Vacation

We had a great vacation over Christmas break - I drove with the kids to stay with my parents in California for almost a week. One drawback to Paul working at UPS is that he doesn't get any time of over Christmas break. I was worried about the drive, but between books on tape and music, and lots of treats, we were fine. It was a very packed house, and we had a great time. I think at the peak, we had 32 people staying at my parent's house - it was wall to wall people! We went to the beach, I got to visit with my friend Melanie from high school (and we invaded her parents guesthouse for a couple of nights - thank you so much!) We got to go to the airport to welcome my brother Adam home from his mission! We went to Superior Dairy with Mark and Lilly and had two SOS's - super oversized sundaes - yummy! Most of the Adamson cousins together - the kids all sang "Called to Serve" on Sunday for their Uncle Adam - this was a practice.

Mark, Lilly and Rebekah and the monster sundae! It was huge, with seven scoops of ice cream plus whipped cream, bananas, chocolate. So yummy, thanks Mark and Lilly!

Michael and Elizabeth

Mark, Lilly and Rebekah

PISMO BEACH was so much fun! We went with Jared and Janessa's families. It was great!

Rachel and Ashley

Jared, Josh and Rachel climbing on the rocks at Pismo Beach

Rebekah and Jade

Rebekah and Josh playing in the sand with Hailey

Elizabeth and Rachel playing in the waves - the weather was beautiful! It was about 65 degrees!

Elizabeth, Heather, Josh, Rachel and Rebekah on the pier at Pismo Beach - we had fun watching the surfers

This is sooooooo funny!

I was at the library last night with my kids. Rebekah needs to read two classic books for a report, and was searching on the computer. I was standing behind her, and she typed into the search box "Donkey Hote." I just about died laughing. She got mad at me, but I said she was one in a million. I was proved wrong...we saw Josh, and Rebekah asked him how to spell Don Quixote. He spelled it the same way...so did Michael, Elizabeth and Rachel. I thought it was the funniest thing I had heard in a long time! I love you guys!

Snow Day, again!

We are now on day four of the "actic blast," as our news stations have dubbed it. This is the third day without school, and the natives are becoming restless! We are getting more snow today, tomorrow, and Sunday. I am pretty sure the kids will not be going back to school until after Christmas - I hope we make it through!

Snow Day!

We had about 4 inches of snow yesterday morning, and it has shut our city down! When we get snow everything turns into an ice rink. Church was cancelled, school was cancelled, and we have already been told that school is cancelled for tomorrow. My kids are in heaven!

Rebekah, Michael and Rachel running up the hill after sliding down
Josh and Elizabeth sliding together

Rachel fell while sliding down the hill

Michael shoveling snow for a fort

Elizabeth and Rebekah sliding

Wizard of Oz

Rachel had the opportunity to be a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz at our high school. She LOVED it! The cast, crew and directors were so good to work with. Rachel was definately tired out by the end, so many practices and performances, but she really enjoyed every minute!

Rachel with Dorothy - Dorothy was really an amazing performer, and had a beautiful voiceRachel was so excited at how many friends and family came to see her play. Thank you Janessa and girls, Grandma Debbie, Grandma and Grandpa Jamison, and the Ulrichs for coming to support Rachel. Thank you also for the flowers and stuffed animals--she was super excited!

Here are some video clips from a dress rehearsal. Rachel is just right of the guy wearing black in the first video. Sorry about the poor video quality, the stage lights and my camera didn't get along very well.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree...

We went and found our Christmas tree at a tree farm this weekend. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! It was definately not normal Oregon tree cutting weather, we usually go in the rain and cold. We had another perk - Paul was able to go with us. Normally we don't see him very much at all in November and December with it being the busy season at UPS. There is one good thing about a recession, I get my husband home more! He is still working 12 hour days, but at least it isn't 16-18 hour days like most years!

It was great to have Paul with us. We decided to have a gingerbread theme tree this year, so we strung mints to use as garland, and made gingerbread cookies and decorated them.

Elizabeth stringing mint garlands

Rachel decorating a gingerbread man

Rebekah decorating gingerbread people

Christmas tree farm

Elizabeth cutting our tree

tree decoratingLiz and Rebekah taking care of garlandJosh decoratingHere's the finished product! I think it ended up being really cute!Merry Christmas!

Glow bowl fun!

We went bowling as a family and had a great time. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Jamison, we were finally able to use our gift card! Our scores certainly leave something to be desired, but we had fun together, and some great memories. Once again Michael was able to evade me, and I have no pictures that include him--he was with us!