Slip Slidin' Away...

About the time that school got out for Christmas vacation is about the time that the snow began falling.  It was perfect--just in time for Christmas.

Look at these good boys shoveling the driveway!

There is a fantastic sledding hill next to our neighborhood.  The boys got a couple of sleds for Christmas so we went and tried them out.

Whoops!

Whoooaaa!

Weeeeeeeee!

Whaaaaaaaaa!

Just as we were leaving, the moon was rising across the valley, and it was huge, bright, and beautiful.

Handmade Gifts

This year I broke out the needle and thread and made a few gifts.  Eggs on Toast and Junior were pretty interested in this (I rarely sew) and asked if they could learn.  So I showed Eggs the basics and he quickly became very prolific.  The first thing he made was the green circular object (an apple).  Then he made a Christmas tree (which we couldn't find to take a picture), and then a little pillow with a pillow case (the orange rectangle).

Then he taught Junior what I had taught him, and the two got to work making Christmas gifts.  I found this sign (below) taped to their door.

They asked Buttermilk Sky what he wanted them to make for him, and he told them he wanted "something to whack people with that wouldn't hurt".  The long, skinny thing that Buttermilk Sky is holding (below) is what Eggs made for him to fulfill that request.  The little green thing is a "shield" made by Junior.  He said he ran out of fabric and that is why it is so small.

Junior also made the objects you see below.  He made a "mountain" for Onion Ring (not pictured) and one of the objects below is a "bush" for his friend.  Another one of them is a toy for the kitties and the kitties really had fun with it.

I love it when the boys get creative and especially when they are thinking of others.  It was my favorite thing about Christmas this year.

Merry Christmas! (2012)

Here we are, Christmas morning (pre-presents).

And here we are, in the aftermath.

We hope your Christmas is excellent.

First Snow

Since that bit of cold weather we had in October, we have had more beautiful fall weather--sunny with temperatures in the 60's, even 70's.  Until today, that is.

It snowed last night and some more this morning.  It's supposed to snow more this weekend and then warm up a tad.

So we pulled out all the winter clothes and I made some hot cocoa for the boys when they were sufficiently cold and wet.  Then we had popcorn for dinner (yeah, I didn't feel like cooking, and Brandon makes some pretty fancy popcorn--kettle corn, taco, and honey butter, separate, not mixed together--and the boys downed four large bowls full) and I forced them to watch "The Borrowers" (1997 version).  It was on Netflix online.  I had never seen it before, and I thought it was cute.  They thought it was dumb.  Junior cried because he wanted to play games on the computer, instead.  We relented.  Onion Ring refused to watch and instead watched Psych (also on Netflix).  Eggs on Toast and Buttermilk Sky watched the whole movie.  Then I put the kids to bed while Brandon fell asleep on the couch.  He is still asleep on the couch.  So now you know what our Friday night was like.  What about yours?

We Freezie and See Kokanee

A week and a half before Halloween, I got to go to Eggs on Toast's school field trip to Taylor Creek (near Lake Tahoe) to see the Kokanee salmon.

After beautiful, endless, sunny summer and fall days, this day slushed in the valley and snowed in the mountains.  Just three weeks before, we had been at the lake, swimming.

I don't know how the poor little wet, shivering kids survived.  I almost didn't.

Eggs' class had been studying the life cycle of the Kokanee.  By the time we got there, they were nearly finished spawning.

The red color of the salmon was spectacular and it was cool for the kids to see what they had been studying.  However, we were so very, very cold, it was a little difficult to enjoy.  But I think everyone was still glad that we got to go.

After I got home and changed into dry clothes, I got into bed and stayed there until the kids came home from school, and I still felt cold.

Check out the video below to see exactly where we went and what we saw (minus the snow).  Although, in the video, the narrator says that the bears eat the salmon, but the tour guide told us that while there are many bears in the area, they don't eat the salmon.  She said that they don't for two reasons.  One is that the fish are about to die and they are pretty much rotten so they wouldn't taste good to the bears.  The other reason is that fishing is a learned behavior for the bears and because the salmon are not native to the area, the bears do not know how to catch them.  So now what are we to believe?  The tour guide or the movie?

Hello, Unc!

Two years ago, Uncle Blake departed from his home and life as he knew it, and began a new life as a missionary for the LDS church.  Having finished his service in Missouri and returned home, we were eager to see him again.  So we took a little (11-12 hour drive--aagh!) trip to the Far Grandma and Grandpa's house a few weeks ago (sadly, sans Brandon--he was very busy at work).

It turns out that Uncle Blake served well and had an excellent time being a missionary (except for when he face-planted onto the asphalt after a brief flight off of his bike and then had to have a new tooth implanted into his jaw).  It was fun to hear about his experiences and we also got to hear him speak about it at church service.

I think Blake was a little disturbed by the fact that he and Onion Ring are now the same height.

It was fun to take some time off of school and the normal routine and play at the Far Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We got to visit Great Grandma Norma.  She showed us a slide show of her trip to the Arctic where she saw a lot of walruses, birds, and polar bears.  It looked like an awesome trip!

This is Uncle Mountain Man Tyler and Jessica.  Tyler (along with his cross country teammates) is preparing to enter a mustache contest.  When contest time comes, he will shave off everything but the mustache.  I can't wait to see.

Great Grandma Ellen even came!

She got her 90 year-old self onto a plane and cruised on over to stay for a few days.  She doesn't look much older than 75, does she?

Welcome home, Blake!

Junior Scissorhands

A few weeks ago Junior was making a weapon for himself by cutting a sword shape out of a cardboard box.  He was using some nice, new, large scissors that we had recently bought in a three-pack at Costco, since we were tired of never being able to find the scissors.

I had noticed this activity as I was passing through the kitchen and asked him what he was up to.  He told me, and because we are the type of family that allows our children to do all sorts of dangerous things (such as chop wood, shoot bows and arrows, play with fire, etc.) I thought it was great he was learning to wield a large and sharp object and I went on my way.

A few moments later, from my room, I could hear sounds of trauma.  Interestingly, there was no screaming or yelling.  Instead I heard gasps and scurrying and a few terrified moans.  I did hear Buttermilk Sky say, agonizingly, "Oh, I can't look at it!"

I ran out to find that Junior had indeed sliced his arm.  Then I joined in the panic.

I think that the older I get, the more difficult it is for me to deal with blood and injuries.  (Luckily, we haven't had a whole lot to deal with.)  I feigned calm and tried to assess the situation while looking at it as little as possible.  Since I was pretty sure I was seeing his arm innards, I covered it with gauze and got on the internet to find an urgent care and off we went.

Junior was super brave.  He didn't cry at all.  He only grimaced when the doctor stuck him with two huge shots of Novocaine, but he didn't move or make a sound.  I did a good job, too.  I was able to hold things together until he was mostly stitched up and then had to leave before the nausea and lightheaded-ness got the best of me.

Isn't skin amazing?  It's really kind of thin in a lot of places and seems really fragile when you see it open and then sewn together--Junior's skin seemed so tender that I was amazed that the thread didn't tear right through.  But in spite of it's seeming fragility our skin covers us up and holds things in and keeps us together for the most part.

Look, I have waxed poetic.  I apologize in advance.

Ode to Skin

Dear skin, lovely skin;

Thank you for keeping the rest of me in.

Your elasticity moves me.

Your complexity grooves me.

You facilitate sensation.

You control evaporation.

You store and synthesize.

You protect and regenerize.

Dear skin, lovely skin;

Thanks for sticking with me through thick and through thin.

PS.  If there are any doctors out there looking for a business opportunity, come start up another urgent care facility in Carson City--there is only one here and it could use some healthy competition.

Halloween 2012

On Halloween, this is how our boys dressed up:  Buttermilk Sky was pac-man (though some people asked if he was a fortune cookie), Junior was a "Ranger" (this idea has Lord of the Rings influence), and Eggs on Toast was a "Nazgul" (or Ringwraith also from Lord of the Rings).  Missing in Action:  Onion Ring was The Doctor (from Doctor Who).  We were kind of sad that The Doctor chose not to come with us--he came with us to the "Trunk-or-Treat" party in our church parking lot, and he looked good, but I didn't take any pictures then.

The rest of us walked a few blocks to the Governer's mansion because I wanted to trick-or-treat there.  I had heard it was the thing to do around here, so in spite of having to wait in a line for a little while, I wanted to do it at least once.  You get to shake the Governer's hand, take a picture with him, and he gives you a handful of candy made at a fancy local candy company.  And there is some entertainment as you go through the line.  But alas, the party poops (whom I will not name, except to say that one's name begins with "Br" and the other seemed a little fortune cookie-ish) decided that they did not want to wait in line, so we took a picture in front and went on to trick-or-treat the surrounding neighborhood.

The neighborhood surrounding the Governer's mansion is an historic area of Carson City and many of the people in the homes there go all-out on the decorations, so paired with the attraction of the mansion, it is a trick-or-treat hot spot.  If you have seen "ET", do you remember the Halloween scene where there are hordes of dressed up kids going trick-or-treating throughout their neighborhood?  Other than seeing that movie scene, I have never experienced anything like that, but that's what it was like.  There were so many trick-or-treaters that many of the homeowners dressed up and sat on their porches to pass out thousands of pieces of candy.  I thought it was pretty fun--it was like one big party and gave a sense of community.  There were some pretty neat costumes to see, too.

We hope that all of you had a fun Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Did you have a great Halloween?

(This picture actually has nothing to do with our Halloween.  I just posted it because it's creepy and gross.  More about it later.)

A Haunted Tour

While in Virginia City we took a tour of the Old Washoe Club--the haunted tour, that is.

Apparently a great deal of paranormal activity has been observed in the upper rooms of the club, now made famous by such groups as "Ghost Trackers" and "Ghost Adventures".

Please note:  I have not edited the following photos in any way.  Let me know if you see signs of any paranormal activity such as orbs, mists, ectoplasm, etc. in any of these pictures.

This was our tour guide.  He chronicled many of the unpleasant things rumored to have happened here as well as the more current ghostly happenings.

Look!  It's two orbs!  I promise--I did NOT edit these photos!

Oh, wait.  There are a couple of orbs in this picture, too.  Is the lake haunted?  Maybe they followed us.

What do you think?