An Armstrong Christmas

Mallory, Bary and Teri arrived last Tuesday for Christmas. Mal and I spent most of the day baking Christmas goodies. We also had to make game food to watch BSU play in the Poinsettia bowl that night. (Which BSU lost by 1 point). We drove to the edge of town to see quite the display of lights. Like nothing we have ever seen before. I made my first Turkey dinner on Christmas day and the meal turned out pretty good (with some help from Teri and Mallory). Travis, Sarah and Mason arrived the day after Christmas and the highlight was getting to see Mason enjoy Christmas. She received several Elmo dolls and other Elmo apparel. Several of us went to a hockey game one night and a movie another night. We hit the zoo which Mason seemed to enjoy much more than she did a year ago. Trav and Sarah were the last one here today so we went for a drive out to the Snake River before they had to catch their flight back home. We enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for a great Christmas!

Mason playing with her Elmo Live!

Strummin' her new guitar

Watching the dogs play in the snow

One quiet moment with Lucy and Max

This is only a fraction of all the lights at the house we went to

I wont say who won breaking the wish bone

This California girl wasn't too sure about the snow

Looking at the monkeys

Travis and Mason at the zoo on a gorgeous day

Snake RiverAction shot of a hawk we saw on our driveSo Fast! Mason loves to run.

Winter Wonderland

Well, it finally started snowing. It started yesterday, and snowed all day, but it was only tiny flakes all day long so didn't add up to much. It started dumping this morning though and we are probably up to 2 inches now, and headed for quite a bit more. Hazen's work crew went out last night to plow, and luckily he didn't get called until 9am this morning to go check a property. Our neighbor had a Christmas party last night that we went to. Probably the closest party to our house we've ever been to. Kinda weird just walking to it. Nice to not have to drive in the snow though. We are getting really excited for Christmas. All the decorations are up and I spent several hours in the kitchen yesterday making goodies for the neighbors and people at work. Can't wait to do another round of baking with Mallory next week. Maybe it will be easier with two people doing it (though Hazen did help unwrap some of the caramels).

Thanksgiving

We made the trek to WA last week for Thanksgiving. Headed out at 7am Wednesday morning for the 8 hour drive. We got a new car the week before so it was a pretty comfortable ride (unless you ask Lucy). We made it most of the way and Lucy was doing fine. That is until we got to White Pass. Coming down the other side into Packwood it gets real curvy. Lucy was flying around the backseat and finally got sick about 1/2 hour before we were to our destination. Luckily we had blankets on the seat and most of the puke got on Sammy, her stuffed squirrel. She enjoyed playing with Max (Hazen's parents dog) and didn't enjoy Bailey (Aubree's parents dog) who barked and snipped at her. We had a good time visiting family and didn't look forward to the drive back Sunday. We made it safe and without anybody getting sick.

Our new car (a little dirty from the drive). A Ford Five Hundred.

Hazen's cousin's daughter, Azalea

Teri and Grandma Judy

Hazen, Barry, Uncle Danny, and cousin Spencer

Cousin Andy, Uncle Erik, and Uncle Buzz

Too much turkey for Spud and Shawna

Dad, Ryan and Hazen

Aunt Dawn's foster son, Joshua. Cute as always.

One Heck of a Weekend

Well I can't say that last weekend was one of our favorites. Hazen was going hunting near Cascade, ID which is about 2 hours drive from Boise. His boss has a cabin there that we stayed at for the weekend. Hunting season started on Saturday but Hazen wanted to go up Friday to scout out where he could find the biggest elk. We drove around all day Friday but the truck just wasn't running right. Stopped by a mechanic that said our clutch was going out. Said there should have been several signs that it was going out before it got to this point and that we wouldn't make it back to Boise. He wouldn't be able to work on it until Monday. We would be stuck in Cascade all weekend with no vehicle (which means no hunting). So what better an option than to disagree with the mechanic and try to make it back to Boise. We made it about 3 miles out of town before there was a horrible noise that sounded like our engine fell out onto the road. Had to have it towed the 3 miles back to Cascade and luckily wasn't taken to the same guy that said we wouldn't make it. Had to call a rental car place in the next town about 30 miles away and have them drive a car to us. Headed back to Boise to get Hazen's work truck then back up to McCall to drop the rental care off before settling in for the night at Hazen's boss' cabin. Lucy and I rested in the cabin all weekend while Hazen hunted. Saw a few elk on Sunday but were gone before he could get a shot at any. Drove the work truck back home Sunday night after his hunting and thought it would be a good idea to try and wreck this one too. It was very dark and didn't see a large boulder in the middle of our lane until we went right over the top of it. The truck was still driveable but didn't sound very good. Looked underneath and lots of stuff looked pretty bad. Luckily we made it home. Had it checked out the next day and we got really lucky. Had to replace the exhaust pipe and that was pretty much it. Several other things (including oil pan and gas tank) got dented but not punctured. Glad to have the weekend over.

Before we had a mechanic look at it.

Warm Lake

Cascade Lake

Buck that Lucy and I snuck up on

Kinda blurry and hard to see, but this is what the buck was up to

Lucy found a friend while we were waiting for the rental car

Fall Has Fallen

Well, I think our Tulip Tree in the front yard has finally dropped it's last leaf. I'm afraid we are going to get sued by the mail man for falling off the side walk and breaking his ankle because he can't tell where the side walk is. Someone needs to get the rake out.

Lucy's Busy Day

We came home to find a gallon sized ziploc bag full of beer caps strewn across the living room. Also in this mess is what use to be a Seahawks Foamhead. Hazen was pretty upset about this one. Not sure exactly how she has gotten this stuff off the shelf. We think it has something to do with Ethel. Gonna have to set up a critter cam to see what these two are up to while we aren't home.

Ethel's New Friend

Happy Halloween!

I got Lucy a Halloween costume but she hated it. The shirt fit around her chest but it was tight on her arms and couldn't walk very well. She was getting pretty upset with me while I tried to get some pictures. So, I took the costume back (and got a different one!). She is more fond of it than the first but I'm not sure how long it will stay on. Oh well. Happy Halloween!

Grand Opening of Yoti Pub!

Heather and Ryan flew in early Friday morning. We picked them up and headed downtown for bagels. They were quite tasty. Went to the house to drop off bags and show them the pad. The following pictures chronicle the next 48 hours.

Getting ready for some frisbee golf

Action shot of Ryan, just before he hit the kindergartners with his disc.

Hazen showing us how it's done

Uh Oh! Somebody went in the water!

Pure exhaustion

Watching the BSU football game

The newlyweds

Can't watch the game without a good shot

Heather, Ryan and Doug downtown

We hit the best ally in the valley

Dance Dance Revolution

Shuffleboard at the Eastside

We finally came up with a name for our bar. This name is of one of the bars we visited in Turkey.

Raki is an herbal liquor from Turkey that we have fond memories of. We found some online!

If you've never had it before, you should come to Yoti Pub and see what it's all about.