I have to hurry up and finish this post, or else I won't get it in before February is over. I'm betting most everyone gave up that I would ever post again. I'm just keep expectations really low, so when I do post, it is a big surprise!


February 1st, Kyle and I went snowboarding with Justin. We were planning on also being with Aaron and my cousins, Marcia and Ryan, but we never actually ended up together. I guess that is what happens when you leave your cellphones in the car.


Here are Justin and I ready to start. I will refrain from posting pictures of us snowboarding, as I don't want to embarrass anyone. I'm really considerate, aren't I?


Ok, this doesn't exactly count as snowboarding, so I'll post it.


Here is a cool lizard that's meditating on the back fence. Did you ever stop to wonder what lizards think about? Maybe about the best place to shed. That's a good possibility.


A couple of weeks ago, the little Johnson kids stayed out our house for the day. It's always fun to have them around to play with.


Julie was cheerful (she seems to be a lot)


One of the best ways to entertain Julie, is to let her look at herself in the mirror. You know, I'm not sure, but I think that might technically count as vain.


I don't know if it is just me, but Bethany looks really grown up here.


Ok, she back to normal here.


Paul took this artistic shot of Rebecaa and Julie.


To the untrained eye, this might look like a boring picture. But if you look closely, you will notice that all of the wonderful babysitters are playing dice... making the 1 year old take care of the baby. Actually, Timmy is doing his job. Michael looks like he is about ready to die he is laughing so hard.


To the untrained eye, this picture also looks quite boring. And you know, quite frankly. It is.


Kyle, Justin and I went horseback riding a couple of days before Kyle's birthday. Birthdays are a wonderful excuse for going horseback riding. Who gets which horse, and which is the best, is always quite the suspense. I think I've had a string of bad luck lately, though...


Ok, not only were their horses better than mine, but they were also taller, and they looked cooler on them. How incredibly insulting.


Last Saturday, we went to an open house at the local sheriff station. Here Michael, Bethany and Julie are riding in their triple stroller on the way there. I can't wait to see the stroller after the next baby.


We got to walk around and see a lot of the various vehicles and booths they had there.


Now this is what I call a real sheriff car.


Paul looks like he is a little bit more ready to cruise. Hmm


Michael in the driver's seat of a fire engine. He could barely see out of the window when the door was shut.


Timothy inside of the little helicopter that is stationed two blocks away from our house.



Philip inside of the same helicopter. It is constantly flying over, and I think they had a blast sitting in it after watching it all this time.


I don't think Michael appreciated it for the exact same reasons as the others, but he certainly had a blast. He especially like the lever that moved the spotlight.


And here is the bomb squad. I guess they control this little robot from inside of the truck, pick up the bomb with it, and take it to the safety of inside of the truck. Remind me never to be the guy inside of the truck. Ok, so I don't think that is exactly how it works... they might have a couple of other minor saftey precautions.


And here we are all deciding what to do next. It started raining on us on the walk home. Of all times, it would pick then to rain. It's Murphy's law.

It was a lot of fun to see the different parts of the sheriff station that you don't usually get to see. Afterall, it isn't every day that you get to get inside of a S.W.A.T. truck and hold an M16.

If you want to see an evil tree, a giant snowman, Snow Bowl II, and some really cute pictures, you've definitely come to the right place! Okay, that was a little epic... but at least it was different.

Rachel and Rebecca digging out some gardens in the backyard. Notice how they are doing the digging... and I'm taking a picture. It technically should be the other way around... but it's not!

Along with the gardens being dug, there was also a dead tree taken out. It was lying out across the patio waiting for its fate, when lo and behold, my mom met her fate first. She tripped over the tree and fractured her arm. Ok, that sounds cliche, but it really did happen.

We then had to call in Paul Bunyan to get rid of the evil little tree. I figured you would all want to see a picture of justice being done. Makes you feel a little better, doesn't it?

We had a big storm blow in last week, which was nice. We need as much rain as we can get right now. Oh, and no, that picture wasn't taken at my house. We had a Men's Retreat this last weekend, and there was a fresh layer of snow on Friday morning. We usually have the retreat in November, but we wanted to have snow for this retreat, so we moved it to January. It snowed on Thursday night, so it was just perfect for Friday. The Lord really blessed with that.

A picturesque bridge across a stream. How is that for a caption?

Another scenery shot. It was very pretty out, and it was very enjoyable walking around and taking pictures.

Here is the lodge that we stay in every year, this year being no exception.

Some stairs leading up to the back side of the lodge.

After some snowball fights where I think we all got decently pasted, we started to build a giant snowman.

The original snowballs were too big to pick up, so the top two got downsized.

Here the snowman is getting his head implanted. It was really quite the project getting him all together. Took a lot of teamwork.

And then the ultimate height test. Compare him to Kevin O!

Playing football in the snow is a whole lot different than normal. Talk about traction! Half of the plays in our playbook had a slip written in. I think I neutralized myself in the game on Saturday. I threw a long interception to Justin (which eventually led to a score), and I threw a long touchdown to Jonathan.

Here is our group on Sunday morning before we left for home. We had a great time, and there were a lot of good sessions on Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning. The majority of the videos were part of Vision Forum's "History of the World" DVD set, but we also had one from John MacArthur which was really good. It was a great learning time, and was fun to be with all the guys.

I didn't really get too many pictures with people in them. A lot of the pictures on here Kevin O took. It didn't really seem quite as necessary for me to take a lot of pictures, as it seemed like a lot of other people were taking pictures. I still need to aquire those pictures, though, so I can't post them.

Here Michael is getting a firsthand view on what it is like to be a trombone player.

Julianna was constantly sticking out her tongue on Sunday night. I'm guessing it is her latest pastime. She is still absolutely adorable when she does it.

And here is Bethany with her million dollar smile. Too cute, really.

That was a good ending picture. Till next time!