Celebrating the Holidays (12-11)

Holidays 2011! Everybody was home in Bismarck, including all 4 of us kids and all 7 grandkids, plus 2 on the way (Jazz and Rowan). It was a houseful to say the least, the kind of delirious family craziness that only the holidays can create.

Malaya and Ama bonded pretty hard...

Mom rallied most of the time,even though she was very sick with her mystery illness, which turned out to be diagnosed later as a bunch of stuff, including Lime Disease, Epstein Barr virus, and Bartonella. Anyway, she said the commotion and constant activity actually made her feel better.

Here are the Batman twins (Malaya and Indra) and Satori. Cousins ranged in age from 10 (Cook will always be the oldest:) to 10 months (Lyric and Demira tied for youngest, but wouldn't hold the title long). Here is Cook in his brand new bathrobe...

A family meal...we didn't even come close to fitting around the table this year! It was so wonderful to have everybody together. It doesn't happen often, and as it gets more difficult, we all just have to try that much harder to make it happen because family is so important! Yay family!

Kid Photo Shoot (12-11)

Imagination Playground (12-11)

One cold day over the holiday break in Bismarck, we took all the kids to the imagination playground, which is located inside of a racquetball court in the World War Memorial building. Mom and Dad's house was busting at the seams with house guests, and this was the perfect way to let all the little cousins run off some energy.

Even Lyric and Demira tried to play, although the foam pieces were a little big for them:)

Halloween 2011

We bought the kids this creepy cookie pizza kit where they could build a junk food pizza out of frosting, sprinkles, and a variety of candy toppings. They were fun to make, but Cook took about 2 bites and decided it wasn't worth eating.

Ama ate a lot of hers and ended up with a tummy ache. She said, "Mom, this is so disgustingly good, it's blowing my mind!"

Grandpa and Grandma were in town for Halloween, so they came over for trick-or-treating. The weather was really good, and we ran into some of the kids' friends as we trick-or-treated, which was nice since this was our first year in a new neighborhood.


Ama was a dark fairy for Halloween, and Cook wore a black scary cape that allowed him to be "a bunch of random things" as he thought of them. He was an Angry Birds trainer for a while and had a sword for a while. Might have been a Jedi.



Ama singing:

Ama's Hand Car

Here is Ama playing with a paper stoplight she brought home from kindergarten in Fall 2011 (age 5). She absolutely LOVED kindergarten, especially her best friend Freya and her teacher Gwen!

Ama's Hello Show Fall 2011

Here is Ama doing a combination of two of her favorite things: making up songs and making up shows. She enjoys doing both of these things whether or not anyone is watching, and sometimes they are VERY long! She is five years old.

Cook's First Cell Phone!

Cook got his first cell phone at the beginnning of 5th grade, just after we moved to Minneapolis. He had been begging for one for a long time, so he was SUPER excited!

We got insurance on it, which was a good thing because we ended up replacing it three times in the first year. Once he got a bum replacement, the other two times his phones got run over by cars. Well, live and learn. And get insurance...love you, Cook!

Alaska 8-11

We took a trip to Alaska for Eric's wedding and in a way it sort of doubled as a family reunion. Here is some of the tribe, including Mike, Zoe, Terri, Devona, Matt, Devona's friend (??), and Cheyenne. Lots of other people were there: Kim, Molly, Bella, Lin, Carolyn, Ellisa, Sidney, Arrolee, Miah, Olivia, Danni's whole family, and Spencer. That's all I can think of, there may have been more. Mom and Dad couldn't come because Mom was sick.

 

 One day we drove up to Seward and went to the aquarium there. The scenery was fantastic!

Ama and Malaya and Cook all dressed up for the wedding. We all stayed in a big house with tons of bedrooms and two kitchens so we could fix meals and spend time together. It was great!

A bunch of people went deep sea fishing and brought home their spoils to be cleaned and packaged for the long trip home. It was like a four hour drive and then a few hours of travel by boat each direction so everybody was pretty exhausted (and some were seasick) when they got home.

For another day trip we took a tram thing up to the top of a mountain (can't remember where it was - that's the downside of waiting a year and a half to document this trip). It was foggy and cold up there, and also very beautiful.

The bride and the groom:

Kids Jumping on Beds in Alaska

Here are Cook, Ama, Malaya, Indra, and Bella jumping on beds at our rental house in Alaska. Keep in mind that these children only represent a portion of the total children that were staying at the house that week. When they all got together, it was seriously crazy time.

Fall Outings with G & G 2011

Here are some pictures from Grandpa and Grandma's extended visit - we got a chance to do and see a lot of fun stuff with them, including the Como Zoo and conservatory, an apple orchard and corn maze, and Minnehaha park.

Summer 2011

Cook and Ama playing on the slip-n-slide in grandma and grandpa's backyard. They have the best backyard ever!! In this video, Ama is 5 and Cook is 10.

Ama and Satori Summer 2011

Ama's New Bed 7-11

Camping in the Driveway 6-11

Because of the flooding on the Missouri, there is absolutely no river access this year and nowhere to camp, so Grandpa and Grandma had the ingenious idea of camping in their driveway! We strung up lights, circled the wagons, tried out Cook's new tent that he got from Spence and Tara for his birthday, and had a fire. It was totally fun and way easier than actual camping!!