Crooked River Dinner Train

How did you ring in 2009? Me, I went to bed around 10pm with a migraine.... man, I need my mom's therapeutic work in a big way!

However, prior to that headache getting too out of control, the Whites, kids and us celebrated New Years' Eve on the Crooked River Dinner Train. Originally, the Schillings had planned on leaving in the afternoon, hence our exclusion of them, but it turned out that Michael wasn't able to return until around 8pm, so they ended up spending the night.

There were two dining cars, with white lights dangling all over the windows. It was very festive....

Stephie, as I've noted before, has quite an aversion to people in costume - or even in character, so she was a little interested in what was on the "spirits" menu before our journey began....

This guy is "Little Joe Younger" - a character lacking in intelligence and good teeth - Brayden got a kick out of him....


Mikayla posed with "Jesse James" - his character owned the dining train.

"Prairie Rose" (on the left) had quite the thing for "Rimrock the Kid" - part of the drama that they acted out for our entertainment.

This little lady was "Frankie James" - who claimed she could have any man she wanted - Stephie, beware!

Overall, it was a really nice evening - we had fun. I could have handled it being an hour shorter, I think I'm done with train ride excursions for a while (these things all sound so ideal in July when I'm considering them, but when the evening comes and I'd rather sit around with a Wii tournament.....). Apparently, the Dinner Train is changing ownership, so it's possible that this train run could have been the last in its current format. Knowing that, it made it even more special. If it does continue, I'd highly recommend it - particularly the "Murder Mystery" versions.....

Slip-Sledding Away!

Lots and lots of pictures - and I'm uploading them and typing this so I don't have to be quite so stressed watching the game - ahhhhh - what a shoot-out!

One of my favorite pics of Travis and Stephie -

And, not such a bad one of the two of us - I think my honey looks especially "smart-looking" in this shot!

I love this look on Sydney's face- the object in her sights is an ice-encased stocking cap that had been abandoned on the sledding hill....

Here's a grand look from the top - not a huge, scary route, but because of the ice and number of people, full of plenty of bumps - chiropractors must make so much money off of this course!

We all thought this was a beautiful shot of Bogey-

Michele was such a sport today - she was one of the few adults brave enough (and without a chronic neck issue!) to continue going down again and again-

We were trying so hard to get Syd's attention for this shot, and instead she gave John a kiss -even better!

I thought this was a good "capture the feel" shot of John sharing his pics with Chele as I took one of them and Bogey and Travis in the background.

Stephie's run down the hill was a little less than successful, but I sure admire her positive attitude!

And Michele looked to be having perhaps just a little fun- note the progression of her and Ellie down the hill together - and in the end, Ellie was still smiling.... (and of course, so was Michele!)



Woah, Nati - are your steering this thing?!


If these boys were just a little older (and not so daring...) we could have left them there all day - they were having SO much fun-


How blessed we are to have built-in best friends with these cousins....

(By the way, Michael had to return home for the past couple of days to complete a very important year-end project (work) - we plan on seeing his full smile tomorrow as we root for the Beavers in their bowl game!)

Game On!

Oh what fun to click here and find Beverly issuing her challenge. I LOVE it! So, game on, my friend - you rock! (and hopefully, so do the DUCKS!)

Happy 7th Birthday, Mikayla!

My daughter can NOT be seven already. I'm very disturbed by this.... But, despite all of my objections, it appears to have happened irregardless. Sigh....

So here's a pic of Mikayla with one of her favorite desserts: Peach Kuchen, which she used to call "Pizza Kuchen"...

And, one of the best smiles I've seen on Ellie - apparently giving Mikayla a picture for her birthday.

I say "apparently" because I wasn't around to note the details of what transpired on the "day" of Mikayla's birthday - I was previously occupied at Sage Springs Spa. This is an annual indulgence that we can only justify by giving gift card Christmas presents to each other, and spending at least 6 hours at the location, despite our services only lasting around an hour. We start out in the hot tub for a couple of hours, move on to the Tranquility Room chairs to eat our pre-packed lunch, and finally, get called in for our services. This year, I was only semi-conscious through my "Back Nirvana" service - at one point I woke myself up with a snort - how embarassing!



While we were away, I guess the kids were all rather angelic - as evidenced by the halos over the top of their heads.....

And, I guess, life was made even a bit easier by how consumed they all were with their DS games - you gotta love "Littlest Pet Shop" on the DS.....

The activity of choice for Mikayla's birthday evening was to go see "Marley and Me". I was having fun testing my new camera in the theater. As for the movie - quite the tearjerker, and very moving. I thought Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston did a fantastic job. Needless to say, we all looked like we had allergies when we walked out of the theater (not the kids, we'd braced them), and gave all of our dogs big ol' hugs when we returned to the house.


In a few moments, we'll all don our snow gear as it is time to get these kids out and burning a little energy. The snow is reasonably fresh, the temperature is just around freezing, and more than likely every other family in Sunriver will be thinking the same thing. But, it kind of needs to happen.......

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

It's a balmy 40 degrees here in Sunriver with the rain steadily falling. Surprisingly, I'm not devastated by this. When we pulled in, it was gorgeous, below freezing and slightly snowing. That night, it snowed a couple more inches and then the weather turned warmer.

Perhaps my lack of total disappointment comes from knowing it's supposed to snow 1-3 inches tonite and another 5-8 tomorrow - or maybe because I went through such turmoil over the snow that came (or not) into our own hometown, that I'm less stressed now.

So, today, it is a day full of football, Nintendo DS, Polly Pockets, X-Box, and, of course, eating.... Oh yeah, and devouring the books that we brought along. Life could be a lot worse....

Even the dogs are getting a little restless.... (and yes, this is them playing - Syd and Bogey are best friends....)


This is me with the kids gathered around playing "Bolt" on the PS2. It's a very fun game, every Sunriver trip I try to strategize to have one really cool game to play, the last couple of years have been duds. (It's hard to compete with the Scooby Doo games of days past). The hardest part is having the kids keep their mouths shut as I try to figure out how to play it on my own....I'm a little stubborn about being told how to do things....

Ah, the Air Hog helicopter pics.... the green one in the center is John's helicopter (bought here in Bend after seeing how much fun Traig's was)....

The orange blur in the top left corner is Traig's....



Travis, with the date pinwheels his sweet Mommy sent the batter to make....

Mikayla with her DS:

And, finally, Stephie trying to protect her "brave beagle" who is scared of the buzzing of the helicpoters, as he thinks they are houseflies which he has quite a fear of.....

A Few Sunriver Scenes

The kids hanging up the stockings on Friday night-

Ellie showing Stephie her "prize"-

This is a picture of Traig working his remote control "Giant Bug" that shoots nerf-like missiles. Travis is trying to shoot the bug with his manual Nerf Gun while avoiding getting shot. As I type this, I'm constantly ducking my head from one or both of the two "Air Hog" helicopters buzzing around this living room, coming dangerously too close to my head. I will readily admit at this moment that I'm losing patience with this activity and ready for Traig's battery to die....

The details of why these two are laughing needs to be kept secret for the sake of the rating of this blog (it had to do with a gift in John's stocking), but it was a very fun interchange to watch and capture pictures of....

And, finally, a few of the dogs - Bogey is around somewhere, though not photographed. Travis and Stephie purchased a "Sydney-sized" bone, and she was very pleased with it.

And, a couple more of the new addition-

O Christmas Tree Part 2

Sigh.... All is well in my world. This is the Christmas tree we picked up for "Free" from the lot near our house on our way out of town yesterday. It is now set up in our rented home in Sunriver.

As I climbed the stairs this morning, the wafting smell of the fir tree mixed with the heavily scented (previously posted about) cinnamon ornaments practically put me over the edge of bliss. Combine that with the fresh snowfall and the journey to the hot-tub - it's hard not to be giddy. (Hence my waking up before dawn and inability to go back to sleep).

I'll be posting several post-posts for posterity sake....(hee-hee, I had fun with that sentence). I'm awaiting John to dowload the 600 or so pictures he's snapped since Christmas Eve. Suffice to say, it was a very special Christmas for us.