Happy New Year 12.31.08

Dancing to Backtyardigans "SuperSpy".
Look at that cutie!

Logan and I celebrated our New Year with our good friends, Jason, Linda, Brooke, and Reese! Good friends, pizza, dancing, playing, giggling...perfect. Here's wishing you all a terrific 2009. May your year be happy, healthy, and prosperous. Life is good.

More friends, family, and fun 12.30.08

The kids all took a turn with the antlers...too cute.

After the terrific party at Craig's house, Logan and I headed to Tood and Shellie's for some scrapbooking, good eats, and play time. We joined Mom and Kim and had a lovely afternoon. Logan and Jazzy had a great time playing together with Angel doing her best to keep up. Angel had gotten a Lightening McQueen tent for Christmas and Logan was thrilled to play with it. Life is good!

Another party 12.30.08

Karen was very excited about this game!
Pin the tail on the cow.

Granma Jo-Jo as the washer woman.

Cutie little Reese.

Cowboy Logan.

On Tuesday Karen invited a bunch of Craig's little buddies to come over for a kid friendly birthday party complete with games, cupcakes, a live show, cowboy hats, and gift bags. It was fantastic. Logan and I had such a great time playing with all the kids and celebrating little Craiger! Life is good!

Craig's Birthday Party 12.28.08

Logan was a VERY good "helper" to Craig in the opening of the presents department.
Bryan trying to figure out how to open the tools.

The darling birthday boy.

Apparently our singing was less than stellar.

Karen out did herself yet again with terrific decorations!

One great thing about the snow storm, was that Craig's birthday party was postponed. This made it so Logan and I were able to attend (it was originally going to be held while I was in Hawaii.) On Sunday night we headed over to Scott and Karen's house to help celebrate Logan's best friend "Craiger" turning 3! It was a farm themed party, which couldn't have been more appropriate for this little boy. Craig had a terrific time playing with all the kids, opening his presents, and eating delicious pizza. In fact, he was very concerned when Logan didn't want any dinner. Their rolls were then reversed when it was time for dessert and Craig was too busy playing to enjoy it...Logan, on the other hand, couldn't get enough and was very concerned that Craig was missing out. What nice friends to look out for one another. Life is good!

Christmas 12.25.08

Logan's new "ukeyyealee"
Kota!!

The boys had a great time playing in the snow together.

Shane rolling down the hill.

Logan got another new dinosaur from Grandma and Papa!

Year in and year out many people wish for, hope for, pray for, a white Christmas. Well, we got it baby! We had a wonderful Christmas morning, Logan, Norman, and I. Santa brought Logan a dinosaur and he was pretty darn excited. Seriously, is there anything more magical than a child on Christmas morning? I think not. Anyway, after a wonderful morning at home, my very dear sweet brother came up to MV to get us (I really didn't want to drive in the snow) and brought us to Mom and Dad's. He then turned around and went and picked up Grandma Claire. What a guy. It was a great Christmas with Logan and Shaneo able to play in the snow and Aunt Marion was visiting as well. I was also able to give everyone their Hawaiian souvenirs. We had a glorious time and apparently the family was good this year. Merry Christmas everyone! Life is good.

Christmas Eve 12.24.08

Logan and Reise had so much fun!
The newly weds.

"I'm so exkited!"

6 great grandkids...lucky lady!

Jen and Angie

So, we got back from Hawaii about 7:30am and landed safely (which was in question with all the snow). After making the trek back home, Mike brought me the boys (man did I miss them) and we had a glorious afternoon together. Then it was to Mick and Cheryl's for Christmas Eve. As always it was fantastic...good food, wonderful family, and the spirit of Christmas reigning down. This year we were especially lucky this year to have Kevin and his new wife Katie with us. Life is good.

Ziplining 12.23.08

Getting all geared up!
A pretty impressive group, don't you think?

A Hawaiian sunrise.

Before we began...do we look as nervous as we felt?

Seriously...it rocked!

So bright and early (sorry again guys) the gang went ziplining. This was one of our must do activities while we were in Hawaii. For anyone who is somewhat considering this, I highly recommend it. We had an absolute blast! We ziplined about seven lines, then went to a little swimming hole that was freakin' freezing, then lunch, then we had the rest of the day to hang out since our flight didn't leave until 11:30 that evening. All in all, it really was a trip of a lifetime and I'm so thankful that I was able to go with such an amazing group of friends. I love you guys. Life is good.

The Wedding 12.22.08

In our fancy wedding attire at the Grand Hyatt.
The beach where they got married.

The bride and groom.

The wedding.

A view from the Hyatt.

On Monday Sarah and Jim got married. It was absolutely beautiful. They are such a perfect match. I'm so glad that I was able to attend. We had such a marvelous time and wish Sarah and Jim nothing but the best. After the wedding we went out to a very nice dinner and I finally got a drink served to me with an umbrella in it! Phew! Life is good!

A Day Off. 12.21.08

The Kruse House...our home for four days!
That's right...I've got it goin' on! Hee, hee!

It doesn't get much more like paradise.

Walking the beach at night...life really is quite good.

After the "excitement" (AKA Matt's injury) the day before, we all pretty much decided that today would be a hang around the plantation day. We did a lot of time by the pool; Darrick and Anne got massages; we did some serious tasting of beverages; played some volleyball, and all around had a terrific Hawaiian day. Life is good!

Oh what a day! 12.20.08

Waimea Canyon

It's a pretty impressive sight...no, I don't mean me...although....

There's nothing like great friends.

The beautiful, but deadly beach!

Finally, dinner and beer! Delicious!

So, today we decided to head to Waimea Canyon, then to the beach, hit a local parade, and then end with dinner at the brewery. The Canyon was beautiful, I had seen it the last time I was here and it was just as breath taking as I remembered. The beach by our plantation was nothing to look at so we headed to another beach for some sun bathing and body boarding. Again, it's all well until dear sweet Matt stepped on a sea urchin. He had 72 prongs in his foot. Ouch! The life guards helped him out, but he was done for the day. (By the way, he just pulled out the last few a couple days ago. That's about a month later.) So Matt and Jason headed back home, while Monica, Anne, Darrick, and I went shopping. Yahoo!!! Then we parked way out in BFE as all the roads heading back to our place were closed for the local Christmas parade. It was fun to see, but not fun to hike home. So we decided to hit the brewery on the plantation for dinner. It was delicious! Life is good!

In Paradise!! 12.19.08

Hooray...we made it!!
This is where we stayed. It was on the south side of the island.

Part of the Golden Circle!!

The dancers were amazing.

Our fire eater was crazy and funny!

So, on December 18th I flew out of this winter madness and landed in paradise. My dear friend Sarah was getting married on the island of Kauai and a bunch of us decided to go. It was a freakin' fantastic trip. I'll post just a few of the umpteen million pictures I took!! We got in late Thursday night, so Friday morning it was up early (well not too early) to do some exploring, then time at the pool, and then off to a luau. Life is oh so very good.

Here Comes the Snow

Snow Angels
It gets tiring trudging through the snow.

Man he's cute!!

Norm was in hog heaven!

Picture Perfect!

So just as I was getting ready to leave for Hawaii, Washington had a pretty decent snow storm move through the Northwest. We were knee deep in it, and besides how messy it gets when you want to travel, it was beautiful. Logan, Norman and I had a blast playing in it. I swear Logan's favorite thing is not sledding, making snowmen (as he repeatedly thwarted my attempts), or having snowball fights...nope, it's eating the delicious snow. Silly boy. Life is good.