pictures from the holidays

first off, i have to apologize to my family for not having any pictures of them up since we didn't go back to idaho this holiday season. anyway, here's a bunch of pictures from this past christmas and new year's eve.



w/ the claus'


noah distracted by all of the lights

so the above pictures were actually taken in los angeles before we left for fresno. we left for fresno on the 22nd i believe, and stayed until january 4th. actually, i (along w/ all of the brothers-in-law) had to get out of fresno for a few days in between christmas and new year's for our own sanity. but we suspect the girls had fun by themselves. there was a lot of eating going on the whole time, and i'm sure that everyone left a few pounds heavier. ok, here are some pictures from fresno.



mich and noah on the couch


noah the sock monkey


the johnston girls


the cousins


cuddling cousins


noah and harmoni

a few days after christmas everyone was getting a little stir-crazy, so we decided to go to the japanese gardens at woodward park. it was a little cold out, but the kids had fun running around.



at the japanese gardens in fresno


at the japanese gardens again

like i said, i went home for a few days in between christmas and new year's. it was a good excuse for me to go home and veg out and play my xbox until my eyes were bloodshot. actually it was a good thing that i did go home because it rained like crazy, and i discovered a leak in our roof before it got too bad. there was water all over the floor in noah's room when i got home, but luckily nothing was damaged. every year we get new leaks, they will patch one and it will just move to another room in the apartment. it's kind of getting old. but i digress...

new year's eve was fun. the whole gang was there except for dave, who called megan from portland to assure her that he was drunk. tony's father came by, as did mark and jen levy, jen and robert's good friends. we just played games and ate more food and i think everyone actually stayed up past midnite--a little crazy if you ask me.



a little bubbly on new year's eve


jen and robert


lisa and nils gettin' wild and crazy


kelly and the new beau


kristie, tony, and mr. ross


jen and mark levy


megan missing her dave

we originally planned on leaving on the 3rd, but there was so much snow that they had to close down the grapevine for the day. rather than trying to find an alternate route home michelle and i decided to spend one more lazy day in fresno and finally went home on the 4th. it was nice to get home, although it rained non-stop for the next week.



back at home after a long holiday