Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great time hosting Thanksgiving out west this year! So nice to see relatives that we haven't seen for a while. We decided to grill our turkey outside and the weather cooperated. It was quite warm for a late November day and the men had fun tending the grill. 

The kids love playing with their Uncle Pete.

Rachel hasn't seen her cousin Veronica in a while and it was a treat to cook with her and play with her.

After watching Daddy carve the turkey, Carson wanted to give it a try. 

We even had time for a walk on Thanksgiving day!

The day after Thanksgiving we did some bowling. This was a first for Rachel and Carson and they had lots of fun. No candlepin bowling out here, its the big HUGE balls. We were amazed at how well the floor withstood the pounding from Carson dropping the ball from waist-high.

Carson is a big fan of Star Wars, and here he is using the 'force' to make his ball go in the direction he wants. Believe it or not he actually got a strike while using the force, so he now considers himself a Jedi.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving was a gorgeous day for a family hike. Even though it was chilly it was sunny and clear. 

Last week we had a major wind storm - winds in our neighboring town were recorded at up to 100mph. It was sad to see many large trees ripped out of the ground by the wind. Here is one at a park by our house (click to see a larger image - Rachel is in pink and Carson is in brown). Fortunately we had no trees down in our yard and we only lost power for 14 hours.

Disneyland 2011

We recently celebrated Rachel's sixth birthday with a trip to Disneyland. The highlight for her was a birthday lunch at Ariel's Grotto, a restaurant where princesses walk around and visit with each table. Even Carson had fun meeting each princess (he generously gave each princess some of his stickers).

While at Disneyland, Rachel was very interested in meeting Tinkerbell and all the princesses we could find. The long lines did not deter her! The boys went off to the AstroBlasters Buzz Lightyear ride while the girls waited in line to meet princesses. It seemed to be worth the wait, she was thrilled to meet all of them!

Carson was excited to meet Woody and thank goodness there was no line!

The kids loved having a chance to drive a car. We did the Autopia ride twice - the kids at the wheel! And we had fun in the bumper cars at California Adventure.

We decided to have caricature portraits done of the kids (they came out really cute). Rachel was very patient while her portrait was done. Carson has more trouble sitting still and was getting very impatient during his portrait. Daddy treated them to a lollipop after they sat still so well for the artist.

The kids enjoyed playing house at Mickey Mouse's house in Toontown.

After searching all of pirate island, the kids were very excited to find the treasure!

Snack time! When on vacation, we toss out nutrition standards temporarily :)

 

Here we are just before taking Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a ride that we all enjoyed.

Spider Lake 2011

In August we had a wonderful week up at Grammy and Grampy's 'camp' in Maine. Amazingly enough the entire family made the trek up to camp, from all parts of the country. What a nice way to celebrate the 30th wedding anniversary of Grampy and Grammy!

Rachel and Carson each caught their first fish, right off the dock! Fortunately they have a Grampy that knows those fish pretty well, and knows what they like to eat!

We were blessed with great weather and the conditions were right for a campfire almost every evening. Rachel and Carson learned how to roast marshmallows over a campfire, and they sure loved eating them!

In the tradition of the logging camp, here are the guys doing some lumberjack work. Sounds good, but really they were just helping Grampy move a pile of old logs :) Something about all that fresh air and being in the wilderness makes you want to get outside, roll up your sleeves, and dig into a project.

The other project we enjoyed was picking blueberries. What an amazing year for them, there were TONS! More than we could ever pick in a week! It took a little coercion, but somehow we managed to get Grammy to bake a blueberry pie for us every day (thanks Grammy). They were delicious pies and this crowd had no trouble polishing off the entire  pie for dessert each night.

Our other project was the fire pit. Since we were giving it such heavy use it seemed fitting to spruce it up a bit and beef up the stones at the base of the fire pit. The first photo is the old fire pit, followed by some interim steps, followed by the new fire pit. Thanks to Jonathan for putting the stones together, the rest of us did the grunt work of gathering and hauling stones.

We did find some time to relax and play. Carson showed Pete how to play 'guns' and Star Wars. Rachel and Carson both loved playing with the dogs.

The beauty of this spot in Maine is unsurpassed since it is so far into the woods. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the Northern Lights one night while sitting out on the dock. We also saw (and heard) lots of loons, and even saw the bald eagles one day. The rock statue below was done by Jonathan - fitting for the peaceful surrounding.