Holiday Cheer

We had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving it was so great to see everyone! (Anderson's you were missed.)

I've caught an awful bug that I hope none of you get, it's been the pits.  I left work early Friday and today and slept pretty much all weekend!  UGH!

However, Justin brought me home a cheerful surprise today!  

We said we weren't going to get one this year but I think this is exactly what I needed to lift my spirits!  He's a little guy but he's perfect for this year.  Thanks Justin and thanks Mom and Dad for raising such a sweetheart who knows just how to cheer a person up!

In between napping this afternoon/evening I was able to do some decorating!

Justin also got icicle lights for me and hung them last week.  It's beginning to look at lot more like Christmas.

See you all in a few more weeks.  Here's to holiday cheer and getting/staying healthy!

Our long but cool trip.

Ok just a warning there will be lots of pictures, right now I have 50 on my desktop but I will try to widdle it down to like 15 how I don't know...a but yeah anyone already annoyed might want to not read!  :).   So our long but cool trip was to Pennsylvania to get a Powered Parachute, Thain's latest obsession or toy whatever... it is cool though and since I've seen a lot of the states already thanks to Mom and Dad and Thain I thought it would be cool to see them all so this was a great way to start to do that.......hmm......by great do I mean somewhat long and mind numbing at times, yes, but also cool and well worth it......so since pictures tell a thousand words and who wants to hear me droon on and on anyhow I will get to the pictures.
First  and last up Wyoming!   Southern Wyoming through 80 is a lot like going through Nevada......enough said I can't find the darn  picture I had anyhow.

Second up Nebraska. (above)
 Mostly flat farmland.  It's called the Corn belt of America for a reason, folks.  These midwestern states have Hours and Hours of grain fields.  but hey did you know that Nebraska has the largest Aquafer (underground water lake) in America.

And I must say Omaha by the Missouri river, where we stayed was quite charming.   It had the cutest park areas and a very delicious, ambiant mexican resteraunt downtown....Yumm I think I'm gaining weight just thinking about it!

The Missouri river.   a very pretty river I thought.

Third up Iowa.  Lots more farmland but a very neat and organized state.  That is what impressed me about it.  I don't have any pictures as I think I took some on my waterproof camera and somehow lost that thing.  Dad would be interested to know probably though that it is a gambling state.  :).

Next...Illinois, more farms and  I only took pictures of Chicago so here are some above and below.  We are on a cute Pier called the Navy Pier.....

Doesn't the above picture look like an ocean scene.....well It wasn't it was Lake Michigan, One of our great Lakes, I had no idea that the great lakes were like that I had no idea what they were like at all.
See it was a very educational trip.   I am now oh so much smarter, yes I know hard to believe after all aren't you thinking How could You get any smarter!  I know I know but hey I guess even the elite smartest ones as I have room to grow.   Can you tell I'm feeling oh so sarcastic today.  Hmm.   well I am so bear with me......

Our route in black.

So where was I ..oh yes....Next we traveled on 80 through the top Of Indiana and bottom of Michigan and then through Ohio.  I'm not sure which if any pictures I took of there so I will show you a map of our crazy trip route. (above).  

We finally reached Pennsylvania in 4 days travel actually what was to be the shortest half of our trip bought the powered parachute and then traveled down to West Virginia.    They were in a pretty part of Pennsylvania where there was a bit of Amish territory.  It was really interesting and cool to see the amish drive by on their horse and buggy or see their homes mostly white with white curtains and out houses be side the homes.   I do respect a lot of their lifestyle but I have to say, Indoor plumbing is quiet nice.

West Virginia was very hilly and who knew but it is 75% covered with forest.....

                               
Kentucky was one of my favorites.  Lexington above had miles and miles of beautiful horse country and estates.  Louiville about an hour West of Lexington is famous for the Kentucky derbys after all and I guess Lexington is the big place to buy horses but it was a lot prettier then the parts of Louiville we went by.   Also we dropped south  in Kentucky, out of our way to go see Mammoth Cave, the largest cave system in the world over 375 miles of it and they still think they haven't found it all.  Wow.  The cave was cool, but in itself not as geologically interesting as Carlsbad and others I guess but hey it was the longest in The World...we had to see it!  (pictures below)

Rilan was happy so long as we were on the go......when they stopped to talk about it he was quite antsy! I'm such a wiz now I can tell you 100 percent of the rocks down in Mammoth cave......as you can tell they all looked similiar and the guide said were all limestone so well I guess I didn't have to be so smart to remember that. :).

Missouri was more farm land I believe I'm getting them confused a little ..in itself not overly impressive I guess but we went on a boat down the Mississippi in an old style boat called the Tom Sawyer.  It was fun in that so much travel and history is tied up with this river but the boat ride itself was a little dry and a bit of hype but hey it was another thing you've just gotta do.  Also the St. Louis Arch all made of Steel was quite pretty and impressive....We also were able to go up to the top of it in these capsule like elevater things...really cool.

They also had a pretty interesting underground museum as well under the arch.  With mostly things about traveling west, from Lewis and Clark's experiences and such it was interesting.    I don't know that much about Franklin Rossevelt but I do like what he says in that quote.   A lot of places in illinois or Indiana and Kentucky do have a lot of things about Lincoln also... I believe his birthplace was there in Kentucky.  I'm not sure what the other states claim on him is though.   I really have a lot of respect for him as a president and some of our other country forefathers.  I like reading a lot of their quotes and things.  

Kansas I'm pretty sure....more farmland!  

We did stop towards the western part of Kansas and when we were back up in Nebraska going back to try out the Powered Parachute or well I should say to help Thain do so.  He wants to figure it out really well before taking anyone up.  Very gentlemanly I must say.  It did take us a few tries to get it started and the parachute going right but he seems to have the hang of that now and thinks it's very simple to handle.  He did get going pretty fast after that and had a good time.  (pics below)

Rilan was at first scared about it all and then enjoyed watching and riding in it when the shoot was put away and the vehicle was on the ground of course!  

The kids were really great sports...after all a long car ride with kids can be quite the challenge and there were moments like this for them their looks say it all... (above)

But mostly they were as joyful as ever and as big a joy as ever.  I really have two wonderful precious kids.  Nothing could be better then being a Mom to them of course don't ask me to say that after they have taken turns waking me up all night and then getting up at 4:30 in the morning AGHH..ok you still can I'd say the same but it would be harder and I would be grumpier (heaven forbid I ever be grumpy that is)

Ok that was still very long with lots of pictures but I did widdle it down a bunch I promise I tried and it was hard!... but I hope it wasn't too long to go through...I'm already tired from posting it. :).   Also for those of you who might not have catched my little face book blurp.  Abbie is seriously starting to crawl!  Crazy girl, she gets on all fours and gets around the room at least is it a completly coordinated crawl yet no but wow all the same!    Also Happy Thanksgiving coming up to all of you!  Good luck in having fun with out us pshht.   No I'm sure it will be a great thanksgiving and we'll miss you and I'm really thankfull for each of you being my family and freinds.  Love you.

Happy Halloween!

Here are the pumpkins!  

The kids are at the perfect ages for Halloween.  Trick-or-treating was really fun for everyone.

I think they got enough candy to last a little while.

We had "mummy dogs" and pumpkin soup for dinner.  The soup tasted just alright, the mummies looked cute.

Christmas List 2011

Hi Family. Based on limited feedback it looks like we will be keeping with the two gifts format this year. Jill also suggested getting one gift for Heath and Amber as a solution to making the numbers work out so with those constraints I ran the Santa program and got this list:

    @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
    @@@@@ CHRISTMAS LIST 2011 @@@@@
    @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

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***John***
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Adults: ['Kathryn', 'Jill']
Children: ['Deven', 'Abriela']

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***Cris***
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Adults: ['Thain', 'Jen']
Children: ['Bronco', 'Emily']

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***Jen***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Thain', 'Justin']
Children: ['Colby', 'Aiden']

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***Nate***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Alisa', 'Jeremy']
Children: ['Colby', 'Abriela']

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***Jill***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Jeremy', 'Kathryn']
Children: ['Aiden', 'Ben']

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***Thain***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Cris', 'Nate']
Children: ['Brianna', 'Emily']

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***Justin***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['John', 'Cris']
Children: ['Rilan', 'Amber']

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***Alisa***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['John', 'Nate']
Children: ['Heath', 'Bronco']

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***Jeremy***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Alisa', 'Jill']
Children: ['Brianna', 'Rilan']

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***Kathryn***
----------------------------------------
Adults: ['Jen', 'Justin']
Children: ['Deven', 'Ben']

To remind me if need be, here is also the calendar months assigned:

Mom and Dad -           FEB/AUG

John and Cris -           MARCH/ SEPT

Jen and Nate -            APRIL/ OCT

Jill and Thain-             MAY/ NOV

Justin and Alisa-         JUNE/DEC

Jeremy and Kathryn-   JAN/JULY

Summer, Please Don't Go

Greetings from the Northern Dunlap's.  Everyone seems to be having busy summers this year.  The Northern clan is no exception.


We did some traveling...

We went to SF and saw two GIANTS games!

We helped Mom and Dad with the shed

We biked in Sacramento with my Dad

We did a house project...

Scrape, scrape, scrape, sand, sand, sand all the paint off the railing for the deck

Harder than it looks trust me

All re-painted!

We harvested lots of yummy vegetables...

Empty garden beds

Full garden beds

Carrots!

Peas!

Beets!

Finally TOMATOES!

 My flowers bloomed...

Stargazer lilies

Roses

Gladiolus

Justin is at Burning Man this week so I'm home alone with Zoey. I cooked lots of delicious fresh veggies and went for lots of walks since I finally got this off:

BOO...walking boot for 3 weeks (guess all that running caught up with me...I'm not 100% healed but enough to walk around without the boot)

Looking forward to having Justin back!  I'm hoping we'll keep the summer weather for a few more weeks since it took so long for it to appear.  Hope everyone else is enjoying summer as much as much as we are!