Christmas 2008

We had a fun time getting together for Christmas. We were nice and warm inside, but it was cold and snowy outside. We played games, and exchanged gifts and had some yummy food, but the best part was having all our kids and their families here with us. We missed Grandma Pat this year she was in Florida enjoying 85 degree weather. We enjoyed having a white Christmas, it was so beautiful to see and the kids enjoyed sleding and playing in it.Inside

Outside

A new tool for Scott(Donna has plans to put it to good use)

Brianna likes her new book and CD

Joey trying to get his team to sing the right Christmas song

Santa's Helpers Patrick and Brianna

Molly enjoying rocking on the zebra

Jennifer enjoying some hot cocoa

Anna Kate and Luke waiting to make Gingerbread Houses

Yummy Food

Merry Christmas!!

Brianna in the snow

Brianna has had a lot of fun getting together with her friends, having snow fights, drinking hot chocolate and watching movies. But I did not get any pictures of that so I made her pose for a few pictures for me. She is such a good sport! Love Ya Bri!

Brianna throwing a snowball at you!!

Winter

I put some pretty Fall pictures in and thought it would only be fair to share the beauty of Winter Washington has to offer also. It is so beautiful and clean with everything covered in a blanket of snow. I looked out last night and it was so bright! Even though it is hard to get around in it is going to be a little sad when it all melts and goes away.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!

We have been enjoying the snow for over a week now. It is so pretty, but it has been so cold.

Today is the second week in a row that church has been canceled due to the slick roads.

Scott got called into work this morning, so he is off to save Tacoma.

We are so thankful that we have not lost our power!!

Luke and Joey Snow Sledding Adventure

Joey took Luke sledding yesterday and they both got a little fright when Luke went out of control towards the street!

Family Pulls Together

We decided last minute to get together as a family to spend some time with mom before she left for sunny Florida. Rick had wanted her to come down and she needed a break from the heartache and stress that she has been going through here. Because of the actions of others she has been left feeling uncomfortable and even frightened to be in her own home. We are sad that people take advantage of the kindness of others. We are thankful for mom and all that she has done for her family. She has always been there for each of her children, meeting their needs, whether it has been a financial help, providing a place to stay, a warm cooked meal, helping watch children. As we have needed, mom has always been there willing to meet our different needs for different situations. Our family is so grateful for the the unselfish love she gives, and that through all the trials her life has taken her, she can move on and start each day with positive hope. We are so thankful and proud that our kids have learned from her that same quality, to love unconditionally, that we don't always agree with each one another, but we accept that we are different and don't judge or hold grudges with each other. We feel sad for people that are jealous and have envy and look for fault in others. How hard it would be to find true happiness in their lives. Our children are as different as night and day, but they respect each other and us as their parents (who are far from perfect). We practice forgiveness and unconditional love to which we are so grateful! Thank you mom for all you do! We love you!

Patrick helps cancer patient

Patrick took part along with his co workers, supporting the wife of a fellow firefighter. King 5 covered the story. http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?z=y&nvid=310833&shu=1

Good looking with or without hair!!

Happy Halloween

We had some fun Tricker Treaters, these were our favorites!!
Luke checking out his loot.

Cute Molly

Luke and Molly

Joey, Heidi and Kids

Patrick would not let me film him doing the Dumb and Dumber dance, but he did it pretty good

Patrick

Sweet Brianna

Beautiful Fall Colors

Mom and I went on a walk today, we saw so many pretty colors of Fall just in the neighborhood. The colors look so pretty with all the green we have here in Washington! We also could not help from taking a picture of the Mt. Rainier.

Fun Anniversary Trip

Scott and I went on a little trip all by ourselves to celebrate our 31st anniversary.

We flew down to Los Angeles for five days and had a great time! Here are a few of the many pictures we took.

Our first stop was Venice Beach, it was a lot of fun playing on the beach as the tide was coming in. There were a lot of cool shops and all kinds of people displaying there work or performing their talents. All hoping you would buy something from them or tip them.

Hurry take the picture or we will get wet!

Fun in the sun.

Our feet

This guy took hours to stack these rocks like this.

(Don't knock them over Scott!)

Scott enjoyed their music.

New T-shirt and sun glasses for Scott.

Randy"s Donuts.

Our next adventure we were off to Disneyland, quite a different experience without any kids! We are not ride people, but we had fun going out of our comfort zone and riding on them this time. We went on almost every ride! We wanted to make our kids proud of us.

Waiting for our shuttle to take us from our hotel to Disneyland.

Disneyland was all decorated for Halloween, kids wore their costumes.

Walt Disney and the Castle.

Tiki Room.

Us

Chip and Dale and the Fire Department(For Patrick)

Out of order-sorry, this was taken the next day-Splash Mountain.

Want to race?

Matterhorn Ride.

Next day walked through Disneyland saw a few characters went on a few rides before heading over to California Adventure.








California Adventure was also all decorated for Halloween.

Raft Ride

We did not go on the upside down roller coaster!

We got to be honorary bugs for this show.

Look alikes.




We went to visit Denise a good friend of mine that I went to school with. Scott took a blurry picture of us. It was fun catching up with her.

Here is the house that I lived in when we lived in California, it looks way different and looks a lot smaller than I remember it.

Huntington Beach, this is the beach that I went to a lot as a teenager. It was a little windy this day, but we had fun walking on the pier watching the kite boarders, fishermen, and the surfers.


Kite boarding


Fishing

Surfing

Scott whale watching-wait a minute you should be facing it towards the water not the sun bathers!

Scott walking down the Pier.





Newport beach, we rented bicycles, fun. They have bike paths to ride on. Very pretty.

It was interesting that there was a school built right on the beach and their playground on the beach too.

Fun







Downtown Disney is a fun place that comes alive a night with many bands playing, a lot of fun shops, and fun places to eat. We ate at The Rain forest Cafe. Then head back over to see the fireworks a Disneyland.

Yummy food


Fun entertainment

Cool Lego shop, Darth Vader is made out of all Lego's.







Before we flew home we went to Hollywood. We signed up to do a tour of the stars homes and Rodeo drive but it got delayed and we thought we would be cutting it too close to get to the airport on time if we did the later tour.(we were sad we missed it). So we walked around and checked out all the stars on the side walk and measured our hands to the hand prints there, we could not see them all because they were laying out the red carpet for the Premiere of Max Payne, a Mark Wahlberg movie. We went venturing around and found ourselves on the 5th floor of the mall to get a better shot of the Hollywood sign and were politely asked to go back down, because it was the private floor of Wolfgang Puck, a famous chef. We took our picture from the 4th floor.

4th floor pictures

Chinese Theater

For Grandma Aura

One of the stars we ran into.









Last stop before were off to the airport, was the Exile motorcycle shop. Scott got a little tour of the shop, met and took a picture with Russell Mitchell, the owner and bought a way over priced T- shirt.

We really enjoyed spending time together and had a great time, even though we missed

Brianna and the kids and grandkids.