Christmas at our house

We are nothing if not avid Canuck fans (okay, truth be known, we have a few bandwagon jumpers but I'm not mentioning names here)

These are my fabulous jersey boys - hey, where's the other one?

Who knew shoes could make a boy SO happy?!

Let the games begin...

After a little encouragement, she started ripping paper & looking into bags - atta girl!!!

More Santa Train...

Santa Train

Santa Baby (and her adoring big brother)

The best gingerbread "man" ever!

Isaiah was recruited as a volunteer for this guy's juggling street show. The entertainer was amazing  but Isaiah kind of stole the show (and made $10.00 in the process). Here Isaiah is being juggled, but you have to use your imagination since it's not a video. :)

Actually, Isaiah, Greg & Rick were all part of the show - Rick as the DJ & Greg as a knife thrower & as part of a group of guys who tried to help the guy onto his super tall unicycle - pretty funny!
It was definitely a fun family day.

Cirque de baby

Hey...

                                                              hey guys...

                                                                can you do this?

                    Not bad. How about you Sabrina?

Nice! Now hold it for about 10 minutes!

Ocean Shores, Washington

We spent a week in August @ Ocean Shores.
I thought by August we'd be certain of hot temps, so the idea of the ocean seemed appealing.
Sadly, the weather did not meet our expectations, but we did make the best of it.

The beach was a few minutes walk through grassy dunes, although we could see the ocean from our suite.

The skies tended toward cloudy, and even when they were blue, the constant wind was chilly.

We had some lovely sunsets over the water.

This little guy came by with his family most days

While we walked along the beach the first day, we encountered several groups of horseback riders, so we investigated. As you can see, we have one more thing crossed off our bucketlist.

It was a very relaxing vacation, but all things considered, we won't be going back there again.

Annual arbor shot - getting trickier!

Natasha taking a shot on goal

She scored !!!

We've been taking a picture of all the kidlets each year in this arbor, and this year it's looking alot fuller... they're growing (in more ways than one!)
The ages now are 9, 7, almost 7, 5, 4, and almost 6 months.

You'll notice as you scroll down the series that some of them are a little more inclined to cooperate than others - but I'm including a few of the shots, because their personalities definitely shine through.

How did he get in there???

"Camping" with the Nickels

Last weekend, we took a jaunt down to Deception Pass with E & R, and I gotta say... we were roughing it. Lattes/mochas in the morning, water on tap, plug in whatever you want, nice comfy bed at night, ya, those 36 foot RVs are hard to take!

This is the start of our little morning walk...

... and this was the destination. The journey was a little challenging (personally speaking) but definitely worth the effort!

On Sunday, we pulled out of our site & parked down at the beach (about 200 yards away) & while the hardcore shell seekers were doing their thing, I took the opportunity to finish my book. That's our ride in the background - pretty sweet!

It's been awhile since Rick & I had been to Deception Pass, but it's like a second home to the Nickels - they know that place like the back of their hand/yard. It was a memorable weekend - thanks friends!

fun at the park