Ringin' in the New Year

Brian and I had a wonderful time with his family on Washington and Oregon over Christmas. We had no problems with our standby passes to and from Washington!! Thank you so much for your prayers... they were definitely felt!

We arrived on the 20th in the afternoon and were able to spend the rest of the day catching up with his Uncle Tim (his mom's brother) and Aunt Tish at their office in Bremerton, visiting his Nan (his mom's mom) and still meeting up for dinner with David (dad) and Connie (step-mom) for Connie's birthday celebration in Port Orchard. We had a blast getting to see their boat and go down on the water. I saw an otter swimming around the dock! That was pretty neat since when I think of 'otter' I think 'Alaska'...

On Friday we surprised Dan, Berit and Kristina at the airport. They were coming in from Columbia where they are missionaries and they were not expecting us at all! :) That was a sweet surprise. I had not seen them in over two years! We spent the day catching up with them and running errands... then headed off to Lake Chelan... where the rest of the family was to meet us on Saturday!
We made it over the pass with no problems though there was a lot of snow.

We stopped at the top of the mountain for a potty break and for a little snow ball fight. You can see how high snow had piled around us. We did not need chains on the tires at that point. It was just slow-going!

I have only been to Lake Chelan during the summer where it is perfect to hop on the boat and go water skiing or grab the jet ski's and play around... or if you are Brian, David or Connie... grab the hobbie cat and go sailing! :)
The views from the lake house were gorgeous. The first morning we woke up and fresh snow had fallen all around. It was super cold but too beautiful not to bundle up and go out and take some pictures.






Before everyone else started arriving we continued on our errands to Wal-Mart (Lake Chelan just got a Super Wal-Mart recently... it's where you will run into anyone and everyone in the town), the hanger (where Dan, Berit and Kristina keep their plane and all their boxes from the move to Columbia) and to get the Christmas tree!! The tree was real too!! I can't remember the last time I have gotten to decorate a real Christmas tree!






Brian and Dan bringing in the Christmas tree and setting it up!!


Kristina and I were the decorators!! It was a lot of fun! Brian just sat in a chair and watched while we listened to Christmas music in spanish!





The rest of the Wick clan started arriving Saturday afternoon. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner together with a lot of laughter, catching up and super yummy food courtisy of grandma Virginia!

Top: Dan, Papa and Grandma (Don & Virginia), Brian, Connie, David
Bottom: Catherine, Aunt Berit, cousin Kristina

Brian and I took a bunch of pictures outside in the snow!! It was so pretty and SOOO coooollllddddd! :)



Oh... and here is a super cute one of Connie, David, Brian and I.


We all woke up Sunday morning and went to Christmas service at the local bible church. It was very enjoyable and sweet to have most of the family together. I was very surprised to find how many people there were at the church in such a small town.
After a wonderful time of fellowship and a hardy meal with the family Brian and I headed out in the snow toward Portland to spend Christmas eve and Christmas day with Sara (Brian's mom).
Here are some pictures from the drive from Lake Chelan to Portland. There was tons of snow dumping on us through the mountains. Once we crossed the Washington/Oregon border to rain started pouring and the fog was so bad we could only see about 10 feet in front of us!!






We made it safely to Portland and were welcomed with big hugs from Sara!! It was wonderful to spend a couple of days with her!! On the 24th we went to Christmas Eve service at her church. She is very involved with her church playing hand bells, piano and singing in the choir. We drove by the property she is hoping to buy and build and home on! We opened gifts together and hit the mall for a few quick errands! She made Brian an awesome quilt for his bed with Washington Huskie fabric. She made me a padfolio and make-up bag with great brown and pink fabric she had!! She is SO creative and hopefully I can convince her to make me a t-shirt quilt or two with a bunch of old t-shirts that I have held on to over the years!! :)

We all woke up Christmas morning to give our goodbyes. Brian and I loaded up the car and began our drive back to the Sea-Tac airport where we were hoping (and did!!!) to catch both flights back to Tucson!!

We arrived in Tucson around 8 pm and drove to my house on the NW side of town to see that Santa :) had made it by even though we were gone!

We opened gifts and are so thankful of all the wonderful gifts our families had sent to us prior to Christmas day!!

We had such a wonderful time with Brian's family and catching up as much on the phone as we could with mine!!
We love you guys so much!!!

Here are a few pictures from our New Years Eve celebration at Dave's house in Tucson. It was a night filled with Guitar Hero and cards! I sucked it up at Guitar Hero but won both card games that we played... 31 & 8, 7, 6!! I was proud of myself!
The first picture of us in 2008

Trying to play it cool while in my head freaking out because I can't keep up even on the beginner level
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How I really felt the entire time

Dave, Brian and Gavin (cousin) being themselves... or at least when they are together


Happy 2008!! I hope your year is filled with many blessings!!