Skiing with the boys

This year, we FINALLY convinced Gage to go skiing with us, and of course he loved it. We had to bribe him to go, but now he keeps asking when we can go again. He took right to it, and I didn't even have to hold him between my legs like I did with Miles and Cole (thank goodness, my back was hurting just thinking about doing it!) He was quite the little trooper and stayed the whole day. Miles and Cole did some skiing with us, then headed over to the Terrain Park to ride the rails and hit the jumps (ahh, to have young knees again.)

The ride home after a great day of skiing (in the SUN of all things, which in Washington is always a huge bonus!)

Here's a video of Gage's first day, pretty much making it look like he's been skiing for years!

Waterfront property available

After all the snow we had this year, we then had a nice warmup and rainfall, causing extensive flooding around the state. It was bad enough to turn Western Washington into almost an island. Both passes were closed and the highway south to Portland was flooded over too. The only way out of Seattle, was to go North to Canada, and even that had some blockage on some roads. The waters finally receded from the roads, but there is still a lot in the lower lying valleys and fields that just won't evaporate due to the colder temperatures and continued rain. We had some friends that had to use a boat to get in and out of their property for a week or so.

The (Very Prolific) Russon Family Reunion

More Russon's than you can shake a stick at...after this was over we all felt like whacking each other with sticks, not just shaking them! Dad had to be coached through how to make his camera take pictures with the timer, "all this new fangled gadgetry!"

It's all fun and games...

...until someone (almost) loses a tooth!

Christmas morning

Once again Santa somehow found us at Grandma and Grandpa's house, not sure the old guy can continue to do that for much longer!

Doing time (Christmas time that is)

The warden is carefully explaining to the new group of inmates why the typical orange jumpsuit has been exchanged for red pajamas. Shortly after the picture was taken, a riot occured and none of the food survived the altercation. All were promptly remanded to their cell blocks until Warden Santa could decide if they were naughty, or nice.

Storm Watch 2008

It may not look like much in these shots (especially to those of you in snowier climes) but this was just the beginning. By the time the storms finished a week or 2 later, there was over 2 feet of the white stuff at our house. That's a lot by any standards, but for Seattle, that's ginormus! It pretty much shut the state down for several weeks. School was canceled for 3 days, church was canceled for 2 weeks straight (all you Utahns can be jealous of that!) and everything just ground to a halt. It was pretty while it lasted though.

Killer Do's (a.k.a. Fun with Shampoo)

Thanksgiving

Well this year we couldn't talk any of our family into braving the snowstorms, canyons and long drive to come see us for Thanksgiving. Then our friends all headed off to their families for the day, so we spent it all alone this year...sniffle. We cooked way too much food and spent way too long in the kitchen for something that was over in 20 minutes. I'm thinking pizza next year!

Halloween!

Miles officially broke all previous records in how much candy he collected trick-or-treating. We had to measure it in pounds instead of pieces, and even that almost broke the scale! I can just see his dentist rubbing his hands with glee over all the future work he'll need. Shay proceeded to drag her bag between the houses, ("I do it, you no help!") and left a trail of candy as the pieces fell out of the hole she scraped in the bottom. She insisted on running between every house, but fueled by a sugar high, never even came close to winding down before we finished, chased in by the cold and not by a lack of desire to continue. Lisa even channeled a little cross between a witch and Elvira and donned said costume.

Even my work got in on the action, and I went as the "40-year old Boy Scout." Andrea is the "wicked witch" (and oxymoron for any who know her) and Cheryl went as "Major Pain," (my contribution to her costume.)

Football 2008

Football is once again upon us. Miles played this year for the first time, and despite breaking his pinky early in the season, had a great time playing receiver, cornerback and special teams. This was his first taste of football, being a converted soccer player this year. Cole came back for a second year of flag football with pretty much the same team as last year. Cole helmed the team as QB and is now busy trying to decide which college he's going to play for. Gotta dream big! Gage and Shay (along with mom and dad) were pretty much kept busy running from one game to another. Gage played soccer and did much better at actually playing this year and not sitting on the sidelines asking when it was time for the treats! Unfortunately since I was coaching and Lisa was chasing Shay everywhere we actually didn't get a single picture of Gage in action.

Cabo Wabo

In October we (meaning Lisa and I) went to Cabo San Lucas with our friends the Reynolds. We left the kiddies with Aunt Nikki (kudos to her for coming out despite being sick due to pregnancy with twins! If that didn't swear her off any more kids, nothing will!) We had a great time at a "adult only" spa, so needless to say, it was so quiet, I pretty much slept the entire trip. We had great weather and caught up on all our missed sleep for the past year, by the pool, while being fed fish tacos intravenously. Of course the highlight of Aaron's trip was snapping pictures of a vulture eating a dead animal on the beach, or the giant rhinoceros bug outside our room. Lisa's was the baby turtles being released into the ocean. Fun was had by all. I'm not sure if Brooke left any sun in Cabo, she pretty much sucked it all up while we were there. I even got a chance to pull out my "prison Spanish" (a patient of mine once asked me if I had learned my Spanish in a Mexican prison, guess it's pretty bad!) and wow the locals with my dictum and accent. I'm sure that they never figured out that I wasn't a local, but a gringo on vacation instead, I'm THAT good!