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