Epic Snow!!

Rock and DeA came out of Christmas break with illnesses. DeA had a pretty great place to rest and recover.

On Thursday, I was sleeping deeply about a jackhammer at 4am when DeA woke up, walked around the bed, grabbed my phone and threw it at me saying "your dad is trying to call." Dad's first question was "what are you doing?" and I responded that I was sleeping. He needed me to grab the tractor and pull him out of the snow. It was dumping and you could barely see the guard rails sticking out of the snow. We had to close the office because there was just so much stinking snow.

Leo and the kids weren't exactly sure how to navigate the white stuff.

They thought they figured it out, until I pointed out that there was no reason that their mother should be outside shoveling and them inside watching cartoons.

Rock interrupted me on the bike worried that he broke the tailgate of my truck. Thankfully it was just snow jammed in the thing, but it helped me invent a new way to ice my legs after a workout. 

It was fun trying to dig my truck out of the snow.

Luca remained calm and collected during the whole ordeal.

DeA and I went to the gym together on Saturday. Talk about a smoke show.

Ryker received the priesthood on Sunday. He looked like a well-dressed deacon.

Two sharp looking dudes.

Leo had a little bit of a crisis trying to figure out where to do his business in the snow.

Grandpa failed to replenish his inventory of hamburger buns, so Ryker made his own. They turned out pretty great.

Christmas Break

DeA and the kids love to take naps during Christmas break. That's great for them, but it sucks for me who still has to go to bed and get up early. They were all rested from their marathon naps and didn't want to calm down at bedtime.

"If you're cold, they are cold" is a freaking lie.

We spent a day up at Echo shredding the snow.

DeA is quite the snow bunny.

A very pretty snow bunny.

Ryker tried snowboarding for the first time. It went about how you would expect.

It was a nice, quiet morning and sunset. Quiet because everyone else in the house went to bed a 2am and were all still sleeping. They did wake up long enough to complain about the noise I made while trying to get out the door to work.

New Year's Eve was the only night that they decided to fall asleep before midnight, except for Jens. She couldn't wait to see the Space Needle fireworks. 

We were chilling one of the nights when the fireplace glass shattered. It was pretty exciting.

The rest of Christmas break was filled with rolled ice cream...

Noisy board games...

More rolled ice cream...

and family bonding around a game of Monopoly in which DeA threatened to punch me in the face.

Christmas!!

Rock knows the true meaning of Christmas break: sleeping.

He probably learned it from his mom.

We had a great Reindeer Game with about a dozen hearty players, plus Jacob and Jamison who quit after about fifteen minutes because it was too cold.

Mom got her present early to help her make her traditional homemade pizza. 

All the boxes and stuff seemed to unsettle Leo, like he thought that we were packing to leave him. He was very, very needy. 

We would wrap presents for a bit, and then go hang out at Mom and Dad's with baby Luca.

We decorated cookies.

Leo even managed to get some frosting on a cookie.

Marissa had her traditional loud and messy games to play. 

One game involved a big tub of cool whip, which Leo found and ate.

Leo didn't understand the game, but he knew he liked it.

No Christmas even party would be complete without a visit from the big man himself!

"Hey, aren't you Euan?"

"No, I'm Santa, not that rakishly good looking guy, Euan"

I made a joke about blocking the basement door so that the kids couldn't come see their presents, and it became something that the kids insisted on us doing. We heard them bust through the paper at 5:30am.

They were so excited to open their socks.

It took a little bit for Mrs. Claus to wake up.

Mom and Dad came over to enjoy the mayhem. Leo liked the attention from Mom.

Rock got fancy snowboarding gear

Ryker picked up a lot of cooking stuff, like a Master Chef apron and utensil set.

Grandpa got a mini torch.

Ryker spent the rest of the day making rolled ice cream, crepes, and other assorted goodies with his ice cream maker thing and utensils. 

Baby Luca was happy to be along for the ride.

Well, he was mostly happy until Aunt DeA tried to lick the nacho cheese off of his head that she spilled.

Both of them worked hard today and deserved their naps.