Christmas!

More holiday blogging. Everything is closed, so we blog as a family and for family. We began the day with Christmas gifts. A few pictures! After gifts, we had the traditional breakfast of eggs, hash browns, sausage and bacon. To spice things up this year, we used english muffins instead of toast! Risky huh? After gifts, we cleaned up breakfast, did a quick look at tv options and quickly went to the movies. Up in the Air, George Clooney! Two thumbs up. Now, we relax, most likely another movie later! Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Eve!

I know both our regular readers are very interested in our Christmas, so we blog here on Christmas Eve. Our evening begin with a family walk! We went for about an hour around the neighborhood! After our walk, we went looking to take our own advice and rent The Hangover, or our second choice Role Models, but after three places sold out, we gave up. Then, we settled in for our traditional eve activities. We set out our family feast of little smokies, a meat/cheese tray with crackers, chips, salsa, cheese, and cream puffs. Yet, before we ate, we did our gift game, with two gifts each. Jodi got a bra and a candle, (quite a combo) Trey got some Jordan sandles and I pod gift card, and Rob got a new 3 wood, as well as two hats. With no movie, we now lumber over to the coach and decide on VH1 100 best songs of the 90's! (Jewell is prettier now, and how can Man in the Box be behind Markie Mark!!!) Can't wait for more! We will try to keep you both updated on Christmas! Stay tuned.

Look away, it hideous!

Here are some pictures of Rob's shingles. Its hard to capture the grossness of them in pictures, but I am sure Rob appreciates me posting these pictures. He is starting to feel better. The drugs have kicked in!

Illness strikes!

Rob is going to have some time to watch movies, he has shingles. It is on his head, and is very painful. So, previously we recommended some serious movies, now in honor of him being sick and needing something to cheer him up, we recommend the comedy movies of the year. Our favorite was "The Hangover" We saw this with friends, which made it even better! Not for kids, but wonderfully adult. This may be the movie of the year! See it with friends. Two other very funny movies, both surprisingly with Paul Rudd in them, were "Role Models" and "I Love You Man!" All of these movies are sure to pick you up when you are feeling down! Again, go with friends and be in a mood to laugh. (I don't like this disturbing trend of male nudity in movies though, who ever thought that was a good idea?)

Phoenix Bound!

Well, BSU made the Fiesta bowl! Again! We had so much fun last time, we are going again. This time, believe it or not, not only is Ron going with us, but Wayne and Brian T. (Krissy's husband) are joining the fun! We have 5 wonderful, warm days planned in lovely Arizona! It better be warm! We plan on basketball, golf, NFL football, and of course, the Fiesta Bowl! It should be fun, and yes, WARM! For those of you thinking of Vegas in the spring, don't worry, we will still go. Did I mention it should be WARM!

Movies we are thankful for!

Everyone knows we love movies! Two movies of similar messages we recommend are The Wrestler and Funny People. The Wrestler is a movie we looked forward to for months. Finally, it came out and we were not disappointed! The basic plot is one about relationships and the basically shallow nature of them. Mickey Rourke is outstanding as a Wrestler who only seems to have "friends" when he is performing. Everyone seems to like him and it appears he has lots of friends, until he gets sick, then he wakes up alone in the hospital with no one there to help him. His only real friend is Marissa Tomei, who is an aging stripper (and another outstanding performance) who has similar problems with relationships. It is outstanding, and now on HBO, so you can watch it 50 times. Funny people is the same type of movie, and I am shocked it was not more popular. It is exactly the same. My favorite scene is when Adam Sandler, who thinks he is dying, finds out he is not and has no one to tell. So, he tells his housekeeper, who responds by telling him she has good news also, she just found his shirt she thought was lost. Outstanding performances throughout!

The Thanksgiving season

With it being the Thanksgiving season, we are thankful for our long time involvement in Boise St. football. Boise St. football in our life has really not been about football, rather it has been about family. It is why we originally got interested in Boise St. football. We like spending time with our family, yet for whatever reason, we rarely get the chance to do it. When we first started going to Boise games, it was a time in Rob's life when he spent a lot of time with his dad. It was always interesting when they first started going, you had Rob and his college buddies, and his Dad. Whenever, Rob sees his friends now as adults they are always interested in talking about Ron and how he is doing. Rob has great memories of going to games with his dad and brother when they were younger. He often talks about how much fun it was to spend time with his dad, and I know he misses those trips. As grandpa stopped going to the games, Rob spent more time with his brother and has fond memories of spending time with him, too. We also go as a family, Rob, Jodi and Trey together, or sometimes just Rob and Trey, with Trampis and Randy. Boise St. football is a family affair. As the team has got more national exposure, it is kind of like a nice little story that now everyone knows about. But, we don't mind if people jump on the bandwagon, cause to us, it is about family!

Elk stand

Ok, I guess it is a bit of a tradition now to climb the elk stand when the family is gathering cows at Starkey. In the spring, Brian climbed it to test it out. This time, it became a bit of a challenge, and Jodi became the first and only female known to have climbed the tree stand. Isn't she cute???

Football Final

Trey had 10 guys on his 8 man football team. While they only had 10 people, they dominated like few teams have. They did not give up a point until the 5th game, and went one whole game without allowing the other team a first down. The season went really well, until a kid quit and another got in trouble, so the had to cancel the last game. Trey played all over, with only 10 kids everyone had to play lots of positions, he had fun, made some tackles, passed for some touchdowns, and made some blocks. Rob coached, and with Trey in high school next year, his jr. high coaching days are probably over for now.

Vegas part 3

Saturday, we all went shopping at the mall. In the afternoon, Wayne and Penny went to the Lion King alone, since Rob and Jodi had just seen it. Rob took at nap, while Jodi went to go get us tickets to Ka! at MGM grand. Ka, is a Cirque. It is hard to describe, but its a story told via acrobatics and visual art. It was good, and we can't even begin to describe it. It is like no other show we have seen. It was the first Cirque show we have seen, and will probably see another one next time. The theater and stage itself was worth it. After the show, we went to ice cream, gambled a little, then went to bed. Sunday, we gambled again, ate breakfast and then went to the airport. A short delay, but we got back home around 8:30. It was great fun, and good to see family. We are already planning our next trip! We invite all readers of this blog to join us next time we go. It is always more fun with friends and family!

Vegas Random thoughts!

I think the economy has really changed Vegas. In the past, we really enjoyed sitting in the casino, where they used to have lots of free bands, karioke, etc... and play the game "daughter or girlfriend?" Every other couple that walked by was a great candidate for this game, however, this summer and fall, not only have all the free bands and stuff gone away, we literally saw almost no couples to play the game on! I guess the economy has really changed the dating scene! Also, every casino now has dancing girls. Dancing on tables, on stages, in cages, its really wierd. Jodi and Rob kind of enjoy watching the dancing girls, its kind of interesting. But in honor of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, we thought of taking pictures of the girls, but decided on spongebob instead!

Vegas! Again!

Ok, we loved our trip to vegas during the summer so much, we decided to go again! With it only a short 2 hour flight, why not? This time, we went with Wayne and Penny! I can't speak for them, but we felt they were really good travel partners. We flew into Vegas on Thursday night around 8:30. That evening, we went to dinner and provided Wayne and Penny with our visitor orientation of the area. On Friday morning, Penny and Jodi went shopping, while Rob and Wayne went with Bill (Rob's friend) golfing. They seemed to have fun, since everyone was in a good mood upon return. We then met Kim and Garry for dinner at the Claim Jumper. (Wayne paid!) Then it was off to the Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. Last time we sat in the third row, this time we were in the balcony, which may have been better seats! It was great again. I hope Kim and Garry had fun, it was fun seeing them! So, two thumbs up for Friday!

Pearl Jam review

Since I promised a Pearl Jam review, and I know regular readers of the blog (both of ya) are on the edge of your seat, a Pearl Jam review it is. Saturday night, Jodi and Rob attended the previously mentioned Pearl Jam concert. Trey stayed at the motel. He was invited, but did not want to go. The first hour of the concert was almost exclusively new songs, some good, some not so good. Its hard to sell angst when you are a multi millionaire I guess. Pearl Jam is anti -pop, no light show, no curtain, they started the show by walking on stage and saying "good evening" then right into the music. The last hour was gold, solid gold. While they did not play at least 5 songs they should have, the last hour was one hit after another from the "old days." The place was completely sold out, and everyone was signing along. Everyone should see them at least once in life! The observation I would make, not to get all philosophical on ya, but Eddie Vedder looked old. A little gray in his beard and hair, a few wrinkles on his face. So, by extension if Eddie is old, we all are old. There is my philosophical thought of the day. (by the way, he really did wear boots and flannel, they haven't changed wardrobe in years)

Pearl Jam! Yes, Pearl Jam.

We plan on breaking out the flannel and the timerland boots this weekend. It is off to Pearl Jam on Saturday night. We are looking forward to this walk down memory lane. Most who know us know we like concerts and have for years, but somehow have missed Pearl Jam. Full report to follow.....

Football update

An update for Trey's football team. Since our last update, they have won two more games. In three games this year, they have not allowed the other team to score in any of them. They have scored at least 40 points in each game. Pretty good for a team with only 10 players. They play 8 man football.

Week that was

No new pictures, just old ones. On Thursday night, Wayne was nice enough to go with Rob, Trey and Trampis to the Boise St. Oregon game. It was fun and Boise won. Friday morning, Rob and Trey had to get up early and head to Imbler for Trey's first football game of the season. He played well and the team played well, they won 40-0! That evening, Jodi met them in LaGrande and they drove back to Boise for the weekend. Saturday was for shopping, we went to the Nike store, the Mall, Costco, and other stores. We were thinking of a movie, but couldn't find one, so we watched a football game and went to bed. Sunday was more of the same, back to the Nike store, then we went and checked out the new mall in Nampa near the car store. It really isn't done yet, all it has so far is JC Pennys and Sports Authority. Jodi and Rob went to a movie, Extract, only average. The whole family went to Outback for dinner. It was good but they really raised the prices. It cost $80 for the three of us to eat dinner. Then we went home and watched another football game. Monday, we basically just got ready and drove home. Pretty boring, huh!

Happy Birthday Trey!

Trey is 14. We celebrated his birthday Saturday. He wanted to do some shopping, so we took him to Best buy to buy some stuff for his I pod he got for his birthday. We then went to the movies, Post Grad. It was ok. We then went to a few more stores, then home to test out some of his new stuff. We got a birthday cake at Dairy Queen. Jodi planned on stopping at a few stores, then we were going to go to dinner and another movie. Well Jodi got a flat tire. The only place open was Sears to fix the tire, so Jodi went there. Trey was hungry and tired of waiting, so Rob and Trey ordered Pizza from Pizza Hut and that was the birthday dinner! She did get home in time to go to another movie Trey wanted to see, District 9, which he really liked. Then, off to bed. Happy birthday Trey!

Wildlife

Last weekend, we went to Boise via Sumpter. This is a fun trip to take in the summer and you often see wildlife. Jodi had her camera ready in case we saw another cougar, but no cougar. We did see this herd of deer and elk, mingling together on the lawn of a house in Sumpter. A herd of elk was there also, but this is the only picture that turned out.

High Lakes hike

This last weekend, we went for our annual hike in the high lakes. We planned on hiking to Chimney lake. We left the house with the plan to be at the trailhead at12:00 noon. We had two problems. The first problem was we went to the wrong trailhead. We turned around and then went to what we thought was the right spot. As we went about a mile, we realized we were on the trail to Maxwell lake, not Chimney lake. So, we turned around. We left at 3:00. That gave us about 5 hours to hike up the hill four miles then down the hill four miles. We made it to the lake at 5:45 stopped for about 15 minutes then turned around. We had to skip our planned jump in the lake, for two reasons: it was cold and we wanted to get back before dark! We made it back to the truck at 8:30, just after dark. When we left the trailhead, we figured it was too late for our annual dinner at the little drive in at Wallowa. However, much to our suprise, as we got there at 9:30, we were pleasantly suprised it was open! So, a nice way to top off the hike.

Starkey

We also really like going to Starkey. We try to go often, sometimes just a ride up there in the evening during the summer time. Sometimes we take the four wheeler, or sometimes we hike around. Sometimes we look for a place to put a cabin! It is more fun when we have others to go with though. These pictures show how much fun it can be!