A Mini Vacation

We spent the weekend at one of the most beautiful places in the world: Orcas Island. The weather was sunny and warm. It was so nice to relax with friends (Perrys and Connors) and have some quality family time. Bryan joined the North County Fire Department and our family time is what we have to sacrafice for the next few months. He has training on Monday and Wednesday evenings and all day Saturday. This lasts until May and then he has a few weeks off before EMT training starts. He is busy!! We are trying to be patient and understanding while he has to work so hard.

This is the view from a lookout at Moran State Park on Orcas Island. We had so much fun hiking and snacking this lookout. You must visit the San Juan Islands if you have never been there. Beautiful!

Favorite Pictures of 2008

Of Course we have so many pictures that we love from 2008, but here are a few of my favorites. I never seem to take a good picture, but Bryan and I had this picture taken 5 days before Carter was born. We went to Ocean Shores in February with the Aucklands. It brings back so many great memories! This particular picture was taken in the fort that the boys built. My contractions were about 20 minutes apart at this point, but we were determined to get our last weekend in before the baby came.

Doesn't our sensitive little Cameron look tough! Cameron did such a great job in becoming a big brother this year! He loves his little brother and they are already best friends!

Here is our happy 2008 addtion to our family. He loves to hold his toes and balance on his bottom. Maybe it was the few yoga classes I did while pregnant. Carter is always happy!

This is my all time favorite picture of Bryan. It was taken minutes after Carter was born, and I don't think I have ever seen Bryan so happy! This picture will always be one of my favorites.

Merry Christmas!

The snow is melting a bit here in Stanwood but we figure it is going to take quite a while to melt off the 2'+ we got up here. We had to dig out almost everything, including the hot tub!

Bryan was able to clear us a path to the tub though so we had to enjoy the warm pool a bit. We turned it up to 103 just to make it nice and toasty warm.

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and we hope you all have a great 2009!

Bryan took a drive this morning to take some pictures of the valley. Here are my two favorite photos from his journey. Do you think he should be a professional? We have been seeing a lot of eagles the past few days. We hope everyone is staying warm!

We have so much snow! We measured this morning and it was at 12 inches, however much of the snow has settled. We think we have around 15 inches! We have spent most of the day sledding. Cameron loves it! He is such a trooper hiking up the hill, and his comments are so cute as he zooms down the hill. He likes to say "Move it, move it!" from Madagascar. We have been sledding on the hill right in front of our house. It is a great hill to sled on, but this afternoon the sad truck came by and ruined all of our fun. It just started to snow again this evening, so hopefully it will cover up the sand so we can have some more fun tomorrow.

The cat even loves the snow. He keeps going in and out. When he is outside he is hiking around in the snow. We always knew we had a strange cat!
I know there is a way to fix these photos, but I am too tired to try. I am getting ready to go to bed and read my new book Twilight. If you haven't read the book yet, then I suggest you get on board with the rest of the population. It is so good!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about all of our excitement. It is a really bad sign when you come home to neighbors in your garage and water flooding your driveway. Luckily our neighbors have our house key because they heard a hissing sound coming from our garage. An insulated pipe broke and water went everywhere! Our garage is packed and Bryan has his office in there. Luckily the damage was small and Bryan was able to fix the pipe. What fun!!!

Christmas Tree Hunting

We spent Sunday with the Perrys and Connors. Our first stop was to find a tree at the Fish Creek Tree Farm. Of course the weather was great all day until we decided to get out and cut our tree. We were probably only at the tree farm for 20 minutes. Everyone found a tree fast, and then we were on our way back to our house for a lasagne dinner. Cameron wanted to choose the tree. The tree he found was about 18 inches high. Maybe next year Cameron! At our house we had kids running everywhere, but we had a lot of fun. After dinner we packed the group up and headed for the Lights of Christmas. The highlight was to see Santa. Cameron wanted to know if Santa was a good guy or a bad guy. Once I told him he was a good guy he happily went over and sat on his lap. Carter on the other hand did not like Santa. Hopefully Santa understands and will still bring him something for Christmas. We also did a group pictures with all the kids: Caedan, Cameron, Kyla, Olivia and Carter. I am not sure how pleased Santa was, but he was a good sport about the crying babies. This is our 2nd year getting a tree with this group. Hopefully it will be our tradition in the years to come.

We had part 1 of Jenna's memorial today at Kyle and Rachel's cabin on Whidbey Island. She loved the cabin, and was always so happy to frolic in the bushes. We spread some of her ashes over the bank onto the bushes. Her dog pack was present and also our close friends. We plan on spreading the rest of her ashes at the monument at the Stanwood Tree Farm this spring. We love and miss our Jenna.