young entrepreneurs

Todd,

I see our ingenious idea to buy a second Jeep worked out just the way we planned. Maybe we should have a chaperone next year. Then again, who else will get up with us at 3AM.

KJ

I thought I had first dibs on the Barbie Jeep. So cruel.

A little Dutch boy

I'm pretty sure there's no amount of therapy that will help me deal with the memory of those shorts and knee-highs. That is a form of child abuse. However, the picture of Lisa and me in the tub gives me an idea for the next Johnson family reunion talent show.

I'm especially fond of the picture of me and my ventriloquist act with my puppet Jimmy. Say cheese and serial killer Jimmy. Creepy smile.

Classic photos. I have them on disk. Speak up and I'll mail one to you. Mag, yours will be in the mail pronto.

KJ

Christmas In Idaho Falls

We had a nice Christmas in Idaho Falls and wanted to share a few pictures. Thanks to everyone who sent gifts and well-wishes our way!

Riley examining the note left by Santa

The girls were kind enough to pose for a picture before the hurricane started.

Aftermath...

Riley and Macie were excited for their new Power-Wheels Jeeps.


We had to let Macie and Charlotte know they can't use their cell phones while driving.

Charlotte was mostly disinterested with everything but the Runts (see left hand).

She did perk up a little when the cabbage patch doll was opened.

Drag Racing in the basement.

More pre-Christmas Cheer

For our Ward Christmas party this year, one of the chairs of the activities committee recorded his interviews with the kids in the Jr. Primary about Christmas, and created a video of the highlights that they played at the party.

Felix was one of the stars of the video, and we received a copy that I've edited down to Felix's parts and a few other funnier moments.

We breathed a deep sigh of relief that Felix answered correctly on the most critical question about the true meaning of Christmas, even if he did confuse the shepherds who visited the baby Jesus with "leopards." At least he didn't answer that Christmas is all about "cars." : )

Merry Christmas!

Sarah's visit to UNLV

The UNLV Libraries holiday party was last Thursday, and since I had won the Variety Show the year before, I was feeling the pressure to defend my title. So I finally put my Tina Fey/Sarah Palin resemblence to work, and did a Saturday Night Live skit with one of my co-workers. I know there is video somewhere because I saw someone recording, but I haven't seen that yet...when it comes around, I'll be sure to post it. For now, here are a couple of pictures of me in all my Sarah glory!

In action, with Hillary

With my co-worker, Ernesto

'Tis The Season

After seeing Scott's post I'm grateful we didn't see any pictures of him dangling from a rain gutter - that always seems to put a damper on Christmas. We have put up two lighted wreaths the past couple of years, but haven't ventured into lighting the entire house. I told mom I would post this video of Riley's school Christmas Program. The audio and video aren't great, but we thought it was funny how much more animated she was than most of the other kids.

Winter Solstice

With the Winter Solstice happening on Monday, and Christmas falling just four days later on the 25th (the day the winter solstice was pegged to on the Julian calendar), I thought I'd kick off winter with a couple Christmas- / winter-themed photos.

This year for the first time in four Christmases as homeowners, I decided to hang Christmas lights from the roof. There were a few contributing factors that led me to do this uncharacteristic thing:

1. Ever since serving a mission to Norway, where extreme changes in the seasons accompany the high latitude--with little to no daylight during the winter in large parts of the country--I've come to appreciate ever more the importance of sharing light during the days leading up to the darkest day of the year.
   
2. Directly related to the importance of light at this time of year, I have a great appreciation of the Christmas symbolism of light as we observe the birth of the Savior, the light of the world.
   
3. Living in a part of the country that by some accounts has the smallest numbers of LDS per capita, I have felt a heightened desire to make sure our neighbors understand that we, too, celebrate Christmas and the birth of the Savior .
   
4. It is one very small way for me to unite with Margie and overcome my ingrained Scrooge-like ways a time of year that is of special importantance to her and especially the boys.

Below you can see that no small sacrifice was required to make this happen! Somehow I survived, and we now have a nice row of lights hanging from the roof in the front of the house. I've even started to think about how I can elaborate on this next year. It may all depend on whether I can leave up the light clips we used and if they will last until next year. We shall see.

Merry Christmas!

Defying death for the lights' sake.

During one of the relatively less-risky moments

It all looks relatively tame when you don't see the 3-story drop.

We had our first big snowfall of the year today.

...so we put Felix and Rex to work shoveling the driveway.

Then rewarded ourselves with play when the work was done.

Post-Cruise Blues

I’m not sure where to begin, but we had a great time on our cruise and are indebted to mom and dad for making it possible for us to go by watching the girls – THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I smiled when Macie called me at work today and asked me if grandma was going to come home with me (she left earlier in the day). We are proposing going on a cruise for a future Johnson Family Reunion. We saw multiple family reunion t-shirts during the trip.

It was hard coming back to Idaho Falls where the low last night was -8. Most of the time during the cruise the temperature ranged from the mid-to-upper 80’s.

As the pictures detail there were many activities available on and off the ship. However, the highlight of the trip – at least for Valerie – was when I choked on a piece of steak the last night we were on the ship. I will have to post more details later since I’m too tired to write about it, but needless to say it involved 1 punch in the back in the dining area and 4 Heimlich Maneuver’s in the men’s bathroom performed by Valerie’s dad. Luckily, no one walked in while this was happening or rumors may have spread quickly about strange behavior in the men’s bathroom…

Grandma reading to the girls the night befor we left

This is our room - I could touch both sides of it

I just added this picture because it looks like I'm jumping higher than I really am.

Sitting pool side was a favorite activity.

The sunsets were amazing.

All the food was great, but dinner was especially nice.

My first experience with escargot - not bad.

The ship at the port in Haiti.

Playing on the beach in Haiti.

We took second and third in the free throw competition.

Clarence - our Jamaican driver. He was showing of the wild Poinsetta bushes that grow in Jamaica.

Before the kayak trip.

The steak before I choked on it - man it was a good steak!

My attempt at spicing up my only try in the belly flop competition went very wrong - I was subsequently booed by the crowd.

Dale and I made best friends with Shawn and Deion on the basketball court.