Whitney had to give a talk in Church on Sunday. She really does a good job at stuff like that. She wasn’t nervous at all, and knew exactly what she wanted to say. She told Heidi what to write, then Heidi wrote it out and Whitney then practiced it. The funny thing is that Whitney remembered exactly what she dictated to Heidi, to the point that halfway through the talk, Heidi wrote, “the people” and Whitney made her change it back to “them”, cause that’s what she wanted to say. This was about the fifth time we made Whitney read her talk today, so she wasn’t too enthused, so the volume is quite low.
The talk went well, and we had Mason hold up pictures for her to start getting him over his bad experience giving his talk. Whitney’s talk was about “faith” and Abinadi.
We went to Atlanta (actually some little town outside Atlanta) over the Martin Luther King Day long weekend. Heidi has some cousins down there, one of whom was having a wedding reception. So we drove down there and stayed for a couple days. It was a good trip, but just about the outer limit of a one day drive with kids. We stopped a few times to eat and stuff but by the end of the trip the kids were ready to get out. I can’t imagine doing it without a DVD player.
Anyway, once we got there we had a good time. Heidi’s aunt and uncle have a nice house and quite a few acres of pasture land, a lake and four-wheeler paths. So the kids got to ride on four wheelers, feed pigs, chase ducks, and play in the hot tub, which is a great activity for them. Anyway, I’ve got more pictures of it I may post later.
This isn’t that long of a post, but it is an important one. There was a long tradition in the Bohrer house growing up that the Nativity scene should be populated with people other than the standard people.
So we always had a GI Joe sneaking in through the stable window or up on the roof. So as the picture illustrates, that tradition is alive and well. Mason picked the spot for the storm trooper to sit and look at Baby Jesus.
I got a few videos of the Christmas Festivities. The first one is from Christmas Eve. The kids are allowed one present to open on Christmas Eve, so they always try to choose wisely–going by size or weight. Me and Heidi just open the presents the kids hand us. As for Christmas Day, it is just a free for all, as you can see by clicking more. I had to make two videos, as there is a ten minute cap on video length. (more…)
One of the many Christmas presents that the kids got from Santa was a model rocket. Each kid got one, plus there was also a launch pad included. The launch pad was an upgrade from when I used to launch model rockets straight off the ground (with no guide rod) by holding a sparkler under the engine until a spark flew up and ignited the propellant. (I finally began using a welding rod to guide the rocket.)
Anyway, the kids helped put together their rockets and we went over to a park and set them off. They went really high, and, as someone not accustomed to the high-tech launch pad, I was surprised at how straight up the went and how much better it is to launch them from 15 feet away rather than 15 inches.
The parachutes even worked reasonably well, so both rockets survived to be launched another day.
