Christmas Overload

Well, it happens every Christmas! We can't resist letting our true colors show! We're really sort of a goofy family under that mild-mannered exterior, but we manage to have a lot of fun despite a crazy-busy schedule. The kids love this tradition, and every year we have to come up with another silly pose for the holidays. Stay tuned for next year's photo!

Waddle, Waddle

Becky's work celebrated Christmas with a chilly trip to the Antarctic this year. We decided the best idea was to dress like the natives. :) Actually, it was a fun evening, loads of visiting with friends and coworkers, yummy food, and a chance to take penguin family photos.

Clint - The Celebrity

Today Clint had to help out at a college career fair, which is something he normally enjoys. His table is all set up with cool imaging information. He was surprised when another colleague from the hospital pulled out his display. It was another version of the billboard with his smiling, reassuring face splattered on it. He is still on the billboard near Safeway, in ads by the baggage area at the airport, in the promo spots at the movie theater, and in local magazine ads. Thankfully, he is still managing to maintain his pre-celebrity charm. Now, if you'd like an autograph, just give us a call!

Ben's Camping Party

Clint was up to his usual cake genius preparing for Ben's 9th birthday party. He created a camping cake with pine trees, a river, tent, campfire and logs. A delight to look at it, but even better to eat it!

Mt. Rushmore

What a blast to go to Mt. Rushmore with our kids! So many great adventures already on our trip. We explored by groups, so Sarah was with a group of girls and Clint was with his boys. Ben and I quickly worked on earning his Jr. Ranger badge. It was fun when we would run into each other. Everyone is easy to spot in these yellow shirts! We enjoyed looking at all of the interesting displays and videos. Ben tried to sketch the view in his sketchbook.

They didn't give us enough time, so we raced through the gift shop, grabbed some group photos and ice cream, and cruised on our way.

Devil's Tower National Monument

This was the first time for our whole family to see Devil's Tower National Monument. We camped right outside of the park, and enjoyed gorgeous weather. We're enjoying our cooking crew and appreciating the well planned meals. They arrived ahead of us and had our food ready for us last night.

Ben and I slept in our own tent and were quite comfy. Sarah was squeezed into a tent with a pile of girls. Clint benefited from having teen boys who could quickly get their tent up and down. In the morning we heading up for a quick hike around the tower. It was more grand than I imagined. We enjoyed reading about a lot of the legends surrounding the history of the tower. Today we go to South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore.

Oshkosh or Bust!

No turning back now! After more than a year of fund-raising, and months of preparations, we're off. We loaded Sarah on the Pathfinder bus, put the rest of us in our van (along with way too much luggage and stuff), and headed off to the big International Pathfinder Camporee in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It will be a long road trip, but with lots of great stops on the way and alot of excited kids on board.

First stop was at an Academy where we have an inside connection - Mt. Ellis! Got to stay with the boys at their house instead of on the gym floor, and were treated to yummy, only in Montana, crepes for breakfast.

More Hat Rock Adventures

Couldn't believe it when we ran into some more family friends at the park! Kristian's family and some of Sarah's Pathfinder friends met up with us for geocaching, eating, and swimming. There was a nice pool by the camping area.

To top off the day, we were glad to help devour some smores! Yummy...

Kayaks at Hat Rock

On a sunny, Sabbath afternoon, we couldn't resist the opportunity to catch up with Cliff, Jan and Ethan at Hat Rock. We have never been there before, and were thankful for the opportunity to check out the park, relax with friends, play in the water and enjoy supper together. They were kind enough to let us try out the kayak too!

Geocaching #150

We couldn't pass up a chance to head to the park today, enjoy a picnic with friends from church, and then head up a hill to find a geocache we haven't found before! It took us on a trail we haven't explored before, and then turned off the main pathway. We were brave to fight through the long grass and surprising heat to reach the top of the hill. Ben was the spotter of the cache!

The view was terrific and we left with a great feeling of satisfaction after finding our 150th geocache!

Pathfinder Rally

Today was the regional Pathfinder Rally. Clint was working in his role as teen boys counselor and Sarah was busy with all the programs and activities. Becky volunteered in the kitchen to help with the spaghetti lunch and hot dog supper, and Ben was a kitchen helper too!

Their afternoon activity was to put together flower arrangements and deliver them to locations around town. Sarah went with a group to a retirement home. We continue to be inspired by the Pathfinder leaders, counselors, and kids in our region. We're so thankful Sarah has this opportunity.

They ended the day with roller skating and swimming. How do they do it all?

Ice Skating Night

We enjoyed a night of ice skating with a lot of our church families tonight. Becky was in charge of the outing, and we were delighted to see so many smiling faces out on the ice.

Sarah and Ben have really improved their skating, and it was a treat to skate with so many friends. Clint was the designated skating photographer. We'll definitely plan this again next year.

Ski Day

Today Clint took the kids for a ski day. They took a refresher class since they had only skiied once before last year, so Clint got some snowboarding time in the morning.

After lunch they braved the COLD and decided to try going on the big ski lift for the first time ever. Ben said it was scary on the lift, but Clint reported both kids did a great job and had a lot of fun. They met up with Ben's friend, Kristen, and skiied with them a couple of times. The snow was great, the skies were blue, but the temps were bitter cold.

Happy New Year!

We spent the last night of 2008 with Charmaine's family, which has been the tradition for the last several years. We eat, play games and ring in the new year together. Well, technically we toot our horns at 9:00 p.m. which is the new year in Boston. :) This way Felix is still able to wake up for work in the morning!

Tonight we played a new game for us called "In a Pickle," which was a fun word game to stretch our brains. We made a lot of noise and then said goodbye for the last time in 2008. See you next year...

Disneyland Day

We surprised the kids today with a trip to Disneyland. They had never been there before, and have often talked about how much fun it would be to go. We were not disappointed! The weather seemed questionable with predictions of much rain, but we just tucked an umbrella in our backpack and went anyway. The rain ended up discouraging a lot of people, and we spent the first half of our day breezing through lots of rides with no lines! It would have been fun if some California friends or family could have joined us, but maybe we can work it out next time. The park and the characters were decorated for Christmas.

One of our first stops was a sidewalk show in front of the Golden Horseshoe, and they pulled Clint from the audience to be part of the performance. He had to repeatedly yell out, "Ba Humbug!" He was a natural and we were so proud. We later enjoyed one show with some hilarious bluegrass performers.

There were lots of new rides since Clint and Becky were last there (more than 10 years ago). Some favorites were the Pooh ride in the Hundred Acre Woods, the jungle boat ride, It's a Small World (Christmas style), the parade, Dumbo's ride, and teacups. We probably should've skipped the Matterhorn and the monorail. Nemo's ride wasn't really worth the long line.


We have been collecting the smashed pennies on our travels for about a year, so we added to our collection with several neat coins here. We missed the princesses despite our plans to see them, but managed to squeeze in some yummy giant ice cream cones. It was certainly beautiful with all the Christmas decorations. There were several opportunities for "snow" to fall on us. Sarah couldn't get over how pretty the castle was with all the lights, and everything was so "enchanting."

Disneyland was so much fun we could hardly break away! We slapped a set of mouse ears on each kid and headed out, wishing for just a little more time. It was pretty close to midnight when we made our way to the car. It would have been nice if we could have just let a magical elephant fly us back home!

Over the River and Through the Woods...

To Grandmother's house we go! We're off on our Thanksgiving adventure starting at Clint's mom's house. We arrived late last night, and made it to most of Sabbath School and church.

Then we came back to her home for the first of our Thanksgiving celebrations on this vacation. We had more food than we could eat (of course) and enjoyed some of the new recipes she tried. It is a challenge to make a vegetarian Thanksgiving without nuts out of consideration for Ben's allergies, but she really pulled out all the stops.

After lunch, we were so stuffed we needed to have some activity, so we went geocaching! What a surprise, I know. Anyway, we had some fun with searching for caches in her town and went to a park in town which was a blast for the kids.

Tomorrow we leave her and drive to the airport to catch a plane to Vegas for the next phase of our Thanksgiving adventure. Thanks to Grammie for a wonderful weekend!

Thoughts on Unicycles

Unicycles just have one wheel.

I'm noticing the teenage boys seem crazy about them.

The teenage girls seem crazy about the boys riding them.

Clint sometimes releases the teenager hiding inside.

Clint was able to ride a unicycle when I first knew him in Academy.

He says he has to do it because his Pathfinder boys are doing it.

There was a Unicycle Honor being offered at the retreat.

Somehow Clint's name showed up on the list to take this honor.

Maybe I should keep Sarah away from boys on unicycles?

Will Clint be the next one-wheel wonder? He's pretty good for not riding in a few years.

If the X-ray tech breaks a bone, who will take the X-ray?

Too many thoughts about unicycles?

Let us know if you feel a sudden desire to ride a unicycle after watching this video!

Pathfinder Leadership

Well, when we signed up for this Pathfinder Leadership weekend, we were anticipating some relaxing in such a lovely setting away from kids. We did enjoy some time to talk in the van on the way here. Once we arrived and saw the schedule, we were a bit surprised to learn that we would barely have a moment to ourselves.

We had meetings from early in the morning (before breakfast) and into the evening. We are on slightly different meeting "tracks," but most of our meetings overlap. I'm working on an Adventurer track and Clint is getting his counselor training for Pathfinders. The good news was every meeting was really great and I am so thankful to have had this opportunity. The whole weekend has been well planned and executed. Since this is my first time here, I have to be careful to get to the right building at the right time. The other attendees have been great as well.

Our banquet tonight was optional for outfits - past, future or heavenly Pathfinders. We were thinking of a few ideas, but didn't have anything worked out when some friends learned they were unable to come. They passed along their WONDERFUL heavenly outfits so they would get used. We had to work on placing the patches on the sashes, and a bit of pinning, but otherwise it was very easy. We couldn't say no, and we had fun going as heavenly Pathfinders. We ended up winning a prize! The photos are all a bit dark, but hopefully you get the idea.

There were some very creative outfits - a caveman Pathfinder, a Native American Pathfinder, and several in old uniforms from parents or grandparents. Our friend, Felix, wore his uniform from when he was in Malaysia which was a great blue color.

After the banquet, we changed and met back for some free time. It was late, but we agreed to play one or two quick games of Boggle. We pulled out other games but didn't see anyone else interested, so agreed to just play each other. After a moment, a few people joined so we played some more. I think we had more than 10 people at the Boggle table for one game. It was crazy! We kept playing "one more" until we were really tired and called it quits. It was a nice break after so many meetings.