Cakeballs

We've made a lot of them lately.

Christmas Recital

I had a Christmas recital for my one student last week. He did great. Rory and I also played songs. It was the best sort of recital. Very short.

The Hunt is on

We hunted our Christmas tree this weekend. This years hunt was much nicer and less grumpy than last years. First, there wasn't much snow and second, we didn't hike nearly so far in before we found The One.

As we were hiking along we both looked up and a beam of light descended on our tree and the angels sang. Seriously, that's how we found it.... ok maybe the singing was Rory but still! Amazing!

Dragging our kill out.

It took two tries but we got the tree on Sheila and tied it down.

Then we went hunting for tree limbs. I had this ingenious idea to make garlands for my windows. Har har.

Rory found this sweet frozen pond so we went ice skating.

And then we had a picnic at which I ate my sandwich ferociously.

On the way home we saw a huge herd of elk! We managed to not really get a decent picture of any of them but it was really cool. There really is an elk in this picture. It's right in the middle.

We got home and trimmed and decorated the tree.

I made my garland...

When we tried to put it over the windows all it would do was sag and fall off. Now it's gracing our piano. I didn't really want it on the window anyway. Stupid garland.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our holiday started out with a flat tire. Yay! Luckily it was at the end of our driveway so we weren't stranded in the middle of no where. Rory's pretty much a pro at changing tires now. He's done three this summer.

We got to go on the traditional quail hunt at Uncle Scott's.

We also got to play a lot of Twister. I think it's Rory's new favorite game.... probably because his strategy is to sit on people.

We taught the fam samurai attack too. Classic.

We didn't take any pictures of the feast but it was magnificent and I am a chubbier girl because of it. Today before we left we got to go to a wreath making seminar. Last year my wreath turned out sort of scraggly so I decided to go big or go home this year.... I went a little too big. I made a monster wreath. It weighs 10 lbs! Oops. Luckily it still fits in our door. Thanks Jolene for the fun!

This is Halloween

Well, we didn't dress up this year. Lame. But we did decorate our house. We made a funky gingerbread haunted house.

Put cobwebs all over (real spiders have moved in now.... I'm dreading taking them down.)

We carved pumpkins. Well, Rory did. I painted mine.

And we took pictures of kittens...actually this had nothing to do with Halloween. I just promised mom I'd take a picture of the blonde kitty so here it is. Happy Halloween!

Family Visit

Mom, Adam, and Ian came and visited us this past week. It was awesome and they need to come back! It's sad to not see them very often. We did tons of fun stuff. We slack lined, some of us more successfully than others.

We went to Bend and found this amazing little malt shop. We also went to Sisters and ate at a restaurant run by a Polish lady who kissed mom and Adam. What an adventure! And speaking of eating, we also ate at Kababas (which is middle eastern food). I felt like we were on an eating tour and I'm pretty sure I came home twenty pounds heavier.

We checked out Tumalo falls. It was falling. Ian thought it was pretty exciting I guess.

You can't come to Burns without going down the huge Hines Park slide. Even if it's raining and there's a huge puddle at the end. We made Ian go down first to soak up most of the water on the slide. Heh.

My pants wouldn't slide so I ended up walking down most of it.

Adam thought it was pretty funny to dip his brother in a puddle. Luckily Ian thought it was funny too.

Thursday we went to Kimberly, OR and picked apples and pears. It was raining the whole way there but it stopped when we actually started picking. The trees were so wet that it felt like we still got rained on.

After the orchards we stopped at the John Day Fossil Beds and went on a little hike and saw the visitors center. The green mud was sort of disgusting.

Haha, this was the best. At our work we have fistulated cows so the scientists can study cow nutrition. Rory asked if we could stick our hands in one and they let us! Adam got his fingertips in before deciding he was about to barf. Mom was brave and stuck her whole hand and half her arm in! I got a hand in and Ian wouldn't even come close. Our hands stunk for sooooo long afterwards! We eventually had to put this nasty grandma smelling lotion from Bath and Body Works on to cover the smell.

After teasing him about his loose teeth all week Ian finally caved in and let Rory tie a piece of floss to his tooth. Rory had him close his eyes and told him a story and slammed the door. No more tooth.

The visit ended with a Luchador fight. Rory was the uncontested winner. It's probably because he was wearing stretchy pants.

Other things we did but didn't take the camera: Swam at the Crystal Crane Hot Springs, made lots of delicious food, played backyard frisbee golf, played tons of nintendo, and saw the Malheur Bird Refuge.What a fun week! Thank you family for coming and seeing us!