Christmas

For Christmas this year we met my family in Klamath Falls, Oregon for a few days.  They were kind enough to do the majority of the driving since Klamath Falls is only 3 - 4 hours from us.  We stayed at the Running Y Ranch and it was alot of fun.

First, though, we had to get there, which became an adventure in itself.  The freeway closed over the pass because of white out conditions and wrecks.  We thought of waiting it out, but ended up coming back home and unloading all of our stuff to try again the next morning.  Good thing too, because the freeway didn't open back up until late that night.  The next day was snowy and chains were required.  We ended up buying some, but never used them and will be getting our $90 back when they let us return them in April.  The drive was pretty snowy, but beautiful.  It reminded me how much I like the crisp, clean mountain air with snow in the winter.  I was so glad we had a white Christmas.

We filled our time with lots of swimming,

 Asher prefers alot of buoyancy,

 and sledding,

this picture of Asher laughing the whole way down the hill cracks me up.

games with Grandpa

Batman and Spiderman (lady bug is missing) hats the boys love.

the view from our room

The boys love their Aunt Kellie

We went ice skating, which was fun, cold, and alot of work.  At first, it seemed a career of hockey was not in the boys future, but there was definite improvement by the end.

Christmas Eve presents - toy story pajamas.  Kason has Woody pajamas, Asher - Buzz Lightyear and Emry is Jessie.  They. love. them.  It is hard to get Asher dressed during the day, but easy to get him in his pj's for bed.  I love this picture.

Christmas morning was exciting.  Emry still needed encouragement to understand opening presents, but she had two willing helpers.

Kason drawing as soon as he opened his sketch pad and pencil.

We had alot of fun.  Then we headed back home, made Kellie miss her flight, drove her to the airport the next morning, and got back into getting ready for the job market (more details on that soon).  

A few random bits to remember:

-Kellie said, something smells like pickles.  Asher replies, "you smell like a pig".  After we tried to remind him of manners, he says, "I'm just being REAL".

I asked Kason what he wants to be when he grows up, without hesitation he replies, "a leaf blower man!"  Good to know his goal.

Now we are back to normal:

We did go roller skating.  I thought it might be easier than ice skating,..nope.  This was the best it got:

 Most of the time was spent like this 

But, Isaac (who likes to show off his hockey skills while ice skating/roller skating...and I'll admit, it's impressive), Emry, and I had fun.

Eventually, this won out: