We spent a FANTASTIC weekend with friends in Seattle. This is a group of Andrew's university friends and their spouses--quality people and a ton of fun! We had all hung out just before our wedding, but this time we had a whole weekend together. Lots of time to talk, joke, remember the old times and share sweet fellowship together. Joel and Emily very graciously hosted the whole group of us just a few weeks before the birth of their first baby!!
A mandatory part of our get together was a bocci ball tournament--each couple for themselves. The terrain was challenging--muddy fields, local playground, stacked tire mountain (that's a bit difficult to picture, but think tires built into the side of a small hill with a wide, shallow hole on the top). I have no idea why this pile was in the playground, but it brought a new degree of challenge to our game--we found it almost impossible to throw the ball gently enough to get it on the tires without throwing it so hard it would hit the tires and bounce back down. The game was blast and the compitition was stiff. Who won, you ask? Three couples were tied one point shy of the victory. . . . and the Burkinshaws came through!!! 
Since we found ourselves at the playground, the Reeds introduced us to another game on the swings. The two competitors start with their feet off the ground and with zero momentum and have to be the first to reach a certain height strictly by rocking and pumping to build momentum. Quite a sight to see full grown adults struggling to get their swing into the air, but it sure provided a lot of laughs and a good way to get our blood flowing to warm up our cold bodies. Keith and Andrew are in the championship here. There was a bit of discrepancy in the final results, but I think Keith won this one. 
We had a great Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and Bob birthday day with Andrew's family. Abigail, our little niece was the guest of honor at all the events (somehow she even managed to help Bob blow out his candles). It was so special to all be together for a couple weeks. We relaxed, played games, watched Abby do all kinds of things that would be boring if any one else did them, and just enjoyed being together. We ate well, but fortunately had lots of snow shoveling to do, so we could justify our appetites. This was the snowiest winter the valley has experienced in 40 years (I think that was what Bob said.)
A mandatory part of our get together was a bocci ball tournament--each couple for themselves. The terrain was challenging--muddy fields, local playground, stacked tire mountain (that's a bit difficult to picture, but think tires built into the side of a small hill with a wide, shallow hole on the top). I have no idea why this pile was in the playground, but it brought a new degree of challenge to our game--we found it almost impossible to throw the ball gently enough to get it on the tires without throwing it so hard it would hit the tires and bounce back down. The game was blast and the compitition was stiff. Who won, you ask? Three couples were tied one point shy of the victory. . . . and the Burkinshaws came through!!! Since we found ourselves at the playground, the Reeds introduced us to another game on the swings. The two competitors start with their feet off the ground and with zero momentum and have to be the first to reach a certain height strictly by rocking and pumping to build momentum. Quite a sight to see full grown adults struggling to get their swing into the air, but it sure provided a lot of laughs and a good way to get our blood flowing to warm up our cold bodies. Keith and Andrew are in the championship here. There was a bit of discrepancy in the final results, but I think Keith won this one. 
We had a great Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and Bob birthday day with Andrew's family. Abigail, our little niece was the guest of honor at all the events (somehow she even managed to help Bob blow out his candles). It was so special to all be together for a couple weeks. We relaxed, played games, watched Abby do all kinds of things that would be boring if any one else did them, and just enjoyed being together. We ate well, but fortunately had lots of snow shoveling to do, so we could justify our appetites. This was the snowiest winter the valley has experienced in 40 years (I think that was what Bob said.) I couldn't find the pictures, but our other big celebration was the annual tree measuring. The Burkinshaw's have two trees that they measure every year around Christmas. Bob keeps an exel worksheet with the years and exact measurements. This year the process was complicated a bit by the fact that one tree had close to a foot of snow on the ground around it, so we had to do some digging to measure exactly 52 inches from the ground to ensure the circumfrincal measurement would be accurate. Both trees grew substantially--the maple grew 3 inches and the cedar grew 8 inches around, if I remember correctly. We actually didn't do the measurement until just before Jon and Amber left, so this happy news brought our holidays came to a happy end!
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:) !
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