Sushi

OK, so Brian loves sushi. Every time we go to Reno, that's all we hear. "I need to eat sushi." Plus all he has talked about for a year is that he wants a sushi making kit so he can learn how to make his own. Thus a kit appeared under the tree for him this Christmas. We learned today that while most people associate sushi with raw fish, in reality the word sushi means "flavored rice wrapped around other things". So after watching a couple of videos on the web, Brian set out to make some sushi. He made a couple of rolls and then asked Hannah if she wanted to make one. She ended up making 3. This is the last one she made just for Brian with crab, cucumber & some kind of hot sauce Brian keeps in the fridge. Looks pretty good for a teenage girl's third attempt and sushi rolling. :o)

Snow Caves

Brian and Parker went with a group of boy scouts camping in the snow. The goal was to sleep in snow caves. The went some where near Silver Lake which is to the west of Susanville in the Cascades. They have to hike in and pull their gear on sleds. In this picture Parker is on skis, which he had never done before. Brian said he fell a couple of times, but did good for the most part. Brian didn't get a good picture of the caves, but said he shovelled A LOT of snow.

Christmas 2009

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season in 2009. We had a VERY quiet Christmas. We didn't leave the house for 2 days. It was nice to just chill for a couple of days. I failed to get a picture of all 3 kids together. Below is each of them with their loot. I always worry that they don't have enough under the tree & in their stockings, but after all the grandparents, aunts and uncles contribute it ends up being too much. :0) This was a significant Christmas for Parker as he found out that Mom & Dad are Santa. Eli had his suspicions and Hannah already knew. What was really cute was a few days after Christmas, both Hannah and Parker lost a tooth. The next morning while we were reading scriptures, Eli leans over to me and asks if I am the Tooth Fairy. He adds, "be honest. Give me the truth." What's a mom to do??

Snow. More SNOW. SLEDDING!!!

It's been snowing off and on for a week now. On Sunday, 12/6 we awoke with below zero temperatures and a frozen condensation line for our furnace. Yeah! The boys have been asking to go sledding all week. Yesterday we bundled up and headed for Willard Hill (about 8 miles west of Susanville). Hannah didn't want to go and Brian wasn't feeling well so it was just the boys and I. I missed the turn off to the access road because the snow plow had created a fairly high berm that blocked the road from the highway. We turned around and went back to get a better look. Parker asked if we were going to have to go back home. I told him no; we were just going to put it in four wheel drive low and go for it (my dad would have been proud)! Once we were over and breaking trail Parker says, "Wow Mom, that wasn't too bad. Were you scared?" I replied, "Nope." To which he added, "Other moms would have been scared. You rock mom!" Talk about melt your heart. :o) Here are a few pictures I managed to take.

Going up . . .
Coming down . . .

Our lonely truck in the parking area. At 10:30 am we were the only ones there. The boys had the hill to themselves for over an hour.

This was the view at the bottom of the hill. I thought it was a pretty picture. It was snowing.

Thanksgiving 2009

For Thanksgiving this year we made the rounds in Oregon. I had to work the day before and Brian wanted to go the the Lassen High football game (it was the division championships, Lassen won), so we decided to drive on Turkey day. We planned to eat our Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant in Klamath Falls, but the town was dead. Nothing open but an Elmer's and a Sizzler. We were about to give up hope and eat at the Sizzler, when I remember there is a Casino about 30 minutes north of Klamath on Hwy 97. My dad goes there occasionally. Sure enough the tiny casino had a buffet going. Nothing extravagant, but a nice meal. We had fun.

We spent Thanksgiving night at my dad's house in Rufus. Where Parker decided to see if the "old fashioned" rotary phone in the upstairs bedroom worked. What number does he dial?
9-1-1!!! Of course they had to call back to make sure we were all OK. On top of that the Sheriff also called. Ugh!!! So much for an uneventful trip. :o)

On Friday we had lunch with Grandma Jo. We wanted to eat at Brian's favorite Chinese place, but they were closed so we at at Big Jim's. Then Brian fixed a few things on Grandma's computer and we hit the road to Beaverton.

We had yummy tacos for dinner with Brian's brother Brad's family. Brad got Hannah to try cow brain by telling her it was beef. She didn't appreciate that. But Parker liked it and ate two brain tacos! Gross!!!

Then we were off to Grandma Margaret's where we spent the night. We had a lazy morning just visiting with her which was really nice.

On Saturday afternoon we attended Uncle Jerry's 60th "surprise" birthday party. Not as many people came as they were expecting, but it was fun all the same. We stayed with Jerry and Sandy that night and stayed up way too late visiting. It was so nice though. Uncle Jerry made his famous french toast for breakfast. Ahhh, the memories. :o)

All in all is was a nice weekend and for the most part great driving weather. Thanks everyone for feeding us well and letting us crash at your houses. I took our camera but didn't take one picture!!