Boxing Day Sledding Extravaganza

A trip to Bend would be pointless if there wasn't some snow, so we went up the mountain and found new snow and a great hill.

 

Bryan and his snow beard started things off.

Julie contemplating the safety of this madness...

Russ and Jules are down!

Uf-duh!

A rare non-wreck for Ricky Bomber!

Mom hidden in a shower of snow

Back surgery was 2 years ago - let's sled!

Considering their route...

Russ, Shan and Mitch clearing a path down the hill!

She looked this happy the whole day!

That's right - shortsleeves for Moose Man!

December Tidbits

 As predicted, the kittens loved the Christmas tree!

We put fewer ornaments on it and no breakable ones, so it was less stressful.

Ranger was particularly aggressive!

We had lots of fires and cozy winter scenes.

And some very helpful gift wrappers!

Laser tag was a big hit!

and stew making was, um, an amusing anecdote!

Mitch brought his snowflake making home from school and made several.

Ugly sweater day at school!

Holiday Visits

 We went to Spokane on the 20th to see our Johnson crew.

We celebrated Avery's birthday with gifts and pie.

The kids opened Christmas gifts, too, and were delighted by the laser tag set they received.

We stayed outdoors and enjoyed each other's company.

Thankfully, there were a couple fires to keep us warm!

The boys did some target shooting.

Cotters opened a few gifts, too.

It was especially good to see Kim following her eye surgeries.

Dave went all "Covid" for the family photo...

These cousins are always happy together!

Then we went to Gram's to visit her and deliver gifts.

Her amaryllis collection was impressive!

Mom and I got to see Grama on Monday as well! Strange Christmas visits, but we are still fortunate to have the opportunities to see each other!

Christmas with the Johnsons

 We enjoyed an early Christmas celebration with the Johnsons!

They hosted us for a lovely dinner

followed by gifts Mitch got some sweet roller blades!

Shan was delighted to receive a horse for her American Girl!

Happiness...

and some gift hilarity! Mitch is sporting Grandpa Dave's new shorty shorts!

As a gift to us, he promised not to wear them in public!

Cheesy picture by the tree of our kids who are growing up so quickly!

The kids are so lucky to have such great grandparents!

Shannon's 9th Birthday

 Shannon turned 9!

Aunt Rachel drove down on Sunday to start the celebrating and it was lovely to spend the afternoon together!

Shan opened a few gifts, including these roller blades from Mitch. She was thrilled!

Her birthday started with balloons at home and then it was off to GGA's after school.

Grampa smoked ribs for dinner and we enjoyed a fancy feast in honor of the birthday girl.

Then it was time for more gifts.

She was quite the ham, and enjoyed the shower of attention and love. Mitch and I are quarantined for a few days so her friend party must be postponed. Nonetheless, she felt very special and really enjoyed the day.

At 9, Shannon is strong-willed, creative, a good writer, a big fan of her brother, and a hard worker. She is good at cleaning, loves to play and read, enjoys painting, and dotes on her cats. We love her!

Halloween Festivities

We grew some of our own pumpkins this year!

Most were pretty small, but this one crept across the sunflowers and grew to be the largest. The boys were delighted to claim it.

The neighborhood pumpkin carve event was fun, and doubled as a welcome to the new neighbors. We didn't have a cider press or soups this year out of precaution, but a good time was still had!

It was nice to leave the carving entirely to the children!

Pride of ownership, for sure.

Lovely weather and an evening well spent.

Trick-or-treating was minimal this year - we avoided the downtown chaos and just visited GGJ's house. The ninja and pirate were still well-supplied with sweets! 

Definitely a first for costuming in that Mitch was mainly concerned with ease of running and ability to camouflage. He wanted the face covering untucked so he could still eat his loot!

Shan has been scheming on her pirate costume for easily a month. Argh, matey!

The neighborhood posse met at our place and then did the rounds together. We had a fire in the driveway and enjoyed visiting in warmth while they played flashlight tag and ate their spoils. Here comes November...