When I was in high school I used to practically live at Rib Mountain aka Granite Peak during the winter time.  I started skiing at 14 and switched to snowboarding at about 16. After getting married I didn’t spend any time riding (hard to do that in Hawaii), but now that we’re back in WI I decided it’s been long enough.

I got the boys up to Devil’s Head Resort located in Merrimac, WI (about 30 miles north of Madison) this last weekend for a day of riding with my sister and her boyfriend.

I was a bit nervous, after such a long break, but it was just like riding a bike, it was awesome to be back in the saddle!

Have to mention that the boys have caught the bug and everyone can’t wait to get out again

Pics below:

This year all 3 boys are in school.  Ashten’s in 8th grade, Tanner’s in 3rd, and Ryan is in kindergarden.  Huge differences there!

Below are their school pics for this year.

Another Christmas has come and gone.  For us this means that Ashten and Ryan are also another year older.

We went to Chula Vista in Wisconsin Dells this year and were joined by my father, my sister Vanessa, and her boyfriend Jeff.  Then Brad’s father’s family, had their annual Christmas there as well, so we had all kinds of extended family and it was awesome!

Christmas Photo Slideshow

One of Tanner’s gifts was a HUGE bottle of Spongebob bubble bath.  He decided he wanted to take a bath in the jacuzzi tub, and of course used the jets.

Enjoy the pics below.

For Christmas this year we are heading out of town to Chula Vista in Wisconsin Dells, so we had our gift exchange with Brad’s brother’s family early.  The kids got a lot of cool stuff,  you can tell we’re turning into a family of gamers (shock!).

Ashten and Ryan also received their birthday presents since they both have birthdays this week.

Slideshow

This year the two elementary schools in town did their Christmas program together.  Because it was so large it was held in the high school gym, which coincidentally use Orion Energy Systems’ lighting fixtures.  For those that don’t know, I work for Orion as their web developer.

The program was really cute and the boys did well.  Unfortunately as soon as we got there,  Brad was called into the plant for an emergency ERO test…what timing!

Slideshow

On Monday, Dec. 14. 2009 Ashten was running late for the bus (socializing you know) after school.  He ran to catch the bus, slipped on the wet floor and smashed his knee into the metal frame of the doorway spraining it badly.

Below are the photos.

On December 9, 2009 we had a huge snowstorm across the entire state of WI.  Schools were closed, traffic was bad, etc!

At our house the roads had not been plowed yet, so our driveway was also not plowed (we have someone do it for us).  The power went out shortly after 8 am, which also meant we had no water.  The plow came through around 9:30ish and cleaned out the driveway, but with  no power it also meant we couldn’t get out of the garage (the door is HEAVY). The power came back on around 2pm, it was cold in the house by then around 62.  We still did not have cable for a couple more hours after that.

At any rate the boys and Cleveland had a great time in the snow.  View the pics below.

Ryan really enjoys helping out in the kitchen, so this weekend he and I made Christmas cookies. Definitely lots of fun.

View the rest of our Christmas cookie photos

We used the following recipe to make the cookies Mary’s Sugar Cookies

Rated: Submitted By: Pat Photo By: What a Dish! Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 8 Minutes Ready In: 2 Hours 25 Minutes Servings: 60

This year was a ton of fun. Ashten was a “Scary Jester”, Ryan was “Yoda”, and Tanner was a “S.W.A.T” team member. Elke used Selene from “Underworld” as inspiration and was a gothic vampire, winning the contest at work for the best group costume.

Slideshow