Recent Pics

The kids like to wear their sunglasses at night and Kyle apparently in the buff as well...

With the recent snowfall the kids were out playing in the snow

Here they are getting up close and personal with the snowman we built.

And poor Shelby has been quite sick these past 10 days. She hasn't been this sick probably in the last 10 years, but she seems finally on the mend. Here is a picture of her about 3 weeks ago before she headed out for wacky bowling with the youth she leads at church.

Guys Weekend in Vegas

Last Friday afternoon, my friend Ray and I headed to Las Vegas for the weekend. We had been talking about doing a guys trip a little while and this weekend also worked as it was Ray's birthday on Sunday.
We arrived just after 6pm and made our way to our hotel, The Excalibur, the one that looks like a Disneyland castle. We checked in and headed out for dinner. We found a great Mexican restaurant and then made our way down the famous 'Strip'. We both enjoy photography, so we would try to photograph interesting things along the way and check out the various hotels. If you have been to Vegas before you know you usually end up doing a lot of walking, I wish I would have kept track of how far we walked, my legs were pretty sore by the end of our trip.

On Friday night we turned in relatively early, at 1am, as we had both been up early that day. On Saturday morning we woke up at 9am and headed out for the day to the parts on the Strip we had not made it to the night before. We continued to take photos and tried our hand at gambling, we are in Vegas after all. We aren't big gamblers, so the quarter slots seemed to be a good start. I put $5 in and on my 3 spin I won $50! I used my 'winnings' to fund further wagering and am happy to say I came home with overall winnings of $42. I can't say my friend Ray was as successful, but we had fun.

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On Saturday night we went to the Blue Man Group show, we bought discount tickets that day and ended up getting great seats. The show was entertaining and we ended getting a photo with one of the Blue Men. The show ended near midnight and at the stroke of midnight Ray began another year of his life. We had a goal to stay up till 3am which we made(we're getting older so it's not as easy as it once was:-)

After another 9am wake up, we went to the Stratosphere to to see the view of Vegas from above. On Saturday there was thin cloud all day with a temperature of about 12C and Sunday it was blue sky and and fairly warm at 16C, which is a lot more comfortable than the 42C Shelby and I had last June.

Last time I was in Vegas I took this ride at the top of the Stratosphere around midnight and the pictures of me didn't really turn out, so you can imagine me on this ride and yes it is pretty scary.

I think we packed in as much as we could in a weekend and had a great time. We eventually landed back in Bellingham at midnight on Sunday night and life resumed as normal Monday morning.

Bully

So tonight I took the kiddos to McDonald's so affectionately known as "bump bump fries" in our household. Anyways, I didn't see this all happen but I guess as Aaron was sliding down the slide some big kid kicked him from behind. Aaron came down the slide and straight to me crying and telling me about the big kid. I told him that is was probably was an accident (althought I don't really think it was ) but he could say please don't kick me. So Aaron was now on a mission with his posse (Kyle, Lexi and Madi). He was going to find that big kid. I didn't really think much of it because I thought he would just go up to him and say please don't kick me. WELL, I guess it didn't happen like that.
Next thing I know these 2 big kids come down the slide and proceed to tell me that my son called them a baby. AND apparently he punched one of them in the crotch. OOPS. I think where he got him was pure coincidence as these kids were like 10 years old and the kid's crotch was probably at punching height for Aaron. So now I called Aaron down and we had to figure out the situation and he had to apologize. The thing with all of this is that those kids definately were NOT innocent parties in this whole thing and their parents were nowhere in sight but Aaron definately came out looking like a bit of a bully. Gotta laugh though.

Bath Time

Last night the kids had a bubble bath and I put the jets on to foam it up a bit. Kyle was a bit nervous when the jets came on, but got used to it.
Here are some pictures.

And apparently this is how much Kleenex Kyle needs to blow his nose....

Christmas on Vancouver Island

I'm a little behind in getting this post out, but here it is.

After Victoria we headed up to Courtenay for 4.5 days. The weather was great on Christmas Eve, in the afternoon I went out for a bit to take pictures. I found this memorial to 2 pilots that were killed at the Air Force base a few years ago. They planted a tree as a memorial and some people decorated it for Christmas.




The kids hanging out with Bubba.



In the afternoon we went to a school playground for the kids, but Grandma and Bubba were getting into the fun too.









Here is a shot where I am trying to be artistic with ice.


We found this present under the tree.


On Christmas morning the real presents mysteriously appeared


The kids opened their stocking and their present from Santa then they could play until Auntie and Unc showed up.







Here is Kyle showing off his construction set


After naps Auntie and Unc Unc came and the presents began to be opened.
Kyle really enjoyed the digital camera the kids were given.




Auntie and Unc Unc make sure our kids have all the latest Canucks memorabilia.





The family picture before we dug into a yummy turkey dinner.


On Boxing Day, Jamie and went to Mount Washington to do some snowboarding. We had a beautiful day and by the end of the day we were both pretty tired. Good times.






On the 27th we went home and on the 28th we went to Hemlock for a night. On Saturday, the 28th, I took Aaron skiing, but after 4 runs Aaron had had enough. I am trying to get him actually skiing instead me holding him and so he tires out faster. In the afternoon I snowboarded with my cousin who was doing really well as it was only his second day snowboarding.
We spent New Year with friends from church in Aldergrove, we had a good time playing games and chatting about our most embarassing moments. I didn't take any pictures though.
So now herewe are in 2008, Happy New Year everyone!