Christmas Day at Gramma and Granpa's

Christmas 2008 has come and gone. All our Minnesota kids and grand kids came over for presents and dinner. We missed Kyle, Tiffany , Ellie and Erik, as they are living in California. This is our tree and the before picture. Notice how neat and tidy everything is.Here is part of the clan, waiting to start ripping paper.
Here is another part of the clan, patiently waiting.
Logan got an Optimus Prime transformer and Batmobile shake-and-go cars that he enjoying.
However, Liam wanted to play with some of animal transformer cars.
Some of the controlled chaos
Princess Gigi is showing off the Princess Cinderella doll that she got. We have some lovely princesses in our family.
Lorelei was busy grooming her new addition to the family. Her hair was very smooth and easy to brush.
Joseph brought over two of his marionettes that he got and showed us how to operate them.
Here Tana and the girls are playing with some fairies that belong in the cloth fairy house that Tana made.
Andrew and Brandon watching the commotion.
This is the after picture, well actually only part of the mess.
All in all the dinner was good, everyone enjoyed each other's company and everyone enjoyed opening their presents. Until Next December.

Christmas Eve at the Smenteks

It has tradition for a few years to meet at Kirstin and Jeff's house for Christmas Eve. The Dude's
were as excited as ever to see all the visitors. One of the gifts the boys got was a Fisher Price nativity set, which Liam is playing with. I hound about 12 rolls of film in the house and decided to use some of it up on Christmas. So these pictures are not as vivid and digital because I had to scan them first. Both Logan and Liam wanted to rearrange the nativity. For the most part they cooperated with each other.
Logan got some new Batman PJ's which he showed off.
And you can see the excitement on Liam's face with the arrival of his new PJ's.
Both of the boys had matching three in one cribs (the one Logan is in I made). Well, they have learned to climb out and have been doing that whenever they felt like it. So it was decided to convert them into the youth bed. Logan showed us how he climbs in at night.
The Dudes were excited to have Gramma Larsen read a story about "Aliens Love Underpants". They stayed for the whole book.
Liam wanted to spend much of the gathering time in the laundry basket. He kept piling up the toys in the basket, to the point that he did not have much room.
Just Logan.
Kirstin and Logan. He is in a stage where he wants to wear bibs. Here he has his Santa bib on.
And Kirstin and Liam (you can see that he loves his mom).

Andrew, the Master Trumpet Player

Those of you who have not witnessed it, you are mission out. Last Thursday we drove up to Big Lake to attend the Christmas concert to hear Andrew. He is in the jazz band at school and he is a mighty fine trumpet player and he has only been playing a couple years. He played in the jazz band and the concert band that night. Th jazz band is featured below.
Andrew also had a solo part.
This was a really good concert. Despite their young age, almost everyone was on key and in sync.
Keep up the good work Andrew and Practice, Practice and Practice. You will not regret it later in life.

The characters of Halloween

Yea! It's Thanksgiving Day and turkey time. But this is not the reason for the post. We had another Fantastic Halloween at Kirstin and Jeff's house. W have been going there for a few years and before that, we camped out in the basement with the lights off. We didn't want to be bothered. For years 90% of the people that came to our door were high school kids dressed up like high school kids with pillow cases. We may have gotten one or two young kids in actual costumes. Below you can see Liam and Logan saying, "Where are the kids in costumes?" And they got lots of kids and almost everyone had on an actual Halloween outfit. We turned around and saw Chewbacca Logan, raring to go. "Give me some candy!"
Batman Joseph was next on the scene. He spread his wings and flew around the neighborhood, saving all the kids and their candy from the candy bandits.
Then we have Belle Lorelei, smiling up a storm. Notice the official princess crown from Gramma Larsen. She is always so cute.
And then Darth Liam Vader had to show his dark side and make an appearance. Looks like he is ready to murder one of the TMNT. AHHHHHH!
Then we has precious Snow Gigi White eating an apple not knowing that there was something wrong with it.
Yeow. This does not taste right! Oh my, I am getting sleepy.
The Barnharts all got together for a posed picture.
You can't see much from this but here is Chewbacca helping Darth Vader with his helmet.
The hostess with two of the Halloween cuties.

Twilight has gone and Daylight is here

The Vampires all flunked school , were expelled and left town forever. It was a D-.

Osceola, Wisconson train ride

On Saturday, October 25, we drove to Osceola, Wisconsin with Joseph, Lorelei and Gretchen to enjoy a slow train ride the through the St Croix River valley to Maine On St. Croix and back. We met Kirstin, Jeff Logan and Liam there. Brett, Charity and the boys wanted to come (at least Charity wanted to) but there was too much fall cleanup that needed to be done. So maybe another time they can go.
The group photo before leaving own.
The Barnharts by the track. As you can see, Gigi was not being cooperative and kept at least 90 degrees from the camera. If you moved, she moved to compensate.
Finally she dared to look up with "The Look".
Jeff and Liam came shortly after we arrived.
Then Kirstin and Logan. Well actually they all came in the came car but each had one of the Dudes and walked in separately. Then it was play time inside the Depot while we waited for the train to be configured.
Logan
Lorelei
Gigi
Joseph
Liam
The train left and I peaked out and snapped a shot of the train moving down the tracks. What was interesting as that in our car was an old-timer (volunteer) who explained how trains worked and the geography of the area. The car we were in was 50 years old. One of the most interesting parts was when we got to Marine On St. Croix. The engine decoupled form the train and drove past on a parallel track to couple back up on the other end to bring us back. It seemed so close that you could reach out and touch it. Joseph and I went to the back of the train, that became the front of the train, to watch the engine couple up. I was quite fun watching the big engine, bump into the coupling hitch on the train (only a couple feet away).
The St. Croix River
The tracks
The double tracks on the bridge. They kept the train from falling off the bridge if the wheels get off the tracks. In that case the wheels would ride on the ties that are very close together.
The old bridge over the river.
Cousins are having fun playing Peek-a-boo.
Joe, hanging on the back of the caboose. No I didn't jump off the train to get this picture. I didn't run after it. They don't use cabooses any longer (just a red blinking light) and this one was parked at the Depot for climbing.
Lorelei joined the crew.
Gigi and Logan take a peek.
The Barnhart gang
The Dudes
And then there was Liam, who was not satisfied with just standing. He has to climb up on the ladder.