MOM'S NEW TOY

Mom just found out that her new camera also takes short videos with sound so she is trying it out. Mimi is out on the slopes with dad and Butch is having a hey day with the door stopper. I guess I just wasted a whole bunch of mula on dog toys.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM US WASHITONIANS

During Uncle David's and Auntie Setsue's stay here in Washington, the weather stopped snowing and started to rain instead. In hindsight it was rather a benefit for us as we were able to take David and Setsue up to Bothell to visit with David's childhood friends on New Year's Eve. Of course Mimi found the boys Jordan (blonde) and Chavez (dark hair) downstairs in the basement and decided that it was more fun to hang out with them. Meanwhile upstairs the men were in the living room discussing politics and religion and the women were in the dinning room looking at Joe's wedding pictures. After a while we all gathered in the living room and the guys who had been friends longer than anyone cared to remembered reminised about the good ole' days. It was more fun for me to watch the expressions of the wives faces as the guys told of stories that even the women in their lives did not know about. There were stories about hot wiring cars, setting off these humongous fireworks on the fourth of July, first dates, getting into the bars at the tender age of 14 just by showing their library cards. Judy (brown hair), Adrienne (red hair) and Setsue all had these surprised looks on their face that words just cannot describe. All in all everyone had a good time. We were able to see a bit of fireworks on the way home.

SEE THE RESEMBLENCE???

While Samantha and her family are enjoying themselves on the east coast, I opened up their blog site and saw this picture. Then I thought to myself, now where did I see this sculpture before??? Oh Yeah!!! It was dad's invitation to last year's Christmas office party at Sam Olympic Scupture Park in dowtown Seattle next to the Space Needle.

NEXT YEAR'S GIFT FROM SANTA???????

Now that Mimi has mastered my cell phone, she decided to try out Joe's Blackberry and she loves it! She had to input all of her friends names into it, there's Samantha F. , Blake, Halliwell, Erin, Zoe and so forth.

AT THE LODGE

While waiting for dad and Joe to finish their runs, Mimi and mom played some cards while enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich snack. Mimi also loves maps and Nicole (not necessarily in that order) so here Nicole is showing Mimi on the map where everyone went skiing and the pictures she took at the top of the mountain.

CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN

Well folks, the Putney's finally made it up to Crystal Mountain for some cold, wet fun. Due to the fact that the bridge to Enumclaw is closed for the season for some repair work, we had to make a detour, then stop at the ski shop for rentals. What normally would have been a one and a half hour trip turned into a two and a half hour trip but we made it. The weather was perfect and the place was not real crowded. I thought for sure Mimi would only last one hour but lo and behold she actually skied for a little more than two hours! What a difference one year makes which was the last time she went skiing. For about an hour Mimi and dad went skiing while I stayed down at the lodge. They then came back for lunch and Mimi was raring to go again. "I wanna go skiing!!!" she would say over and over. So off they went. Meanwhile all during this time Joe and Nicole were somewhere at the top of the mountain taking pictures. You could see Mount Rainier real good. Finally it was time to go home for a short time to freshen up then over to grandma's house for a lasagna dinner.

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW

Gone are the days when mom has to carry around the clunker of a Olympus camera. Dad bought mom this new Cannon camera for Christmas. Not as nice as a SLR but it will do for now. Mom really likes it because it is small enough to carry around in her purse or pocket.