Christmas 2015

We were fortunate to have so many of our children home for Christmas this year, and to see all of them within a month.  We were able to see Erika and James, and their families, in Seattle at Thanksgiving, and Kara, Daniel, Julia, Andrea, and their families for Christmas.

Double piggy back ride for Jacob and Blake from Grandpa David.















              Andrea was home from her first semester at BYU-Idaho.

Christmas Eve. Kara found the almond!

 It was fun to have young children here to enjoy Christmas morning with.

The Deckers were all actors in our Christmas play.

 Kara and Luke drove down from Saratoga Springs, NY with Jacob, 6, Blake, 4, and Ava, 7 months.

                      Julia and Matt flew in from Provo, and were able to spend time with his family, as well.

  Daniel and Meg flew here from Provo with Claire, who was just two months old.

                                                                   Our family hike behind the  Savage Mill.

    Merry Christmas, everyone!

Thanksgiving in Seattle

Dave and I flew to Seattle on November 24th to see James and Tammy, and their two children.

                Alek is 7 months old.  Here are the three generations of Meiners' men.

                                              Audrey, 21 months
             Audrey loves to walk around in nature, and she had a lot of fun exploring at the beach.

We  took a short trip to the coast to see the lighthouse, and some large ships.  Erika and Tyler drove from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to join us for the holiday weekend.

It was a bit nippy, but a nice, sunny day.  In fact, we were fortunate to not have rain our whole stay.

We went to the Seattle temple together one morning.

                                          Tammy and James with their kids at home.
The guys and girls took turns holiday shopping one day, while the others stayed home and relaxed with the kids.

  Erika and I both celebrated our birthdays there.  Mine was Wednesday 

and Erika's was on Thanksgiving Day this year. Andrea's was on Saturday.  :) 

We loved seeing Alek for the first time, 

and getting to see James and his family in their beautiful home and city.

New Deck and Wood Floors

Our deck was getting old.  We like the layout of it, but the wood had become warped and moldy.

We also thought this tree was too close to the house.  It had also apparently been hit by lightning, so we decided to have it removed.

You can see here the tree is gone. We had the floor, rails  and banisters of the deck taken off.

After a lot of deliberation we found a color of composite wood and rails that we liked.  Here it

is in our snowstorm this winter. :)

 While we had our contractor scheduled, we replaced carpet with hardwood floors in a few rooms.

Our office

before

After

I'm really liking the natural, clean look of the wood.

Thanks for agreeing to it, Dave. :)

Claire arrived on Halloween--what a treat!

Claire was anticipated on Halloween, and that is the day she arrived.  Meg's mother was able to come out and be with them before Claire was born, and to stay another month allowing Daniel to attend classes, and Meg to recover.  We're excited to have that sweet and darling girl in our family.

This picture is from their visit with us at Christnas.  Caught them here early in the morning.

Trip to the Decker's House, Halloween

I flew to Albany to see Kara and her family over the Halloween weekend.  We attended activities at a church party, town events, and I watched Ava and gave out candy while the boys went trick-or-treating that night with their parents
.

Ava at the church dinner and party.


Supergirl is ready to fly!


The boys have fun in their costumes on the front lawn.



The kids on costume


At the 'Trunk or Treat' party at church, families gave out candy to the children from the 'trunks' of their cars.


Jacob (the Ninja Turtle) participated in the town's pumpkin roll.  Merchants gave candy in the main part of town, and had other activities.


Ava was too young for the candy, but she's sweet enough as it is. :)

Another treat for me was getting to see my childhood friend, who now lives two hours from Kara.  She drove up for lunch and a nice visit.  I loved getting reconnected. :)