Rafting down the Salt River

In March, my mother-in-law invited us to go on an all day river rafting trip down the Salt River. It was really cold and overcast but still alot of fun! We were joined by her good friend Nancy Hawkes and her two sons. Big Jay, came along too. This was his second river rafting trip.

Jay, Jake, Nancy, Andy, Laura, and Carol

Here's our river guide Jen at the back of the boat. I only could take pictures when the water was tame.

Jay Knollmiller relaxing between the rapids.

Laura enjoying the gorgeous canyons.

Andy and Jake getting ready for the ride.

Here we are at the top of Camelback Mountain last Friday. Irene and Samantha from work went with me. Unfortunately only two of us made it!


Samantha and Irene sitting at the edge of Echo Canyon.

This is where we are headed

Irene had a heart monitor and calorie counter on that day. She said we burned up about 490 calories in about 45 minutes! Whew! That was SOOO worth it! Its gorgeous up there. This overlooks Scottdale and Phoenix.

My nephew Luke is in a basketball league and he is an awsome player so we attended one of his basket ball games on Saturday. Wow those little guys can move!!

Julia's Allowance

This year Julia really wanted a dog named Biscuit. This is a special robotic dog that moves and responds to specific commands. It was quite pricey, but after Christmas we saw it go on sale for $99.00, so she bought it. She thought it was cool for about a week and hasn't really played with it much more.

Julia and best friend Maddison snuggle with the very fury robot.

Cristmas Eve 2008

Julia fianally fell asleep at about 9:30pm with thoughts of sugarplums dancing in her head.

Molly stayed up a little later. We finally had to prod her into bed at 10:00pm. She said she tried to stay awake all night. We checked on her at 10:30pm and she was fast asleep.

At 3:45am both girls were up and asked if they could open the gifts. Of course we made them wait until 6:30. Molly was upset and crying just waiting for that time to come. We finally got up at 6:20am

Christmas was so exciting this year, Molly had trouble containing her emotions.

Julia checking out her stocking. There was lots of candy

and a giant pen.

Both girls got lots of jewlry in their stockings

I got an Ipod which the girls tried to keep a secret but I figured it out and acted surprised.

Julia got Hannah Montana dolls, a giant dog alarm clock, clothes and money to spend.

Our whole family got a Nintendo Wii from Santa. The girls have wanted one and were really excited.

Molly got clothes, American Girl doll clothes, stuff for her room and money to spend.

Julia and Molly played for hours with thier Wii while Tim and I went back to bed.

Bowling is fun but tennis was their favorite.

Finally we woke up, got dressed and had a family photo.

Grandma and Grandpa came over to see how our Christmas was.