Deck the Hoyles

Time to Christmas up the place.

We spent most of the day fighting dead light bulbs in our "pre-lit" tree.

The life span of these trees is about 5 years. We have been having more and more dead bulbs with every passing year. This year was the worst...only half of the tree would light up. After nearly 5 hours of poking and prodding with various electrical gizmo's we gave up and cut off the lights with side cutters. Now I know why we are not allowed to have shot guns in the house.

We finally got a new set of lights strung.



We even decorated Jake.


And then, just for fun, we had a somersault contest.

It's only fun until someone breaks a neck. ;)

Happy Turkey Day!

It's Thanksgiving , time for potato turkeys.
It's also Jake's birthday tomorrow so the kids spent this morning baking dog cookies for the celebration.

Festival of Lights

It was a busy day today. Soccer, festival of lights and Santa Clause parade.


We started with some snake charming at the festival.



Then Sarah's dance troop performed...



The we went on rides


Ate some cotton candy...

And sat on Santa knee...




And bring my dad 2 new Nikon D3's, he's been extra good this year.

Boats, four wheelers, airplanes, oh my

We had a great time at a small private air strip today. Lots of cool airplanes.
And four wheelers...

and dogs...

and boats...

The Exon flighing tiger was even there. This aircraft set 30 world records in the space of 6 years and has secured a place in the Smithsonian when it is retired. Very cool.


Then we got to go flying!


Sarah was a little apprehensive at first


But all was good in the end...




Gary was a great pilot and a wonderful host.

Yep even the dogs get a turn...

Fireballs vs Mavericks

Perfect morning for soccer today as the Fireballs took on the ever challenging Mavericks.


I'm not sure who won but Ben and Chris mixed it up pretty good.







For more pictures follow this link.