Almost a month after Christmas and I'm finally getting around to posting about Christmas! Quite the accomplishment :)
We had so much fun in Chehalis! It's not really possible to capture all the things we did and how much fun we had in a blog post, but I'll do the best I can :)
TJ's parents came home one morning with a whole bunch of crabs from Costco, and TJ's face just lit up as soon as they walked in the door. Project for the morning = getting the meat from the crabs :)
Mmmm, crab!
As per Emrich family tradition we went up to White Pass on Christmas Eve to go skiing/snowboarding all day. Last time we went (2 years ago) it was my first time snowboarding, and we didn't take a single picture! What the?! I know. So this time we were much better about documentation. This is right before heading in to rent our boards etc.
Kaeli got to come this time and she learned how to ski! She did really well. So well that she told us that she wanted to be entered in the downhill races in the next couple months :) Haha!
Pumping myself up to go down the hill. It was an absolutely perfect day for it. Overcast, but clear, and temperatures right around freezing. Perfect for a day on the hill.
Look! I did it! I was pretty nervous because I had only been once before, and that was 2 years ago! And last time I was only on the bunny hill and then the small hill. This time I was more adventurous and decided I would try going down the easy runs on the big hill, and I did it! And not just once, either. I was pretty impressed with myself :) It came back much more easily than I thought it would. And we have pics this time to prove it.
We had a blast the whole day. TJ didn't even stop for lunch. He was a happy boy.
I love winter. It was such a fun and beautiful day! Thanks Dad Emrich for taking us up there! We loved it!
TJ was really sweet and stayed with me for quite a good portion of the day, and then I told him he needed to go and have some real fun going down the harder ones and going at a more fun pace for him. He's actually a very good snowboarder :) So him and Ryan (our brother-in-law) got in quite a few runs together.
Christmas morning was so much fun! There were so many presents we could barely fit in the living room. We most definitely got spoiled! I just realized that I don't have many pictures of the things we got...just a couple. My favorite gift I got was a sewing machine!! I am so excited to use it. I have been dreaming of projects...creative wheels are going crazy in my little mind...more to come on that later. I haven't sewn anything since high school, so I'll be starting small :)
TJ got me some Canadian Olympic gloves from 2010, and they're so cute and so warm! I love 'em. (he gave me more than that...just no pics...but he spoiled me)
TJ's fav gift is a brand new 12 gage shotgun! It's his Christmas and graduation gift (he graduates in April) and it's really nice. As soon as he opened the shotgun, good bye TJ. Nothing else mattered to him. Haha. So naturally the hours following presents were spent shooting clay pigeons. Nic, TJ, and Uncle Tom were the main shooters. Becki shot a few times, too. I was the thrower :)
TJ went hunting with Nic (his brother) and his dad quite a few times during the break and shot some ducks! This pic is just from one trip. And that goose is 10 and a half pounds and had a wingspan of almost 6 feet! Huge stinkin' bird.
Joey is our good friend who grew up with TJ, and his dad has a sailboat and he was nice enough to take some of us out sailing in the rain and freezing cold. We were all a little chilly, but we had a blast!
Ki, Becca, Me, TJ, Kent, Kayla, Tiffany, Joey, and Tessa.
We sailed on the Puget Sound for a while, then walked around the streets and got some pizza for lunch. It was a lot of fun.
We saw this statue and thought it'd be fun to take a picture :)
There were a few days with clam digs while we were out there, so we went on New Years Eve day and it was packed! It was a beautiful, clear day, but still quite chilly. In this pic you can see all the people on the edge of the beach - all the little tiny black dots are people. They literally were just lining the beach.
Me, clam digging. I got my limit all by myself! It was a blast.
First, you find the little hole in the sand, then you dig down with your clam gun...
...then pull it up and put the sand column on the beach and kick it over...
...and find a clam! These are razor clams. So yummy!!
Other fun things we didn't get pictures of:
- riding motorcycles and four wheelers out at the Nauman's. We had an absolute blast! It was rainy and freezing cold, but it was a great time :) The first things we did were TJ's favs. First was riding, then we went snowboarding, then shooting. 3 successive days of fun. Can life get better? I submit that it canNOT!
- playing lots and lots of board and card games with siblings
- so much fun just laughing and hanging out with family
When we returned to Provo, we found this as we were dropped off in our parking lot.....
This is not snow, my friends. This is ice. Solid ice. Not the nice fluffy stuff that could be easily brushed off your car. It snowed quite a bit while we were gone, and it was really wet, heavy snow. Our neighbors thought it would be funny to pile up even more snow on the hood of the truck. Ha....Ha. It actually was really funny. It took us an hour and a half to unbury the truck! You can't see it, but the tires were buried half way up on the other side. We used a pick-ax to break up the ice, and then shoveled it away. I was laughing the whole time, just thinking "this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever done!" After an hour and a half of chipping and digging and shoveling we finally had it uncovered enough that we could drive it out, which was good because I had to go to work shortly after.
Hope you all had a great Christmas break!! And that school/work/life isn't too stressful yet :)
