Merry Christmas!

Andy happily waiting for his dad to get the remote-controlled tractor working. Demonstrating how Horton hears...
...and giving us his elephant impression.
Walking through the Mt. Baker/Snowline neighborhood on Xmas afternoon.

Mt. Baker crafts and cooking

We spent the Christmas week at Mt. Baker. Below, Andy makes glitter oranaments with Nonna (while wearing his long johns), and then helps Grandpa (or "Mumpa") grind almonds for his traditional holiday almond torte.

Happy Birthday Bryn!

For Bryn's 2nd birthday (already!?!) Melissa arranged a party at the Macy's Santa brunch -- what a treat! We had a wonderful time with Bryn and Miss, Rita, Jada, Carsyn and Hayden!
The beautiful birthday girl!
Hayden, Carsyn, Bryn and Andy
Andy was feeling a little under the weather (sign no. 1: he didn't eat any of his brunch, not even the Christmas cookie; sign no. 2: see photo below!). But he did rally for the acting troupe's annual Santa play.
Andy took this picture of Bryn, so she's giving that face to him, not me!
Jada and Hayden!
Thanks Auntie Melissa for the wonderful party. Happy Birthday Bryn!

Family Christmas

Since our family will be in various places for Christmas, we got together early this year for an afternoon gift exchange and general merriment at Carole and Harry's. Andy shows the younger Harry his monkey impersonation.
What, do I have some chocolate on my face?
Andy loves doing everything Katie does!
Looking at the big boats!
On the balcony with Katie -- mom holds tight to Andy!

House

While I was cooking the other day, I set Andy up with blocks in the kitchen. I heard him saying "house, house!" and turned around to see this block masterpiece. Notice the "I'm so sweet" finger on his cheek -- where did he pick that up?

Adam and Whitney's holiday party

We had originally planned to go to a handful of holiday parties last weekend, but with power outages, most were cancelled. Thankfully, Adam and Whitney's party went forward as planned! Here, Andy opens his first present of the holiday season -- a Mariner's monkey from Gregg!

The big storm!

We were one of the very lucky few who never lost power in the huge storm last week, but we did lose a tree! This is a picture of our backyard, including what was once our secure fence. The tree came to rest on our neighbor's roof, but no apparent damage, whew!

Ah, Maui

Oh what a wonderful place to be... We had a great trip to Hawaii Dec. 7-11, just the two of us! A huge THANK YOU to Mom and Tom, who took care of Andy at our house while we were gone!!!

We got an upgrade and, as you can see, there was nothing but ocean view from our room. From our balcony, we could see endangered green sea turtles coming up for air. We snorkled with them once or twice each day at the famous "Black Rock," which was right at our hotel.


The pool, grounds and beach at the Sheraton Kaanapali Beach. The torches are lit on "Black Rock," where we'd snorkle during the day.
Oh so cool!

Andy gets musical...

Brunch!

See Jen's blog for some great pics of Andy and Bryn at brunch this past weekend:

http://jentraveler.blogspot.com/2006/12/breakfast-with-friends.html

A few photos from the week

The snow has melted, but I had to post these photos of Shawn's snowman from last Sunday night...
Here's Andy in the leggo container. Cute pictures, but seconds later it fell over and he busted his lip open on the cabinet --- and there I was, holding the camera, 10 feet away! Stupid stupid.

I just love this picture. Shawn and Andy laying on the floor -- their normal end of the day play time -- with Andy playing the guitar and singing, eyes shut tight. It can't get much better than this!