Happy New Year 2008!

Photos from New Year's Eve
While the kids were with grandparents and other family, Felicia and I got to be grown-ups and have an evening out.

It was a great celebration at the Claremont Hotel with jazz, salsa, swing, etc. There was a dinner show with music from the decades, dance lessons, a comedy club and a casino. All in all a fun way to ring in the New Year!

Can You Solve Our Christmas Puzzle for 2007?

This year's puzzle is a change from our usual "word" puzzles. It involves finding the six pairs of matching images. If you are up for a fun challenge, take a look at our Christmas Puzzle for 2007.

If you need help, an answer key is available, but try solving the puzzle without that.

Halloween 2007 - Outer Space

Our family Halloween theme this year is Outer Space, with Michael as the half-Vulcan/half-human Spock of Star Trek fame, Amara and Rosemary as blue-skinned aliens, Felicia as a Saturn V rocket, Blaine as an Apollo 11 astronaut and Jason as a Space Shuttle Commander.

This year's costumes are dedicated to Felicia's Dad, who passed away not long before Halloween, as Felicia was busily sewing away. She still managed to pull everything together so that we had the costumes completed ahead of time and so the family could attend the memorial service out of town.

My astronaut jumpsuit was a faux white "pleather" and the girls had sequin material that required Felicia to go really slowly when sewing. Numerous times she had to deal with broken thread and needles. As always, I am proud of the final results.

Photos from Yellowstone National Park

Here are some photos we took on our Yellowstone trip recently.

Click on the photo, or the following link for photos from our trip to Yellowstone

Blaine and Felicia Vacationing in Puerto Rico

We've just returned from a spectacular 10-day trip to Puerto Rico. Apart from fabulous restaurants and hotels, we had a great time enjoying picturesque beaches, a lush rain forest, breathtaking scenery and historic fortresses.

Click on the photo, or the following link for our album of Puerto Rico.

Rosemary is an Ambassador to Washington DC

Last year Rosemary was nominated to be part of the prestigious "People to People" Ambassador program. She was the only student from her school to travel to Washington DC as part of the program.

Click on her photo, or the following link for a an album of photos from her trip to our nation's capital.

Christmas Puzzle 2006 Now Uploaded

Our Annual Christmas Puzzle is now available. The theme is "Close but No Rhyme".

If you are stumped, you can check out the answer key.

Halloween 2006 - Holidays

As part of our annual Halloween tradition, we come up with a "family theme" for our costumes. This year we went as The Holidays. We entered in to two local Halloween costume contests and in both we won first place trophies and prizes for our group theme.

The specific holidays are St. Patrick's Day (Michael), April Fool's Day (Blaine), Easter (Amara), Fourth of July (Jason), Thanksgiving (Felicia) and Christmas (Rosemary).

Once again, Felicia deserves all the credit for her hours (weeks) of meticulous sewing of all our costumes. And each costume was varied in terms of fabrics, patterns, sizes, etc. A few of the costumes had no patterns (April Fool, Leprechaun) but that didn't deter Felicia. I am so proud of what she created this year.

Spectacular Family Camping Trip to Crater Lake

A few years back we had planned a camping trip to Crater Lake National Park but were turned back at the entrance because a large fire had closed the park. That year we headed to Lava Beds National Monument instead.

Never deterred, we decided that Crater Lake was not to be missed so we chose to make that our family camping destination this year. The great hiking, camping and spectacular views were well worth it.

Enjoy our video of Camping at Crater Lake

Blaine and Felicia off to Cancun

While the kids are with grandparents, we've decided to take a quick trip to Cancun. Obviously we'll see Chichen Itza and other sites, do some snorkeling, take a jungle adventure, perhaps some parasailing (if I can get up the nerve), etc.

As usual we'll take our camera and camcorder and see if we can't post some images after we return. Check back for that...

Edit: We are back safely. Only minor delays with the increased security at the airports. We had to transfer all our liquids to a single bag that was then put in checked luggage. We skipped the parasailing and jungle tour but went to Tulum, Ek Balam and Isla Mujeras instead.