Canyon Life

Brett put lights up today, they look pretty neat! Mostly I think he had fun because he got to go hang out up on the roof. The boys liked it too. The kids decorated the tree all by themselves, after I ran out and got all new ornaments. Brett threw out the ones I had when we moved into this house. I guess lots were broken.

Brett on a hot tin roof. Or wood shingles. I don't know, I didn't go up there.

Balcony is all lit.

He even lit the turret. Is that a turret?

Matt and Cody, chilling by the tree.

Tried to take a few pictures for Christmas, this one turned out okay.

It's a struggle to get these boys to sit still long enough for pictures anymore.

This might be the winning Christmas card photo this year.

I didn't take a whole bunch of pictures during Thanksgiving this year. We went to Brett's sister Michele's house, up in Apple Valley. I think there were about thirty family members there, including Brett's dad and step mommy Priscilla. It went by so fast, I can hardly believe the holiday is already over.

Today, Brett got up at butt o'clock in the morning and attempted Black Friday shopping. He said it was dumb and came home empty handed. Well, not totally, he went by storage and got our Christmas tree, so we put that up today. He's also putting lights up outside tomorrow. I'm really excited about that, mostly because it's so dark in the canyon and I like coming home to a little light.

Here's my sweet hubby. I like him.

Brett's sister Michele.

Miss Candice, niece and pain in my booty. Literally. She beats me up on a regular basis.

Grandma Priscilla, and her new great grandbaby Deegan.

I'm in my second season of playing soccer this year. It's hard pretending I can keep up with a bunch of twenty something year olds. I mean, it's hard chasing a bunch of twenty something year olds. Actually, I just stand there and pick the grass. But it's definitely fun!

I just remembered I had these pictures of Tyler and Matt volunteering for the dunk tank at the Founders Day Fair this year. Our church ran the dunk tank booth as well as the churro stand. It must have been over a hundred degrees that day, which made for a long line of volunteers to be dunked. Even when people threw the ball and missed the target, Brett was right there to pull the dunk lever, insuring that the volunteer would hit the water.

Tyler, he took some persuading to get up there the first time, but after that you couldn't keep him out of line.

I like how Matt is ready, nose is plugged.

A week after I got back from Oregon, we packed up and drove to Gorman, Ca, near Bakersfield, for a weekend of camping and dirt bike riding. We went with good friends of ours from church, the Sclimentis', and some of their family. My aunt and uncle kindly lent us their travel trailer to use, and I am so glad they did. It would have been miserable in a tent. It was cold, and camping in a place that is meant for dirt bike riding can be loud at all hours of the day and night.


We had tons of fun, rode lots of trails, ate yummy food, and got to see our friends the McNaughtons', who had recently moved to Bakersfield. They drove into camp to share some smores and hang out. It was a really inexpensive weekend away, something we would like to do again in the future.

This year I was in Oregon on Halloween, so Brett had the full responsibility of getting the kids organized, dressed up, and off to our church's yearly outreach program, Fall Fest. It's a huge event, they have games, In-N-Out, candy, rides, all for free. I think they said we had over ten thousand people attend this year. All the boys volunteered to run a game booth and then got to hang out and play for a bit.

Brett dressed up for the event, which shocked me. Actually, he is standing here telling me that he didn't dress up, he always looks like this. Rugged tough cowboy man. James grabbed one of our ghillie suits, as he didn't want a costume this year, Tyler was a cop, Matthew was a banana.

I'm doing a few blog posts at a time to catch up on all the stuff we've been doing lately. Brett got Tyler and Matt signed up for Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts recently. Brett is Matthews den leader, and we have a group of five boys right now. Scouts is right up Brett's alley, all his favoite things, shooting, camping, outdoor activities. We are excited to see if this is a good activity for the boys this year.