To stay in a Yurt

After John's reserve duty, we traveled West and stayed on the coast. These Yurts were avalible to stay in at an OR state park. I think they are awesome, becuase camping in winter is ok, but these have a heater and lots of beds!

Trip to see the Cousins

John was able to do his reserve weekend in Vancouver this month, which allowed us the oppurtunity to stay with the cousins! 9 kids in all! Always a great time. The kids play, play, play, just like we did when we were all kids. It's such a joy to watch. Always a great time seeing and visiting with my cousins too!
Here's all the kiddos. Joel was being his usual self, so I had him in a headlock.
Heidi and Noelle, and baby Eli in her tummy!
The boys checking out the Candy Land map, whishing they could really go there.
Breakfast!

And I thought they wanted toys for Christmas....

Next year, I'll save time and money just raiding big boxes from furniture stores!

Auntie and Zach

Zach is on the move!

Zach is now 10mo and is quite the "scooter"! He can really move out with his one armed, one legged scoot. We have entryway stairs that I don't have a gate for and lots of jute rugs that hide fun-to-find objects like staples and paperclips, therefore we had to construct a pen for Zach. Since this pen was made we have purchased a real, plasic pen, but I thought this picture was so cute.

sleeping buddies

John and Zach are quite the sleeping buddies. John's excuse is that he's "taking care of Zach", so he can't get up and needs to keep snoozing with him. This can happen morning, noon or night. They are pretty cute though!

Aunt Suz

This pic was taken about a month ago, since then Suzy has gone to Isreal to visit a friend and see the country. We sure love it when we comes to stay. Group pic is of us giving her a group hug when she was about to leave.