McComb Family

This year we headed up to Portland to spend the holidays (well, sort of!). We left about 6 pm Saturday night after the train ride. We made it about to Shasta at 12:30 am and finally had to stop. It had definitely been a full day!!! We stayed the night at a hotel and got back on the road in the morning. We arrived at Linda and Mike's house in the early afternoon. It was great to see the family. Gramma Jeanne and Brian had flown up earlier that day, so they were already there. Jeff and his wife and daughter were already there as well, so it was nice to see them too. We visited, checked into our hotel, and then went out to dinner at a nice Mexican food restaurant (who do you think picked that!!?!). The next day was Christmas Eve, so we headed back over to their house. We opened presents, ate a delicious meal, and just visited. We turned in early, since we got up at 1:45 that night/next morning to get on the road and head back home. Bret's family was having Christmas at Dennis' at noon (we pushed it back a bit!!). Needless to say, it was a quick trip but lots of fun. I guess it started snowing there later in the day after we left. Sorry we had to miss it, but it definitely would have made driving more difficult (especially over the pass!). Here's "Santa Mike" handing out gifts.....

Gramma helped babysit the dog.
Briana and Mattie got matching outfits! They looked too cute!

Bret and some of the gadgets he got.

Once the presents were done, Adam got serious about playing the drums!!!

When we first arrived, I popped Kiah's crate open to put her in it. But before we could get her in there, Mattie put herself in instead! It was awfully cute. I'm sure Kiah was relieved to have her freedom for a while longer!
And finally, here are the cousins. Briana and Adam had a great time with Mattie. Here she is trying to figure out that wild one Adam though. "Can I possibly be related to him?" she must be thinking!! Hopefully they will get to see each other again soon. Maybe we'll make it back to Tennessee next time! : )

Posted in: on Thursday, December 27, 2007 at at 8:53 PM 0 comments  

Saturday we got together with the Jones (my mom's) side of the family. We headed down to Dublin and met up with the family at Mike and Mary's house. They had tons of food!! And Mexican to boot.....Bret was a happy boy!!!

We ate, opened presents, and then left for the train ride. We rode the Christmas Train through Niles Canyon, and it was fantastic. We had the caboose to ourselves, which was really cool. We even had a cupola which we could go up into and see the sights. The whole train was decorated, inside and out.

Here are Cindy and the kids up in the cupola. You had a great view of things from there!!!

Santa and Mrs. Claus came through the train before we started out. We reminded them that we would be in Portland on Christmas and to leave the presents at our house anyways!

Posted in: on at at 7:31 PM 1 comments  

And a little closer.....

And, finally, here's Jeni in front of the plane. I guess it's some experimental plane and small enough that he just uses the runway at his house (must be nice!!!).

Posted in: on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at at 7:19 PM 0 comments  

Adam's school had their annual Christmas party again. We all went, but Bret and I had to promptly leave in order to go to my staff holiday party at the Hindquarter House. Grandma and Uncle Brian took over with the kids. They ate dinner, did their little story (Adam was a mouse and Briana was a snowflake), sang songs, and visited with Santa and Mrs. Claus. I only saw part of the eating (Adam of course cut right to the front of the line!!). Here are a few pictures from the rest of the evening. Adam got a set of Hot Wheels from Santa and Briana got a miniature Operation game pen. They were both quite happy with what they got!! : )

Posted in: on Saturday, December 15, 2007 at at 7:12 PM 0 comments  

Last Saturday we bought an early Christmas present for the family -- a puppy!!! We weren't quite ready to give her to the kids yet though, so she lived up in our bathroom for a few days. We got our tree Monday night and started decorating Tuesday. As soon as we got lights and a couple of ornaments on, we told the kids we had an early present for them. They went up to get pajamas on, and we put her under the tree. Here it is....

Needless to say, Briana was quite excited. We've named her Kiah, and she's quite a cutie!! Here are a few other pictures.

Posted in: on Saturday, December 08, 2007 at at 11:51 AM 5 comments  

We ended up spending Thanksgiving at Cindy's this year. That is.....me and the kids did. Bret stayed home to fix the hot water heater which hadn't been working since Tuesday. Not only did we not have hot water, but we also didn't have heat. Of course that was the week when temperatures were down in the 30s with highs in the 50s. Burrr!! Long story short -- Bret tore the thing apart ($4000 for the replacement wasn't looking too good), missed Thanksgiving, and it ended up we were out of propane. Whoops! Anyways, Thanksgiving dinner was excellent. Kevin cooked the meal, and it put every meal I've ever cooked to shame. I asked him what kind of dressing was on the salad thinking I could go buy a bottle of it, and when he started talking about taking orange juice and adding this and that and flambeing it, I knew it was way out of my league!!! It was nice getting together with the Joneses.

Posted in: on at at 8:38 AM 0 comments  

Thought I'd finally put Adam's school pics on the blog. My new class has been keeping me busy. I am definitely busier now than I was in my old position. It's been great, but I have less time now for things I'd like to do (like update my blog!!). And things will only be getting crazier, because in a week I will go from being a K/1 class to being a 1/2. Ahhhhhh! I'm losing my mind! : ) Anyway, here they finally are. Hope you enjoy them. We thought they were pretty cute.

Posted in: on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at at 2:45 PM 1 comments  

Posted in: on Monday, November 12, 2007 at at 7:55 AM 0 comments