December 2011
Glenna's Birthday
Mom and Daddy took us to lunch at Bennet's on the Island to celebrate our birthdays and then back to their house for a gift exchange. It isn't often just the 4 of us get to spend a whole afternoon together without any distractions...best gift ever!
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| We had to change tables because the sunlight was blazing in mom's eyes! |
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| Full, sassy and satisfied....just the way we like to roll :) |
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| Squirrels were knocking at the door for peanuts when we arrived. |
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| And daddy can't say no LoL |
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| Glenna going through all her loot. Bags full of fun are the best ;) |
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Horrigan Christmas
Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. We celebrated Christmas Eve at Grandmas and Grandpa's. I've never done anything else-it's an embedded tradition that fills my heart with joy-so I cherish each celebration to the fullest because I can't know which will be my last. James went to Tess' afterward to wake up to Christmas morning with her family.
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| The kids table in the family room (because the tree and gifts are in the way of its usual location) |
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| Eenie meanie miney mo. How about one of each of these delicious Dief treats! |
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| Kids bring smiles and laughter to a magical Christmas Eve |
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| Lots of laughter and good times going on over on that side of the room all night |
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| "Santa Hailey" delivering gifts |
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| "Fashion Designer Hailey" giving the 4 of us a Christmas-y look |
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Marth Christmas
Shannon arrived Christmas day around 5:00 PM; Tess and James came back to our house and we had a fun Marth Christmas for the next few days. Played lots of games, watched lots of movies, ate too many cookies and buckets of popcorn...all in all, perfect.
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| Daniel loaded an updated copy of the game Descent onto Papa's laptop for his Christmas present. An oldie but goodie game they all loved. |
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| Lenny and Dakota are not about to miss a thing...who knows, there might be food in one of these boxes! |
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| Lenny never found any food but he thought diving through the wrapping paper was a fun game :) |
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| Yea - I found the exact hat Daniel wanted - I'm good. |
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| Love Picasa's new edit tools. This photo was too dark and blurry to see well but by turning it into a sketch you can see Shannon and James playing a Kinect game. Hours of fun were had in front of that TV! |
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| The board game Settlers of Catan brought laughter, tears, joy, challenge, triumph and more hours of fun to all of us. |
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| Papa playing his new and improved game of Descent. It is a great stress reliever...or producer...depending on how he's doing :) |
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| Tess, James and Shannon went indoor sky-diving at iFly. Papa and I watched their adventure from the gallery seating. Almost (just almost) made me want to try it too :) |
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| Shannon |
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| Tess |
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| James |
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| Watching their instructor zoom around the wind tunnel - amazingly cool! |
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Drive to Palm Desert
Papa, Morris and I headed south to Palm Desert in the ZoomZoom on Dec 30. Took 12 hours to hit our overnight stop in Sacramento on day one. After an 8 hour drive on day two we arrived at Aunt Jody's for our 2nd annual New Year's Eve dinner with her and Barry...and Harley of course (Barry's dog-gone cute puppy).
January 2012
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In the Desert
Shannon, Grandpa and Grandma flew in to Palm Springs together on New Year's Day. The three of them were glad to be out of cold chilly WA and arrive to an 84 degree day in the desert.
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| Grandpa loves breakfast at the club so that is what we did the next morning - all except Papa - he's golfing of course :) |
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| Shannon stayed at the condo with us throughout our visit (as it turned out she was able to spend lots of time at the condo with Grandma and Grandpa throughout their visit too - life is good!) |
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Shenanigans back home
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The flu strikes hard...I was down and out for three full weeks. The kind of down and out where nothing, absolutely nothing gets done and you don't give a flim flam. While battling the flu, I managed to lock up my neck and hip; chiropractor is still trying to get on top of that problem.
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Snow...January brought lots of snow to our hill in Renton. Multiple snow storms were followed by an ice storm that ravaged our area with snapped limbs, fallen trees and plants and bushes destroyed beyond salvage. Extensive power outages raged through all counties lasting a week for some people - thankfully only a day for us.
The weight of all the snow and ice bent, broke and snapped trees and bushes everywhere in our yard. Most of the damaged landscape has since seen the sharp side of a chainsaw and been hauled away.
February 2012
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Snow kept coming.
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Grandma and Grandpa have squatters. Their no good, very bad cleaning lady Chris thought she and Rodney (her felon of a boyfriend) would live at Grandma and Grandpa's house while they were in Palm Desert...but as dumb criminals go, they are right up there with the best of them. Rodney posted where they were staying on his Facebook page - he even went so far as to mention Grandma and Grandpa by name.
Long story short: Chris' brother saw this Facebook posting so notified his good friends Sally and Alan...who notified the police...who showed up and caught the not-so-clever couple who had made a mad dash to hide in their car parked along the side of the house.
We changed all the locks, reprogrammed the alarm system, cleaned all linens and bedding and had Merry Maids scour the home from top to bottom before Grandma and Grandpa returned (and by 'we' I need to point out my dear sister had the lion's share of the job).
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Foot Surgery was successful but recovery was a bear; didn't anticipate that. I was drugged up and stuck in the corner of the couch with my foot up for 3 weeks. Jeez, that was boring. Do you have any idea how bad daytime TV is? Thank goodness for James' Netflix account and my laptop (thank you James!).
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| This is about 10 days after the first surgery so lots of healing has already happened to this good looking incision |
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| Thanks to my training with James :/ I was able to change the dressing and re-wrap the foot like a pro |
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| Boot was on for nearly 9-weeks. Bone healed perfectly but the hardware holding everything in place was causing non stop irritation so a second surgery was scheduled to pull out the hardware. |
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Next year!
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