Oh Christmas Tree...

Getting a tree is always an exciting time.  Although, I must admit that getting one in Florida is not as magical as going out to chop one down yourself. Everyone knows that right?! Anyways, we called up our awesome neighbor and headed to Lowe's to find the perfect tree. It was so nice to have Daddy here to help and he made sure to inspect them all. :)


Daddy checking one out.

Our little helpers.

This is always the most exciting part.

My boys!

They realized that Hugh needed a little help picking the perfect tree for their house.

In exchange, Hugh then helped us get the tree home. THANK YOU HUGH!

Lowe's happens to be right next door to Bass Pro Shop so we hit the Christmas section and look who we found?

SANTA!!! He was very good about reminding the boys about being good and helping to pick up after themselves. We need Santa to visit in May! :)

A visit with Santa himself.

Lots of fun crafts and activities. Here they are racing cars.

Once back at home, my helpers dove right in. They love to empty the ornament and decoration boxes as fast as possible. Despite my lecture about not taking everything out, I couldn't help but smile at how excited they were. They took out EVERYTHING! Oh well, I tried!  I did convinced them that the couch was a perfect spot to keep ornaments halfway safe.

One of the boys favorite jobs...clipping off the netting.

We took time for a yummy turkey dinner to make up for the not-so-yummy turkey we had at our cabin. We had awesome sides but the turkey wasn't so stellar. We redeemed ourselves!

Magically our tree was decorated!!! Having such good helpers this year was awesome and made it quick! Okay, not that quick and actually only the lights went on the first night. However, it didn't take long to get it decorated, especially the front. We had to teach the boys about spreading out the ornaments and using a step ladder to make the whole tree special. They did great!!

Do you see Lucas' face in the next photo? This was after he discovered that Axel (the youngest) got to put the star on top of the tree.

Disappointed Lucas.

Axel was so happy to take on the star roll.

We then surprised Lucas and told him he got to plug in the star. :)

Everyone was happy! Great job team!

We loved our tree and all the open space was perfect for some good wrestling matches!

Daddy got attacked...

but took no mercy...

and showed two boys what a double pin looks like.

Most importantly, no one was crying afterwards!

Gingerbread Time

GINGER!!

Who doesn't love ginger?!?!?

This family loves it and the wonderful treats that can be created using it! Some of our favorites
are pumpkin pie, pumpkin brownies, ginger snaps and of course, gingerbread!! When not climbing, we were diving into Christmas activities!!!

I wish this photo was in focus just a touch more...it shows Axel's personality perfectly!

Not bad...

We made a few long weekend trips to the cabin before Christmas. Harry Potter continued and the whole family is now hooked. We read to Lucas so slow him down, although, we know he sneaks and reads ahead sometimes. :)

Daddy reading the 4th Harry Potter book to Lucas.

Axel and I listen while drawing silly pictures in our notebook. He loves doing this and so do I. :)

We busted out some cookies that needed a little frosting love. It was also practice for our graham cracker "gingerbread" houses!!

The boys gave us detailed plans for the construction of their houses. Mom and Dad set to work and had a blast!

After letting the houses set and dry, it was time to decorate. I filled a few piping bags with royal icing and opened a huge bag of parade/Halloween candy. The boys decorated until their hearts content and then we added the finishing details. We got a little carried away, it's very addicting!

Here are the finished houses. We made a rule that you couldn't eat them until Christmas Day. Do you think that rule stuck?! HA! For the most part but I think a little mouse or two took some nibbles. :)

Proud boys!!!

Christmas Activities

In between climbing trips, we joined in on the local Christmas fun. On this day, we hit the local Christmas parade and landed more candy than we did on Halloween. I wasn't worried, I had big plans for this candy! It was going to be a wonderful addition to our future gingerbread houses! :)

 

I love these two!!

Here we are waiting for the parade to start.

Our Florida born neighbor making the most of her cozies during the
 cold weather.

Boy Scout float. Lucas decided it would be way more fun to watch the parade rather than be in it. He was right and he had a blast with Axel and the rest of our neighbors catching candy.

We stake out a spot right at the start of the parade. It's a great place to get lots of goodies and an even better place to make a quick get-a-way after it ends.

We had a great time.

Later that day, one of Lucas' friends had a really cool birthday party at her Karate building. This guy had the kids running and jumping and moving for 2 hours! They had a wonderful time and welcomed Axel to join in on the fun.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Thanksgiving?!

After looking at the photos took over Thanksgiving, I realized that it's really hard to see that it was Thanksgiving! I was on climbing/cabin mode and barely even documented the fact that we were doing something exciting for the holiday.

 

I guess it does give you a few snapshots of what we do when climbing season is on. Our "climbing season" varies dramatically depending on trips planned, the weather and having to work around the school schedule. On average, we have 4 climbing windows during the year and plan our workouts accordingly. We train for each so we can be super strong at the right time for our climbing windows. It makes climbing so fun and really is worth all the hard work.

 

Not having real rock within 4 hours or even a local climbing gym has made it quite a challenge to climb as Florida residents.  If anyone knows Daddy, when there is a will there is a way!!! He has equipped our house with a treadwall, hangboard, campus board, air conditioners and dehumidifiers. We've made it work, although, not ideal. To work with Lucas' school schedule, this past climbing window collided with the holidays. It was stressful at times but also magical!

 

Anyways, this Thanksgiving we headed to our cabin in Kentucky. We were super excited to get out of Florida, climb on real rock and cozy up in our awesome cabin. Our cabin really feels more like "home" than our house in Florida does. It's the lack of hills and rock here, something about that wears on this mountain family. We need to get back to the mountains soon! 

 

Here is a little taste of what our Thanksgiving trip looked like. Yes, we did have an awesome turkey dinner and numerous pumpkin pies were consumed...just no photos!

 

Daddy remembering what real rock feels like!

Our friend enjoying "tea time" while the boys occupy themselves in the background. This is a really good photo in that it shows what most of the adults do when not climbing and what the boys do. They do great exploring, sharing hot chocolate, building forts and using their imaginations!!

We woke up to snow one morning. Axel was a little confused and thought Christmas has come early. He was under the assumption that it has to snow to be Christmas. I thought we had worked this out last year in Florida but hey, this was Kentucky. Yep, same rule applies big guy!

Cozy hot chocolate morning.

This is what most rest days or after climbing evenings look like. Harry Potter has taken over!

Axel and Ed enjoying each others company.

The boys made a cool fort in the rhododendron bushes...garden, doorways, closets, rooms, secret passage ways. They love showing off their cool weapons and tools. I can't believe what great friends they have become and really play so well together. We don't see them half the time while we are climbing. We hear them but they stay so busy and really do love being outside. How about those cool hats?!

See, no turkey...just these two little hams! Happy Thanksgiving!

Pok Pok Inspiration

 Pok Pok is Thai slang for “mortar and pestle” but in this house, it is known as our favorite Thai restaurant located in Portland, OR.We are no Thai experts but after watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, we knew this was one spot not to miss.  The Thai chicken wings looked absolutely amazing and boy, oh boy...

THEY DID NOT DISAPPOINT!

The only problem, Portland is on the complete opposite side of the United States!!! How were we  going to get our Pok Pok fix while living in Florida???

Amazon Ad to the rescue! Mike came across a cookbook called, Pok Pok and about had a heart attack. Moments after verifying that it was a cookbook based on our beloved Thai restaurant, it was ordered and soon in our loving hands!

We picked two recipes to try...the chicken wings and a papaya salad. We bored the boys in the grocery store searching for random ingredients we had never heard of and then finally, with some encouraging help from each other, braved the oil. Yep, we had to deep fry the wings! We had never deep fried anything in our lives so we were a little nervous.

None-the-less, we dove right in...

Mike checking the oil temp.

Pickled daikon radishes and carrots on a bed or romaine

Our not-so-green green papaya salad.

Mike glazing the wings in the most delicious sauce ever topped with little chunks of fried garlic.

So far, everything was looking good! :)

 And you know what?! They were good, actually, they were great!!! We were so proud of ourselves and are super excited to try other recipes. The papaya salad was also very good despite the long list of crazy ingredients and super detailed instructions. It was worth all the hard work!!

We have since tried the recipe again but this time with baked wings. They were just as tasty!!! Our next plan...shrimp with the wonderful, magical Thai glaze!!! Mmmmmmmmmmm......

The final plates before we devoured them all!

Side note: the boys were less than thrilled by the Thai fish sauce smell that permeated through our house all evening. Sorry boys, it won't be the last time you smell that smell! Ha! We love you!!

Here it comes....

The new year is upon us but I'm going to back track a little. Looks like half of November and ALL of December were completely neglected on our blog. It really stems from the perfect storm of a late climbing season and the holidays all colliding together. It was fun, stressful, magical, frustrating, wonderful and totally worth all the hard work. With that said, some things had to go by the wayside and the blog was one of them. Have no fear, I will get caught up and share all our end-of-the-year adventures!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Axel & Lucas enjoying the cool temps at the Red River Gorge while Mom & Dad climb.

Love, JMLA