A Scrap of Life

One December 26, we left the post-Christmas mess of our house and hit the road for a short but much-anticipated trip north to see my little brother, Jimmy, who had recently returned from deployment, and his wonderful wife and kiddos.  It's about a 4 hour drive from our house and we had stops to make on the way, so we got up and going. I do have to admit making a few extra stops on the way, at both Wal-Mart and Target.  I'm a deal shopper so those day-after-Christmas deals were just calling my name.  Plus I had a HUGE rotary cutting mat to exchange (apparently "large" at my store is only "medium" at theirs. It took a roll of wrapping paper to wrap it, it was so huge. LOL).  Oh, and we made a quick stop at Nipps on the way through Longview, so the kids could taste the best burgers ever! That taken care of, we hit the road.  Our first stop on the way up was in Lakewood, Washington.  In 2009, 4 police officers were killed in a coffee shop and we w...

Well, it's time for another catch-up post.  Christmas has come and gone and I wanted to share just a little of our season.  Here's the kids putting up their Santa sign in the front yard.  I'm not sure how much longer this sign will last, as each year it gets smashed up just a little more than it was the year before.  We've had it for 10 Christmas' now and it's definitely showing it.  At least for this year, it still made the traditional posting in the front yard.   And just because I feel like the kids have grown soooooo much this year, I wanted to compare this to a similar photo from a previous year.  The earliest one I could find on here was from 2007, though I know we have them every year since at least 2001.  Anyways, 2007 was just 4 years ago but look at the difference.  And keep in mind that we put a new, longer stick on the sign a few years ago. Aaaahhhh... Christmas Eve.  Here they are before opening the tradit...

Brian's parents got us a zoo membership last Christmas and purchased the upgraded version, which comes with tickets to ZooLights.  We hadn't been to ZooLights since the kids were really tiny.  I remember strollers and babies, so it was a really long time ago.  Now that we had free tickets I thought it was time to visited again. I did my research and visited the zoo website for information.  The website said that the parking lot usually fills up by 5:30pm on busy nights.  We were going a Thursday night, so I wasn't worried about it being too busy.  We left the house at 4:15, figuring we'd be at the zoo by 5:00.  Well, by the time we reached the zoo at 5:09, the parking lot was closed and full.  Oh joy.  We looked for a spot anyways, but it was 20 minutes wasted wandering around those lots.  We finally went to the alternate parking a mile away and found a spot, then waited in line for the bus.  By the time we finally got to the gate...

Yes, I've been absent from my blog for some time now.  There are many excuses but it really comes down to life getting in the way.  The blog just isn't my priority when I've got all those other things going on, but I'm going to keep plugging away at it, even if it's more sporadic than I'd like. The big news, for me at least, is that I got a new computer!  My old one kept crashing on me and one day it just ceased to work.  Thank goodness for my good friend Melinda and her husband, who suggested getting a hard drive with a daily backup.  I am so thankful for that backup!  The only thing I lost in the crash was my email contacts, and that I can live with. Here's the other big news... That is Chase with his new drivers permit!  He's pretty excited about it.  I, on the other hand, drove with him yesterday for the first time and am less excited about it.  Teaching a kid to drive is scary!  Here's hoping I love through it all! LOL

In our house you stop getting Halloween costumes once you reach middle school, after which you need to use your own ingenuity to make a costume from what we have.  Tristan did just that, using his clothes and assorted props (with the help of an old t-shirt, which I cut and sewed into his little hat) and became Shadow Link.  Some sort of Legend of Zelda character... don't ask me for more information because I have no idea! You may remember seeing similar photos of him, only in green, last spring on the blog, when he dressed up as original Link for character day at school. Chase had some friends stop by so he decided to throw on a quick outfit and head out with them.  I have no photographic proof of it, but he went as Shadow... I think another Legend of Zelda character.  Yes, it's popular in our house right now. With Tristan's advent to middle school, we had only one costume to buy this year.  Carissa decided early on that she wanted to be Red Riding ...

... these two get along.  It doesn't last very long... in another breath it's all over and they are annoying each other once again.

Oh yes, it has arrived. Much to soon for my tastes, but what do you do? We took advantage of the unseasonable nice fall days last week and took a trip to the local pumpkin patch, Bernet Farms. We walked the fields for a while before choosing pumpkins, then looked at the animals and headed on our way.   On the way out of the patch I really fell in love with the light and just plopped the kids down and started shooting.  (Tristan's "I'm a gangsta" pose. LOL)