Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

I thought I'd share this picture of a sunset in Belleville this past week. It had beautiful, vibrant colors. Of course, pictures hardly ever do justice for sunsets. We arrived back in Idaho late last evening. We celebrated our 5 th anniversary on an airplane. Today, Natalee had rice cereal for the first time. She was really excited about this. She wanted more! For the last month or more, she has been watching us very intently every time we ate or drank anything. So, it was FINALLY her turn! I also let her drink some extremely diluted apple juice, which she liked. I have been trying to have her drink just water, but that has not gone over very well. Since an airplane ride is not a proper way to celebrate an anniversary, we went out to dinner this evening. We went to a sports bar and grill so that we could watch Penn State beat Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl -- We are....Penn State!

Here are some more holiday photos. Sadly, I forgot my camera when we got together with the Yoder side of the family on Sunday. On Christmas Eve, we went to my grandparents house for our feast. We held a white elephant gift exchange.... ...Pappy got some "Over the Hill Hearing Aids" Uncle John got some lovely "Ho Ho Ho pants" and showed them off. The gift exchange brought a lot of laughs! My mom got a Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fish. I got Mamma's OLD scissors that have not been sharp for years! Natalee tried a lollipop! She thought it was great. On Christmas Day, all family members who did not have any other place to go came to my parents house for feast leftovers. Leftovers weren't too shabby! Then, we played Rummikub. As you can see, Natalee was quite a help for Zeb! She moved all of the tiles for Zeb.

Today, we tried to go on our annual if-it's-not-precipitating Christmas Eve day hike to the Stone Valley Vista on the Link Trail. We've done this quite a few years and every year we seem to bring along somebody who hasn't hiked it with us before. This year, Natalee, Katie, and Todd were new to the trail. But, as you can see it was a sheet of thick, hard ice for as far as we could see. Since I had Natalee in the front pack, we decided it was probably best if we turned around. So, our hike ended far short of the vista. Bummer. Maybe next year. In Photo: Lindsay with Natalee in the front pack, Jesse, Dad, Katie, and Todd

There is not that much snow left, but we tried to have fun in what was left anyway. I went up into the attic and got out my sled to pull Natalee around the yard. Natalee didn't find it that fun, so our fun didn't last that long. I think she wanted to sit up, which isn't quite possible yet in a sled. So, we ended up going for a walk in the stroller instead. The scenery was still really pretty with a little bit of snow coating the ground.

We had the chance to meet Lilly Buckles last night. We met up with Jen, Jimmy, and Lilly in Altoona, PA, at the Olive Garden. Jen was one of my college roommates and one of my bridesmaids at our wedding. They had fun grabbing each others faces and arms. I think Lilly's red sweater was intriging. I got to hold Lilly! She was quite good at throwing her toy keys on the ground. Lilly thought she should grab the mints. Natalee could have stayed on Jimmy's lap all night. She was quite happy and satisfied on his bouncing knee! It was great to finally get the two girls together. Hopefully it won't be too long until they see each other again. We figure in the future we will be meeting at Chuck E. Cheese's instead of the Olive Garden!

We enjoyed cross country skiing yesterday at Farragut State Park , just north of Coeur d'Alene . Jesse's mom, Bonnie, switched with another person so that she could have the day off and watch Natalee for us. Even though the snow wasn't the best -- and they had not groomed the trails -- it was a lot of fun. It was really quiet out. I was hoping to see some wildlife. We did not see much, but we did see a couple of whitetail deer. Also, we saw some elk tracks. We hadn't been cross country skiing in a really long time. We did not go at all last year when I was pregnant. Being the bad skier that I am, I didn't want to risk falling badly. Therefore, I used some muscles yesterday that have not been used in a while! Hopefully we will get to go again sometime this year. I wish we lived closer to a place that I could practice more often!

We have begun our Christmas vacation now. We drove over here to Post Falls Saturday morning. On Wednesday we go to Pennsylvania for a bit. Today, we walked around Coeur d'Alene visiting some of the little shops. Natalee enjoyed walking around in her front pack. Then, this evening, we looked at the Christmas Lights at the Coeur d'Alene Resort . They decorate the marina and hotel with a lot of lights, including some that move, like the Loch Ness Monster.

Tonight we were in the nativity scene at Celebrate Jesus . This is the big production that our church, the Port Orchard Church of Christ , puts on every year. It is a big thing. Cars drive through and see different scenes that overview the whole life of Jesus. There is a lame man scene, a fishers of men scene, woman at the well scene, turning water into wine scene, etc. Pretty neat. Jesse was Joseph, I was Mary, and Natalee was baby Jesus. I thought that was fitting since Natalee's name means "born on Christmas Day". Natalee did very well the whole time. She was quite a hit. She just took everything in and smiled.

We walked to the Log Cabin Museum here in Port Orchard today to have our pictures taken with Santa Claus. Natalee was more interested in Meg! No, we are not big on Santa, but it was fun anyway.

Yesterday, we went on a small hike at Anderson Landing Park near Seabeck. We had wanted to go to Scenic Beach State Park -- but it was closed. I'm guessing that they had some problems with all of the rain we got last week. It was a beautiful day and we thought the views would be phenomenal with all of the new mountain snow. Anderson Landing was a pretty walk. It just did not have quite the same views. I don't know why it is called Anderson Landing. I suppose some guy named Anderson landed here! There were nice mountain views -- if you could see them through all of the trees! Obviously this viewpoint has not been maintained in a while. Natalee kept making this goofy look. Big eyes and lower lip sucking.

Natalee sat in her high chair for the first time this evening. No, she did not eat any solids, but she did enjoy sitting at the table and talking to us. Poor Meg. Natalee has learned this week to purposely touch Meg. Natalee has been VERY interested in Meg for a while now, but she just figured out how to touch her. Meg usually leaves, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

I found a few videos on Y ouTube that show a bit of what went on yesterday in Kitsap County. I witnessed the beginning of the water rise that is in this first video. However, on my way home, I got on the highway at Newberry Hill's upper southbound entrance, thus avoiding the worst at the bottom of the hill. Then was this portion of Hwy 3 on the way back to Port Orchard . You can see the water pouring off of the hillside. I actually travelled on the road at the top of the ridge to Gorst to avoid Hwy 3--but it wasn't much better. I went through about an hour before the roadway was closed. What should have taken me 20 minutes to get home actually took an hour--and I think I was lucky I wasn't stuck longer. In Gorst we had to enter back onto south Hwy 3 by entering on the EXIT ramp. No other way was available. There were numerous cars stuck in the water. CRAZY. I've heard that the downtown Port Orchard business were flooded and water was shooting out of the manholes. N...

I don't have any pictures, but it definitely rained. Over the last 24 hours, we measured 12.78 inches of rain (but Seattle only got 5.13"). Highway 3 was closed for a while. Highway 166 is closed because of mudslides. Downtown Port Orchard is blocked off. Schools went home early. I went to school today and had to come right back home -- and I already knew the traffic I was going to have to sit in to get back to Port Orchard! But, the rain has slowed down a bit now. So, we'll see what tomorrow brings!

The saucer has been a lot of fun lately since Natalee has figured out that she can make things move. She's really interested in it as I am writing. She's talking to one of the objects and thinks it is really funny. She particularly likes the spinning thing. She went wild with it right before this video was taken. I'm glad she's having a good time! We just got done watching the Penn State women's basketball team beat Duke. I told Natalee to look at the TV because there was her Grammy sitting in the second row in our seats! I was teaching her the Penn State cheers. Now we get to cheer for the Steelers on Sunday Night Football. You have to start kids out right.

We got some snow in Port Orchard today. Not very much, though. Just enough to make it slushy and annoying. I would rather get a foot or two of snow to make it fun, not just annoying. However, it is already getting wetter out there, changing to rain. Bummer. It was pretty while it lasted! What a nice way to start December. Stay tuned for a cute Natalee video!