Thanksgiving, Christmas and fun in between

This Winter has reminded me more of Spring than Winter.  We had two days of snow followed by a week of flooding in January, and the rest of the time we've gotten to play around outside a lot.

Early November Rivers ran in the State Junior Olympics Cross-Country meet in Salem and here I am trying to coach her up on the starting line and she's thinkin' I'm crazy.

And off they go....Rivs actually slipped and fell down to her knees on her first step, but jumped back up and caught up to the pack.

The course was so hilly!  I ran it backwards to find a good cheering spot and couldn't believe the hills they had to run up. I should have gotten a picture of the big one.  Rivers was tough though and didn't walk on any of the hills.

Here she is kicking it in at the end of the 3000m course.  Woohoo!

For Thanksgiving we made the drive to Utah to spend time with the Nuno bunch and Tanner and Alissa.  CD and Salesi had fun getting into mischief together again.

I was trying to take a picture of Dwight's luscious lashes.  Carlos got me a nice camera as an early Christmas present so I tried it out on the kids.

I took the older cousins and CD on a hike to a waterfall one afternoon in the mountains by Ogden.

which turned out to be a frozen waterfall and was really pretty.  They were troopers.

We kind of got caught in the dark on the way down, but seeing this great sunset made the stumbling down the dark, icy trail worth it.

On our Thanksgiving trip I also made these cute little boots and hat for my friend's new arrival.

I took Rivs and CD to Wolf Mountain for opening day and met Tanner and Alissa there.  CD had a lesson and I loved the extremely proud and excited look on his face as he started getting it down.

Here's Carlos' sister Christina and Dre Dre.  We stayed at her house during the trip.

And here's the whole group out at pizza.

The kids favorite thing when Lito is around is trading collectibles.  I'm not very schooled in that world, but they love it.

Back in Oregon we enjoyed more sunny, nice weather in December.

And at least once a day the kids ride their little cars and big wheels down the grass hill on the front lawn. 

Cousin Cassidy staking her claim on the favorite climbing tree (and she is quite the climber).

Rivers entered the Christmas drawing contest put on by the newspaper here and took 2nd place

This was a Christmas dress my Mom made me when I was about Rivers age.  It's fun that Rivers likes to wear my vintage stuff ;)

I kept finding the twins with their chairs pulled up to the gingerbread house and taking little nibbles.

The scene every night as the twins climb the stairs to go to bed.

I finally made it out to Peavy Arboretum to run and Carlos brought the kids to hike around while I ran.  Reagan reminds me of a little red riding hood character skipping through the woods.

Rivs flying through the air....this place is magical...

Awwww...

CD and Carlos went clamming with the Young Men and brought home a pot full of fat clams, which meant I had to learn how to clean and cook them.

We filmed a nativity with the cousins this year that turned out so cute, I might make it a tradition

Christmas Eve

Oh yeah baby...look out!

 Funny Christmas Eve pajamas from Oma....and yes, they still like a bottle at bedtime.

I put this picture in because you can see my new ring that Carlos got me for Christmas - simple titanium with the kids names inscribed - good surprise gift.

 A few days after Christmas we went to the coast and went to the top of the Yaquina head lighthouse...

...checked out the best natural tidepools I've ever seen.

And were amazed by the black pebble beach.  It sounds cliche, but it seriously was soooo cool!  The rocks were all black, very dense, and perfectly smooth.  A must see.

 And of course the holidays would not be complete without a candycane bowl.  It looks like Tyler jumped up and snagged the ball, but...

...Carlos on the skins team came down with it:)   Fun, fun holidays in 2011.  I think Carlos and I were even more excited for Christmas than the kids this year.