snow shoe-ing

Doesn't this look fun.  Yesterday when we got home there was no snow.  These were taken  sometime this afternoon.  I am glad the snow shoes got used, especially by the person who enjoyed them the least the first time he tried them last spring. 

Snowed all day today.  Cold, Cold, Cold.  I work tomorrow and the guys get to enjoy another day to themselves.  We rented a room at the C'mon Inn like we did last year for New Year's Eve.  More friends are renting rooms also.  Should be a fun time. 

back home

I took these pictures almost immediately from Bridger getting on the ice.  It was much more crowded later on.  It was a pretty setting.  We noticed the rink at night because of all the lights around in the trees.

Coming home was uneventful yesterday.  I started out the day having belly cramps and spend the rest of day hoping it never got worse.  I seemed to have gotten a smidge of what Darin had.  We were pretty boring for his drive home.  Bridger played games on the DSi or watched movies.  I fell asleep before we even got out of Denver city limits.  I woke-up before we stopped in Cheyenne and fell asleep again.  It seemed the easiest way to deal with not feeling well.  We made it home in time to stop and get Shasta.  He was very happy to see his little boy.  His little boy was happy to see him. 

We are supposed to have a snowstorm today.  It has snowed all night.  The word blizzard is being shot around also.  What a nice way to bring in the new year, subzero temps and snow.

denver day 2

We didn't walk down the concourse far enough Monday night to find these photo things.  So that is what our boy would look like in an AVs uniform.  I really doubt he ever gets tall enough to bother with the NBA.

We have gotten to a point of where Bridger doesn't always want his picture taken.  Bridger was less impressed with the bball game.  He brought his Wii unbeknownst  to me.  It came out during the 2nd half.  It was sort of a boring game.  During the last 4 minutes we were waiting for the Nuggets to score 8 points for a final score for them of 100.  They didn't do it.  I enjoyed the game.  Darin looked rather pained during most of the game.  He slept most of the day yesterday.

We ventured out to a bookstore.  Bridger got me to buy him a magic kit.  He was so excited about it that it seemed more fun to him than going to the bball game.  He didn't even go down and eat last night.  It wasn't very exciting stuff.  They fed us hot dogs for the happy hour dinner.  Darin also passed.  Darin didn't make it through the bookstore and headed back to the hotel.  Bridger and I walked around and headed to the outside ice rink.  He skated by himself for more than 1/2 hour.  I know bad parent, but I sat on the cold bleachers and watched him every minute.  All the skaters seemed to have fun.   There were far more learning skaters than there were experienced skaters.  I was glad to be safe and sound on the cold metal bleachers.  We stopped at Chili's and got Darin some chicken soup and chicken fingers.  They didn't really sound any better to Darin than the hot dogs.  Bridger helped Darin eat the chicken fingers.

After the game we stopped at Chili's again and Darin ordered ribs.  He was finally hungry.  We head back today.  It is supposed to be 52 degrees around noon today here in Denver.  A storm is coming in tonight.  Glad we are heading home.

we concede

We have to concede victory to the RWgs fan in the house.  It was quite a game in the first period.  Bridger was bored by middle of the 2nd period.  The game went into overtime and RW scored with about 1:20 left in overtime.  The arena does try hard to keep everyone entertained with lights, music and little activities while they are cleaning the ice.  We did see blood on the ice, but not from a fight.  An AVs player fell and opened up someplace on his body.  He was escorted off the ice with a towel up to his face.  There was some hooking up here and there.  Emotions were flying high.  It was a little bit to get out of the arena.  Alot of name calling between AVs and RWs.  I would have to say the AVs were not good sports about it all.  We had a skinny teenager sit directly in front of Darin repeatedly yelling Red Wings suck!  I kept wanting to tap him on his shoulder and ask him if he really wanted to be saying that sitting directly in front of someone  5 times bigger than him wearing a Red Wings jersey.  By the way, Bridger took the photos, except the ones he is in.

Since the game went into overtime it was too late to indulge in a late meal.  A 7-11 has opened directly across from our hotel.  Yep!  7-11 snacks at 10pm.  The hotel did serve a meal at "happy hour".  They had salad and two different pastas.  Also complimentary beer, wine and soda.  We had McD's in Cheyenne for lunch.  Darin after lunch started not feeling well.  He didn't eat at the hotel dinner and didn't really have any snack at the ice arena.  He didn't even have 7-11 snack when we got back.  During the night he got sick.  Bridger couldn't breathe due to congestion.  What a night for them.

We have kept it mellow today.  Darin still doesn't feel well.  Sort of no energy and achy. Bridger and went to the fitness room and then to breakfast. We have watched TV and I have read.  We spied an outdoor ice arena for ice skating on our walk back and forth to the arena.  Bridger is suggesting that for an event.  I don't think Casa Bonita would be good for Darin today.  It was mid-40's when we got here yesterday.  It was 35 degrees when we walked back.  Today it supposed to be mid-40's again today.  On Friday our high was to be 7 degrees.  We should enjoy the "balmy" weather while we can.

new look

We made sugar cookies after Christmas Eve services.  I don't look so happy I decided.  Bridger was having fun regardless.  I was frustrated because the dough was sticking to the surface.  I had chilled the dough for several hours and was hoping it wouldn't stick.  Maybe next year I will get a dough board for Christmas.  Bridger did not pick all Christmas oriented shapes.  We had a cactus in the mix.

We are headed to Denver when we get around.  Shasta has to be dropped off at the kennel.  Bridger is up and playing Wii.  Imagine that.  Darin is still resting his eyelids.  We haven't packed.  No one can seem to figure out what they want to take along.

We did some after Christmas shopping for fun yesterday.  Bridger had already broken his remote control helicopter.  I don't think it even made it to noon on Christmas.  We went to Menards to look for lights.  I wanted rope lights and they were already out of colored ones.  The wind it did blow yesterday and it is supposed to be blowing from the SW today with gusts around 55mph.  Should be interesting driving until we get east of the Front Range. 

I suggested some new restaurants for dining, but with our late start and game time at 7pm it won't happening today.  We have tried several trendy restaurants and have been disappointed.  Darin decided we should endure Casa Bonita tomorrow.  HMMM--I wonder who that experience is really for?  Hopefully we can see the cliff divers.  Bridger should love that part.  Last time we went was about 10 years ago for Chase's benefit. 

In the spirit of US against HIM..........GO AVS!!!  BOO RED WINGS!!!! 

Christmas 2010

I got a penguin present this year from Bridger, usually it is the other way around.

Bridger finding his remote control helicopter

he actually sat and looked through every page-after everything else was opened.

the expressions were priceless yesterday

What a wonderful Christmas day we had with each other.  Bridger woke us up around 7AM.  We checked out our stockings in bed.  Then moved to the "tree room" to open presents.  Bridger insisted we open our presents before him.  I managed to surprise Darin with snow shoes for all of us.  I was worried about them not being up to "par", but Darin says they seem fine.

Bridger showed enthusiasm all through the clothes he got.  He never once said, "where is my scooter?"  We saved it until the end.  Darin hid it under some blankets in the back of the room and we had Bridger go get a blanket.  His expression was pure joy.  It wasn't long until he was outside in PJ bottoms, bogs (boots), coat and helmet.  We took a walk later and let him really try it out.  It has about a 40min limit with continuous use.  We managed to get about 2 blocks from home before it died.

We had our dinner late.  The meat I cooked up was supposed to marinate overnight. OOPS. We tubbed and then I called it a day very early for me.  Hence, here I am at 3am blogging.

We talked to Grammy and Grandpa Roger.   They were doing house things being new owners and all.  Grandpa Roger was finishing up trim in a bathroom they completed since they moved in, which only about 6 weeks ago or so.  Bridger and I will be going to visit them week after next.  I am sure the extra bathroom will be used with us there!

On a very sad note....we read about a horrible tragedy that happened on Friday at the ski hill.  A snowboarder lost control and collided with a mother and 5 year old girl.  The mother is listed as in critical condition in the hospital and the 22 year old boarder and the 5 year old died.  We know nothing more but are deeply saddened for the two families.  What a truly awful thing for especially this time of year, let alone any time of the year.

Christmas Eve

We have had a nice quiet Christmas Eve day.  We got up and went to the gym.  Played racquetball, basketball, and lifted.  Since we worked out we can eat more.  Bridger is getting a lot better hitting the ball.  It is fun to see him improve except when he hits you.  The first one was right in the breadbasket, of course he giggled.  The second one was right in the back of the head.  It smarted pretty good.  I asked if it hit the wall and Ginni quickly said yes.  Once before it hit your head and once after.  Oh, everyone loves a comedian.

After the gym we went to the store came home and ate lunch.  After lunch the momma unit took a nap while the boys went for a soak.  The soak would have been relaxing if someone would not have brought their remote control boat out with them.

The pictures show the tree before there is paper everywhere and Bridger in the holiday spirit playing Wii.  We are heading to Christmas Eve services soon and then back home for Ginni's traditional oyster and potato soup.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

"We're gonna have the hap hap happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny Kaye. "

Two More Days

Here are some pictures from Bridger's Hockey game last Sunday.  In the first picture he smacked the puck away from the kid.  You can tell by the other kids stick position and you can also see the puck in the air.  If you every have trouble picking out Bridger, I wrap his blade with black tape and handle with white.

Today I was Santa for Bridger's daycare.  The kids loved it.  I thought it would be a quick in and out but was wrong.  It lasted an hour and a half.  Oh well it is part of my duties with the fire department.  I am going in next week to talk to the kids about fire safety.  Bridger wanted to be my elf but decided not to because he thought the kids might know it is him and not believe in Santa anymore.

Bridger and I went to the mall this afternoon to finish our Christmas shopping.  It was crazy.  Bridger got a little frustrated because we kept bumping into people I know.  We finally picked out some excellent gifts and then stood in line to check out.  As soon as it was Bridger's turn he put his item on the counter and the sales lady looked at him and walked away to help someone else!  Merry Christmas!  There was a poinsettia on the counter, I picked it up and threw it hitting her in the back of the head and knocking her out.  We left before anyone figured out what happened.  Just joking.  Bridger looked at me confused that she would not help him and I just took him to a different checkout.

Bridger is very excited about Christmas.  We are going to go to an early Christmas service tomorrow.  We are looking forward to getting to sing some traditional hymns.

I hope everyone is doing well this holiday season.  God Bless.

"Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings. "

what day is this?

What an exceptionally busy weekend we had.  Sunday was by far the worst.

Saturday we invited Meline's and Meline's sis-in-law over for soups and games.  Sammy went on a Girl Scout sleepover and missed the fun.  We had bought two new games.  Both were about knowing who you were playing with, but a bit of chance thrown in.  It wasn't too late of a night.  I made beer cheese soup and white chili.  Darin wanted the white chili, which was good, but everyone seemed to crave the cheese soup.

Sunday we went out to lunch as a family, then Santa Skate, office open house, hockey practice and to Meline's to open gifts between us.  I provided Lasagna.  I was criticized for store bought, but with that kind of day when was I going to make it.  Darin WAS NOT the criticizer.

Santa Skate was also the PE Club monthly outing that Verda James has.  Bridger had many friends there.  His teacher didn't know there was PE club and was on a date.  Darin took these pictures with his cell phone.  I skated twice-once each hour.  The little girl is in Sammy's class and her name is Mia.

Bridger got an amazing pop-up book about Harry Potter from Meline's.  He has loved opening and opening this book for the last couple of days.  I am worried he might wear it out.  We have yet to see the Harry Potter new movie.  I am hoping we can work it in sometime over the weekend. 

I work today and tomorrow.  Darin goes into the school today to make an appearance.  Bridger has a 1/2 day and then wants to go to daycare. 

I am beginning to feel like when is this holiday ever going to get here!

7 Christmases

2003 in Idaho, early Xmas with Grammy

2004 Xmas Eve Sugar Cookies

2005 the year he asked Santa for Cheese

first year Darin was Santa-Bridger understood Darin "helped" Santa

2007 Downtown Santa Pic

2008 Santa visit at daycare

The last year he believed

I was looking back at blog comments and saw Grandpa Roger asked about Bridger's Santa belief.  Guess he hasn't heard the story.

In March when Bridger was supposed to build a leprechaun trap he decided there was no such thing.  We actually had a hard time trying to get him to go along and build the trap.  He felt the whole thing was ridiculous.  I might have gone along with him, but his teacher had a whole day planned around leprechauns, traps and a party.  He agreed to keep his thoughts to himself.

Around Easter this year Bridger decided that it was pretty silly to think a bunny would really come and hide eggs for children to find.  His reasoning was sound and I hated to lie to him.  It was also around the time that he was losing more than one tooth at a time. 

I hid a dollar under his pillow after one of those teeth came out.  In the morning as he was examining his dollar, he exclaimed that Daddy must have put the money under his pillow.  His reasoning was that the tooth fairy wouldn't have old looking wrinkley money.  Daddy had that kind of money in his wallet.

It wasn't too long after Easter that he put together all of these beliefs including Santa was nothing more than what you choose to believe.  But, the Santa story is a good one.  We were driving in the car and he had been quizzing us about Santa.  We were getting out of the car, when he exclaimed, "You (me) ate the cookies!"  At first I wasn't sure where his train of thought had been.  He kept saying it in a defiant tone.  YOU, YOU ate  the cookies.  He meant the cookies you lay out for Santa.  Only last year they were brownies and since they were chocolate-Obviously, Darin couldn't have eaten them.  I was stunned. Darin was smirking and then we were all laughing.  He went crazy with questions and I wouldn't lie to him. 

So Bridger does not believe in the tooth fairy, leprechauns, Easter Bunny or Santa.  He definitely wouldn't believe in the Great Pumpkin either.  At school this year his teacher figured out he didn't believe.  When she asked the class to write a letter to Santa, he just sat and looked at his paper.  He never shared his un-belief.  We asked him about it later, after she said something to Darin, and he said, "why would I write a letter asking for something from someone who doesn't exist?"   We told him he did good by not telling the others that do believe.

He has on occasion tried to enlighten Sammy, but Linnea says she still believes it all.  This year it has been a breeze.  He is still not so sure about why I insist on having stockings and why I have gone ahead and put things in them already. Why not just open them now!!!!  He also has decided that we should have the tradition of opening one present on Xmas Eve.  I didn't do that, but did the Myers?

Snow and COLD!!!!!

We had snow start on Wed morning. It snowed through most of the day.  It was very warm for snowing early in the day.  Consequently you know what  meant for Wed night and Thursday morning.  Wed night I tried twice to park the Exp in the driveway.  It slid back down in park each time.  I called Darin from the car and asked him if he would believe or did he have to see it for himself.  I parked on the street while he put down de-icer. 

It has been cold since.  We are the coldest spot in the nation according to our weather people.  I saw we were -13 with the wind chill.  Shasta gets to stay inside today.

Bridger has been invited to a sleepover at Nate's tonight.  I have been invited to an Ugly Sweater party.  Darin is probably on his own.  I invited Linnea to go with me before the sleepover invite.  Sunday we are going to Skate with Santa and there is an invitation for an open house from our new CEO.  He hasn't won many people over and not many are planning to go.  Again, Linnea and I plan to go.  We are having her sis-in-law watch the kids.  So the four adults will be able to go together.  Then they are coming for dinner and we will open presents to each other.  The Season has been going all month for Bridger in his mind.  I guess for us adults it starts Monday.

Santa's elf

At FD, courtesy of Kayla's cell phone

mischevious elf?

Darin's new jacket

I think I figured out the problem for adding pictures. 

Is it only Tuesday?  Bridger is keeping track mentally very well this year how many more days until Christmas.  He asked for one more thing last night.  I reminded him of how many presents were already under the tree for him.  His comment back was, "that's right you need to save money to buy my electric scooter".  Oh, if he only knew.

Darin had a coach's meeting last night.  I got to take Bridger to hockey practice.  To get him to go I promised we could go to the gym after practice.  On our way to the gym we stopped at Kmart to buy some raquetballs and get him a raquet.  I didn't pay very good attention and bought him a tennis raquet.  It had SpongeBob on it, which is why he wanted it.  When we got home Darin commented it was a tennis raquet because it didn't have a wrist strap.  I thought it was a raquetball raquet simply because it had a short handle.  My mistake.  We looked at the sticker and sure enough it was a tennis raquet.  I had let Bridger use my raquet, which I think he did better with.  We had fun regardless.  Not like we are pros.  Bridger only knocked the ball out of the court twice.  That should be a good average.

holiday party

The weekend is slipping by.....

Friday night Darin made pizza for us.  I somehow ended up in bed before 8pm.  I have no idea what the guys did. 

Saturday our day started out so promising.  But, as I look around the house I would have to say nothing got done.  We joined a gym yesterday as a family.  Bridger is so excited because we can go and play basketball, raquetball, tennis and swim.  They even have karate for kids (and adults).  The gym is very near the house-almost across the street from Taco Johns.  The breakfast burritos are so GOOD.

Anyway, there is lots to do.  There is even a golf simulator.  One thing that is negative is that they charge extra for use of the rqtball and tennis.  They call it electrical fee.  Darin in his wonderful way asked the girl showing us around if we played without the lights on would we still have to pay.  He made her pause.  Bridger is very excited and he wanted to go get his own raquets right then. 

Bridger and I went off to the mall after all that while Darin had a "review" with the football coach.  All the coaches had one.  It was a 20 min process Darin promised.  He assured me it wouldn't turn into all afternoon.  Uh-hh....   It wasn't.  He was gone an hour.  We finally had our lunch at FireRock.  We let Bridger stop at Burger King ahead of OUR lunch.  BK is advertising ZhuZhu pets in the kid meals.  He was sorely disappointed with the FAKE  Zhu-Zhu.  It was plastic.  We often let him get a meal somewhere like that before we get what we want.  Everyone is happy in the end.

So at FireRock when our order was being taken, I asked if he wanted anything.  We had been looking over the dessert menu.  He said he wanted the Strawberry Rhubard cobbler-with ice cream.  I said OK.  The waitress barely paused, but did seem perplexed.  I announced to her that he had already eaten.  She commented that she was just thinking we were COOL parents and wished she'd had us as parents.  Bridger had to wait until our meals got to the table.  His cobbler was huge and we ended up having to help him eat it.

Bridger got an elf costume after lunch.  He has wanted to be elf to Darin's Santa forever.  When we got it out of the package at home we discovered the pointy toe shoes weren't going to fit.  I raced to Hobby Lobby and bought felt.  Back home in record time (1 hour) I sewed some boot covers.  I was quite proud of myself.  Bridger was sorely disappointed that we were not going back to the store and buying separate elf shoes.  He WANTED THE POINTY TOE SHOES.  I had heard what I thought was sobbing.  Really?  So I managed to make them pointy and embellished them with the pom-poms and bells from the too small shoes.  He changed his tune.  I think Darin might have had something to do with it.

Bridger went with Darin to the FD.  They rode on the truck around Evansville.  Darin shared with me later that HE got flashed.  Seriously, who flashes Santa?  That's certain parts of Evansville for you.  I asked Darin if our son got flashed also.  He assured me, NO.  Kayla picked up Bridger from the FD.  Linnea and I went to our Xmas party at the same time the guys were headed to Evansville.  Shawn, Linnea's husband was having a Natl Guard weekend.  Darin missed all the early shenanagins at the party.  Linnea and I, plus 3 others, were part of the entertainment.  We did odd things, like wear a pedometer on our foreheads and shake, slinky on our heads and try to get back on our heads, and shake ping pong balls out of a kleenex box belted at our waist over our backsides.  We had a minute for each.  Whoever could accomplish the task was the winner.  The audience was given our names randomly.  Whoever won, then also won for the crowd who had their name.  Follow that?  That darn Linnea won twice!!!  We the participates got extra play money for being good sports.  I ended up with $710 somehow.  We could use the play money to bid on silent auction items. 

The items were wrapped and you didn't know which of three things you were bidding on.  I chose a box that said, "UW cowboy jacket, Game Hunter Video Game or Bissell Vac Stick.  I found the 3 boxes that had the same title and made my guess as to which one had the jacket.  I won it!!!  And it was actually a 2XL.  Just perfect for Darin.  Darin finally got to the party and was a major hit at our table.  Everyone was kept in stitches and kept commenting on how funny he is.  He looked just handsome dressed up.  He ditched the Santa suit.  We went out with some people that wanted to do Karoake.  We brought Bridger to Linnea's from Kayla's and he spent the night.  It was a good night!

Look for pictures soon of the coat and maybe the elf!  For some reason the blog isn't letting me put a picture in?

we're boring

Wish I had something to tell.  It has been a slow week for us.  We haven't done much, but the weekend is upon us in another 48 hours. 

Darin attended the Football awards, which he enjoyed.  He received a large photograph framed and signed by the Senior Players.  This was on Monday night.  I listened to a teleconference about diabetic neuropathy, which was a waste of my time.  Bridger hung-out in the wings waiting for that to get done.  We played Wii after it was done.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves doing that.

We watched an older kung-fu movie Tuesday night.  It was one we thought Bridger would enjoy.  He did.  He has been showing us his "expertise" at kung-fu moves-including use of his play weapons.  Darin has been getting the brunt of that.

Last night Bridger and I had game night.  He got me to play several of his board games.  That's it!

They have hockey tonight.  I have my office xmas party Sat night, Darin is Santa this Sat night and Bridger gets to spend time with Kayla.

domestic update

Nope this is NOT us in the last 24 hours.  I was looking back through pictures from 2009 in December.  I was scrambling for pictures again.  This was 12/26/2009.  The day we were supposed to head to Denver for an AVs game.  We didn't make it.  I haven't bought tickets for this year's game yet, either.


I was looking through OPOD yesterday and always get a kick out of his domestic updates.  I enjoy those more than the run through history.  Don't get me wrong-I like history.  I just like his story telling of his adventures as a Gentlemen Farmer.  I tried ,after Jami said we moved to stardom on Nate's Nonsense, to check that blog more often.  But, our computer freezes up and I can't move around on it.  I noticed the other day before I gave up that Grand Forks, ND had signed on 2 minutes before I did.  I also noticed someone from Edgerton, WY was checking out the blog.  I have tried a different browser to check out that blog, but it must be our computer.

So here is our domestic update:  I am proud to say we are an only child family.  HOLY COW!!!  I had two extra kids for two hours yesterday.  It was much different from even having Sammy and Lanie over.  Those two kids-brother and sister ran me mentally ragged.  Inside-outside, inside, outside.  Shasta barking. Up the stairs, downstairs (all three levels).  Is it starting to sound like Cat in the Hat?  They were good kids-definitely not Thing 1 and Thing 2.  I let Gracie "help" me decorate the tree.  I gave up and told myself this was virtue developing on my part.  "patience is a virtue, possess if you can".  My grandmother told me that as far back as I can remember.  Tell you anything about my patience.  So when Gracie's parents got here-I proudly showed them our accomplishment.  It was quite comical-Gracie stands about 3 foot tall, age 5.  There was a 1 ft section cross-wise across the bottom branches where several ornaments were hung together literally.  We all laughed and Gracie was less the wiser.  She had fun and I re-did the tree after she left.

Nate did spend the night.  We discovered during dinner that WE were his first sleepover.  He has had several other boys over, but no one had invited him yet.  Nate is full of energy.  He is quick-witted and quite sharp.  He is polite, but says what comes to mind.  I ordered pizza (and got Darin to go get it!) and the boys finished off a Med pizza all by themselves.  I think Bridger has found his match for eating.  Nate declared he ate 5 pieces of pizza and Briger ate 3.  They also helped Darin eat wings.  Darin did not have the tolerance for picking up pizza and going to the Movie Box rentals.  I went back out later and stopped at Safeway for milk and a movie.  The boys really wanted to watch one particular movie, of course, it was rented.  I got a different one that Bridger has  enjoyed before, only to be told by Nate that HE already saw that one,too.  I told him he could watch it again. I went to our bedroom and watched a chick-flick and left all the males to themselves.  Darin came up around 10:30pm and said he had gotten them to bed.  Bridger fell asleep before the movie was over.  Nate had a full day beginning by being at someone else's house around 7am and Bridger had his swimming b-day party.  They were looking tired by dinner.

Darin and I ran into Sean Walker yesterday before lunch.  We had intended to drop off Bridger and go to FireRock for a late annv togetherness.  We ended up doing other stuff thinking we would share the lunch with Bridger.  We needed a new house key.  I suggested a hardware store we never go to and ran into Sean there. How odd.  Anyway, we decided to go to lunch all of us together after I picked up Bridger.  He and I met Darin and Sean at Karen and Jim's (Sully's).  We had a long 2 hour lunch and finally had to go to meet Nate and Gracie back at our house.

Sean still has his bait business in Shoshoni.  He has four kids.  He finally got a little girl.  His last two are a year apart.  Joni, wife, lives and teaches in Big Piney.  Hopefully this will be her last year in Big Piney.  Sean taught at Shoshoni for 1 year and 2 months.  He wouldn't compromise his teaching standards and change a grade for some ranch kids.  He resigned and actually won 200 write-in votes for the school board.  The principal barely acknowledges him.  He is also now working for an oilfied company and lives still in Shoshoni.   We think we  are busy.  Glad we don't live a half state away from each other.  They must be making it work they have had 2 kids of the four kids in the last 2 years.  There was a joke about Darin seeing Joni when he was going through Shoshoni for something, but didn't see Sean and THEY now have a red-headed daughter.

I hear a TV and voices.  I would say my alone time is done.

spearfish creek

I follow a Black Hills blog to see and "steal" beautiful pictures like this.  This is from the first major snowfall to hit the Hills early this week.  It made me think about mine and Bridger's trip to SD.  We couldn't have done all that we did with this snow.  It looks just beautiful.

We all woke up early today, but seems we are slow to start.  Bridger will head to a birthday party in another hour.  I started on the Xmas tree, but somehow got sidetracked to the computer?  If I didn't say earlier in the week-Bridger got his tree up in his room Tuesday.  We haven't got to have Grammy's help for a couple of years.  I let him pick where he wanted to put his tree.  I even offered to let him decorate the big tree if he wanted.  Can you tell I am feeling less enthused about the big tree.

Yesterday after school Bridger walked home and Darin drove his truck back down the street.  He saved time getting to the classroom (Bridger's) by driving to the school from his school.  Darin's school gets out almost an hour ahead of Bridger's.  Anyway,  Bridger decided to cut through the backyard and see Shasta.  Darin parked his truck and went into the front-only to discover that Bridger's scooter had been delivered yesterday.  Thank Goodness Bridger went in the back!  Darin somehow got it into the house and into the basement before Bridger saw it.  Darin said there was no guessing as to what it was.  Grandpa Roger-I bought it from Sears on Cyber Monday and got free shipping.  It was marked down to $99, from what I don't rememeber.

Bridger has been asking me about his scooter today.  Wanting to know when I would order it and does he have to be GOOD until the 24th.  I told him he better be good through the 25th.  Little does he know! I plan to torture him Xmas morning and not  have the scooter wrapped and under the tree.  Sounds like it might be a little big.  Maybe Darin better put it together the night before.

I managed to get his present wrapped before he woke up this morning.  He found me wrapping Melines' presents and joyfully set upon his presents-lifting, shaking and speculating.  AWWW, Christmas!

here fishie, fishie

I think there is a picture of Chase and I at the same spot-1997!

ridin' freestyle

Just some more pictures of our trip.  The top picture was from Universal near the Jaws ride.  I remember hearing about a 6 year old just terrified after the boat ride and Jaws attacking the boat.  Not our 7 year old, he just laughed and was frustrated the Jaws came on the side he wasn't sitting.  When we got on the Jaws ride we got sat with one of the tallest people I have ever seen.  I am glad he wasn't IN FRONT of us.

Bridger and Darin were talking about movies last night and some the rides about the movies they encountered during our trip.  Bridger was asking about the yellow people and the baby with the pacifier in it's mouth all the time.  We thought he was talking about something else.  It ended up he was talking about The Simpsons.  We did a ride that was about them.  We were so off track throwing all sorts of movies that we thought he might have seen, but he was talking about an amusement ride.

No big news to tell.  Just another day for the 3 of us.