Here's to 2014

I am happy to report that this year is markedly less busy than the last.  I finally have time to post a few highlights of things that kept us busy last semester.  We had a fabulous field trip to see the F-15's in person.  As might be expected, this trip ranked high on our boy's list of top field trips.

We got to go out on the runway in a bus and then watch as eight F-15's took off.  They purposely scheduled our field trip at dusk so we could see the full effect of their afterburners.

They gave all of us our own set of earplugs, and I tried to take them out only for a few seconds before I understood why we needed to keep them in!  I was surprised to find out that F-15's are the same size as a tennis court!  They were mighty impressive!

Andrew and Connor have also been preoccupied with their Lego robotics team.  They were shocked to discover that they came in 3rd place at Regionals as well as winning the rookie award and earning a spot at the State level.   Sadly, they didn't do as well at State and were pretty disappointed.  Still, we enjoyed our weekend in Portland, which I will have to blog about later on.

Brandon has basketball 6 days a week for several hours a day, and he loves his team and is having a great experience.  It was hard for him to switch team colors and mascots at first, but I do think that he looks good in red!  Go Pels!

Danielle has a wonderful evening ritual that I needed to record.  She pretends to be "library girl" at night and checks out the books that I am going to read to her every night.  She is pretty cute!

I joked that Nicole would go down in history for not being able to take her pants off....those pesky skinny jeans!

We took the girls to the Nutcracker this past Christmas season.  Nicole was mesmerized, but Danielle was hypnotized and fell fast asleep for half of the performance.  It is fun to do things with our girls.

We had a wonderful, if short, visit to Reno to be at sweet Gemma's baby blessing.  Poor Adalie was not feeling well, but her cuteness still couldn't be missed.  Hopefully next time we get her together with Danielle, she will be up to playing more.

Nathan made an end of the year video for our family which included photos of my dad.  This was one of my favorites.  He was always down at the level of our children, playing with them.  He was a wonderful grandpa to them!

2013 was not the best of years, but it was absolutely a growing year.  Here's to 2014.  My only New Year's Resolution is to remember my siblings' birthdays this year.  Oh, and to finally graduate!