Christmas in Ohio

We had a great Christmas. Here are a few photos.We have had rain the last few days, so no white Christmas for us, but it was still cozy and snug in our warm home here in Ohio.

The kids were up at 7:00 am, and we headed down to open our stockings.

After presents, the kids put on their new clothes and started playing. They had a fun afternoon. Benjamin is teaching Emily the finer points of how to play Pokemon. He also put together some Lego Star Wars sets, and played with his Star Wars figures.
Emily got a music box with jewelry that she put on right away. She also got some new Polly pockets, Tink slippers that are darling, and a Barbie car.
Joshua has a race car track that is so fun to play with. He got a pop gun from Santa and a fun doodle pro.
He also loves playing with his crocodile dentist game.
He and I played it at least 20 times yesterday.

All of the kids got their first Webkinz animal, which we have been trying to play with since yesterday. Apparently Christmas is a popular day on their website.

We had another family over for dinner, with lots of kids (pretend cousins?) to play with. We had a great Christmas, and send a big thank you to everyone who thought of us this year!
We miss all of our family!

Christmas Eve 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve, with many family traditions. We ate meatballs and found an almond in the riscrem (Dave won the chocolate Santa, but he shared).

We re-enacted the Nativity play. Emily was Mary (of course),
while Joshua played opposite her as Joseph.

Benjamin was a handsome wise man.

Dave played the shepherd, while I was the angel and narrator.

The kids all opened one present on Christmas Eve. What a surprise, it was pajamas! They jumped all over the place, though, and put them on right there in the living room.
They all looked so cute! Dave and I have matching jammies,
but they weren't as flattering on us as on the kids!

The Nutcracker

Emily and I went to see the Nutcracker on December 12th. She really wanted to go, and I was excited to have a mother/daughter evening, but I was worried that she might not like the ballet. I needn't have worried. She loved it! I offered to leave at intermission, but she wanted to stay for the sugar plum fairies. We sat on the 4th row back, and had great seats to see all the facial expressions, and even the sweat glistening on the leading man! It was great. Before the ballet, we went out for french fries and all you can eat sundaes at Max and Erma's. Emily said it was the best night of her life, which is all a mother can really ask for!

Here we are getting ready to leave.

Here is Emily with her "fancy" sundae. She thought mine was boring because it was mostly brown (chocolate), while hers had every color of the rainbow. I think we both liked our own!

Visiting Santa

Greene County offers a free night out with Santa. They have lights, a wagon ride, face painting, and of course, the chance to sit on Santa's knee. We went last weekend, and had a great evening.

Emily and Josh posed with one of the "reindeer."

Dave and Josh waiting to have their faces painted.

Benjamin had a snowman put on his cheek!
We splurged and bought a picture with Santa. Dave doesn't like buying pictures, because he can usually take better ones, but he has been strangely pleased with this one of our family.

Dave wrote up a trip report for our Grand Canyon 2007, adventure, and posted it to Summit Post last week. Today it is on the main page of summitpost. Go to www.summitpost.org in the next few days to see it on the headlines, or anytime after that and look under the Grand Canyon section. We also have a description of the trip here on our blog if you look in the archives.

Presidential Traverse

This September Dave met John Chesnut in Boston and drove up to the White Mountains of New Hamshire to do the "Presidential Traverse"---a 24 mile ridge crossing over at least 11 peaks in 15 hours. There is enough up and down in this trip to be equivalent to climbing the Empire State building 7 times. I've always want to go up Mt Washington, so I'll have to get Dave to take me back (shouldn't be too tough). See John's trip report details and pictures:

Link to Presidential Traverse Trip Report: summitpost.org

Emily joins the Radio City Rockettes!

Today, Emily and I went to tea with the Rockettes. They are in town to do their Holiday show, and had a meet and greet with military wives and their daughters. David put our names in, and we were selected to go! We had a great time. We had our pictures taken with the beautiful dancers, ate lunch together, and talked with them about their exciting careers! They gave Emily a Christmas ornament that they all signed, as well. She was in love with the whole thing. She was able to get in line with the girls, and tried some high kicks. I think she has some real potential!

Here are Emily and I posing with the Rockettes!

The Rockettes, combined with our first snow, and the fact that one of the radio stations has already started playing non-stop Christmas songs, has really put us in the mood for Christmas. Or, as Josh says, "It is snowing to get ready for Santa!"

First Snow of the Season!

We had our first snow of the season this weekend, and the kids were excited! They all dressed up in their warmest clothes to dance in the snowflakes. Not too much stayed on the ground, but it sure was pretty coming down! Here are Joshua and Emily in my old Norwegian sweaters. They still look good! Josh wore his to play in, but Emily complained that it was too "pokey" and took it off again.

Emily and Joshua

Joshua's hair

I spend a lot of time with Joshua. We go all sorts of places together. I can't remember the last time I took him out in public that someone hasn't commented on his hair. It is curly, and he is a pretty cute kid (at least I think so). Lots of people ask me where he got the curly hair from. So, for those of you who look at this blog and are interested, I have some pictures of who he inherited his hair from. You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

David on his mission in LaPalma, Canarias.
Probably the only time he didn't bother to cut his hair.

David with some bananas.

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun Halloween! We went for a hayride to pick out our pumpkins, played at the Cincinnati Zoo's Halzooween, and even went trick or treating! Her are some pictures of the kids dressed up as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader.

Emily, Benjamin, and Joshua

Leia feeding Vader some ice cream

Luke Skywalker with his candy bag.

Princess Leia and her dad.

Mom with Luke and Leia.

Hay Ride

The whole family on a hay ride to pick out our pumpkins.

The kids picked some good ones!

Joshua thought it was funny to eat the "popcorn."

Soccer

We just finished an exciting soccer season. Benjamin and Emily played, which kept us busy 2 week nights, and most of Saturday, but they both had a great time.

Emily, making an attempt at the goal.

Ben chasing down the ball. He was a great player this season!

After a sweaty game.

Emily played some of her old preschool friends.
I put this picture in, because sometimes I forget that Emily is tall for her age.

Emily's kindergarten team. They had a fun season.

First Day of School

We got back from our trip on Saturday, and school started the next Tuesday. Here are the kids on their first days of school.

Benjamin is excited to start second grade with his teacher, Mrs. Hanna!

Emily is going to Kindergarten with Mrs. Matteson.

She just hopped on the bus, and went off to her first day of school!

Joshua still isn't so sure about preschool with Ms. Stockholm. He loves it in the afternoon, though, when he comes home! It is so strange to have my baby leave me for a few hours! He has things that happen to him that I don't see! What a crazy world this is! Doesn't he look handsome with his little backpack on, though?

Our adventures out West

0In August, we headed west, to Denver, Colorado for Uncle Kevin's wedding to "Princess Tess." We started out with a mini family reunion, however, with ALL of Dave's siblings.


Kristin and Kevin picked us up at the airport. The kids all had to pull their own suitcases. It was so cute to watch them, all lined up like little ducklings.


We met in Colorado, I'm not exactly sure where, but it was definitely remote, and certainly secluded. We didn't run into a lot of other people! We camped, of course (no hotels out there). It was a great few days. The kids ran around, and the adults visited (some of them ran around, too!) The nights were chilly, as were the days. Here are Emily and Josh with some of their cousins, playing in the snow.

Emily and her cousin Anna played all day long. They just love each other!

Taylor, working hard to chop wood for our fire.

Mark, cooking a delicious meal over the fire.

The adults, relaxing around the fire, and talking.

Emily snuggling up with Grandpa, for warmth!

Roasting marshmallows

David, enjoying a s'more.

Here is Joshua with his cousin, Willy.

The area we camped in is rich in railroad history. I was impressed with the rough terrain they were able to get trains into, just to get the silver and gold out! A pretty lucrative time for some. The railway is no longer around, but there are a few tracks left. Joshua was excited to get out there and run his Thomas train on the rails.

Emily and I walked the rails. It was a beautiful area!

Here is Benjamin with his cousins, Taylor, Dallin, and Ryan. They had so much fun playing together!
And, finally, the highlight of our trip: Kevin and Tess's wedding in the Denver Temple. It was a beautiful wedding, and they are going to be such a happy couple!
Emily and Joshua were fascinated with Tess, "the princess." They are still asking about her. They may never call her Aunt Tess, just the princess. Oh well, there are worse nicknames! Emily went through the line at the reception at least 5 times, maybe more. Tess and her parents were very patient with her, especially when she started bringing them bits of food that they had to tactfully dispose of! Here she is, admiring Princess Tess.
Finally, here are my kids with Grandma and Grandpa Hoopes. This is actually in Salt Lake, a week or so after the wedding.


After a fun week in Colorado with the Hoopes', we drove across the mountains to Utah to see my family. Sarah and John were there with their kids, as well. We had a great couple of weeks together.

All of the great-grandchildren love Olde Mor. Probably because she reads to them and sings songs in Norwegian.

Dave and John took Benjamin backpacking up Big Cottonwood Canyon. I believe they camped at Lake Blanche, but I could be wrong. Here are some pictures of their fun 2 days.

Starting the hike (note Ben's backpack, with his sleeping pad strapped to the back! How cute!):

The top of the peak, on day 2:
Benjamin in a little bit of a tricky spot:

Dave, John, and my dad also hiked Mt Nebo, the highest peak on the Wasatch Front.

I had more modest ambitions this trip, and made it up to Cecret Lake, one of my favorite hikes in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I like it because of the wildflowers, and now, because it is a good hike for my kids. Although, Ben did complain that it was way too easy for him! Here are Mormor, Morfar, Ben, Emily, Joshua, and Matthew at the lake.

Emily and Mormor were great hikers! (Of course, Emily did it in a dress!)

My dad let the kids use his tools, and Emily and Matthew spent hours in the garage, sawing up old boards.

We also hiked up to the hotpots out of Spanish Fork, but I didn't take any pictures of it, unfortunately. We had such a fun trip to Utah/Colorado! We really miss the west, but were happy to come back "home" to Ohio!