Winter Camping!

We got a special treat the last couple of days at my parents' house.

Julie and Katherine came out to visit! They came on Sunday evening. We played some games and did some visiting. Monday we did a few fun things, including walking down to the river and horsing around a little bit.

I'm not sure, but I think this is Julie's mean face.

She had to get one with Katherine in it.

Those girls were worn out! Monday was also Adam's birthday.

We decided to do some camping to celebrate. The only problem was that it was REALLY COLD! Thank goodness for fire!

We did some delicious Dutch oven cooking. My mom made some peach cobbler for dessert and it was SO good!

Here's Adam about to blow out the candles.

I thought this was a really cute picture of these 3. My parents didn't stay and camp.

Here are the two tents we slept in. It was raining and still REALLY COLD when we woke up in the morning.

Luckily it wasn't raining hard. It did snow a little and sleet quite a bit.

Here's the Giant doing a cranky face. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed camping even though it was cold!

We were trying to take down the stuff quickly to keep everything from getting soaked. We ended up stuffing all the bedding in the cab of Katherine's truck with us. It was pretty packed.

When we were driving, it sounded like these 3 in the back were in a totally different room. It was so muffled!

I liked this shot Katherine got of the front of her truck. We made it safely back to my parents', believe it or not! Katherine and Julie left after some pancakes that my mom made.

Adam, Susannah, and I headed back to Houston on Wednesday. We got back in time for a short visit with Abraham again before I had to take Adam and Sus to the airport! Fun times!

Home for Christmas

It's always fun to be with my family at Christmastime. Well, it's fun to be with them anytime.

It doesn't seem like a trip to visit the family without some sort of fun on the river. My mom and I tried the kayaks out first. I barely got wet at all. Success!

Susannah and Adam were a little more wild than we were. He started chasing her.

It was hilarious. I wish I got more of her yelling at him!

This is my dad trying to get in the shot I took above. I cut him out of that one, so I had to get one of just him.Adam - the Giant, came as well. It was fun to do stuff as a whole family.Here's what happened to Adam - his own fault. That's what he gets for acting crazy in a kayak!

Ruffian even got in on the action with a little swimming. He likes to take a little dip when we head down to the river.

The Adams got a little wild and were attacking Susannah on the way home. I'm just glad it wasn't me!

The weather turned really cold not long after our fun at the river. We even got snow on Christmas Eve. My dad got tired of covering his winter tomato plants, so he pulled them up and we all worked to save the tomatoes off the plants.

This is about 1/4 of what we got off during this little time.

Here I am freezing my tail off!

I've also spent a lot of time reading. No, this is not me. Adam and I fought over this book (it's really good), but I'm glad to say that we've both finished it.

Ruffian always gets a present on Christmas. He was happy to get his new little toy, which he promptly destroyed. This shot made us laugh, because it looks like he ate the cotton and it already traveled out the other end. It's not really a far fetched idea, it just hadn't happened . . . yet.

Of course, we played a LOT of games.

Since we had everyone there, we also thought it would be a good idea to take some family pictures. This is probably one of the best ones. We snuck out on the golf course to take these ones.

While unconventional, this is probably everyone's favorite. Susannah played with it a little.

This one's not too bad; we just need to lighten it up a little.

This one was Susannah's idea. I think it looks cool, except Susannah set this one up, (we did these all on a timer) and she had a long way to run to get in the pictures. She just barely made it on this one!

Here's a cute couple one she edited a little.

We didn't end up getting a good one of everyone at the river, but I wanted to post one anyway.

The best pictures at the river were funny ones. We had all the guys jump out on the dock. This is one of our favorites - look at Adam W's face. It also looks like he's about to hit himself in the crotch.

This one is just plain hilarious.

We tried it too. This is one of our favorites, because Mom looks like she's tap dancing or something.

We were going to get a nice "girls shot" and mistakenly gave the camera to Adam W. He wouldn't go where we wanted him to, thus this picture where we're trying to tell him where to go.

I liked this one.

We've also got to include ping pong in our trips. My dad is pretty much the ping pong master. We were playing at the institute one night and I saw something I hadn't seen him do before. He often gives major handicaps, plays with a ridiculously small paddle, closes his eyes, plays on his knees, or even sitting down, but this time he tried laying down. It wasn't his most successful endeavor since he couldn't see the ball until it came off the table, but it was entertaining nonetheless!

Christmas Spirit

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Happy 60th!

Besides being the Winter Solstice, December 21st is also my Dad's birthday. This year was especially cool because it's his 60th birthday.

We had fun things going on all day, but I got pictures of him at his favorite restaurant, Taco Bell. We went there for dinner while people we assembling at our house for a SURPRISE PARTY!

This is the crew that showed up. My mom and myself were not in this one, so I'll attach another one as well.

Susannah's not in this one, because she's being the photographer. Adam is also tickling me in this picture. He looks very somber.

My dad decided to blow out his candles with part of a cane that he got for his birthday.

The biggest laughs of the evening were when my dad was playing with Liam, the son of some of my parents' good friends and neighbors. He kept tickling Liam's neck and he was making the cutest faces. I posted 4 of the many I took.

My dad also likes the squishy face thing on kids. He's a fun one to do it to!

How cute is this?

I love all of these! :)

We had to get a red picture with Uncle Blaine.

We grabbed this shot before Blaine and Margene headed back to Midland. I like Blaine sucking in his gut. I'm pretty impressed that we actually surprised my dad!

Video Mania

We've had some fun here in San Angelo watching funny videos. I thought I'd share some with you if you need a good laugh or to be amazed.

This first one is a guy from India that they call the Monkey King. He taught himself how to climb like the monkeys do and it's pretty amazing.

This one was sent to me by my friend in California. It's my favorite "Twilight" spoof that I've seen, but it's got a Mormon twist. I thought it was hilarious.

This one is an old favorite that I'd forgotten about. This is a must see if you're a Napoleon Dynamite fan.

This last one is a funny story. I think they explain it pretty well in the video. They have some "Mormon Facts" wrong in the song, but I think they meant it in good taste.

Adam & Susannah

I was really excited to pick Adam and Susannah up at the airport. They flew into Houston on Friday to spend the holidays here in Texas. We stayed in the Houston area Friday night and left for San Angelo on Saturday. I thought I'd post about our stuff before San Angelo first.

Kim met them at the airport because of a little flight issue, but we're glad they got to see each other. We next met Abraham to chat for a little bit. It was like old times!

We then went up to the Chappell's house. They fed us dinner, then we had a few people over to relax and visit. It was a fun night as always!

On our way to San Angelo, we stopped in Marble Falls to have dinner with Adam's brother Jared and Jared's roommate Nate.

Here are the Warr boys. I really don't think they look that much alike.

Jared and Nate love to do the lipless look, so we took a quick picture. They are funny guys.