Lake Chelan Getaway

My parents have a condo in Chelan and they let us use it in February for a long weekend. We had a great time. It felt nice to get away from all of the scheduled activities and work. We yanked the kids out of school for two days and headed to Leavenworth one night and then on to Chelan the next day.























We stopped at a diner on the way into Chelan for lunch and the kids wanted to learn to take pictures with my camera. It's always an experience watching a child maneuver a camera like a football, but I tried to keep calm.









Noah always tries to play "tough guy" role even though he has a soft heart. Tough shell to crack.












At the Condo, they have miniature gold you can play and they still had the ice rink up, which Jonah loved. It was warm weather, which is strange for February, but it made it that much more fun.









We all worked on our miniature golf, swimming, and ice skating skills. We had a great time. After looking at the picture, I realized I do take most of the pictures, so I'm, never in the shot. That's gotta change.









All the kids were learning how to use the putter the right way from the Reba.



























We were the only ones out there, but it was so nice to have some time alone.













I think this was the put that Jonah launched over my head. I tried to let them know that they weren't teeing off, but just putting. I would have done the same thing at his age. This was the same Condo area that our family used to come with good friends, the Wells, a long time ago. It brought back a lot of good memories.

It was a bit chaotic, kind of like herding cats, but I would have been surprised at anything else.

Looks like summer out. The kids wanted to try and go swimming because they thought it was hot outside.

Here's Jonah practicing on the ice with the moon coming out that night. He loved being out there by himself.

Jonah didn't want me to get a picture of him falling, because it's not cool. He said he did that for the camera.

He has sure improved a lot in the past 6 months!

Reba had some time to work on a puzzle, which she loves being able to do.

Jacob is also someone who likes to work on puzzles.

We took a picture of this clinic, which is where we had to bring Jonah when we were here in 2004. We were in the pool area and he fell and cut his head open. I remember sitting with him feeding him m&m's during the evaluation. He was writing a paper on this experience during this weekend, so we took a picture of it.

It was nice that Jonah took time out of his busy hockey schedule to work with Jacob on foot work. They had a great time together.

We did have a fire and ended up roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. We just had to do it. It was so nice to get away,even for a couple days. Thanks a lot mom and dad, we really appreciated every minute.

Basketball Season

This season, I have been able to assist in coaching Jonah and Noah's basketball team again this year with Brent, a good friend. He also has two boys on the team, so it has been fun for both of us. We had a get together at our house with all 9 boys and their parents. It was loud, crazy, and the kids had a blast. We had pizza and let the kids run around the house. Now, we just run them more often on the court to get their energy out.






We did get them calmed down for at least 10 minutes so we could talk strategy and go through some announcements.

























Here is all of us going in for the cheer to end the evening out. Basketball has just ended and we have had a great season where everyone showed great improvement, and the team really came together and played well.




























Having snacks after one of our games and talking about the win we just had. The kids always want to know the score.

























Noah was amazing on Defense this season, and although he is smaller than most of the other players, he is a shark on the court. He would take it from everyone.










Jonah worked hard this year on making shots since he was tall enough to play closer to the basket. He saw much improvement this season and I can remember the smile on his face when he would make those great shots. I am so glad that I was able to help coach. It is a great feeling to help out on a team with your children.

Toothless and starting Ice Hockey-not in that order!

Noah finally lost the last front tooth that has been tangling there since Christmas Day. He couldn't even take a bite of anything without it moving around. It was awful. He finally lost it when we told him to go out and play on the trampoline with his brother. Ten minutes later he came in and it was out. Gotta love boys








On a separate note, Noah got to start playing Hockey for the first time on Sunday. Putting the gear on is always very time consuming and hilarious. We had to buy Noah his first cup. I think we could have used a plastic drink cup from home, but we went and bought one at the store and did it the right way. Once we got him dressed, it was hilarious to watch him. His uncle Josh helps coach some of the kids and Noah just loves that part of it. He said he had a great time.











He is smiling there even though you can't tell.


















I think after the picture he told me that he couldn't move.












I had to coax him out on the ice for the first couple minutes, and then he loved it. He wanted to wait for Jonah to come out of the locker room, but he was taking too long. There goes our little baby who looks like he has been taking steroids. he goes every Sunday and can't wait until next week.

New Year's Eve adventure

We headed over to Spokane on December 31st to spend the weekend with my brother, Mike and sister-in-law, Andrea, and their family. My parents also came and my sister and brother-in-law. We had a great weekend of snow and sledding. This was a picture of the boys on the way over in Ellensburg, WA. First potty stop of the trip. They thought the snow was cool. We haven't had the pleasure of seeing any snow so far this season in Bremerton.





The kids got to make a toast to 2009 with sparkling apple cider before they went off to bed at 9:30 p.m.











Mike and Andrea had a puzzle up in the living room, which Rebecca and Andrea enjoyed working on.











It was fun to all hang out around the table and talk. We did have time for feeding the kids first and then having an adult dinner later on. It was great to be there.










Deep, after dinner discussions.













Tom and Stacy feeling a little tired from the drive over that day.












Sophia always is the life of the party. She had a great time ordering her cousins around. They all deserved it.











Jonah had been running through the house and he stepped on one of Rebecca's knitting needles, so we had a little issue. Jonah thought the needle went through his foot. Once we told him that the needle only left a red mark, the crying stopped and the chaos resumed.









This was the children's dinner. They had a great time and we were so glad we waited to have ours a little later.










Since Grandma, Grandpa, Stacy, and Tom were staying at a hotel, the kids got to take advantage of the pool as well which is always a great way for the kids to let off some steam.

We promise, we only let them stay in for 1-2 minutes because of their young age.

Don't mess with Astrid. She can be one scary girl if you cross her.

On Saturday, we headed up to Silver Mountain in Idaho and rode the gondola's up to the top of the mountain. Dana and Hannah went skiing and the rest of us went inner tubing. We had a blast. The gondola ride was 20 minutes and it was enclosed so it was a great way to start and end the day. So here is the chaos of trying to get everyone dressed at the car. Kids are losing gloves, have the wrong boots on and are getting knocked over by other oblivious kids. It was organized chaos.

Everyone took a hand and we were on our way.

The gondolas fit up to 6 people, I think. It was a fun ride.

The kids couldn't wait to get up the mountain.

Noah wanted me to take a picture of this for him. It was the local "watering hole" at the base of the mountain.

For those of you who forgot, Rebecca stayed back at the house with her foot up all day long lounging about. Actually, she had the whole dinner prepared when we walked in the door later that night with brownies to boot. Thanks honey.

Stacy, Tom, Isabelle, Nolan, and Sophia

Mike, Andrea, Dana, Hannah, and Astrid.

We all had lunch up there before we went out in the snow. At this point, we were all dry and warm.

It was beautiful up there and it was snowing hard all day long. The kids loved it.

Uncle Tom spent a lot of time fixing the kids' gloves, hats, boots, etc.

You would have thought they were lounging at the beach the way the rolled around in the snow.

I thought this was a great picture of Jacob catching snow flakes. The hill for inner tubing was cool because they had four slopes and a "flying carpet" to come back to the top. It was like a moving carpet that you stepped on and rode up the hill. When I was a kid, we had to sit down on our tube and have the rope tow us up the mountain. It always ruined our gloves.

Noah got a little wind burn from being out so long.

I don't think Jonah was mad, I think he was going for the cool snow boarder look.

We had a great day and had to wait in line to go back down the mountain. It was beautiful and not too cold.

Uncle Mike always looks funny in a snow hat.

There was one VIP gondola and we let Andrea, my dad, and Astrid go in front of us before we knew it was the nice one. They were loving it. It had 4 bucket seats and a stereo. They rode in style down the mountain. We were all jealous.

The 1 1/2 hour drive on the way home proved to be too much for Noah. I don't think I have seen him fall asleep in the car since he was two years old.

Jacob played his DS and listened to music. It was a great day. We came home on Sunday and had great driving weather. We were tired, but had a great time with family bringing in the new year. Happy 2010.