Not a Traditional Tobler Christmas

Here's a wrap up of our Christmas...
Wednesday,the 23rd - 24th
A fun visit with the Pierce Family as they traveled back from Jason's Wedding.

A little caroling.

Thursday the 24th - Off to Arizona
Slow going over the Dam...6 hours later we arrive in Arizona.
Dinner with Rachel and her neighbors Loly & Missy.
Mass at St. Timothy's (my first Catholic Mass)
Finished the evening up a little Christmas dvd

...but we all kept falling asleep.

(the only little sign of Christmas amid the packed boxes)

Christmas Day
Sleep in!
Hike Camelback mountain with Loly & Missy.Since it was Christmas Day we figured we'd have the trail to ourselves...
Who goes hiking on Christmas Day?
...EVERYONE in Phoenix!


The views were beautiful..but most of the time this is what I was looking at.


We made it to the top!
Note the Christmas tree with decorations that some crazy person(s)
carried up the steep 1.25 miles of boulders to the top
That evening we hobbled to the movie "Invictus". Great movie!
Guess what?
...everyone in Phoenix goes to the movies on Christmas.

Saturday the 26th.
Clark arrives.Rachel had most of the house boxed up.
But we continued to box up, clean
...and pack the truck until we are all tired and cranky.

Finally (by now even the little Christmas tree is packed)
we opened our meager little pile of presents
...it revives our spirits.

Dinner at Pita Jungle (so good... a definite boost to weary bodies and minds).
A couple of Clark and Rachel's friends join us to say good bye.

Sunday, 27th. (yes, the ox was in the mire!)
Finished the last of the packing and cleaning.
Loaded the car.
Walked to church (it was more of a limp... even more sore and stiff from the hike).
Surprise, the McDonald family from Pasco was there for the blessing of Marianne's baby.
(Small world!) So fun to see them again.

Packed the last minute items and mopped our way out the door.
Where's the Cat? We looked everywhere (but where the cat really was)!
Finally...an hour later, we leave the cat in the care of Loly and Missy.
Karl and I will return in a couple weeks and get the cat.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas
and that you know where your cat is.
Love, Mom Tobler

Merry Christmas

And Best Wishes
from our home...to yours.

Remembering the reason for the season.

Grateful

...for the Love and MemoriesEach Christmas Greeting brings.

Hey my kids...

Here's our Tobler Family wall in our entry way where our Vegas friends get acquainted with all of you. If you have another favorite or creative picture of your little family that you would rather have up let me know. Or better yet, order it through Costco (my Costco on Decatur) and I'll just go pick it up (and pay for it). Frequent changes are welcome.

Love, Mom Tobler

Don't you just hate it when...

Breaking News...

Kyle is on his way to becoming a reproductive endocrinologist. He just found out that the Army has accepted him for an REI ( reproductive endocrinology & Infertility) fellowship.

Hooray for Kyle...
And his mother is so proud!

T'is the Season to turn another year older

...and Sunday Karl turns, well... older. Usually due to the busyness of the season his special day gets a little neglected. But this year his celebrating has started early and he's having a pretty good time.

Friday, in honor of his birthday Karl's brother Clare drove over from Boulder City to jam (one of Karl's favorite things to do).Then they went out to lunch at In & Out (another one of Karl's favorites) and then the jamming continued for a couple more hours with a couple more old bluegrassers. Ahhhh..to Karl that's a perfect day.

But to add to the festivities of the day, Karl and I found ourselves at Cafe Rio (a favorite) and then we went to the MOVIES!!!!! Now that is big-time celebrating for us considering we go to a movie about once every two years. (Of course we went to Costco first to get our movie tickets from there...thrifty, thrifty, thrifty.)

We saw Blind Side


Excellent...Really liked it...Highly recommend it.
(and of course...we highly recommend getting your tickets from Costco)

Now today he's still thinking he should be still be celebrating and he's got his eye on a major purchase at Costco (a great deal he spotted yesterday when we were at Costco buying movie tickets). Oh well, it is his birthday tomorrow and it would be nice to able to read subtitles and credits when we watch a movie at home. Something we can't do on our 20+/- year old yard-sale purchased TV.

Hey Jake, I think we will need your help setting something up.

Love, Mom Tobler

What a fun little reunion we had

Most of our family was able to get together this past weekend.
(We sure missed Jeff & Amy...Dental School just got in the way)

Besides marathon running And marathon watching
we crammed a lot of fun into our short time together.
There was some practice at parenting.


The Little people had a lot of fun togetherEven Grandpa Karl likes to play with toys.
Of course there was lots of cooking and eatting.
Luckily I had a lot of good help.

The Florida folks preferred to stay pretty close to the fire...actually we all did. It was a chilly weekend.

The Big People escaped the little people one evening
for dinner at Buca de Beppos.


There was some early Christmas presents for the little people.
Awww....Buzz Lightyear...a favorite.

and modeling of Christmas fashions.
Not to mention a few (too few) precious naps for some exhausted folks.

Just the other day...

Little Violet discover one of Santa's helpers in our house.
Could that be Steph, whose "alter ego" is a balloon twisting, face painting Santa's helper.

Ho, Ho, Ho what jolly fun it was when she shared her craft with Charlie & Violet

Do you have a Giraffe Hat? I didn't think so.
Steph can make the best pirate swords and wacky hats.

We even had a mini-class...Balloon twisting 101

Now we can make our own
"Turtle on your wrist " friend.Or maybe not yet...it's quite a skill!
I'm waiting for the book..."Balloon twisting for dummies."

Love, Mom Tobler

Marathon results...they lived!

In spite of the very chilly 33° weather our runners did excellent!

Rachel finished the Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) at 1hr 24 min. ...cutting a couple minutes off her November Half-Marathon time and coming in 14th in the women's category. She was hoping to place higher but but considering this race drew a lot of elite runners from all over the world, she did amazing! Her friend, Desiree Davila an old roommate, did place 2nd and that added to the excitement.

Kyle and Kimberly finished the 26.2 mile marathon in 4 hrs. 23 minutes ...besting their goal of 4:38. That was John's (Kimberly's brother) time in the Portland Marathon a few months ago. (Just a touch of rivilry there.)
Kimberly could have run it much faster but it was Kyle's first marathon and she wanted to stay with him (just in case it was Kyle's last few hours in this life).

The brothers making some important decisions ( at Jack-in-the Box) while waiting for Kyle & Kim to finish their marathon.

Poor Rachel trying to get a little bit of nourishment after her 13.1 mile run (+the mile walk to Jack in the Box)...
This is a Tobler sport called competitive eating.

Steph scouting for Kyle and Kimberly after the race.

Helping a wobbly Kimberly put on her warmer clothes after her run.

Congratulation Kyle,Kim and Rachel... you make us proud!
Love, Mom Tobler