December...January...February

I'm not one to back track, but since I just unloaded the camera and found all the fun things we'd done over the past few months...I couldn't resist.



These are January Birthdays. We'd gone to Chuck O' Rama for our annual "I-Can't-Believe-Dad-is-Buying-Dinner"lunch before we ended up at our place to celebrate Christy and Addison being born.


This is Christmas at the Morgan's. Francis knitted all of us a BSU stocking cap.

This is our Christmas morning. If you look closely, you'll see our LIVE Christmas tree. It's a Norfolk Pine and can live indoors for several years. It was a compromise between Jay and I. We could get a living tree, if it was small and didn't look like a Christmas tree. It was nice to have a slightly larger tree this year. :)

And Finally....the heart shaped pizza for Valentine's Day. They look excited, right? :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I used to be more creative. I would take time to work with the boys to make Valentine's for the grandparents, decorate the house, and frost Valentine's cookies. I learned this from my mom, who was excellent at holidays. She would put little notes in our lunches, let us decorate cookies, make pink heart shaped pancakes with red hots, and the list goes on.

At the Morgan home, this year, it looked more like this:

• Totally thrown of schedule by Valentine's Day being on a Monday.



• Spent last Saturday trying to get house back in order and get piles of grading done...therefore, did not take cute picture of boys with heart pillow, as have done in all years past.



• Decided to have boys use potato stamps to decorate paper that would then be made into cards. On the 13th, scrapped this idea and printed HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY on cute pink scrapbook paper that will never be used otherwise.



• Printed old photo of boys, from Christmas, spelling out LOVE with their little bodies (very cute).



• Had boys work in sweat-shop-like conditions to sign all cards and glue pictures onto the front.



• Let boys roll out heart shaped cookies...ran out of time to frost.



• Quickly made little valentine's for the boys at 11:00 at night, before retiring to bed.



• Forgot that spouse would probably like one, too...quickly made one at 6:00 in the morning before heading to work.

If you would like to see what good parents do for Valentine's, check out my sisters' blogs.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bicycling

Our Pontiac has not been in great running condition for months now, so I have officially become a bike commuter. In the past I have tried to ride as often as possible...however, if it was too cold, rainy, or if I had loads of work to bring home, I would choose to drive. Since the choice to drive has been taken away, I have enjoyed endless days of biking the 3 1/2 miles to and from work every day...no matter what. So, I've decided to compile a list of things I love and don't love about commuting by bike:

Things I Love:

1. Feeling refreshed and ready for my day.


2. Knowing that if I don't get another workout in, at least I've done my 30 minutes.


3. Time to think and enjoy the great outdoors.


4. Knowing that I'm doing something great for the environment.


5. Improving my fine motor skills while weaving in and out of traffic.

Thinks I Don't Love:

1. Riding when it is below 25 degrees.


2. Rain, snow, and fog.


3. Dodging cars who don't look both ways before proceeding.


4. Bad hair days...every day.


5. Remembering to get both my skirt and shoes in the bag, so I look professional while at work.

We had a gorgeous day last weekend and decided to go for a bike ride together as a family. Nikolai rode his own bike and I took Aleksi on the tag-along. We rode down to the north end and took some back roads to avoid traffic. We stopped off to see our good friends, Cynthia and Mike, enjoyed a nice stroll with them, and then headed home. All in all it ended up being about 13 miles. Jay and I felt like terrible parents, since Nikolai hasn't ridden his bike for quite a while...but he was a trooper and we had a great time.

We're hoping for some warmer weather and more chances to get out on the bikes.

Rock Climbing

Uncle Justin came to town for a few days and bought a child sized harness for the boys. They headed out to try out Jay's new rope and the new harness. They had a great time and I'm sure they can't wait to get out again.

City of Trees Marathon

Jay ran the City of Trees Marathon for the 2nd time last week. He trained for about 18 weeks and found that he can run some pretty fast miles. These are pictures right before he crossed the finish line. It was a pretty warm day, which is why he tossed his shirt at about mile 18. He had a fantastic time of 3 hours and 9 minutes. This was two minutes faster than two years ago, but not as fast as he was hoping for. However, I was pretty proud.

Jay's Birthday Camping Adventure

For Jay's birthday, he and I headed up to McCall to camp and enjoy some beautiful weather. Camping in October is usually out of the question, but we enjoyed something closer to early September weather.

We got into McCall late and set up camp at Last Chance. Then we headed into town for dinner. Then next morning we did a quick trail run about two and half miles to a waterfall. Sorry, no pictures of that, camera's are hard to handle while running.

The rest of the day was spent biking around Payette Lake. We were in for a real treat with a sunny sky, fall colors, and a clear lake. We had lunch on the beach and had an ice cream cone at the end. That is one thing I remember about going to McCall when I was younger, Grandpa always got us an ice cream cone.

On our way home, we headed through Donnelly and up into the mountains in search of a hot spring. We found it, although it was an interesting one. There are two shacks with water piped in and a cement "tub" to soak in. The temperature was fantastic and we enjoyed a nice soak. We drove around Cascade lake to get home and hit Los Betos in Boise for a late night dinner.

It was a great way to say happy birthday to Jay and goodbye to the camping season.

First Day of School

Well, I guess this is better late than never. Here are a few pictures of the boys on their first day of school. Yes, I know it is already mid-October, but I can't imagine you expect any more from me. I had a colleague cover my 1st period class, so that I could head over and see them on their first day. As you can see, they were quite excited to get back to school. Lucky for us, they still have that enthusiasm. Oh, and that is not our fancy car in the background of the the third picture...just in case you thought we'd upgraded.