. We took a drive around the island and one stop we made was at the volcano. We told the kids we were going to walk through a lava tube. When we got there it was getting dark and as we got closer to the tube you could see a red-orange glow from the lights. Carson started to cry. The poor guy thought we were going to take him into the lava. It took a lot on convincing to get him close enough to realize we were going to be no where near lava. Once he realized he went in with us but was very anxious to leave. Carson has Brent's self preservation gene.

November

When I looked in my November file I was surprised to see only pictures of Henry (taken by the kids) and a very cute very small Polly doll with a disassembled tech deck looking very large.

Henry before

Henry after

I didn't know my base boards where so dirty.

We did enjoy a nice Thanksgiving at Christa's house with my mom and Craig's twin brother's family. We had and delicious dinner with great company.

October

The best thing by far that happened in October was a visit from part of the Hopkin family. It turns out that at least one of the Hopkins likes us. Thanks T pot. We wanted to show them a good time so we took them on a very late season camping trip that was cold yet enjoyable.

Brent and Mark

Cousins

There were marshmallows day and night

Our guests happen to be here for Halloween weekend. Young T pot looked darling in her handmade costume while my poor children got last minute target specials. (as Brent likes to point out)

The Bee

Carm you are amazing!

The army dude once again.(last years costume)

Tiny had a hard time picking which costume to wear. I had he wear the butterfly to school and let her wear the bat girl for trick-or-treating. If she had it her way she would been bat girl the whole time.