Uncle Bobby

Tausha loves Uncle Bobby.

We all do.  

Silly Kids

The kids in our family sure are silly.  For example:

Collin blinding himself with his new mouse.

Hunter bowing.

Hunter trying to do a pull up (and Debbie giving him a boost).

Tausha spinning and spinning under the Christmas tree at the Capitol building to make herself dizzy.

Corryn and Ethan exploring Grandpa Bob and Grandma Katherine's house.

Ethan found a treasure box.  He then put the PT Cruiser toy car that Grandpa Bob gave him in the "treasures" box.

Hunter explaining the rules of Settlers of Catan.

And finally, Ethan insisting on being tossed around in a laundry basket until Dad was tired, then he asked Mom and when Mom was tired he asked Nay Nay and when Ranee was tired he asked Grandpa Bob. And when Grandpa Bob declined, Ethan wanted to take the laundry basket home to Nana's, cause she wouldn't be too tired for sure.

Madrid or Bust

Tuesday morning, October 25th, Ranee and I headed to the airport for our much anticipated trip to Madrid, right in the heart of Spain.  We left from Seattle and flew to Philadelphia.  There we had a brief layover and boarded a long flight (almost 7 hours) from Philly to Madrid.  

The flight from Philly to Madrid was nearly empty, by the way, so we were able to spread out and catch a bit of sleep.  We left Tuesday morning from Seattle and we arrived Wednesday morning in Madrid.  Madrid is 8 hours ahead of Boise time.

65!

Happy

Birthday

Mom!

We

Love

 YOU!

You'd think something as BIG as the Atlantic Ocean...

...would be MUCH easier to find.  

It took us what seemed like HOURS to find the Atlantic Ocean.  The TomTom kept telling us it was just around the bend, but TomTom lied.  We finally found the ocean at Laite Beach in Camden, ME on our way to Nova Scotia.  We had all flown into Boston (thanks SWA for the free Rapid Rewards flights), stayed the night in Rockport then hit the road for Canada in the morning.  We (Ranee) decided to take the scenic route.  Which added a bit of time to our already long car ride.  Good thing she got the hook up for a sweet road trip ride.  Leather seats, spacious, horrible gas mileage...you know the drill.

I love that Collin took his backpack with him the short distance from the car to the beach.  I'm not exactly sure WHY it happened, it just makes me smile that it happened.  Collin found a bunch of shells.  One of them was occupied - but not for long.  Collin decided to evict it.

Hunter, however, did NOT bring his backpack with him to the beach.  

In just a year we've been to the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.  Three down...four more to go!  The Indian Ocean (my vote is for the Seychelles), the Arctic Ocean (you're on your own there), the Caribbean Sea (I vote Cuba or Puerto Rico), and the Gulf of Mexico (Matt says New Orleans is one of his favorite places in the US...so we HAVE to go there).

The best of the best

Below are the best pictures from three cameras. Today we slept in and hung around the house. The twins and the boys went for a walk. The boys also helped David with various chores around the house. The sun came out in the afternoon and the boys help hook up the dock for later firework launching. While the sisters were on the constant look out for dock spiders, swatting bugs, and holding Corryn, they occasionally snapped some sensational pictures.

We're in HEAVEN, are you jealous?

On vacation with technology

So... Southwest Airlines is excited to offer satellite-enabled WiFi internet access onboard.  However, they did not have this handy feature offered on any of the flights Debbie, Collin and Hunter took to meet Ranee in Boston.  The hotel in Freeport, Maine had spotty internet which made it difficult for Ranee to work in the middle of the night when she should have been sleeping.  :)  During the ENTIRE drive from "Nowheresville", Maine in search for the Atlantic Ocean (hello... it's huge!  One would think that it would be easily found... not so easy in the fog!) there was NO signal, internet or otherwise, for any of us to make calls, receive calls, check Facebook, play internet games, ANYTHING!

Hooray for technology!  In the rental car we've managed to rig up quite the mobile internet cafe.  As you might notice from the picture we have a variety of gadgets plugged in and running all of our stuff.  We have the boys' computer, the GSlate, Katherine's borrowed TomTom and a cool MiFi thingy all plugged in right now.  Thanks Dad for hooking us up with the power adapter AND for getting us hooked on technology!  :) 

I have to go now as we are now driving in Canada in the dark and apparently there GIANT moose (or is it meese or moosen) we need to watch out for.

Debbie, traveling in New Brunswick

Dancing on the Blue

Through a huge family effort we were able to get Matt dancing on the Blue at Boise State University. Hunter and Dad suggested Matt come to Boise, Hunter also suggested dancing on the Blue. Debbie and Ranee did all they could to convince Boise State to allow the event. Lynda and Dad did a lot of prep work (water, notebooks, etc).

Dad, Aunt Nancy, Katherine, Debbie, Tausha, Brendan, Collin and Hunter joined Matt on the Blue for about an hour (while Ranee filmed the clip). Matt and Melissa were kind enough to take us all to dinner afterwards where Matt & Dad nerded out over airplanes.

Matt danced a jig with Hunter in the parking lot.

Also: Taush and I found this in Dad's car. Of course.

Dad's Field Trip

One week post surgery, Dad went on a field trip...

...to Walmart.

He says he's healing well, he's sleeping to aid the healing and the Doctor says he can start walking next week. He's looking forward to being able to walk around the neighborhood - he says Katherine won't even let him walk to get the mail. Let's hope he listens to her, cause I couldn't stop him from walking to the mailbox the day he got home from the hospital. What was I going to do, ground him? He'd just sneak out like we did when we were grounded. ;)

I believe you have my stapler...

Dad's home from the hospital today...one day early. Yay!

The staples have all been removed. The doctor said his incisions are healing so well it's like he has the skin of a 30 year old.

The purple bruising...yeah, that's still there.

You know what's NOT still there? The cancer! The surgeon said that the cancer hadn't gone through the intestinal wall and was not in his lymph nodes. Hooray!