Hoar frost

Sunday we woke up to the most BEAUTIFUL hoar frost!! The conditions have to be just right to get hoar frost, so it was a real treat!

The frost was so thick! I've never seen it that thick!

While some of it had melted by the time we got home from church, our tree in the front gets a lot of shade, so I was able to take a few more pics before it melted away.

SO BEAUTIFUL!

Eugene!!

While Samantha was off practicing, we decided to have a little fun and explore Eugene. We ended up spending most of Friday on the University of Oregon campus.

It was a chilly morning and had to wait for 10 minutes before the museum opened so we decided to keep warm in the neighbouring law building, where I took a few pics of Elise.

We ate lunch at the cafeteria where the kids got the CHEESIEST grilled cheese sandwiches I have ever seen!!
Abby was excited! She called it a "double cheese"
We spent a couple hours at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, which was heavy into geology, but we also got to see the worlds oldest sandals (around 10,000 years old!). The kids were actually the first to try our their new hands on geology exhibit and meet the lady who had created the exhibit.

Staying up until 11:30pm the night before and waking up at 5:45 caught up to the kids around 2pm and they all had a quick snooze in the car


Refreshed about 20 min. later we took the kids to the art museum on campus.
The art museum was installing 2 exhibits (so the exhibit halls were closed), so we got a short version of the museum, but it filled our time nicely.
There was a LOT of Buddhist art and the children's area was all centered on Buddhism. Here are the kids coloring pictures of Buddha.
I saw these in the Museum store and LOVE them!! They are exactly the colors I want to do my kitchen in. Alas, they were a bit expensive, but great inspiration!!
Since we were at the University of tree huggers we figured... "when in Rome" and gave a hug to this HUGE tree.

After all the tree hugging we headed over to Samantha's concert which was enjoyed by all.

We stayed both nights at the Super 8 in Eugene and the best thing about staying in the hotel is hotel beds that mom doesn't care about!!

Once we were ready on Saturday morning we headed off to.....

THE MALL!!

This was the 2nd time we've been to a mall since we moved to Bend a year and a half ago (the last time was almost a year ago) Who knew it could be so exciting to go to the mall??

(Clearly not quite as exciting for Brad :D)

After our mall trip we head over to the ice rink to skate on some real ice, on a real ink and had hoped to get Brad some laces for his skates, but they were sold out!! We had a good time though, and we were able to get Samantha's skates sharpened too.

We headed home around 4pm and Ethan and Abby drove us nuts doing their various renditions of the following video...

Isn't that funny? Not so funny though when you're trapped in a car for over 2 hours with kids going crazy and repeating "Char-lay, Char-lay" over and over again!! :D

We survived though and got home safe and sound.

Such an honor

Last Thursday Samantha headed out to Eugene (2.5 hours west of Bend) with a friend around 9am to be there in time to begin practicing with the other 149 members of the Oregon Middle School Honor Band. It was really an honor to be chosen as one of the top 150 middle school band members in Oregon, and even more prestigious to have been selected one of the top 14 flutists.

The students rehearsed together for 10 hours in their 26 hours together (including an over-night stay at the Hilton.) Phew!

The result was a wonderful 30 min. concert

Here are a few samplings for you to enjoy:

Samantha said she was exhausted when it was all over, but that she had learned a lot and had a great experience. We are very proud of her and how hard she works on her music.

Queen Anne would be proud

One of our Enrichment groups is a "Needle craft" group. I learned a little knitting and it got me to pick up the old crochet hook again. I found this crochet pattern online called "Queen Anne's Lace" and made this scarf.

Anyone out there got some cute crochet patterns to share? It is SO addicting!

Queen Anne’s Lace Scarf:
I used 1 skein of Red Heart Super Saver in Shocking Pink and a size “J” hook
Chain 6 and join into a ring.
1: Chain 3,work 13 dc into ring. DO NOT JOIN! Chain 1,turn. Work a sc into next 2 dc. *Chain 4,sc in next 2 dc. Repeat from * five more times (6 loops). Chain 6,turn.
2: Slip stitch into the 1st free ch4 loop. Chain 3,turn. Work 13 dc into the ch6 loop. Slip stitch into the the 1st sc of the 1st motif,chain 1,turn. Sc in next 2 dc. *Chain 4,sc in next 2 dc. Repeat from * five more times (6 loops). Chain 6,turn.
3: Slip stitch in 1st free ch4 loop of adjoining motif,chain 3,turn. Work 13 dc into ch6 loop. Slip stitch in next free ch4 loop of adjoining motif,chain 1,turn. Sc in next 2 dc. *Chain 4,sc in next 2 dc. Repeat from * five more times (6 loops). Slip stitch into next free ch4 loop of adjoining motif. Chain 6,turn.
4:Repeat step 3 for desired scarf length. I worked a total of 50 motifs and got a 60 inch scarf. End off and weave in ends.
This pattern can be done with just about any yarn,but I wouldn’t recommend a boucle or textured yarn,as that would take away from the lacy effect.

More Christmas??

In case you haven't had enough of our Christmas photos Brad put together a cool montage... so check out the video.

Winter Wonderland

Brad made a little video of our Christmas vacation fun:

The day we went sledding Elise acutally got frost nip. The apples of her cheeks were white, so we sent her to the car. By the time I ran back to take a picture she had already defrosted a little but you can still see the remnants. It was strange as none us felt cold and Elise didn't even notice.

Happy 2009

Ethan and Abby loved getting ready for our New Year's Eve Party. The little ones were a great help making the decorations, putting toothpicks in appetizers, mixing punch etc.

They were SO excited for everyone to come!

At one point we had 24 people, but by midnight only 14 were left standing to bring in the new year.

Ethan was barely standing... he fell asleep around 10:30 and had to be awakened just before midnight so he wouldn't miss out on the big event, although he was too tired to really enjoy it anyway.

WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO MADE OUR 2008 SO WONDERFUL!!