BEWARE! We Are All Connected

My sister in Alaska called me and asked me if I knew someone name Cajsa. I told her that I did and that we were mission buddies. I asked her how she knew her, and this is the story...

My sister in Alaska has a friend (we'll call her Vikki) in Alaska who has a blog. Vikki was playing on her blog and found a friend's blog (Cajsa's sister). While she was looking at Cajsa's sister's blog, she found a link to Cajsa's blog. Cajsa & Vikki grew up together, and although Vikki is the age of Cajsa's sister, she and Cajsa were pretty good friends.

Well, while Vikki was looking at Cajsa's blog she saw a link on the side to a friend "Dawn Dodge Asay." She clicked on the link and ended up at my blog. Vikki knew that my sister in Alaska's maiden name is Dodge, so she asked my sister if she had a sister named Dawn, and as it goes... she does.

Just Plain Fun!

A White Christmas

So, on Christmas day we went northern Wisconsin to spend some time with some friends. They have a cabin there, and we had a blast. The cabin is right on a lake, which was frozen, and it was beautiful! I think what Brett is trying to say is that it is aw-aw-aw-awesome. You just couldn't hear the last part of it.

Here is a picture of the cabin. I am standing with my back to the lake. On the right, there is the front door, it is light blue. As you enter, there are stairs to the right which go up to the loft (5 or so twin beds up there - the girls slept there with their 2 girls) and stairs that go down to the basement (all of the bottom windows). The bottom windows are all a family room with a ping pong table - there were always tournaments going on, and the mom of the family is the reining champion. Also downstairs there is a guest bedroom with a full bed and a bunk room with two bunk beds (4 twins), and a bathroom. The boys slept in the bunk room with our friends' son. The windows in the front are in the great room. There is a living room, a dining area and a kitchen. In the back of the house is a master bedroom and a bathroom. It was a blast.

Here is Caleb. He wore my boots and used my skis (about 4 sizes too big for him), but he really enjoyed it and did well.

We were able to rent cross country skis, and we went to a candy shop. The thing that was the nicest was the fact that we were able to relax. Not a lot going on, just eating, sleeping, building fires, and playing. Here is Claire on the man-made mountain.

Here we are playing outside. Brett dug a swimming pool on top of the ice, and the children decided to drink it (after he did of course). This is Eli having a drink of ICE WATER.

We also made a snow cave. There was a tunnel through it, and here is Emily inside. They were trying to get it large enough to ride the tubes through it.

Here is Brett rescuing tired children. This little one (Claire's age) wore some sweepers, they were like skis, way out with her father. Brett skied out to them and took off the skis and gave them to her dad. He mom took the sweepers and Brett took the little one. Brett came back, and our friends took off toward the middle of the lake.

We had a wonderful time playing outside. The weather cooperated, it was right around 32 degrees with little to no wind. I think we even go some sun burns.

The Case of the Missing Coat

On the first really cold Sunday this year Brett asked if I knew where his coat was. I went out and looked in the front closet. This is where we hung them last winter. My coat was there and his was not. I continued to look in all of the closets in the house. All I could find was an old coat.

I asked him if it was in the closet at work. He mocked me and said, "I don't leave my coat at work." So, he put on his old one and went to church.

At church I asked the custodian if she saw a men's overcoat in the spring. She hadn't seen one. The only coat she could remember was a women's wool coat - NOT BRETT'S. We were a little troubled.

Monday rolls around, and Brett heads off to work. Shortly after he left home, I got a call. "I found my coat. It was in the closet." He had the brand and the size, and it even had his leather gloves in the pockets. He then asks me how long I think it has been there. My reply was, "Probably nine months - since the last time it snowed."

He hasn't had to wear suits to work since May, and the weather was nice. We are glad that it was there and we don't have to replace it.

Sun Dogs

The other day I was driving to preschool and saw the most amazing sun dogs. I had the preschool camera with me, so I pulled over to the side of the road a took a couple of pictures. I didn't get a picture with both of them. There was one on each side of the sun.

Then on Sunday, we went out and shoveled people out. On our way from one stop to the next, we saw some more sun dogs. Then on our way home, the sun was setting and the colors in the sky were beautiful - no camera though.

Super at Seven

Emily counted down the days until her birthday. It wouldn't have been so bad, but she started when we returned from Las Vegas. She also watched the mail for birthday cards. She knew that grandma would send her one. Grandpa Holt came through with the first card, and it made her month. She was very excited to get it, and he wrote her name on the front of it. It really liked that. Grandma's card made it the day after, and that was exciting, too.

Emily got her ears pierced when she was in Las Vegas so there wasn't any big presents on the day of her birthday. The morning before, she asked me if she was going to get a new outfit to wear to school like she did last year. So, I went out and got her one. She also got a gingerbread house (I think the last three years we have decorated gingerbread houses about the time of her birthday), a birthday barbie, and a book.

The children only get birthday parties every other year, so on the odd years they get to go to dinner with mom and/or dad and a friend. Emily wanted to go to Larry's place (Larry was a neighbor and the manager of a restaurant called Perkins). While we were there we got a peanut butter silk pie. The friend that she invited was called at the very last minute (20 minutes before we were picking him up), and he was able to make it. It was a fun time and a great birthday.

Brrrrrrrrr!

So I woke up a little early today and decided to check the weather. The high today is set for -7 and the low for -12. We are at -7 right now with a wind chill of -30. Lucky us.

Time to bundle up.

Wouldn't this be Magical?

It was Magical

On our vacation, we woke up on Monday morning and went to Disneyland. We got there about 8:00 a.m. and the adventures began. Of course we had to get our picture taken by the front entry way. Then we were on our way.

The first place we went was Fantasyland. The place was beautiful. It was decorated for Christmas, so there were lights and ornaments on all the buildings and trees. We were literally transported.

We went right to Fantasyland because Claire wanted to go on the tea cups. We didn't even have to wait in line for this ride. It was beautiful. The girls really wanted to spin, so I spun them fast (it's a good thing I've been to watch several dance classes and I learned the concept of spotting - I didn't even get dizzy). Caleb and Eli got in a cup together and they were spinning really fast, too.

We went on several other rides while we were there, and then we got on the train. We rode all around Disneyland. We got in trouble for eating - oops. Grandma had packed peanutbutter and jelly sandwhiches for us to snack on, and we were munching on the train. We had to ride it in a complete loop, because we didn't want to miss anything in Fantasyland. When we returned, there was a time to dance with the princesses.

Caleb got really close without even knowing it. He decided that if we were going to be in the pavilion, he would make the best of it. We went to It's a Small World and the Matterhorn (I liked these). Small World was decorated for Christmas.

After Fantasyland we went to Tomorrowland. We went on Space Mountain - not my favorite ride. Eli liked it and wanted to do it again, but we never made it back. After we got in our "spaceship" for the ride, we were getting ready to "take-off" and we had to take a detour. We were taken behind a curtain off to the side where we were told that our spaceship was out of jet fuel. We had to climb out and then walk through one of the control rooms and get into another "spaceship." It was an interresting experience.

We went to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, and it is a 3D interactive movie. FUN!

We went to Critter Country and hit Splash Mountain, or should I say it hit us? Some of our group got wet, Caleb's shoes got soaked, but I got the prize for being drenched. It was pretty funny. I was in the front of a log with Caleb right behind me and the rest of the people in out log were adult women. We were heavy and made a BIG SPLASH!

There was one ride on Moday that Claire couldn't do - It was Indiana Jones. She wasn't quite tall enough. She got to go on the Jungle Cruise with grandma and grandpa instead. Later than night, we were going to try going on the ride again, and I was going to try to sneak Claire on, but my children were too honest - they wouldn't allow it.

We kind of ended out day between New Orlean's Square and Frontierland.

We saw the parade on main street and I had to get a picture of the gingerbread man because Claire is a gingerbread cookie in the nutcracker.

One of the reindeer came over to where the children were sitting and gave Claire a high five.

I think Brett's favorite part of the parade was Santa's helpers. Enough said.

We saw Fantasmic, and we saw the fireworks. Somewhere in there we ate lunch and dinner. The kiddos were troopers, and the girls were falling asleep while we were holding them.

O.K., I was a little worried about losing one of the children. You hear horror stories about that, so I tatooed my children. I pulled out a pen and wrote my cell phone number on their arms. I told them if they got lost to tell the person helping them to call the number on their arm.

We did random checks to make sure it didn't wash off.

At the end of the day, we walked through the parking lot, crossed the street, and went to be at the hotel, only to anticipate another day of adventure.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Here is a clip of Caleb dancing.