Kathy is 50!!!!!!

My sweet Charissa threw a surprise tea party for me! She's still on her crutches, so she had some great helpers in her friend Melody Lake and Jeremy's sister, Kyndal. My dear friend, Linda Lake, had taken me out to coffee that morning and when we arrived back at the house...
It was such a delightful time with family and friends. Mom brought some of my baby photos to share and others shared memories, too. I wish I'd had my wits more about me to turn it into a hobbit party - give gifts to, or share about these wonderful people the Lord has blessed me with!

Then, that evening, our family met at the Outback for supper. I was outrageously surprised when I opened my card from Norm and it was a brochure for a trip to Hawaii!!! It will be hard to keep my feet on the ground 'til the 24th of January!

Toby's Birthday

Toby celebrated Saturday night at Charissa's with a bunch of his friends, then again with family after church on Sunday. My brother Matt and his clan came up from the Springs since my mom had arrived Saturday. It's such a bonus to have this time with Toby before the Marine Corps takes him full time!

Christmas '08

Brady's first Christmas!!! How much fun!
My folks had given Ron Henry a Wonder Horse for his first Christmas so we made that a tradition and got Brady one - he'll grow into it someday!
The little "Stuff Me" bib was also a gift from Grandma Barbara to Ron Henry on his first Christmas!
Brady loved the Swahili counting book from Jeremy and Charissa, and he kept giving the animals hugs by laying his head on the pages - too cute!
We had Jeremy's sister, Kyndal, with us again which is always fun. My mom came on Saturday so my brother Matt came up w/ his tribe and we celebrated again on Sunday evening. Our new favorite game is "Settlers of Catan", which we have played way too many times!
It was a marathon Christmas but continuously wonderful!

What a sighting!

Today, Ron Henry, Alisa, and Brady came up to get their Christmas tree. Brady was quite tired so he went down for a nap, and it ended up that only Ron Henry and I went out to hunt for their tree. I had scoped out some options along a new powerline cut that runs through the forest toward the highway. As we wandered closer to the road, motion caught my eye about 30 feet away. In the thick trees, I couldn't tell much except that it was too short to be a deer, so I thought it was a coyote. As Ron Henry turned to see what I was pointing at, the critter turned to look at us - it was a mountain lion! It sat and watched us for a little while but when we moved, it slinked away. It was quite exciting at first, but then every little sound creeped us out! I totally forgot to take any pictures of it or the tree we then cut. It took awhile for the adrenaline to calm down! When we got to the gully below the highway, there was a roadkill elk and a deer carcass that must have been what drew the lion. At least we knew he wasn't hungry! We've lived in this house for 14 years and have never seen a lion before - YIKES!

Cutting the Christmas Tree

Charissa's friends, Jeremy and Kelly Fowler, came up Saturday and brought his family with them. We had a great time hunting for Christmas trees - even figured out how to include our crippled Charissa! After a successful felling of the mighty spruce :) , we came back to the house for hot chocolate and cookies. It was a great day! (Although we didn't take any pictures of us w/ our tree!)