Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas!! Yeah!! It's finally here! On Christmas Eve we had a few friends over for some good eats and very good wines. Camden got to spend some time with one of his best friends and even got her a Christmas present!!

After everyone cleared out, Amy and I stayed up late wrapping the rest of the presents....and when we were all done, our family room looked like it could have been a holiday card!

Camden's train around the tree completed the look!
Christmas morning Camden had come into our bed really early and slept with us for a bit. When he woke I asked him if he thought Santa had come and we ran downstairs to look. Before he even noticed the presents he was looking around the house for Santa expecting that the big guy would have hung out in the morning with us. (I guess I could have explained that part better for him!!) He quickly noticed that the milk and cookies we put out the night before were gone and than the mad rush to open presents began.

Followed by me trying to figure out how to get them out of their boxes and put together while Camden tries to play with them still in the box - a little over excited!

This has been the most fun Christmas yet as Camden now understands what is going on and the whole concept of Santa. I had Cam and his little friend looking out the windows on Christmas Eve to see if they could see Rudolph's nose through the snowy sky.

After the presents were all opened we decided to go out and play in the snow for a bit - mainly to work off some of the sugar high!! Amy and Camden tried some snow kayaking but when that was not working so well we turned to Amy's new alpine touring skis. (Amy is sporting the new down coat and hat she got)

Since all of the roads around town are like groomed cross country tracks, we took off around the neighborhood. I pulled Camden on a sled with my skis and Amy tried hers out for the first time. We skied around for almost 2 hours and when we noticed that Camden was falling asleep on his sled with his new helicopter from the movie Cars, we decided to head in for a nap. The icicles are really building up around the house - some are at least 6 ft long! We are supposed to be headed into a warming trend so maybe we'll make it to Disneyland in 2 days!
I wonder how long it will be before I am off of these rollers and outside too?? Amy got me some great cold-weather cycling gloves and a bike cleaning stand w/ kit for x-mas - can't wait to put it all to use!!

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

We have gotten sooo much snow!!! It's crazy. Multnomah County declared a State of Emergency because they could not keep up with clearing the roads and Hood River County (where we live) has been in a "snow emergency". I-84 through the Gorge to Portland was closed for about a week and has been so treacherous that we did not even get to see Amy's parents for Christmas. We are supposed to leave Saturday after Christmas to go to Disneyland so I hope flights are back to normal by then!!

Besides all the craziness that has come with it, the snow has been very beautiful and we have loved getting out and playing in it. My primary mode of transportation these days have been my Alpine Touring skis since all of the roads are just snow packed. Its like living on a groomed cross country ski track!!

Below are some pictures of the scenery and our house:

I took this from the home office window right before sun up one morning when I was just starting work:

It has been constant shoveling for me to keep up with it all so we can get in and out of our home: This is looking down our street as I was headed out on the skis

This is up in Post Canyon where I do a ton of mountain biking in the summer. I skied here from our house: The view down to the river from skiing in Post Canyon

A very good winery that I pass on the way to Post Canyon from our house - I'm no expert, but all that snow can't be great for wine grapes??

So much snow that we had to get Camden some snow shoes!!

Camden's Holiday Program

Camden's school (Bambinos) had their Holiday Program. It had to be the cutest thing we've ever seen. Camden's class performed Jingle Bell Rock with tambourines they had all made - not much singing but Cam kept up a good beat with the Tambourine!Then they lined up all the kids in every class for a performance of Feliz Navidad. Cam tapped his hands to the beat but did not move his lips once - I think it was a bit overwhelming with all of the people there and this being his first ever performance! He managed to sing it the whole way home for us though!!
Damn, he is a cute kid!!

Breakfast w/ Santa & First Snow

While Camden's cousins were in town (www.kstjmoody.blogspot.com) we met up with on of Cam's friends at the local firehouse for a pancake breakfast with Santa. Cam and his buddy got to climb all over the fire engines and we had our picture taken with Santa. That makes 3 times this year for Camden and he definitely is not scared of him any more!

On Dec 14th we woke up to our first snow - and it has not stopped since. In the past 11 days we have had one day without measurable snow. We now have about 37 in of snow on our yard and piles on both sides of the driveway that are taller than my car.

Cam and I have gotten out a bunch to enjoy the weather:

I had to shovel him a "road" for his trucks

Afterward, we have had plenty of hot chocolate to warm up with.

Sledding!!

I took a little time out of my day today and got to go sledding with Camden. The sun was trying to peak through the snow clouds for a bit - so we hit the hills!

Camden was sooo much fun - Up the hill...

Down the hill......and Up Again, and repeat...

Every trip was "Faster Dad!" and when he raced his buddy Ashton he even had to end it with "I winned you Ashton!" - Only because Ashton had an equipment failure and ran over the string on his sled that acted as a brake.

Afterward we headed to 10 Speed for a coffee and hot chocolate where we hung out and warmed up.

I love days like this that I can spend a little extra time with my "best buddy"

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas Parade

The Christmas Parade in Hood River was great. I love the small town feel here and how the community all comes together for the holidays.

We started our evening with Camden meeting Santa - he wasn't to sure what to think of this guy but sat on his lap anyway.

Afterward we met up with some friends and watched the parade on Oak St.

These dogs are on a surfboard in every parade.

The boys thought it was awesome!

After the parade was the tree lighting downtown - not quite Rockefeller Center but still fun for a small town. We found some more friends here:
And even managed to have a little hot chocolate! We found Santa again! This time Camden would not stop talking to him. It was hilarious. Look how he is counting on his fingers all the different toys he is asking Santa for! (and Santa listening closely)

New Home

We moved again - I hate moving. We've been in since Thanksgiving weekend and still have boxes around. I recently did another trip to Utah and brought back another FULL truck of our stuff so everything we own is officially here. This house has a bit more square feet than our home in UT and has an extra bedroom (4 bds 2 1/2 bths) but it does not have the 3 car garage or basement that we had before. In UT we felt like it was more house than we would ever need but now we realize that we just have way too much junk! We can't really fill a house up with furniture but we can with bikes, kayaks, camping gear and TOYS! (ours and Camden's!)

This house is not right downtown like the one we were just renting but it is only just over a mile. Camden and I walked there the other day and it was not that bad for the little guy!

Here are a couple exterior shots of our home:

Interior Pics

Kitchen:

Looking from kitchen toward family room:

Family room:

Master bath: (this place has the biggest closets you would ever see)
My office:

This is a view of Mt. Adams from the dining room sliding glass door on the back of the house: Later this same day Cam and I walked down to the street behind us and took this picture of the sunset reflecting off Mt. Hood with some cool clouds near by.
Camden seems comfortable in his new room: