Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas everyone! Tye and I are in Colorado Springs celebrating Christmas with my family. This Christmas was especially special (can you say those two words back to back?) because it was our niece's very first Christmas. It's funny that we buy kids this young gifts for Christmas because all they really want to play with is the boxes and the paper but fun nonetheless.
i suppose that I should rewind a little bit: We arrived on Tuesday afternoon after driving through the most ridiculous snowstorm Tye or I have ever driven through. This is quite an accomplishment because we are both Coloradoians. White out conditions and a couple feet of snow for hundreds of miles. We basically white knuckled it. At one point we saw a snow plow stuck and that never means good things when the immune snow plows can't even move. After many hours of slow travel, we finally made it here.
Last night, we ate a wonderful dinner at my sister's house (not the traditional soup like we always have....we went a little crazy and had creamed chicken over bisquits. A family favorite) Then we headed to church. We inevitably end up laughing at something during a Christmas Eve service and this year was no different. It was the old lady singing 'O Holy Night' in a ridiculously low man key and Tye playing the candles like hand bells. Lots of fun. Then we headed back to the Wilson's house (my sister and brother in law) for a bunch of nice family pictures.
Enjoy some pictures from our Christmas celebration.

Chris and Sam preparing the Christmas Eve Feast

Baby Alivia Christmas Eve photo shoot

The Wilsons

My parents at Christmas Eve dinner

Tye and Jenn with baby Alivia

Alivia gets a book from Uncle Tye and Aunt Jenn

Alivia loved her new Justin Unger cd

Grammie got Alivia a grand piano for Christmas

Tye kept reopening this bag thinking he had something in it. He had opened it hours earlier

New York City

Okay. Here it is. The final set of pictures from our trip to DC/NYC. I apologize again for this taking so long to get out to you readers. We traveled by way of train to NYC on Thursday morning of last week. The train took us to Penn Station, where we then got in a taxi (most terrifying moments of my life) and headed down to Tye's Uncles house in Manhattan. After white-knuckling it through downtown NYC, we finally made it to the house. AMAZING. I'll post some photos of the place. We dropped our luggage off and headed back out to the subway, to find ourselves in Time Square. Did I mention that it was the worst weather ever? That's right. We faced steady rain (not drizzle) and temps in the 30's. Miserable. But, you're in NYC so don't let the rain stop you. Time Square is huge and overwhelming. Stores everywhere and billboards that light up the planet. Very awesome to see in person. We then headed to Rockfeller Center, saw the Christmas decorations, and then shopping on 5th Avenue. If you don't know, 5th Avenue is like the elite in shopping. FAO Schwartz, the coolest Apple store ever, and lots of super high end clothing stores. Saks is on 5th and apparently has the best window displays during the holidays. Tye and I were completely oblivious and missed the whole thing. Only to see them the next morning on our taxi ride to leave NYC. Following our whirlwind afternoon in Time Square, we headed back to the house to get ready for dinner with Tye's Uncle. Time to put on your fancy pants. We head out for an evening at Adour Alain Ducasse. (If you are bored and need something to do, check this restaurant out online). It was a blast. I had no clue what I was eating most of the time but it was fun nonetheless. Thanks, Uncle Bruce for the experience of a lifetime. And now on to what you've been waiting for........PICTURES!!

This is the closest I got to anything Yankees while we were in NYC. A giant poster of Alex Rodriguez

I could have ended up with a major sugar coma had I made it through this giant bottle of syrup. Hershey's store in Time Square.

Tye in a ridiculously LARGE Hershey's bar. What can we say? We love our chocolate. Hershey's store in Time Square.

Rockfeller Tree. (It was really cold and rainy at this point. It took everything to pull out the camera and hope for no water spots)

Wolves playing pool in tuxedos in the tundra?? No idea. We did think it was pretty funny, though.

The coolest Apple store ever on 5th Avenue. It's open 24 hours a day and is located under the cube. It's a huge Mac playground.

Time Square. Ridiculous amounts of lighting and video work. I think it's comparable to Vegas.

A NYC tradition. The Naked Cowboy. Came rain, snow, sun, and heat this guy stands out and plays guitar in his underwear, a cowboy hat, and a pair of cowboy boots. Awesome.

This is us all dressed up for our dinner affair with Uncle Bruce. Don't we look fancy?

Thanks Uncle Bruce for a great time in NYC.

Lots and Lots of Walking.......

Today we headed out to The Mall in Washington DC to check out the Smithsonian and the surrounding area. We made it thru the Museum of Natural History and that was it for the museums. We then headed to the Old Postal Office to eat some lunch. After lunch it was a whirlwind tour of the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, WW2 Memorial, and the Washington Memorial. Whew. What a day! We walked a total of 5 miles and it was worth every second. What a cool place to be. Check out a few highlights of the day.

First Day in Washington DC

First of all, I'd like to apologize to my readers. I have been late on getting these blogs posted from our trip. The internet in our hotel room is a little hit-or-miss, so getting these pictures up might be a little tricky. Here goes: We'll do a recap of yesterday's events. To start the day off, we headed to Dunkin Donuts. This apparently is a Justin Unger addiction. We've already been there several times since our arrival.

Justin has purchased a box of donuts each day for the car. While we are driving around, we snack on donuts. Healthy, I know.

Tye LOVES donuts. He was in heaven when Justin wanted Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. Since we don't have one in Prescott, it's even more of a treat.

After donuts, we head to the XM radio headquarters in downtown DC. This is the place that Justin is doing his concert in front of a studio audience. I was sort of the official press for this concert. It was one of the coolest experiences Tye and I have gotten to be a part of.

The Band guys.

The recording in progress.

Tye in front of the studio that they performed in.

We then headed quickly to a tour of Capitol. It was so cool to see all the history that is in this city. I was struck by the awesomeness of all the architecture in DC. Check out some photos.

Tye and I outside the Capitol Building.

The Supreme Court.

Inside the rotunda (dome) of the Capitol. This is looking over Thomas Jefferson's shoulder.

Outside the very front of the Capitol building right before our tour.

While walking through Union Station (biggest train, subway, bus station I have ever seen in my life) we ran into the next President of the United States!!! It was crazy. He's an "upstanding" citizen for sure. Sadly, he had no personality. He just happened to be in the "hood".

The whole gang with President Obama.

Tye with Mr. President.

XM Radio Show

Tomorrow morning, Tye and I are headed out to Washington DC.  Tye is going to be drumming for Justin as he does a live radio show on XM's channel 32 The Message.  It's an hour long set with an opportunity for Justin to talk about the 'Disengage' cd and the new cd that will be released in the upcoming months.  We are REALLY excited to get to be a part of this with Justin and we are excited to get to spend the week doing some sight seeing in DC and New York City.  We have a ton of traveling to do throughout the week.  Pray that we get everywhere we need to go safely and pray that God would use the show to touch some people that may not normally listen.  I'll have my computer with me so check for current updates on the trip.

Anxiety

There are a couple of things in life that give me anxiety. I only say this because something came up the other night that really made me think about it. #1-Talking on the phone. If you are out there, waiting for a phone call from me, I'm sorry. I am at my desk, holding my phone, rehearsing what I will say to you in our short 5 minute conversation. The rehearsal takes a LONG time. It has to be absolutely perfect. Which is interesting, because when I do finally call you, I fumble all over my words anyways. Practice does NOT make perfect.
#2-Dress wearing. You can laugh all you want but when you work at a camp as a profession (the dressiest we get is jeans without holes in them) you have no need to own a lot of formal wear. Tye and I are headed out to Washington DC and New York City next week and Tye's uncle wants to take us to an over-the-top restaurant in New York City. We thought over-the-top was a Wendy's without trash on the floor. Apparently that is not right. SO, I had to go shopping the other night in an attempt to look not like I was from the 'hood or the sticks. I am convinced that only short girls wear dresses because I couldn't try one on that covered my butt. But, I did find one that will work. Thanks to all you readers who sent up unknowing dress finding prayers. It helped.
I'll post pics of the outing next week.