Happy New Years!

It's already a new year! This last year went by so fast! We had an awesome Christmas with both sides of the family. We were able to spend time with both sides during the week between Christmas and New Years. When my parents were here we went to Boondocks and played games and laser tag (I must say my sister-in-law has a good aim!) I can't wait for the summer when their outdoor attractions will be open. We also saw 'The Blindside." An excellent movie for anyone who has not seen it yet. It was really good to spend time with them as always, and was really happy they were able to come out for the holidays. They left New Years Eve. and got home safe. Eric and I didn't do a ton for New Years, just hung out and watched movies until midnight. We saw "Sherlock Holmes" with his parents and Greg. Also, a good movie. We hope the holidays were memorable for everyone, and that this new year has started off good!

Merry Christmas!

After doing some light cleaning at the house we headed up to the cabin to spend the afternoon with everyone. I actually missed a few turns along the way because it's been so long since I've been there. (For those of you on Melissa's side: There is a cabin in the mountains that we spent most of our Christmas eves and some Christmas days at when I was growing up. This was he first time we've been able to go back in around 9 years.)

Even though they have updated a few things it sure brought lots of fond memories back!

Melissa hung out and chatted while I went shooting guns with Paul, Brad, Mike, Mitch, Steve, and Kim. We took some cheap shasta soda cans to use for targets. It's fun seeing your target explode and spray colors all over the snow when you hit it.

We ate some more food and did some more mingling before leaving around 5. It was nice to talk to some of my cousins that I don't see often and others I haven't seen in years. We had to leave a little early so we could pick up Melissa's parents at the airport. They were able to come visit us from Christmas eve until New years.




We spent Christmas morning having breakfast with Melissa's parents. I made Ebelskivers and I must say they were tasty! We went to my parents house after breakfast was over and stayed there the rest of the day. Thanks again to everyone for all of the great gifts we received! It was a really good day! We exchanged gifts, played on the wii and PS3, ate too much food, and last but not least had the annual auction.

A couple of years ago my parents started having an auction on Christmas. We would all be given some monopoly money to start out the game, then the auction would begin. One at a time my Dad would auction off items that were in various sized boxes wrapped in wrapping paper. We have no idea whats in them so there are always some fun suprizes. Mekell was the highest bidder on a flash light and a wallet, not exactly what she was hoping for when she was bidding on those boxes! I won two $25 gas cards and Melissa won $50 cash! (I also bid a large amount on what turned out to be a toothbrush so we didn't completely clean house). Anyway, we really look forward to the auction every year.
Melissa didn't want to pose for any pictures so she grabbed these movies and games to hide behind. What a poor sport.

We gave the kids some new toys in their stockings. As you can see the stuffing doesn't stay in the toys very long.

Thanks Tim and Gina for posing for a picture and not hiding behind anything!

- Eric

Let it snow

Winter is definitely here! We've been hammered by snow these last few days. It was so wet and heavy this morning the snow blower wouldn't even throw it.

Eric went to the doctor Thursday morning after being sick all week. It turns out that in addition to having the flu he had strep throat. What a lucky guy.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving day at Eric's parents house this year. His Aunt and Uncle as well as most of his cousins from the Wheeler family joined us. We had a really good time hanging out, playing trivia on the playstation 3, and eating wonderful food. Thank you everyone for a great Thankgiving!

Eric was the first one on our street to put up Christmas lights this year but the last one turning them on. He bought an electronic light switch that can be programmed so the lights turn on and off automatically every night. Eric quickly learned He's not an electrician and ended up calling a family friend who actually is an electrician for help (thanks Dennis!). Anyway, it works great and we don't have to worry about forgetting to turn the lights on/off anymore!

Halloween

Here are our pumpkins we carved this year.

Melissa carved Gizmo from the Gremlins movie.

Eric felt compelled to honor the king of pop. We'll always remember you MJ!

Only one regret...

We recently purchased one of those 'sleep number beds' that on each side you can control how soft/firm you like it. Overall we have both been very pleased with it.


I just find myself after mornings like this asking, "why didn't we get a king?"

Bubbles!

The Barber Family Roadtrip

We took a road trip to Sun River, Oregon during the middle of August. Layne had a family reunion that he wanted us to attend, and so the journey started. We figured we'd take the long way up and see some sights along the way. It was a lot of car time, but we saw some very beautiful things along the way.

Luckily in the back of the car and truck there was enough space to lay down and somewhat stretch out. This was especially nice to sleep, and to relax for those not used to road trips...

We stopped to see the Redwoods in California. These trees are amazing! It's incredible not only how big they are around, but also how tall they are! It was stated they are the tallest living thing on earth. The picture above is of a trunk base that had hollowed, just to show some comparisons in size!

This tree Eric had to climb into the spot he's standing, and it just shows how tall the trees are.

Of course there's the famous tree that you can drive through. We had to do it! It was cool because even though you could drive through the 'shrine tree' it was still living at the top. The redwoods were incredible to see. Definitely a good first scenic sight!

This video is from a boat ride on the mail boats along the Rogue River in Oregon. The scenery was gorgeous! These boats still take the mail up and down the river (fun job!) We got to see a lot of wildlife too including a bald eagle in its natural habitat. That was incredible! There were also seals, sea otters, and hawks. It was a fun boat ride with some educational stuff too.

When we got to Sun River we were a little lost...but the resort town was a lot of fun! In this picture it's hard to see, but 2 deer are hanging out by the front door, their fawn was laying down on the other side of the drive way. This was normal for them. The town has it's own shopping plaza with restaurants, and had music playing at night. The temp was actually pretty cool, especially coming from 90 weather! The house that Layne found to rent was really nice, and we got the master suite!

We went on a hike the first full day we were out of the car. These were called the Benham Falls. This picture doesn't do it justice. This is one river I would not want to be in...ever. This picture at the beginning was also from this hike. Once again, gorgeous!

At the family reunion our host had a Segway that we all got to ride. Those things are fun! You really want to get on it and just see how fast it will go! It's amazingly easy to learn too. Andy, Greg and I played a family game of kickball. We ate and then Andy, Eric and I got on our way since we wanted to drive straight home. We pulled in about 1 am, but we did it! We had a great time on this road trip, but I don't think I'll ever get Eric to go on another 'road trip' again!=o)

A Fun Day in Malad

This last Saturday Eric, Michael and I went four wheeling in Malad, Idaho. Malad is just over the Utah border, so it was close and had good places to go riding. Michael just got new four wheelers for his family and was anxious to try them out. The day was perfect for riding, and we just missed a rain storm that hit later that day.
During the ride we had to go downstream through the river. We didn't know how deep some areas were, and there were a few bigger boulders that we had to go over, but it wasn't too bad. It was fun to ride in the river. This picture is of Michael getting his new wheels wet. He overcame some pretty difficult obstacles that day, I was proud of him. It helps when you have an experienced rider like Eric though, he's a good teacher!

After riding we went up to Eric's parents property outside of Lava where we road into the local gas station on fumes. We stopped and got our lotto tickets in Malad, and I was all excited because it looked as if we were going to win $115. After the lady scanned them, we got $1. Damn lottery! I still don't understand, but I'll get over it! =o)

Of course on the way home, the party wasn't over when Eric noticed that one of the tires on the trailer had blown out. Luckily it wasn't anything too bad, but looked like a real pain in the butt to change. The boys literally had their butts on the line changing the tire, luckily they had a spare! Needless to say that the day was eventful and fun!

Eric's new toy

Eric has been wanting a motorcycle for a long time and finally decided to get one. Its a Yamaha V-Star Classic. Eric is really enjoying it and drives it whenever the weather permits.

We took a nice drive up to Lava Hot Springs today. We stopped in Malad on the way up and hit it big in the lottery! We won $2. Anyway, Eric has been itching to go see if all of the snow has melted at his parents property. Almost all of it was melted but we had to still hike a little ways because two big trees were knocked over blocking the road. It's exciting that summer camping is almost here!

There are 2 new waterslides at the pool in Lava this year. The slides take you across the main road into town and drop into the pool (sorry the picture isn't very good). Should be fun!

Happy Birthday

Tiki is 3 years old now. Here's a video we took when she was a new born. She was a very vocal eater!

Surgery update

Surgery went well. Here's a picture of the screws and plates they took out. 4 of the screws broke off when they were being removed but the surgeon said it's no big deal to leave those in the bone.

I took the bandages off this morning and my hand is really swollen (and sore). I tried washing off the 'yes' they wrote on my hand but they used a permanent marker so it wont budge. It's kind of unnerving that they need to actually write yes on the hand that needs the procedure done to keep things straight. Anyway, I'll be popping percocet and keeping it iced up for the next few days! -Eric

Surgery tomorrow

For any of you unfamiliar with my hand problems I'll give you a quick history....

It all began late one night in the summer of 2006. I just got home from work and I had a bunch of things I needed to take upstairs from my car and I new it would take several trips. I opened the door and was greeted by the usual craziness that ensues every time I get home from work. (see our post "happy to be inside" in our January archives). Wanting to get this stuff hauled in, I gave each of the kids a quick pat on the head (they normally won't let me get away with giving them such a little amount of attention) and carried the first load up stairs. As I hurried back down the stairs Kailee ran down right behind me and slammed right into the back of my legs. She took my feet right out from under me and I landed awkwardly on my hand.
I knew it was broken right away because I heard the bones crunch. I've never heard the sound of them breaking when I've broken bones before, it was creepy.

We hopped in the car and headed to the hospital. The pain was pretty intense and I passed out on the way. It was kind of funny to wake up to Melissa slapping me and yelling "Eric! Eric! Eric! I guess it was the first time she had seen someone faint so it freaked her out.

They referred me to a surgeon and he put the bones back together with 6 screws.
As time went on it was becoming clear that my hand wasn't set right. My fingers started to close over on each other when I would close my hand. Apparently if those bones aren't set just right when they're broken it really effects the way your fingers close.

I went to see a different specialist who recommended breaking one of the bones and rotating it to make them line up better. When he started to remove the screws he was able to pluck 5 out of the 6 by just using tweezers! The previous surgeon did a terrible job. Any way he broke the bone and put in the plates and pins that you can see in the picture. He had to do bone graphs on the bone to the right of the one that has the plates to fill in where some of the loose screws were.

My hand still doesn't close the same as it used to but it has been a big improvement. I have had a lot of pain lately and they think the plates are causing some irritation so tomorrow those will be coming out. I'll have Melissa post an update tomorrow afternoon. -Eric

Happy Birthday Kailee Girl

So first off I should fill everyone in on previous stuff that has happened. Easter was a lot of fun. My family came over for brunch, and we drew on the driveway with chalk, played trivia, and proved that 6 saltine crackers could not be eaten in 1 minute. Then we went over to Eric's side and enjoyed a very good dinner with everyone and hung out and had a good time. This is a month of birthday's for us. Emily's was on the 5th. We are going out to dinner tomorrow for Jill and Mekell's, and Marie's is on Tuesday. I can't forget about Kailee's birthday. She would have been 5 today. We got Kailee when a new owner adopted a chocolate lab and wanted to have her spayed not knowing she was pregnant. We ended up doing a c-section as well, and the employee's took care of the puppies. I literally held on to her the moment she was born. There were 7 puppies in her litter and only 3 survived. She was our first baby. Eric was in Denver at the time doing training for Ultimate. I remember being so excited to show him my 'surprise.' Lucky for me, he fell in love with her right off too. Needless to say she was a hellion as a puppy (think Marley & Me.) She loved rawhide bones, and was very affectionate! She mellowed and became our best and most mellow dog (at least around family!) Vinnie depended on her to be his ears, and they quickly became friends. We had a lot of good times with her. We miss her very much, and know that across rainbow bridge and in heaven that she's happy. Happy Birthday Kailee, we love you!

Back from Moab

I'm back from our bi-annual trip to Moab. As always I had an great time. One of the trails we rode was called "Top of the world", it had some amazing views. My dad was creeped out by how high these cliffs were.

On the way down one of the guys in our group wanted to stop at "Ray's Tavern" in Green river. It smelled so bad inside that I couldn't bring myself to eating anything. Thank goodness I made a lot of beef jerky for the trip before hand so I had plenty to hold me over until we got to Moab so I could get some real food.

We got my dad a helmet camera for Christmas. This trip was our first time using it so when I figure out how to edit the video I will get some posted.

A Day at the Gateway

Today we had a really fun day. Eric took a nap with Tiki and Vinnie this morning while I got ready. As you can tell there's not much room left on the bed once the dogs get settled. We decided to go to the Gateway. While we were there, we did a little browsing in stores, and walked around as the day got colder and colder. We ate at a new restaurant called Tuscano's Brazilian Grill. It was excellent and strongly recommend it to anyone. We ate way too much, and wanted to eat more because the food was so good! Then we went and saw the movie 'I Love You, Man.' While we were there we saw Mehmet Okur (a Jazz basketball player) at the theater. He is very tall! The movie was hilarious! We both laughed really hard through the whole thing! It was somewhat crude, so if you're not into that, then you would not like it. Otherwise, prepare to laugh your butt off! Usually we like going to the Clark Planetarium as well, but none of the shows worked out for us as we had already seen them all. On the way home we got ice cream at Coldstone Creamery, very tasty.

A weird/embarrassing experience

When I woke up this morning I just didn't feel right. I didn't feel sick, things just seemed off somehow. I got ready for the day and headed into work to take care of a couple things (today is supposed to be my day off). As the morning went on I could tell I was getting sick. I hurried through my tasks and went on my way. I needed to stop at walmart to pick up a few things on my way home.

I grabbed a cart and slowly wandered my way through the store. I picked up a new toothbrush, a paintbrush, and various other items. As I shopped I starting feeling even worse, it was almost as if I had drank a whole bottle of Nyquil, I felt so drowsy. I had made my way about 3/4 of the way around the store and was headed to my last stop. My plan was to make dinner tonight and the only item I knew I didn't have at home was some sage.

As I made my way over to the spices I looked down and realized I was driving someone Else's cart! It was so bizarre! There in front of me was a cart full of another persons groceries and a purse! I immediately looked around but didn't see my cart anywhere. How did this happen? I was so confused! As I looked around I thought surly I would see the owner of this strange shopping cart nearby. No such luck. I wandered back through the store trying my hardest to remember where the switch might have happened. I eventually ended up in the movie section where to my relief I found my cart! I asked a couple of women nearby if the cart belonged to them, but it wasn't theirs. I didn't see any other shoppers around so I parked the cart where I had originally left mine and made my way back to the spices.

At that point I knew I needed to get home and go to bed!
-Eric

All In One

I know the Superbowl was last week, but we took this picture to put on the blog, so here it is! It was fun making the cake, and the football in the middle is brownie. It was an awesome game!
I was going for the Cardinals, but all in all, it was still a fun game to watch. We watched it at Eric's parents. Before the game we played a game called Buzz on the PS3, it's a trivia game, that is very entertaining!




The next picture is of course Vinnie. He was in one of his happy go lucky moods. Just happy and content. We were trying to get a good picture of him and Eric so you could see how tall he really is, but we weren't able to, but I still love this pic of him and Eric!

And finally this weekend we are tending 'Ghost' until Monday. Her parents had to find her a new home because someone turned them in for having too many dogs. The base is very strict about only being able to have 2. They had 24 hours to decide which of their 3 dogs would have go. She will be going back to the rescue they adopted her from, and I think she'll get adopted fast because she's an absolute sweetheart! I can't imagine making that decision! Anyways, tomorrow we're going to see the new Clint Eastwood movie, we'll let you know how it is! In the meantime we hope all is well!

It's been awhile

I figured we should put up a post since it has been awhile! We have both been very busy lately. Eric has been filling in a lot more at work and will be working as manager for the next month. He's eagerly awaiting the next trip he'll be able to take! I have been working a lot as well. There is not much new to report here. We just hang out with our kids, and are still watching movies like crazy. Hopefully we'll have something soon for a new post!! =o)