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Olympic Torch Relay

With only a few days to go till the Olympics are here, the torch relay came through Langley. Aaron's whole school went out to Aldergrove to line the streets and watch the Olympic torch go by.

They were all dressed in red ponchos to "Paint the town red'

Shelby and Kyle came out to watch the festivities as well.

And Grandma and Grandpa too...

And this is what they saw as the torch came by...

So let the Games begin!

Skiing at Hemlock

Between Christmas and New Year we went up to Hemlock for a night. It snowed most of the time we were there. The boys went out tobogganing and skiing. This was Kyle's first time skiing, so he was quite excited about this!

Getting ready...

Time for skiing! Kyle mostly skiied between my legs but we let him try a bit on his own.

After a little while they got tired so they went to the lodge for a bite to eat.

Aaron is now doing quite well at skiing, he can get on the tow rope and ski down on his own.

Here is a little video of Kyle's first day skiing

Kyle on his sled

The boys hanging out after tobogganing

So it was nice to get up to Hemlock again, hopefully we are able to go again sometime this winter.

The Christmases

This year we had 2 Christmases at both grandparents houses. The first one was at my parents a few days before Christmas. We had a nice dinner and then we went out to see the lights in the rain and when came back the presents arrived!

Before we open the presents we sing carols and read the Christmas story

Transformers and Star Wars were a main them for the boys at Christmas.

Kyle made us this Christmas card in his pre school

Aaron also received an original Optimus Prime and Kyle got a large Bumblebee transformer that takes an engineering degree to put together or trying to decipher the instructions!
I have a few other pictures from the night, but it's basically different family members opening presents. It was a fun night and then next day felt like Boxing Day, except I had to go to work:-(

On Christmas Eve morning we headed to Vancouver Island along with Jamie and Sara to visit Shelby's parents. When we arrived the many food goodies awaited us as well!

Later that night the kids got a special visitor at the door! Aaron's reaction to seeing Santa walk down the driveway was priceless. I was taking video of the event while Sara was taking some photos. She also made this photo storyboard of the visit.

Even later in the evening...

all the rest of the stockings and presents arrived!

The boys promptly woke up a 7am and then the rest of us slowly trickled out of bed.
Aaron got a guitar and starts lessons next week, so we will see how does with that.

Kyle got the portable video game for kids call Leapster. Both Aaron and Kyle enjoy playing the games on it(Do we have video game junkies?)

Aaron got the largest Millenium Falcon I have ever seen, so big he can barely lift it!

The boys hanging out with Auntie

Canada hats from the grandparents

A view of the aftermath

I have say I love my heated towel rack I got from Shelby, thanks dear!

The weather was nice while we there, so playing outside was a good option with the dogs...

and with the newly acquired Lightsabers

Family picture time!

Dog family picture time!

Grandpa, 3 dogs and a boy playing his video game...

Where Shelby's parents live they have quite an open backyard, so I tried a few experimental night shots... this is their neighbours house.

and this is a 20 minute exposure looking towards the east. It was actually almost pitch black outside, so I was surprised to see so much detail in the trees and in the mountains.

On Boxing Day Sara, Jamie, Shelby and I went to Campbell River to see if there were any deals. We found a few things and then we stopped by Elk Falls on the way back

Shelby's parent won 3rd prize for Christmas decorations in Sayward Valley. (They also joked that maybe only 3 houses entered:-)

The boys hanging out with Frosty

and one of the many Christmas balls hanging on the porch of the house.

So it was good to spend some time with Shelby's whole family over in Sayward. The kids got spoiled, but what's new?


Now Christmas is over for another year!

The Wise Man

Well its 2010 now and the kids are back in school and a more regular routine. I have some blog posts to catch up on.

This was Kyle's Christmas concert at his pre-school. He played a wise man this year. The kids all looked nice in the costumes they had on.

Here are the 3 wise men...

and the proud king!

I plan on having more posts real soon...

Tree Time

Seemed that when the calendar turned to December the sun came out after our very wet November. With the sun came colder temperatures but to have sun for over a week straight has been very welcome!

Last Saturday we went out to get our tree. We met our friends Ray and Ginny there as they asked me to take some family pictures for them. So Shelby and the kids hunted for the tree while I took a some photos.

Here are the boys with the perfect tree!

Shelby chopped the tree down and they give the thumbs up!

The kids were very excited to decorate the tree this year and the boys showed me their favorite ornaments.

Here is Kyle being goofy again wearing his stocking...

and the tree skirt!...

and our little stocking stuffer!

Later in the evening was the annual Christmas night parade in Langley.
It was a bit cold and thankfully the parade only lasted about 20 minutes.

So now we are well into the season and the kids are quite excited for Christmas as they open their advent calendars each day and countdown to the big day, but they wish they didn't have to wait so long!