A White Christmas...

isn't always what its cracked up to be. Those of you in the Seattle area know what I'm talking about. We were delayed in Idaho Falls for three extra days because of the conditions in Seattle. We actually had more snow in Idaho but without all the hills and with enough equipment to deal with it, it really wasn't as bad. We were scheduled to get back in Seattle Sunday night around 4:00. With the three day delay and an addition 4 hour delay on our next filght, we finally arrived in Seattle around 8:00 on Christams Eve. However, because of the snow, we were not able to get home to Duval until Friday night. We statyed at Tiff's parents until the conditions got better.

My parent's backyard in Idaho Falls.

The front porch. There was a 3 foot snow drift acroos the whole front.

Check out the snow on these fenceposts.

A huge drift in the backyard. You can see the grass in the foregound. The drift was over three feet tall.

Tiff's parent's front yard.

The backyard.

Another shot of the backyard.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We took Destry Jr to see Santa Claus for the first time while in Idaho Falls. Did he scream and cry wondering who's lap we'd just placed him on? Nope, he just checked him out to see what he was all about. To tell you the truth, I think he was telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas. We also took him to Santa's home to visit with him and Mrs. Claus.

Idaho Falls

We are having a great time in Idaho. Destry's family is having so much fun with Little D, and we are enjoying our time with them. We have been staying busy getting pictures of Shelby and Destry, visiting Santa, shopping, and just hanging out.

Little Destry loves his cousin Shelby. She has been keeping him entertained with toys and helping us make sure he doesn't get into anything he shouldn't (which is a full time job). He has started to "cruise" along furniture better so it's easier for him to get into everything.

Destry and Shelby playing. The box was a fun "sled" inside the house.

Shelby and Destry

"Peek-a-boo"

Trying to grab grandpa's remote control.

Driving the firetruck stroller at the mall

SO BIG

1st Airplane Ride

Destry Jr. had his first airplane ride, and I think it was harder on Mom and Dad than it was on him. On the plane he was great. He slept most the time, and when he was awake he was happy and not too loud. We were worried he would start screaming his happy screams like he does at home, but luckily he didn't.

The hardest part was managing all the bags. We each had carry on bags, plus my purse, a diaper bag, Destry's car seat, our jackets and of course little Destry. It was a handful, but only got harder when we had to go through security. We had about 10 bins full and all our stuff, plus Destry (dad not baby) kept getting stopped through the medal detector. I was trying to get on my shoes and gather all our stuff while holding little D...it was a funny sight. Once Destry got through it was fine and we bonded with another couple that was going through with a little girl.

Destry and I will all our bags!

Destry Jr. sitting in a TSA bin while Destry and I gather all our stuff.

Waiting to board the plane. Sitting on mom's lap as we get ready to go to Idaho.Checking out his surroundings.

Waiting for the plane to take off -- we had a little delay.
Asleep on the plane...yeah!

Yummy!

The other day Tiff cooked up some squash for Little Destry. Now he loves the squash baby food but as you can see, he did not care too much for this.

Baby Tessie

Lori, Samantha (10 months), Destry and I visited our college friend Jennie today to meet her little girl Tessie, who was born on Nov 30th. She's so cute and slept almost the whole time we visited. It was so fun to visit with Jennie, Troy, and give them a sneek peak into what it's like to have a 8 or 10 month old!

Destry and Samantha getting ready for the ride to see Tessie!

Tessie - she has so much hair.

Troy and Destry having fun.

CWU Gals and their kids.

Playdate with Kai

Little Destry and I visited Kai and Andrea (an old coworker from BDA) to have a play date. It's one of the first times Destry has been with another little guy his age and they did great. They played nicely so Andrea and I could catch up and have lunch. We had a great time and can't wait to visit with them again.

Ravioli

It is a Johnson Family Tradition to have Ravioli on Christmas Eve. No Chef Boyardee here, it is all hand made. Every year we all get together a few weeks before Christmas to make homemade ravioli. After Thanksgiving, we stayed at the cabin for a few days and everyone came over on Friday to make ravioli. It is always a lot of fun and we get to spend time with everyone. Here are some photos of the crew at work.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We went to Tiffany's aunt's house for Thanksgiving this year. We were excited because this was the first time Little Destry would get to meet his second cousin Sadie from Maryland. They had a great time playing with each other and we had a wonderful time visiting with family and eating! It was really great to see Tiff's cousin Michelle, her husband TJ and Sadie.

Cr-Apple Cup 2008

Football in the state of Washington is a bit subpar this year. Going into this past weekend, the Seahawks were 2-8, the Cougars were 1-10 and the Huskies were 0-10. That's a pathetic 3-28. This years Apple Cup was renamed the Crapple Cup. The good thing, one of the teams had to win this week. Brian had a party so we went over to watch the game. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and were even treated to a good game. In the end, the Cougs won 13-16.