Spending Christmas in Catskills, NY with Grammy and Grampy

After we left the city, we went up north to Catskills, NY to spend it with Grammy and Grampy Fish. We spent 4 days lounging around in our Pj's, eating, playing games, eating, sleeping in, and eating some more. I gained 2 pounds thanks to Lynita's fudge!

Darwin read the Christmas story while the kids did a puppet show. Did you know baby Jesus wanted to hit everyone and fight? Ethan was hilarious with baby Jesus!Yes, that is Grammy Fish singing with Guitar Hero. Ask Kaid how it went haha. Ryan and Lynita are definitely the best jammers of the bunch. I'm sure the neighbors didn't appreciate the loud singing as much as we did. We decided that they don't get out much with little kids at home, so they went a little crazy rockin' out when the kids were in bed.
Notice in the background that Kaid has just thrown a snow ball and Davin is the recipient of it!

Christmas in New York City

BRRRRRR! We picked the coldest day of the year to be tourists. We planned a trip to New York City for Christmas because we had never been and that is one of the perks of living in the East. We are only 9 hours away! We only had 2 days in the city, so we tried to pack a lot in. We rode a train from my brother-in-law's house into the city, a tour bus around the city, the subway, and then a boat around the harbor. We totally did the NY tourist thing. It was awesome!

Kenzi's favorite thing about NY was the pigeons. We paid how much money for her to chase birds around!
This is one my newest nephews, Owen. Boyce and Owen were bald buddies. I think the count for our nieces and nephews is now 57! Can you believe it? We are adding 5 in this year alone!
They had a huge ferris wheel in the Toys-R-Us. Davin and Kenzi love to play Monopoly together (probably because Davin can convince her to trade anything for his benefit of course), so I had to take a picture of this cart.
You can't tell in this picture how cold it is on the top of the boat. No one else was on the top because they weren't as stupid as we were. What we will go through for a few pictures.
Ellis Island - I love the history of New York.

We had to see the TREE. We didn't put up a Christmas tree this year (yes, we are that cheap) because I kept telling Kenzi we were going to see a big one. It was cool to finally see where my morning news is taped. I needed to see, hear, smell (good and bad), taste and touch NY because it always looks different compared to television.

Cute niece and nephews with Santa (the paid Santa of course). They were troopers being dragged around New York.
Bryce's favorite thing was a little jazz club he visited called the Village Vanguard. I'm ready to go back and see some more things!

Hanging Out With Med School Friends

For the first part of our trip, we were able to go to Pennsylvania to have dinner with the James and Amy, and Ryan and Amy. We had to stop the first day because Kenzi was driving us crazy asking to see Emma. We were supposed to spend a day with them in Hershey, PA on our way back, but unfortunately Davin got sick (too bad)! It was great to see each others kids and of course the men have to swap ER stories. I don't know who's worse - ER docs or fishermen.

Davin turns 12

Wow! I'm so impressed with myself. I'm actually posting this on the same day as the party! That never happens and probably won't ever happen again. Anyway, we tend to have some pretty crazy parties at our house, and today we had a "catapult" party. What does every 12 year old want to do - build a catapult and fling things at each other right! I had to tell them no to sending flaming things into the pond. We just had our lawn aerated, so they flung dirt "poops" at each other and loved it of course. Boy brains.....I just don't see how that could be so fun! Poor Boyce had to build one too many catapults with the boys and then go work all night. That about sums up his life as an intern.

I've had many requests for pics of our house, so I included a few trying to put people in them. Kaid's room is a mess, but that's how it looks all the time pretty much. He designed it and painted the stripe. Bryce's room to be is the basement area that we were building in. It will be nice, but we don't know when we will get it done (hopefully by Christmas). We were trying to avoid having to do much of it ourself, but finances tend to dictate things like that. Boyce got a new power tool (compound miter saw), so he is pretty hyped and motivated to build. He's been my hot handy man with a power tool!

Beggars' Night instead of Trick or Treat?

Beggars' Night? Yeah, here they celebrate Beggar's Night on Thursday from 6-8 instead of trick-or-treating on Halloween. It is strange.....It allowed Boyce and I to go to an adult Halloween party, so I'm not going to complain. Usually I make costumes, and my days of getting the kids to dress up as a theme (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc) is over, but Kenzi just wanted to wear her Sleeping Beauty dress, so I didn't argue with her. I spent the money I would've spent on costumes on decorations instead. Davin made the comment that we have never decorated for Halloween before. I had to laugh because I used to do fun things like that before I taught school full time. Our pumpkins were still pathetic (Gene & Kori you need to give us some tips). Fall is gorgeous here! The trees are bright red. Yeah, around March I'm sure I'm going to be hating life because of the cold. Happy Halloween!

The Black Fairy

We loved Vedauwoo's Halloween costume!

Friends in Ohio

We moved into a ward where each of the kids have 6-10 kids their age to do things with which is incredible. They have had instant friends. We have loved one family especially - they are the ones that hooked us up with all the right people to be able to move to Centerville. Kenzi and her 2 friends are here bathing the dog in my bathtub. Okay, that was a big mistake! I had hair 2 feet up the wall in the entire bathroom. I'm really not liking the indoor dog thing! Boyce and I have so many friends here because everyone is overly friendly. We have 10 doctors in our ward now, and 7 of them are residents or barely attendings, so they totally understand the family life of a resident - little money and little time to do anything with family and a butt-load of student loans - uggh! We basically have a resident wife support group which includes working out, volleyball, or lunch! (I tend to do be doing more eating out than working out though.)

First Day of School

This was a scary day for the kids....new school, new state, new everything. It's hard to be the new kid, but they have adjusted well. The kids have been really nice here, so they have all had plenty of friends to do things with. We have been very happy about our neighborhood because there are several kids the same age. Kenzi has a little girl across the street in the same grade, and they are so much alike. (They both are a little strange haha) It's nice that she has a bus buddy. I didn't have to work the first day, so I worked out, went to lunch with a friend, and then went shopping! I haven't had the kids at school and me at home ever, so I celebrated! It was really strange not starting the school year with a classroom though. It's a lot less stressful when all you are worrying about is your own kids! Kenzi (2nd), Davin (6th), Kaid (8th), Bryce (11th) Can you believe how old they are? I'm not ready for Bryce to be leaving for college!

Band Season has started!

We are so excited for band season. Bryce has addicted to competitive marching band. When he first decided to go out for band 2 years ago, I was hesitant because I was more interested in sports. He gave up soccer to do band. We have loved going to the competitions, and the whole family is hooked and "bandies" now. Our school in Cali placed 14th in the nation last year, and we moved to a school that placed 13th in the nation, so it is just as competitive. We are hoping to make finals this year (top 12) with our show called "Wild Things". We will be traveling to Indianapolis 3 times this season including nationals in November. It definitely takes up quite a bit of our time, but we love band season! Bryce is a tuba player (with the headband), and they have an awesome tuba section this year.

The BEAST at Kings Island

Here's Kenzi with my great nephew Brazen. He was sooooo much fun to watch at Kings Island!
Kenzi actually rode the BEAST! I was really nervous for her because she's not much of a roller coaster gal. She's learning and to our satisfaction she screamed, "It was awesome!"
The BEAST is the best wooden roller coaster in the world according to many of us! Denny and Dionne came down with their family and spent the weekend with us. Of course we had to go to Kings Island because it brings back so many memories from when we all lived here 17 years ago. We were thrilled to have family come see us in OH because we know it won't happen very often. We all have bruises from the BEAST, but it is worth it!

COUSINS - do we really have to be so far away!

My SISTER - My INSPIRATION: Whenever I have moms complain that their children are hard, I just think of my sister who is graciously and patiently mothering a child with severe cerebral palsy. She is one of the best moms I know, and she makes me understand more what being a mom is all about. Thank you Sis!
Somehow I convinced Boyce to take a 13 hour "detour" to Boise to visit some of my family. It was the first leg of the trip to Ohio. They wore us out, but it was worth every single mile and outrageous cost in gas. The next stop was Laramie, WY to see more family (smaller and cuter cousins). After that, we stopped in Kansas City to see more family and cousins and to play some cool car/ball game. We don't have pics of the rest of the trip because I think we were just too tired to get out the camera. 45 hours later we made it to our new home! Don't recommend that road trip to anyone. Uggh!

Missing the Beach

We already miss the BEACH and TANNER! This was our last trip to the beach before we left Cali. We biked 30 miles there. We spent a lot of time at the beach with Robin and Tanner, and we plan on going back. There's nothing like sitting in the sand listening to the waves. June 2008

Graduation - Took you long enough DAD!

Boyce finally graduated from medical school, and we headed to Dayton, Ohio for an ER residency. Yes, we have been professional students, but he's finally doing what he loves, and what we feel he's supposed to do. It was a good day....Dr. Fish....that just sounds weird! We are proud of Boyce because it wasn't easy doing this with a high maintenance family!

Impeccable timing for Bryce's Eagle Project

Bryce planned his Eagle Project for the last week we were in Cali. Yeah, like we didn't have enough to do. We spent 4 days working in the band room patching walls, tearing out cubbies, painting, etc. He wanted to do something to give back to Ayala because this program has done so much for him. We were happy that he got it done though!

The Parks are AWESOME and FREE here!

Here's just one of the many FREE parks that are right around us in OHIO. There are so many fun parks and everything is so family oriented. We have loved going on play dates to different parks 3 or 4 times a week!