More Family Christmas

We enjoyed having Jesse and Sarita and Joey and Katie here at the same time for a couple of days. Jesse and Sarita stayed with us on their way to and from Alaska.
Hunter opening one of his gifts at our family get-together held a week after Christmas this year.
Megan in the leopard pj's we sent to her.
Lexi in her new pj's- a little big, but cute!
Jacob with his toys. We missed seeing these guys this year!
Jake and Laura sent us this fire pit for Christmas. Cousins got to use it to bbq hot dogs while they were here.
Joey entertaining the Ellsworths.
Katy and Paul.


Here's Austin with a present sent by the Fife cousins.
Joey rabble-rousing with the grandchildren.
Charles got some tickets to a dinner and tour of the Rose Parade floats being built for free from his work. U.S. Bank was putting it on. It was interesting to see the process.

Kelsey, Hunter and Skylee spent the night and here they are all set to make some pizza.

More Arizona Christmas

Grandpa, Audra and Evan.

Katy, here's the hair thing you made for Carly.

Watching football.

Christmas 2010

We got to have Christmas in AZ this year with Carly's family. It's kind of fun being the grandparents and having our main responsibility be playing with kids!
The presents were all laid out in the morning for some very excited kids! They loved their gifts.
Audra got this little apron that was perfect for carrying around her doctor kit equipment.
Carly sitting back and watching her kids Christmas joy!
Evan loves Toy Story stuff, so here he is in his Toy Story sunglasses and the Toy Story laser dart gun he got from the Ellsworths.
Bella loves the Touch and Teach turtle she got!
Cool Evan! He's also wearing Toy Story pj's!
Rich's family does a pretty elaborate Nativity production with costumes and a script as well as Christmas carols sung between scenes. We got to join in their family tradition while we were there.
Evan played Joseph this year and said his line perfectly.

Austin and Ethan spent the night with us before we left for AZ. We had fun doing crafts, watching movies, etc. It was a very rainy day, so outdoor activities were not possible!
Here's Lilly carrying a six pound medicine ball. She's pretty strong!
Sarita and Kiku. We had the Ishimoto's over for a visit while Jesse and Sarita were here and these two hit it off immediately!

Thanksgiving Day 2010

We had a lot of fun with the Ellsworths on Thanksgiving Day.


Skylee on the playground. This girl is only five, but hanging around with all the older kids makes her more mature because she converses like a much older child. She's also very artistic. You should take a look at her work, Sarita! Maybe you and her could collaborate on a children's book!
Kelsey is great fun to hang around with too!
A few of the men.
We always take pictures at the pond at Redhill Park, but this is Lilly's first time!
Charles, Paul, Kelsey.
This is how Lilly sits in a high chair. Good thing she was strapped in!
The gang, minus Ethan and Austin, who were at the other table.

Megan's Visit

Megan spent a lot of time with the chickens while she was here. Bobbie is her favorite, but she got the other two pretty tame too.


Grandpa getting some lovins.
It was fun for us, having a little girl around!
See, Barbie and Susie were pretty friendly with Megan too!
We shopped all over the place to find this little sweater to go with the dress Grandma Grace got her to wear to church and a wedding while she was here.
Megan's quite artistic. She painted this little wooden chicken as well as a horse and a penguin.

Willow Falls

More Minnesota

This is taken from a look-out place 177 steps up above Willow Falls. You can't really tell how pretty the view was, so have to take our word for it!
Here's a statue of Mary Tyler Moore throwing her hat in the air in downtown Minneapolis. If you're younger than I am you probably don't remember the Mary Tyler Moore Show though. We had people walk by snickering as we took this picture.
Willow Falls from the bridge.
We kind of liked Willow Falls! Sorry all the pictures just have us in them.
This is Willow Lake. It's in Wisconsin, but only about a 40 minute drive from Minneapolis. There were very few people there that day, probably because it was very cold. The cold weather actually worked to our advantage at the outdoor places we visited, since there were no crowds at all!
Charles at the Como Zoo.
At least we got to see a riverboat! They were closed for the season so we didn't get to go on a ride.
We crossed over this bridge on foot to St. Paul. It was so cold we had to go warm up in the Crown Plaza Hotel on the other side.
A view of St. Paul on the other side of the Mississippi River.