Albin celebrating 14 years with friends

5K walk

Christmas tree, 2010--one we could all agree upon

What's that you say?  You want a humongous mushroom for dinner?  Raw?  Coming right up!

Frosted orange rolls, almost as good as mom makes

learning all the time

I had an hour and a half at home today before I had to be off driving again, and I did something new and practically unbelievable.  I did not wash the dishes.  I did not pick up my room.  I did not do laundry, sweep, cook, or clean in any way...even though this was my only free hour at home until after supper.  I sat down to knit and watch Hercule Poirot's Christmas.  It was only 10:00 in the morning, too.  Egad.

In other learning, Elise did start at the local Waldorf school.  She'll decide at Christmas if she would like to continue for the year, but she likes it so far.

Albin is going gangbusters with his physics class, too.  Not only do they meet for over an hour three times a week, they have decided to hold a study group after each class as well.  We'll see how it goes, but at this rate, he could easily be spending nine hours a week on this class.  Good thing he likes it so much!

We are experiencing technical difficulties...

There are a few last pictures from our trip that I could post, and Karl took several other small movies, but until my Techno Superhero is home from his business trip, I can't get the pictures from the camera to the computer.  When his Techno Sidekick wakes up, I can ask if he knows what to do.  Having just started his training, though, he might say, "I don't know.  Wait til Dad gets home."  In the meantime, enjoy this video.  It speaks pretty well to the problems we both face...

Albin went to his other two classes yesterday, physics and biology.  He said, "As long as I don't have to dissect anything, I'll have fun."  At least last night, they didn't dissect anything...  Elise and I brought home a huge pile of books from the library, and she started her next gingerbread project.  I'm making a basket for my favorite yarn store's 10th anniversary giveaway, and finishing a knitting project.  We'd better bring in our sugar snap pea and Christmas lima bean seeds from the garden, too.

Balloon shapes

Balloon race (latest)

On the field (late in the takeoff)
Elise's favorite - before his teeth inflated
Dawn Patrol! I went out with Albin. Now we all need a nap.

Up early. Guess we should see the balloons, while we're here during the balloon festival and our hotel is just down the street and all. :-)

At last, the pictures of the big ol' canyon

Mt. Zion National Park

swimming in the Virgin River at Mt. Zion park

Albin's early birthday celebration in Utah

Meteor Crater

Petrified Forest National Park

Bandera Volcano

Grand Canyon

We forgot the camera card in the laptop, which we left in the car, so we couldn't take pictures most of our first day here.  Good.  We enjoyed the scenery, weather, and everything else without obsessing about taking pictures of it.  In the end, we'll take very few of the canyon itself.  We can buy postcards which will look much better than anything we take with our dinky camera.  The scenery I most want will have some of us (or knitting) in front of it...  That said, here are some that we did manage to take last night or today.

Karl and Albin hiked down into the canyon a little bit twice.  Elise and I rode the shuttle all the way to the end of the line this morning, while the boys were on their longer hike.  Karl and I went out ourselves last night and this morning, to catch both a sunset and sunrise view.  Lots of walking, but lots of beautiful things to see!


Pictures coming later...