January 10, 11, 12, 13, 2011, Monday - Thursday - Monday school was canceled because the weatherman was calling for lots of snow. Well, no snow all day until about 2:30pm it started coming. No school Tuesday & no school Wed. They were on a 2 hour delay Thursday. And Friday back to normal. What a crazy week.
We went sledding Tuesday in the morning. It was super fun! We could start two houses up and sled all the way to the stop sign. Tuesday night the kids went sledding with daddy.
Tuesday night

Livin' on a Boat

January 8 & 9, 2011, Saturday & Sunday - My brother graduated from Officer Candidate School with the United States Coast Guard Dec. 2010. He has been living on a 34 ft sailboat ever since. Well, we were finally able to get away and go visit him and see his "place". After 4 1/2 hours on the road when we arrived we were not able to see Cameron. He had to inspect a foreign ship in the morning & was expected to be done by noon. Well, they found something on the ship that was possible going to be a major violation...so things drug out. 4 more hours later Cameron was finally able to enjoy his Saturday with us. We met him at his boat & he gave us a tour. Oh, I forget to mention it snowed like crazy when we were eating lunch. It was like we were inside a snow globe. We had never seen snow like that before. It was little round balls, just coming down like crazy.
We got on Cameron's boat. Pretty neat to finally see it after hearing stories from the other relatives that had visited him. He had a heater on and it was 57 degrees inside. Boy, it was cold. We kept our jackets on. Visited for a little while and then headed out to find the hotel. The dock was wet from the snow when we went to the boat.....when we came out it had turned a little icy. We had to be careful walking. There are no railings on the dock. You slip and boom, you are in the harbor. No thanks!
Enjoyed hanging out at the hotel and taking the kids swimming. Had Papa John's for supper & got a good night's rest.
Enjoyed a lovely continental breakfast in the morning. Then we drove through downtown Portsmouth. Took pictures in front of the harbor and said our good byes. Thanks for a great weekend, bro!
This is the USS New York. It was commissioned on Nov. 2, 2009. It is made from 7.5 tons of World Trade Center Steel. "We're very proud that the twisted steel from the World Trade Center towers will soon be used to forge an even strong national defense," said New York Gov. George Pataki. "The USS New York will soon be defending freedom and combating terrorism around the globe, while also ensuring that the world never forgets the evil attacks of September 11, 2001 and the courage and strength New Yorkers showed in response to terror."
The ship’s official motto is “Never Forget”. Pretty awesome that we got to see this ship right across from where Cameron "lives in a boat".

Enjoying the Snow

December 26, 2010, Sunday - Church was canceled for today. Major snow yesterday & roads are covered. We enjoyed playing in the white, fluffy stuff. Chad decided to make a huge snowman & started making the first ball. He rolled it from the front yard to the back yard & back to the front...it was big. That determined how the rest of it would look. To get the middle ball on we had to use a wide board & roll the ball up....man, was it heavy. It broke the board. Haha! After using some strong muscles we got the head on. Brittany & Nathan helped from the ladder with the real carrot nose, coal eyes & Packer winter hat. Our Packer Snowman turned out to be 7'10". Enjoy the pictures, we had a blast!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

December 25, 2010, Saturday - Merry Christmas, Everyone! Happy Birthday, Jesus! The kids actually slept until 8am, I grabbed the camera & video camera & then let the kids come downstairs to see if Santa had visited in the night. We tracked his movement last night via NORAD. He was getting close, he was in Canada & the kids had to go straight to bed.
Santa did visit and brought the kids what they had wanted. They also got some goodies in their stockings hung by the fireplace. We had fresh baked cinnamon rolls & enjoyed the morning. Then I started making the sweet potato casserole & getting things ready for a yummy Christmas lunch. Mom, Dad, Cameron and Grandma arrived at 11:40am. We had the table set & sat down to a delicious meal with ham, corn, sweet potato, pistachio salad, raw veggies, & rolls. For dessert we had homemade Chocolate Pecan Pie made by mom, peanut butter balls, peppermint Oreo cookies, & coconut sweets. Yum, Yum!
Then we spent the afternoon opening presents, were entertained by the kids and their puppet play & played the Wii.
What even made the day super special was the snow that started to fall at 1pm while we were at the dinner table. It kept coming down during the day and did not stop. It eventually started to stick to the ground and by night time the kids were able to build forts & have a snowball fight! A white Christmas! What a special day!

Christmas Castle

December 21, 2010, Tuesday - After supper tonight we headed to the Christmas Castle (Castle McCulloch). It is pretty neat that in our area we have a castle. Built in 1832. At Christmas time they decorate the property and castle with lights and have a walking trail with stations with live people either singing, dancing, ice skating, or telling a story. Mom and Dad met us there to share in this wonderful Christmas event. The kids got to meet Santa & tell them what they wanted this year. It was a fun evening.