Carina's Haircut

Not to be outdone by Natalie, Carina got her haircut too. We think it makes her look older, like an elementary school girl. Take a look:

Christmas

Christmas morning started early this year. 5:55am to be exact. We spent the night at Laura's parents' house, along with Boyd's family and all of his children. The kids woke up at 5:55am to, as Gavin said to us, "do our morning exercises." No wonder he is so skinny.

Christmas morning was full of surprises. Santa was good to us. Here are some pictures of the fun. This first picture is how it looked before we got started.

Here is Natalie in front of her new favorite toy. The door fits into the door way in her room. She spent most of Christmas morning walking in and out of the door and ringing the doorbell.Here is Carina opening a Leapster video game machine.

And here was my favorite Christmas present -- a 42" Panasonic High Definition Plasma TV. TV has never looked so good.

It was a very merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day at Laura's parents' home. The highlight of Christmas Eve was a little recital that we had. Everyone sang carols and almost everyone had a solo piece as well. The girls enjoyed running in circles and dancing to the music.

I've attached links to two videos from the recital -- one of Carina singing "Picture a Christmas" (actually filmed earlier, but it is the same song) and my favorite, Boyd singing a special Christmas rendition of "Turkey in the Straw (under the Manger)."

Boyd's video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6lNUSOrTbO0

Carina's video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KAbaE9VtQUY

Merry Christmas

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Guess which was on the naughty list and which was on the nice list:

Seattle in Wintertime

No, this isn't a black and white photo...

Carina's Birthday

Carina turned 5. And "yes," according to her, she does feel older now.

Natalie's Haircut

Natalie got a haircut. She is very proud of it. Take a look!

Italy Here We Come!!!!

Exciting news: Laura and I just booked tickets to Italy for next spring. We leave on April 29 and arrive in Paris on the morning of the 30th. We'll spend the day in Paris and then leave on May 1 for the main event -- three days in Rome, four days in Tuscany and the Italian Riviera, a day and half in Venice, and a day in half in the Dolomite range and Lake Como. We leave from Milan on May 11. We can't wait!

Now accepting reservations to babysit Carina and Natalie!

Dancing

Carina and Natalie love to dance in the living room whenever Laura or I play the piano. I snapped this particularly well choreographed, but not staged, shot. Look out Osmond family...

Halloween

Carina and Natalie had a great Halloween. Carina dressed up in her costume from a Mary Poppins dance recital she performed in this past summer; she was a "London girl." Natalie was a frog.

Carina and Natalie came to my office in the afternoon and went trick or treating in the halls (which is a tradition at my firm). Natalie quickly got the hang of trick or treating and decided that two pieces of candy from each person was an appropriate amount.

The girls were a little terrified of some of the Halloween decorations we saw though, especially anything with ghost noises or that moved.

We live in Microsoft country. This is Laura's pumpkin. I guess it would be about the scariest pumpkin out there to most Microsofties.

Whistler, B.C.

Laura and I recently spent a weekend in Whistler, B.C. The drive up was beautiful -- the mountains plunge directly into the Howe Sound north of Vancouver.

Whistler is full of great shops and restaurants and has great biking trails all around. We biked about 20 miles over the weekend, includig rides on the side of Blackcomb mountain and on the valley trails. The valley is dotted with about a dozen lakes.

The highlight of the weekend was a series of five zip lines we went on down Whistler Mountain. (See http://www.ziptrek.com/ - we did the "Eagle tour"). One of the lines was a half mile long and dropped 20 stories; you can go up to 90km per hour if you ball up. Several of the lines cross a gorge between Whistler mountain and Blackcomb mountain. We had a blast!

Vacation Rating - Whistler, B.C.: 5 stars