We Had a Very Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were spent at the Rock house and Christmas day was spent up in Logan (it is easy to decide where to have Christmas when all of Kurt's family lives out of the city/state/country). I must say, there were plenty of surprises under the tree on Christmas morning.

Here are a few of Kurt's surprises:

The guitar might be returned and another one purchased (for about twice the price). Kurt is very very excited.

And here is my surprise!

I can't wait until spring!

In additional to that beauty, I also got everything to go with it: a new helmet, shoes, clothes, etc. (thanks to the Als, Kurt and my parents). Most of Kurt's gifts came from my parents because we decided to set our limit at $150.00 this year. Kurt convinced me that he only went over the limit slightly, so of course I abstained from going over as well. That beautiful bicycle up there was a little bit more than slightly over the limit. But I am certainly not complaining.

Even Nibbies had some surprises under the tree:


We are so sad that Christmas is over, but at least we have the Al's Hawaiian wedding to look forward to in January!

Arch Rock

1919-2008

My wonderful Grandpa Rock passed away last week at the age of 89, following a lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease. We attended the funeral yesterday, and though we were all happy and thankful that he has passed on to a better place it was an extremely tearful event.

I was very close to Grandpa growing up. As kids, my brother and I spent a lot of time with him and we have many many fond memories. He was such a crack up and he loved to tease the six grandchildren that he had. Each of us spoke and gave a memory at the funeral, and it was no wonder that each of us spoke of his charm, sense of humor, and his love to pick on us.

With his amazingly positive and fun-loving attitude, Grandpa was truly inspirational and was loved by all who knew him. We are all so sad to lose such a great man, but are thankful that he shared his life with us.

Sushi for Santa

Last night we went to a fundraiser for the Road Home with the Als. It was all-you-can-eat sushi, taking place at the top of the Wells Fargo building. As far as the sushi goes: I think a lot of people probably left still a little hungry, but their were SO many people there I'm sure they raised a ton of money.

As for us, we had a great time, enjoyed great company and got to enjoy some sushi.

Westin has arrived

I just wanted to quickly congratulate Courtney and Ryan on successfully creating an adorable little boy. Westin was born on December 8th, and whether you know them or not you might want to check out their blog. He is adorable!

Christmas Time is Here....

.....happiness and cheer! We busted out all of our Christmas stuff, and I love it. Isn't Christmas time the best? We put lights on the house:

what you can't see here is that half of those lights are burnt out. I think it adds character.

The star on top of the bush really adds to the Christmas-y effect, don't cha think?

And we finally got to put out all of Kurt's awesome decorations from Germany. This old man is one of my favorites:

you can't really see it but smoke is coming out of his mouth. you light incense under his bum and the smoke comes out his mouth. awesome.

I would also like to recognize all of Kurt's ornaments. I have to admit that last year I was not extremely fond of them, but they have really started to grow on me. Here are a couple of examples of the gems hanging from our hand-me-down christmas tree.

yes, that is an ice skating cabbage patch kid

please note: Darth's light saver plugs in and really lights up. he also talks. also, please appreciate the jester frog to the right of him.....need I say more?

Happy T Day!

So Kurt and I drove down to Chino Valley, AZ for Thanksgiving with Kurt's sister Michelle (aka: fox girl) and her husband Rob. I hadn't really had a chance to spend much time with them in the past, so it was great to finally get a chance to get to know them. We had such a blast their, I can't even tell you. Here are a few pictures of the weeks happenings:

I love this picture of Kurt and Michelle.


This is Catcher the cat.


Our hike through the land of the rabid fox.


Rob is the fox, if you can't tell.


Gotta love the Wii.


Up to no good.

Unfortunately, I did not get pictures of the amazing Thanksgiving dinner, our mini golf tournament (congratulations to Michelle, the Shaman of Yavapai County), the Arizona Sun Dogs (hockey) game, and our late night talks. Our Chino Valley trip went by way too fast!

On our way home we made some pit stops:

Lee's Ferry



Balanced Rock


I guess it is back to work.