Spring Update

Since this is the first update since Jan 3, most people have probably stopped reading this. So this is for all the "exceptions" out there. Or should I say "exceptional people" out there?

NASCAR

In February, Rod's brother, David, and his son, Jon, came down from Sacramento for a weekend of NASCAR races. Through a contact at church, we ended up with 4 tickets in the Toyota executive suite. We had seats (both outdoors & indoors) just above pit road, buffet lunch and unlimited drinks, and free Scan-view for the weekend, so we could listen to different channels. If you're not into NASCAR that doesn't mean much, but for us, it was great! Of course, our favorite drivers didn't win, but we still had fun.

CANCER RELAY-FOR-LIFE

In April a club from Rod's school participated in the 24-hour American Cancer Society Relay-for-Life. As a cancer survivor, Carolyn got to walk in the first lap. I'm getting too old to stay up all night in the freezing wind--especially when the teenagers won't stay up!

DISNEYLAND

For Carolyn's birthday in February, I got her 4 days of Disneyland passes. We finally got to go a couple of weeks ago, and had a great time. It's nice not feeling like you have to do everything in one day. We saw a great "Aladdin" show at the Hyperion Theater in California Adventure, then had one of the best meals we've ever had at the Cafe Orleans in Disneyland. We couldn't get into the Blue Bayou, so we had to "settle" for something less. It was great! The "less" was the price. We stayed until fireworks, then relaxed listening to a swing band before the long drive home.

Mostly we do schoolwork and yard work -- both of which seem to be perpetual.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

From Dec 20 - Jan 1, we celebrated Christmas with our entire family. If you count from the afternoon of the 20th to the afternoon of the 1st, that's 12 days.

Holly & Dan flew out from Washington, DC and join Tim & Stef and Carolyn and I for a wonderful Christmas week. They were one of the first flights out after the major DC snowstorm on Sat the 19th.

The most common Christmas gift was Wii, and Wii enjoyed playing it.

Mike & Kallie were in Colorado for Christmas Eve, and had a great dinner in the camp dining hall. We took Holly & Dan to LAX on Saturday, then left on Sunday for Colorado, arriving there Monday afternoon.

We opened more presents on Monday night.

We spent all week enjoying being Grandparents.

On New Year's Eve all the power in the valley went out while we were playing Wii, so we played Scrabble by kerosene lamp and candlelight. We had just fixed hot drinks, so it was a pleasant surprise.

We drove home Friday and Saturday through some pretty cold weather.

If you would like to see more pictures of our Christmas, here is a link to Snapfish

Now we are trying to get ready for school tomorrow. Like we'll ever really be ready. :)