Timber! Christmas Tree Cutting Take Five

Saturday after Thanksgiving we took our annual trip up to the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. We had a great day...about 40 degrees and sunny, but just enough snow on the ground to get us into the Christmas spirit! We have a few finishing touches to put on our family room, then we can decorate our tree. Those pictures to come soon!

The crew that trekked out in search of trees...Kyle (Gwen's little bro) was visiting from Chicago and joined in the fun.Mom and Dad's Winning Selection...Gwen and Tim's Winning Selection...Our Winning Selection...PR & Brady had a great time climbing rocks and exploring.Some family shots...

Gotta love our "Charlie Brown" trees!

Turkey Day 2009

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year at my mom and dad's house. We had a big crowd (about 20!), but what a fun and relaxing day to give thanks for family and friends!

Pre-Meal Appetizers and Beverages...
Giving thanks for our new nephew Heath Tyler...PR and Brady LOVE their new cousin!
The whole gang...not a great pic, but my mom, my dad, Oma Bosch, Sue, Dave, Gwen, Tim, Rylan, Kyle, Mark, Abby, Nolan, Tammy, Inge, Brent, Wes, Payton, Brady, and myself ALL fit at one table! (Heath stuck to the bouncy seat at the end of the table...)
Sue's traditional turkey racing game. Roll the dice to see who's turkey crosses the finish line first! Loser wears the turkey...
Winner gets a lotto ticket and some wine!
And there's nothing like topping off an already exploding stomach with some homemade pie!

What a wonderful day. Thanks mom and dad for hosting such a giant feast. We are truly blessed and very thankful...

History In The Making...

This past weekend, my fifth year as the varsity volleyball coach came to a close. This closure, however, came one week later than the previous four seasons. For the first time in our school's forty year history, the Arapahoe Warriors qualified for the State Tournament. After making it through Districts (from 48 to 16)and Regionals (16 to 8), we headed down for a volleyball-filled weekend at the Denver Colesium. After two days of pool play, we found ourselves in a three-way tie for a spot in the semi-finals. Unfortunately, our season came to an end after a one-game-to-25 tie breaker. But, we had an awesome weekend and it was so great for my team to experience the tournament for the first time. Here are a few pics from the past few weeks...

A Big Old Bunch of Hallow-weenies!

We had a great weekend celebrating Halloween! Friday night we headed over to the Vogelzang's for some pumpkin carving.
Brady didn't LOVE the goo, but he got into it eventually.
A "mean old lady" holding pumpkin guts...
Wes working on Brady's cat pumpkin.
G & T deciding on their masterpiece.
Payton wanted a beautiful princess pumpkin. She decided to add "hair" and turned the top into a crown. Very creative (and gross!)
The finished products...On Saturday night (after a LONG day of volleyball in Colorado Springs) we headed over to Oma and Opa's for some dinner and trick-or-treating.The "Crew": Rylan the Pirate, Nolan the Monkey, Brady the Dragon, and PR the ghost!What a fun night!

Have A Holly Jolly...Halloween?!

It's October 29 and it might as well be December 29. We are working on our 2nd straight day of snow with the 2nd foot of snow starting to pile up. Needless to say, we got our first official snow day of the year (except for poor Wes who is sitting at work!). Lots of shoveling, sledding, and my best attempt at a snow cave/tunnel. Gotta love Colorado!

A Villainous October Evening

On Saturday night, Wes and I attended a villain-themed Halloween bash at the home of our friends Jeremy and Lindsay. We threw around several ideas...Pete Carroll (the coach of USC), Black Mamba from Kill Bill, and clowns (people are scared of those right?!) but nothing seemed to materialize. So, we decided to recycle one of our favorite costumes from a few years back and attend the party dressed as old people. No, old people are not villains, but we decided that getting old could be.
As we got ready, Brady and Payton weren't sure what to expect. Brady told me to "take that thing off your head" and Payton said I looked like a grandma. I guess that was the point.

We had a fun night of friends (I mean villains), food, and a rousing game of Pirate's Dice. Thanks Jer and Linds for a great night! And thanks, Gwen and Tim for taking care of the kiddos!

Grandma & Grandpa Syers. Man, getting old is a bummer...
Bellatrix Lestrange & Professor MoriartiPirate's Dice. Arrrggg! Never trust a pirate!

Onward To Victory...Almost.

Last weekend, Wes and I flew to South Bend for the Notre Dame VS USC Football Game. Wes had been to one game before, but this was my first Irish experience. Needless to say, it was amazing. We flew in to Chicago Friday morning and drove straight to South Bend. Upon the advice of my dad's secretary who gave us the tickets (THANK YOU!), we took care of the book store and other sight seeing musts BEFORE 80,000 other people showed up on Saturday. We also took a trip to the College Football Hall Of Fame. Saturday morning, game day, we met up with Jim and Kyle (Gwen's dad and little bro) and had an awesome day checking out the sights and cheering on our favorite team. Our favorite part was watching the team walk from mass to the field. We realized after seeing a diamond studded number 7 that we were standing directly next to Jimmy Clausen's mom. Check our our great footage of all the players! The actual game was unbelievable. And not just because we ALMOST beat USC. We stood, minus tv timeouts, four four hours straight in row 17 of the south endzone. So much fun. Unfortunately, ND couldn't pull out the victory. But, if we had our way, we'd go back again this weekend. Thanks mom and dad for taking care of the kiddos. Here is a video of our adventures...