Merry Christmas

What?!   No one is crying?!  Amazing!

We love our Christmas PJ's!

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

Christmas lights at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Since most of you won't be here for Christmas I thought I would share some of our Christmas fun with you through pictures.  This is part one:  Christmas Lights

First is our living room tree and window.

On the landing of the stairs leading to the basement is where Mr & Mrs Santa greet our guests.

Downstairs on the counter behind the "wittle" "yitto" kitchen is the Christmas village.  This year I added a water fall.  It is the dark area in the middle of the picture.  It is aluminum foil water falling into a mirror.

Next is the downstairs Christmas tree.

Now we go out in the back to see the tree Grandma decorated.  See did a great job.  It is my favorite tree.

Grandpa did this one.

This is the same tree with the water fall on the left and the cobble stone walk of fame in the middle.

This is a close up of the grandchildren cobble stone walk of fame.  Notice that just to the right the little windmill is also lit.

Now back inside are the lights in the family room window.  I use little suction cups to attach the lights to the window.

The lights in the master bedroom.

Outside are the lights on the west hill of the driveway.

Lights looking south from in front of the garage.

Front of the house.

Front including Narby's lights in front of their house.

This is our forest scene.  This year about half the lights on our15 year old Costco tree stopped working so I tore the tree apart and used many of the branches to create this lighted meadow.

Front porch.

View of Narby (left) and our house (right)  from Western Ave.  What people see as they drive up Maiden Lane.

This is a closer of just our house with my new and improved "Merry Christmas" lights.  Rather than manually  spelling out the words each year, after Christmas last year, I cut out the letters using two sheets of 4'x8'white rubber/vinyl board and then zip tied the lights onto it.  This year I simply had to put up the letters instead of spelling the whole thing in lights manually.  Much easier and much less time consuming and I think they look better.  The lights look much better in person than in pictures so any of you who would like to join Cassi & Caled are welcome to see the lights in person.

Have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Safari at Masi Mara Reserve in Kenya, Africa

A zebra is the first animal we saw as we entered the  reserve.  We stopped to take a lot of pictures.  Little did we know that just around the corner there were thousands more.

this is a Masi Warrior.  You can tell them by their bright colored red, yellow, gold and orange capes.  They are the only tribe allowed to carry weapons, so  they are used as security cards everywhere.

This is a group of cheetahs that just just killed a gazelle and are having their afternoon meal.

Cape Buffalo

Gazelles

My favorite African tree an acacia tree.

Goonie birds

Elephant

Pride of female lions.  We never found any male lions.

Rhinos

When zebra are young like the one on the left, they have brown stripes.  When they get older their stripes turn black.

Family of girrafes.

This may be hard to see, but is you look closing you will see a long line of wilde beasts running from right to left just below the blue sky line.  The picture just below is a close up of the same thing. Look at the line of dark animals in the center of the picture.  There were thousands of them running somewhere.

How close do we dare get to a female lion.  We got close enough to count the flies on its nose.

How many flies can you count on her face.  Good thing she wasn't hungry.

We saw lots of pretty colorful birds.

The hardest thing to get is a picture of a hippo.  They are stay in water until it is to dark to get a decent picture.

This is just a few of the 200 pictures we took at the Masi Mara Game Reserve.  Later I will share adventures we had at a second safari reserve.  Granpa

Dear Tooth Fairy

A few months ago, Dexter lost a tooth while outside on the deck. The tooth fell between the boards and under the deck. The kids searched for it for days, but never found it.

Yesterday, Dexter lost another tooth and left this note for the tooth fairy.

Another Test

For Tyler.

Did it work?

A Test

This is a test to make sure Tyler's email/hosting problem is fixed.  Tyler, let me know if you get this.

And speaking of tests...I took one the other day and it was positive :-)

Cousins Reunion- Day 6

The last day!

http://the-pope-fam.blogspot.com/2011/09/gundy-reunion-day-6.html

Day 3, 4, & 5- Cousins Reunion

Click here to see

Bret's Broken Neck - The Long Story

If you're interested in the long story, here it is...

Back in 1994 I bought a GT Trek mountain bike. The bike has been well used. It's visited 7 countries and has been ridden a few thousand miles. In 2004 the bike received a major tune-up. The handlebars were bent from being packed on a train, so I replaced them with a nicely-priced used set (mistake number one). Since that time it has been a fairly reliable commuter bike. I did break a pedal hopping over a curb in 2009, but otherwise, I haven't had any trouble.

Two weeks ago, while pulling up on my handlebars to hop over the same curb I've hopped for 7 years (the same one I broke my pedal on, interestingly), the handlebars broke in half at the neck.

I think I got my front wheel off the ground, maybe even both wheels, but when I landed, the front wheel turned suddenly, and my head hit the grass. Because my body was moving forward and my helmet was stuck in the grass, my head broke out of the back side of the helmet while my body flew forward and I landed on my back.

As far as I know, I didn't black out, but I was confused and in pain. I was sure my left arm was broken in multiple places. I've never felt pain that intense before. A small spot of blood was on my palm, but I couldn't see any other blood and my palm wasn't cut. I called Kathleen, asking her to pick me up. She asked whether I had a flat tire. When I said no, she bolted out the door.

A commuter van drove slowly around the hill I was laying on. The two guys inside were wondering, I'm sure, whether some guy was resting on the grass or unconscious. I was neither. Ken got out of the passenger seat (the driver stayed in) and stayed with me until Kathleen showed up.

After a few hours at the hospital, an X-ray and a CT scan, the ER doctor saw that I broke my neck in two places. The bottom two vertebrae of the neck, C6 and C7, where slightly crushed and cracked respectively.

The pain in my arm was caused by pressure on nerves in my neck. My arm is unhurt.

After an MRI and CT Angiogram, it turned out that one of the arteries in my neck was injured during the accident. My left vertebral artery, which brings blood to the brain, was damaged when the vertebrae it runs through twisted unnaturally.

When the artery was damaged, a blood clot formed to prevent internal bleeding. That blood clot blocked nearly the entire artery. Thankfully, as you can see above, the right and left vertebral arteries are redundant - they connect just above the neck, so if one fails you don't die.

The biggest risk now is that the clot in the vertebral artery could break loose, and cause a stroke. If that doesn't happen, the inside wall of the artery will gradually grow over the top of the clot, and the risk of stroke will dramatically decrease. Until that time, I'm on blood thinner to prevent further clotting.

Oh yeah, and here's what I look like in the cone of shame, with some minor scrapes on my head.

Day 2- Cousins Reunion

Its up on my blog

http://the-pope-fam.blogspot.com/

It may only take me a year, but I'll get them all posted eventually :-)

Day 1-Cousins Reunion

You can view the pictures better on my blog because it has a wider layout so go there.
the-pope-fam.blogspot.com

Dominican Republic-Adults Only

I wrote this for my blog and then transferred everything over to here so that is why it is written this way.

I like labeling my post like that because then it gets everyone's attention because they start thinking some naughty thoughts when really it means exactly what it says, Adults Only.  My parents and all my brothers and sisters with no kids for a whole week.  As much as we love our kids, this was a blast!  Remember when you were kids and you could make up silly games in the water or on the beach just for fun?  You can still do that as an adult!  It's amazing.  And the competition is so much better now!  And since we were without kids and didn't have to set the example, we could all act like kids.  It was like someone set back the clock and we were all young again, playing in our backyard pool with 7 of our BFF's (aka spouses).  The only difference was that our parents were right in there with us, acting like the rest of us and joining in the fun.  

So here is the trip in pictures.  Once again, an awesome trip!

First off, all the couples on the trip in birth order

Mom & Dad

Jason & Alexa

 Misty & Scott

Tyler & Adria

Bret & Kathleen

Mindy & Josh

Broc & Julie 

Caleb & Cassi 

Now on to the good stuff

Family discussion on the beach on making marriages work

Can't be a Gundy reunion without a sculpture of some sort.

 

Mom trying the wasabi

Having some fun with the waiters

Romantic moonlit dinner on the beach for the Anniversary couple

(present from the kids) 

Sight-seeing in Santo Domingo

Some of this

Horseback riding on the beach

Caleb doing ALOT of this & some zip lining action.

Boogie rides (that is their real name!)

 Snuba & Snorkel

Unfortunately my mom got sick on the last night (just trying to be like the rest of us) so my Dad had to eat his anniversary cake alone...well, with his kids.

This was all made possible by these two wonderful people!  We love them so very much and were so grateful to share this experience with them!  They are the epitome of the perfect married couple.  I hope to be just as happy and in love as they are on my 40th wedding anniversary.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!!