Forgotten Carols

Every year the Forgotten Carols comes to the Seattle area. This was our second time to go, but this year Brandon got to be a part of it. He was able to illustrate the children's book version of the Forgotten Carols, which came out this year. To help promote the book and play Deseret Book set up an interview for Michael McLean and Brandon on the local news. We are glad everything went so smoothly as we were driving up to Seattle early in the morning right after a snow storm hit northwest Washington. It was a long day...early morning and late night, but so fun.

waiting in line to get books signed

the koontzes, tarpennings and dormans with michael mclean

brandon, gily and michael

Whistler Canada

We were lucky enough to join our friends the Walkers on a weekend getaway to Whistler, BC. It was a fun little break from everyday life, though getting ready to go in the snow is so much more labor intensive. We were able to sled a little. Max and Jackson lasted about ten minutes. Brandon and Sam braved the cold, but were brought inside when they saw a really, really BIG bear too close for Sam's liking. The next day while sledding they saw a coyote.

brandon and jackson : almost done

Whistler has a great community center with a perfect little kids' pool. Spitting bears, lazy "corner" river, vortex and "slightly warm" hot tub. But the kids had fun.

me and my little boys

max, brandon, jonathon and dawson

There was a lot of much needed lounging.

love the snuggles

jackson was so into the movie : happy moose

We took a gorgeous drive to the Whistler Olympic Park in search for the Olympic rings. They weren't there, but we did find amazing views of snow caped mountains and trees.

We made our second trip to the community center to try out ice skating with the boys. They were so excited to wear the hockey helmets. And they needed them. They had more than their fair share of falls, especially when they didn't go very far. But they both had the best attitudes and were so excited to be on the ice.

they even had a stroller for our little max

me and sam i am : daddy and jackson

eventually brandon got a good system down to pick up speed with the boys

"the ice is slippy"

Our favorite activity consisted of going on a tour of the sliding center, where they do the luge, skeleton and bobsled. As an added bonus we were able to watch bob sledders train for the World Cup later the next week. It was so cool. Sam made a new best friend, Carol the tour guide. She guaranteed that no one would be able to get a photo of a bobsled, because they go sooooo fast.

here were our best tries

brandon doing his best to keep max warm : poor kid was under blankets all night

watching the bob sledders : the mile high course

warming up with cocoa

the boys loved the virtual bobsledding and skiing

The next morning we found the Olympic rings...just down the street from the condo. Go figure.

Celebrate

Brandon treated us to a celebratory dinner at a local Japanese steakhouse when he sent in the last piece of final work for the pirate children's book he has been working on recently. It was so much fun to see the boys' reactions as they watched the chef put on his show. Sam was quite the chopstick pro. While Jackson would cover his face or pull out his finger gun and "shoot" the chef when he made a big flame. It was quite entertaining and the food was good too.

JackJack Yak

Introducing Jackson's version of Samisms...

S: My little brother (referring to Max) is so cute!

J: I CUTE!

B: Where is Max?

J: He is lost.

Hot dog on a corn {Corn Dog}

The baby monitor randomly will make a funny sound.

J: It's tooting.

And a bonus of Jackson's escapades in photos

jackson got his head stuck under the futon while trying to retrieve some toys

jackson the tiger

jackson thinks he can hide his unfinished food from mom

where is jackson?

Starting him young

Leaves

I love all the beautiful colors in the fall. Especially in our neighborhood where everyone has trees in their front yard. We have the privilege of have four trees on the side of our house. And the joys {insert sarcasm here} of raking up all those leaves.

sam, jackson and andrew

The neighbors like to join in the fun. And I am happy to have the help raking up the leaves.

Unfortunately we now have a soggy messy in our yard, due to all the rain.