Retreat!

Our annual Bible study retreat was a smashing success, filled with food, laughter, prayer, games, sledding, snow, and relaxation. The pictures are: Dave and Tim do a little snow sculpting, the group pauses to be beautiful, Laura rides the slopes, Dave serenades the neighborhood, and we have gables.

Roof

The roof is going up on the front part of the house. After a night of rain, the crew is back at it. Thankfully they read the weather forecast and put a tarp over everything last night.

Getting Serious

It's a bit colder in the house as the roof is starting to come off. We're excited to see the framing begin, as the new section begins to take shape. We are also experiencing both vehicles being parked outside as our driveway has turned into a mini lumberyard.

Team Ai

Normally the blog is pretty family-themed, but here are a couple of shots of me and my staff. The top picture from left to right is Meghan, me, Kat, and Sara. The bottom pic is the ladies doing their best Charlie’s Angels impression. They’re really quite professional. Really.

Mountain High

We had a nice weekend up in Big Bear with Ken, Kathy, Katie, Ben & Betsy. The pics are as follows: Emma gets out her art supplies and sketches the forest (before the snow hit), Meg mugs for the camera, Jonathan and Uncle Ben have a little jam session, and Emma tries to dig out the minivan (everyone did get down the mountain without incident).

All sorts of pictures

OK, I have a gaggle of pictures to post so bear with me on the randomness. The first pic is our re-built vegetable garden. The timbers were rotting and we wanted to make it slightly bigger anyway. The 2nd are 3rd pics are the remodel. Footings have been poured and we expect framing to commence shortly. The 4th picture is the kids with our new friends Diana and Jessica. They are part of the international childrens choir that sang at our church on Sunday night. The girls stayed with us for a couple of days. Crowded, but a good experience. The last picture is from last Saturday. Laura took Emma and her two buddies to a tea house for lunch and then to a production of "Annie" to celebrate Emma's birthday. Good times.

Digging

We're making progress. All the debris is gone and trenches have been dug for the footings. For those of you who are unfamiliar with our project, we are expanding our front room, our dining room, and our den. We're doing this project because we LOVE to have folks over and increased social spaces will allow us to continue the hospitality that our parents modeled for us. So far we have survived both our water main and our gas line being accidentally cut. Oops.

Tenacious D and Chocolate Milk

I will get back to updates on the remodel but I had to post these pictures from Aunty Betsy. One is Emma getting ready to play some tough D. Needless to say, she did a fine job containing "Shooter". The other is Meg with her favorite beverage. Who doesn't love chocolate milk?

Demolition

Inspired by my good buddy Dave and his hot tub photo journal, I decided to post a few pics of our little house project. For those of you scoring at home, this is the front of our house and the back of our house. The front used to have a railing, a porch cover, and plants. Needless to say, they are now gone. The back used to have a lot more bricks. Jonathan was convinced that he would be a worthy asset to the demolition crew, but his mean parents denied his plans.