Christmas 2009

There is something to be said for spending Christmas Eve at home. We went to church, had a quiet dinner, opened gifts, enjoyed just hanging out. Life is good.

St Peter Clinic

After 35 years in the same cramped, colorless clinic, we finally moved to a beautiful new facility May 2009. I'm only a year behind (and had to take the pictures today to finish it).

And a Conclusion

I expect more conclusion pages to look like this, a hint of what will be in the next album. It's probably hokey, but paper's relatively cheap.

Last Page

When I don't have a single page layout to start or finish an album, I had been either leaving it blank (which is ugly) or putting a page that states it was left as filler (which is almost as bad). I decided recently that I should have actual pages. Some of them, as evidenced by this one entitled The End, will be very simple. This is a great picture, though, of the last sunset we saw in West Virginia before heading home in August 2008.

Carlsbad Caverns

Jeff & I have been to many, many national parks and monuments, most of which are interesting, beautiful, etcetera. Carlsbad Caverns, which we visited in April 2009, tops them all. The boys and we walked both the Natural Entrance and the Big Room tours (2 1/4 miles in total) and were awe-struck by the size, the formations, etcetera.

Minnesota River Flood

This is probably weird, but I love it when the river floods. It seems more powerful than it usually does and creates cool views. I can say that down here because only abandoned Riverview Farm and the Coachlight had damage. Also because we live far, far up the hill without any possibility of flooding.

Breakfast with Santa

For the first time, both boys enjoyed talking to Santa. Liam asked for a video game. Cole asked for a hug.