Kleenex Olympics

Number of kleenex boxes completely used in the month of January: 7

Beat that, world. I hearby award Mike and I gold medals in the runny nose event.

*Speaking of gold medals, I am very excited for the upcoming Olympics. It makes me wish we had DVR or TVO or something... or a television that had more than 4 channels and gave a clear picture for that matter. Are the Olympics going to be on hulu?

Vay-cay

A month ago Mike and I headed west to celebrate Christmas California style with my ENTIRE family. Since my brother, Nathan (see Exhibit A) recently got home from his 2 year LDS mission to Philly, everyone made the effort to all be together.

Exhibit A

Christmas was great and all, and we did a lot of fun things, but the real highlight was just being together. We're usually spread out all over the country, so I enjoyed the proximity while it lasted. Here are a few pics from the all-too-quick trip home:

Apparently I missed the Make-A-Funny-Face memo. I can't decide if I like Mike's or Soph's face more here. Sporting our nerdy glasses after seeing Avatar in 3D:

It's not a trip to Cali without good Mexican food (pictured below) and In-N-Out (consumed too quickly to get the camera).

What really happened all week: LOTS and LOTS of card playing. We headed to the beach and explored the tide pools one day.

Favorite conversation of that day:

Undisclosed Person A: "What do hermit crabs eat?"

Undisclosed Person B: "Extroverts."

I think I was trying to smile like Soph here. She wins. Nothing tops that face. Or those leggings. Work it, Soph.

Apparently my family doesn't do "normal" pictures (in case you couldn't tell from the above display.) We Moorheads are way too quirky for that. Good thing too- everyone needs a little crazy in their lives. Luckily for us, we have crazy in abundance:

And my personal favorite:

Who wouldn't want to spend a week with this little person???

All the nipotini:

The rents

We managed to keep it together long enough to take ONE normal picture: We did more stuff (Newport Coast, jigsaw puzzles, kid parties, ping pong, Nintendo 64 (yes, seriously), embarked on the quest for the perfect rice cooker, movies, TTR, etc.) but these are all the pics I have. It was great to be home, and I was sad to leave.

We didn't have to resume life right away though. We made a pit stop in Utah to see the Wildes before returning to the Bend. Although it only lasted a couple days, we managed to fit quite a lot in: Bang, Thai food, opening MORE wedding presents, Market Street, Wii Mariokart, shoe shopping, humongous family photo shoots, and 24 marathons made for a great end to our Christmas break.

The results of said massive photo shoot:

(No other photos of said adventures. Sorry.)

All in all, it was a great trip, and it ended way too soon. Mike and I were pretty lucky that we got to see EVERYONE in BOTH our families in the same week. Christmastime is the most wonderful time of the year, indeed. Can't wait to see you all again!

Today's Best Primary Quotes

• Is your nose a monster? (Right after Melissa blew her nose really hard)
• Sometimes my brother wears a dress.
• Lucifer? Like the cat in Cinderella?
  

Phone...

Just wanted to let interested parties know that Mike's cell phone is currently the only way to get a hold of us. My cell phone just got commandeered by the Authorities, and our land line has become increasingly unreliable. If you've called our land line and we never called you back, sorry. We're not ignoring you, we just haven't got the message. So for now, Mike's cell is it. (Or, you could always revert to email. I'm usually better at email and other semi-anonymous forms of communication anyway.) If you need the number leave a comment and we'll send it to you.

Christmas post to follow once other people start blogging about it so I can steal their pictures. =D

(Here's one I've already stolen:)