AD Conference in Nashville Tennessee

Gaylord Opryland Hotel and The Country Music Hall of Fame

Tol attended the AD conference at the Nashville Convention Center.   Nikki came along for the ride.  The hotel had EVERYTHING indoors!  Waterfalls, restaurants, the convention center, flower gardens, shopping, a boat ride.  Simply amazing.  We also ventured to downtown Nashville and visited the Country Music Hall of Fame.  I caught Nikki....

Kissing the man!

She later made up for it by kissing the Real Man!!!

11th Wedding Anniversary

THE PLAN:

Tol and I switch off years on planning how we will spend our Anniversary.

This year it was my turn.

So here was the plan to show Tol how much I appreciate and love him.

I found out the night we would be celebrating our anniversary was the same night BSU would be playing Hawaii. So I made reservations for The Anniversary Inn. I found the perfect room...The Sports Central Room. It looked like a dream room for an athletic director or any sports fan...A 60" TV surrounded with seven 27" TVs, fooseball, recliners, a putting green, unlimited popcorn, soda, chips, and peanuts! It would be a perfect surprise! Tol would have no clue he would get to watch football on his anniversary with his most favorite person in the world.:) I was so excited I could hardly wait!

2 Weeks Later:

It is finally here! I love surprises! I dropped the kids off at Gammy and Pappy's and went down to check in to the Anniversary Inn. It took me about 40 minutes to figure out the 8 TVs! But I got it! I wanted the pre-game to be on when Tol walked into the room. I rushed home and picked up my hot date. Blind-folded he followed me to the car and we were on our way!

TOL'S REACTION:

I was picked up by my wife thinking we were going out to dinner at a fancy restaurant (she had told me to wear a shirt and tie). As you can see, she blindfolded me! We drove off for our destination. She stopped to pick up some food and a few minutes later she asked me to take off the blindfold...SURPRISE!!! We had parked at the Anniversary Inn! Wow, what a nice surprise. I still did not know her full plan.

ANNIVERSARY INN:

As we walked in, she led me down the hall to room #22 (our anniversary was on November 22nd). She opened the door to a foosball table, 8 TV's, a putting green, and SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS! She then explained that we were watching the Hawaii - BSU football game! Wow, never had I expected to be doing this! I was amazed at my beautiful wife and her extreme love.

She had brought Pizza from Papa Joe's (oh soooo good). AND she had made me a blueberry cream pie for dessert, my favorite! We had such a good time cheering on the Broncos and spending the evening together.

THE EVENING:

During the game, we looked out the window to see an entire family of raccoons and a fox. Our own little view of nature in the middle of town! After the game (The Broncos Lost), we stayed up until 3:00 am playing games, watching movies, and celebrating 11 years of happy marriage.

THE NEXT DAY:

We slept in the next morning and enjoyed the room as long as we could. Breakfast was served in the room. Last year we went to Ceramica and painted a fruit bowl together. We had so much fun we wanted to make it a tradition. We spent the afternoon at "Artist for a Day" working on our family cup.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Parker! Parker!"..."Tol, have you seen Parker?" "Boys, have you seen Parker?" "Did he already get in the car?"
"Maybe?"..."He's not there!" "Parker!"
In a frantic I finally found him taking a little snooze, of all places, under his bed!

Call me crazy, but I love the night before prep, visiting with family while preparing more food Thanksgiving day, and the chaos of a big family!

Here we are out in Nampa at Scott and Geri's for our big family feast...

what noise, what laughs, what chaos...

what fun!!

There was a meer 33 of us in all. There were so many we had to take two different photos to assure everyone would be seen!
Note: Parker and Matthew sitting on the floor are exactly the same age, born only a few hours apart! I love watching them play together, they're good buddies!
You can imagine how much my boys love the holidays when they get to see all their cousins...they love every minute of it!

Tol and I are so grateful for family, good friends-old and new, 3 awesome boys, 11 years of marriage bliss:)(ok maybe not every moment has been blissful, but pretty close),
and BSU football (Tol had to throw that in:))

And now Christmas is just around the corner!! Can't wait, I love this time of year!!

In The Kitchen With Santa

"Are you ready for this, Nik?" "Heck yeah! Bring it on!"

We met Wayne (aka Santa look-a-like) when we went to Seattle in August.

We hit it off from the get go!

A little bit about our friend Wayne Gnomes; A Hawaiian native, married to Kathy, really truly gets mistaken for Santa Claus, very intelligent, a really big guy with an even bigger heart, and an awesome cook!

He promised me in Seattle that next time he was in Boise (which is quite often) he would teach Lisa and me some of his secret recipes and show us how easy cooking really can be.

Wayne, very patiently, giving me tips on how to make

yummy pan fried noodles with pork and veggies.

Viola! Pan fried noodles...and so easy to make. And they were so-o-o-o-o good!

Onto sushi rolls! Tol and Hannah in deep concentration,

you know how competitive Tol can be! Who will be named best Su chef?

Hailey jumped in on the fun, too! And if I remember right she had expert looking rolls!

Hailey taking her victory lap with a few attachments. :)

Thanks, Wayne! See ya next time!

"Zeitgeist Half Marathon"

Nathan Williams, Alec Arhets, and I ran in the "Zeitgeist" half-marathon today. The race started at the optimist football fields on Hill Road, climbed up the hill past Seamans Gulch and through Hidden Springs, down cartwright road back to Hill Road and the finish line (same as the start). We had plenty of concerns coming into the race (will we be able to run the whole thing, will our ailments prevail over us, and will the numerous hills do us in?). We were able to finish under 2 hours, never needing to walk, and Nathan and I ran together for the entire race. My knee began to hurt after mile 1, but not terribly...by mile 11 my leg numbed past pain so I could finish the last two miles.

Results below...

http://results.racecenter.com/2007/zhm07.htm#overall

Halloween 2007

The boys carved their own pumpkins this year!

Tol did a wolf, Taylor did "Happy Hal" and Brayden carved "Patty Melt"

Brayden, Parker, and Taylor

"Trunk or Treat"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Nikki dressed up the boys and herself for trunk or treat on Saturday night. Brayden is a dead fireman, Taylor is a vampire, and Parker is Winnie the Pooh. Nikki stepped out character to play "A witch", and all I could do is throw on the basketball head!

Brayden is spooky creepy!

"The Pumpkin Patch Field Trip"

Brayden's class took a field trip to "The Maze" in Meridian today and Tol had the opportunity to go with him. Brayden hobbled around in cold weather to each part of the day. We started with an "old macdonald" song, rode the pedal carts...
...played in the "corn box"...
...walked through the "pirate ship" corn maze.
...ate lunch together...

...picked out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch...

...took a hay ride, and had a great time with Brayden's class.

BARBER TO BOISE RACE

The Barber to Boise Race took place this Saturday. Nikki and Brandie ran the 5k race starting at Albertsons Corp. on Parkcenter and ending at Ann Morrison Park. Nathan and Tol ran from Barber Park to Ann Morrison Park for the 10k race.

Nathan and I were able to stay together the entire time, finishing one second apart. We started the race with the idea that we would go "slow", but the competitive nature in us kept urging us forward to pass the next runner. In the end, we were passed only once by a man in a "Tighty Whitey" shirt. We kept our eye on him and passed him up with our final sprint to the finish line.

Brayden "breaks a leg"

Nikki and I finally experienced what it's like to have a child with a broken bone.

On Tuesday at about 2:00 I got a call from Nikki saying that Brayden fell down at recess and had been in the Nurses office for the past hour complaining about his ankle. I went to pick him up and brought him to Timberline to have Fitz take a look. We saw no swelling and Brayden did not complain to his pokes and prods. We concluded that he must have a sprain since he would not even attempt to stand on it. (I carried him everywhere). Any bump to his right leg brought crying and tears.

Brayden laid on the couch at Timberline while I worked the Volleyball game until Nikki could pick him up at about 6:00. He slept in our bed without any complaints all night long, but in the morning - any touch or movement caused him to cry once again. Off to the doctor for x-rays.

The poor guy had a spiral break in his right tibia and miraculously did not break his fibula. Apparently in an adult that's not possible, but for a child - the bones are still soft enough.

We made an appointment to get a cast and Brayden thought he was cured to the point of asking the doctor "can I walk out of here?" The doctor said he could try, so he hopped off the doctor's table to instant pain. Needless to say, we still carry him, but he has learned how to "scoot" around the house (picture below) and has tried to take a few steps. He's gotten to be rather fast. He has had a number of friends and family sign his cast as well. Brayden appreciates all of your concerns.