Santa Time

All three smiles seem to say "This means so much to the other two, Just be polite and get through this." At least we avoided last years "Santa fear freeze up".

Check out last years pick bellow.


Just kidding. Check it out here.

Bringing the merry back to Christmas

Last week we got out the tree and started decorating. It really got us into the Christmas spirit.

It seems like just yesterday that I was planning my Halloween costume. I think it turned out pretty good.


I got out my Christmas stocking. I can't wait to see what Santa is going to fill it with this year.


I think the best Christmas decorations are the home made ones.


I even got started shopping early for Julies present.


Hint hint. Here is something on my wish list.


And it is not just our family who has the Christmas spirit. Everyone is so helpful. Our local hardware store is very customer service orientated.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Day it's over!

Saturday we had a Birthday party for John and Will. They had been invited to several parties this year and wanted to have one that they could invite their friends to. Up till now it has always been family parties. I prefer less formal gatherings.

What do we do? Our back yard is not up to hosting a party. Chuck y Cheese is NOT AN OPTION! And most other places require reservations way farther in advance than I care to let my mind wander.

We took the easy way out. Harkins theaters has a kids birthday party package that gets you movie tickets, a kids snack pack, thank you cards, and a gift for the birthday boy/girl. So we went to see Mega mind with .....15 six and seven year olds.



After the movie we sat out in the grass and had turkey sandwiches, apple slices, and cupcakes.

Then presents!

Have you ever seen Shark Week on the Discovery channel? What is the difference between our birthday party and a feeding frenzy? If you hit a shark on the nose he will back off. (No children were harmed during our party. They are tuff little boogers.)

If you are curious how many you could take out click here.

Double trouble and Ray LaMontagne

On Monday is the boys 7th birthday. I thought you should all see who really deserves the credit for who has kept them alive this long.

Travel log is over. Time for my Favorite pictures of the week.

You can click on any picture to see it full size.








Please vote for your favorite picture in the comments section. I don't care if you know me or not. I want some feedback.

Busy week

It has been a busy couple of weeks here for us. On Oct. 8 the Julie's Parents came to visit. Here is Grandpa John teaching Lil' John how to play chess after church. They stayed with us and managed to help us destroy our living room (another post for later) before they left on Wednesday morning.

After dropping grammy and grampy off at the airport we headed north. We had some friends who invited us to come and stay at there ranch with them for a few days. This is the view from the back porch.



Just like when we go camping the boys turned feral. The wild rumpus has started.


For half a day we went down the road and visited Bryce Canyon. We saw deer, antelope, and lots of French and German people. A word to our European guests. Shirts have sleeves, and if your shorts go past your calves they might as well make it all the way to your shoes.


What more could you want from a picture?



Here is Grandpa Rex's new toy. We had to test it out. Stretch it's legs so to speak. It should work perfectly for Alaska next year.


Number 1 on the boys list was to ride a horse. John loved it so much that when we told him the horses names he didn't care. He was going to rename them after we bought them anyways.



It has been almost 40 years since my dad had saddled a horse, but that muscle memory kicked in and it was like a day had not passed by.



Mandatory grumpy Will on vacation picture.


John was so upset when his favorite shoes took a mud bath.


Unflattering? Yes, but this is what fun looks like.



This is the House and barn.

Here we go!

Florence 2011 here we come! Oh yeah, and Alaska 2011 here we come too!



Thiokol Imp Snowcat.

Here I am

I am sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I have to admit that when I started this blog a couple years ago that I had aspirations of sharing something meaningful. I wanted to put finger to keyboard and reveal the beauty and hilarity of everyday life. I wanted to be a cross between Nie Nie and Christian Slatar from "Pump it up". It has turned out that I really don't have much to say. That is okay because it appears not may people are reading this anyways, so it all works out.

Not much has been going on at Casa de la Condie. We spent most of the last weekend cleaning out our closet. I read a couple weeks ago that in 1995 scientists in Brazil found a man who was the last of his tribe in the densest part of the rain forest. We are taking stone age civilization here and now. When they tried to make contact with him it ended with an arrow in a scientists face. The government then decided to change its policies of assimilating found tribes into modern culture ,but to protect them from incursion. They ordered a 30 mile radius "off limits zone" so this man can live his life in peace. We found him in our closet. We picked up a box of old clothes and there he was field dressing a cabara. He seemed nice enough. We exchanged some tobacco and salt pork. I tried to take his picture but he said something about ancestor spirits and dashed back into the blackness. So now I am prohibited by the Brazilian government from "further cleaning or developing for public use" my closet.

I'm stupid like a Fox

About 3 months ago we got a chip in the windshiled of Julies car. Within just a week or so it turned into a crack several inches long. As the dutiful husband that I am I lined up a mobile glass company to replace it. I really did my home work. It was one of those places that will either pay your deductible of give you $100 to replace your window. Seeing as we had full window coverage on our insurance we took the money.

We haven't even had the oil changed in Julies car since then when about 2 weeks ago Julie comes home and says there is a new crack in the windshield. Within about 10 days the crack has migrated about 25 inches. I got all fired up and called the shop that replaced my glass and demanded they give me a new windshield under warranty. They were nice and stopped by Julies work to check it out. They then pointed out a very small impact from a rock right were the crack started. I was told they couldn't replace it under warranty. They could however replace it again and give me another check for $100.00

Ooh, Okay. I feel a little dirty. I think I'll go fill my bath tub full of dollar bills and try to clean my self up a bit.

No one is looking so who cares

1. Did you get the memo about the new cover letter on the TPS reports? I can resend you the memo.
2. Some one is about to loose a hand in 3.....2......1..
3. This reminds me. My Birthday is coming up.
4. Owl reenacts delousing scene from Shawshank Redemption.
   

Is it okay to have chains and whips in the bedroom if you are wearing a ring masters hat?

Welcome to socialized health care.

I have always suspected, but now I know.

This isn't for a family picture. They are in time out. The mom is in the corner panting like animal from the Muppet Show.

I woke up the other morning to Julie rubbing body glitter on me and a coupon for "1 free hair cut" from Tony and Guy taped to my forehead.

This is funny cause Lance lost one of his nuts to nut cancer.

Palette cleanser.

The yoga has really been paying off.

School Daze

As most of you know John and Will started school last year. In fact they are going to the same school I went to from K-8. Walking those halls and stepping into my old class rooms has brought back a lot of memories. I get to relive some of them just by watching the looks on my sons faces. Some experiences are different. Last year I dropped them off to start Kindergarten at almost the exact same spot my mother stood and and said good bye to me exactly 30 years before. The difference is John and Will were much braver than me. The salt from my tears is still in that soil.

Today they started 1st grade. John in fact, is in the class room that I had 3rd grade in. This room has history for me. History that has stayed only in the farthest corners of me. I should say not just a class room, but also a tree. A tree we planted, as a class, 28 years ago. I wondered if the tree was still there? I wondered if anyone would know why it was there? I wonder now why I care so much? Is it because I am feeling sentimental or is it that an 8 year old doesn't know how to process these kind of emotions and they have been waiting for me to deal with them? Triggered by walking my son to school.

You see that class room was where I first learned that somebody I knew had died. She was a class mate I had known since preschool. I had gone to her birthday party. The only boy in fact, I thought it meant something. We had all come back from spring break but her desk was still empty. It took almost another week before our teacher told us. She was traveling with her family and was in a car accident and was killed instantly. As a memorial we had a fund raser and had a plaque made to honor her memory and planted a tree in the courtyard just out side of our classroom. The tree is still there. The plaque is still there and apparently so is a small part of my youth.

Seattle part II

Here is a few more. I don't want to disappoint my reader.

Seattle Part 1. Well, maybe. We'll see how adventurous I feel.

On July 10 Julie's littlest sister got married to her boyfriend Trace Lewis. Lisa Lewis, That has a nice ring to it. It was an unusually hot day in Seattle. It was in the middle 90's and they haven't invented air conditioning in western Washington yet. Even tho it was a warm day it was still a wonderful day to get married.

Trace and Lisa Lewis.

I wasn't their photog, but they did indulge me a little.


Lisa with all her flower girls. I want everyone to know that I steamed all the flower girl dresses, and half the bridesmaids dress.


Yes, My gorgeous wife.


This is another of Julies sisters with her disgustingly beautiful family. If you replace the baby in Scotts hand with a glass of scotch, he would look like he just walked off the set of Mad Men.

Karen, I meant "disgustingly" in a purely complimentary manner...........slightly envious with a hint of self degradation, but mostly complimentary.


Elly was helping diagnose the severity of Wills scraped knee.


On Monday we went to the Seattle Zoo. We saw Tigers, Gorillas, Elephants, and Orangutans. And I took pictures of all of them. However, with trips like this I always end up enjoying the pictures of the people I went with more than the pictures of what we went to see. I did take pictures of our family, just not enough.


I like this one below. Does it even matter what they are looking at?