Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season :) Neil and I spent Christmas in Mexico this year, we left on the 22nd of December, and came back on the 1st of January. We had a great time, relaxing in the sun, and we went with good friends of ours, so enjoyed the company as well!

We came back to a sad house though.. Our cat of almost 17 years, Dom took a turn for the worst while we were away, and Laurel lovingly nursed her through her last few days. She passed away in her cat bed the night we came home, so we all got to say good bye to each other... There were a lot of tears shed that day. Seph, who is the same age as Dom is a little adrift right now with no daytime companionship, but I think she is adjusting as well as I would expect an old lady cat who lost her lifetime companion!

Here are a few pics to share!

Happy New year everyone!

Dom!

 New Year's Eve

 hanging out by the pool!

Christmas Gifts and Braces

The boys were very pleased with their Christmas gifts from Tyler, Andrea, Brooklyn and Ashton. They immediately began playing with them! They both say thanks!

Aidan wanted everyone to see his new braces that he acquired on Friday. In another 8 weeks he will get braces on the bottom teeth. 

Wishing everyone a safe and joyous Christmas and New Year.

Merry Christmas 2012

One could really hooked on Christmas! All of "The Family" have made this past year very special and Christmas gives us pause to reflect on the many little blessings we have. Linda and I will be thinking of you as you celebrate the Christmas Season as we look forward to creating more great memories in 2013!

Love Barry & Linda

The Christmas Season

Our Christmas tree. We have been very busy with parties, concerts and preparing for Christmas. One more week to go!

We are all in BIG TROUBLE!!!

Today, again, I realize that our daughter Ella, is a mini Collin.  This evening, she pulled her little wagon up to the counter, climbed up on the wagon, extracted some items off of the counter, and brought them to her Dad.  Does this story sound familiar?  Iris once told me a story of little Collin at about 2 years old, pulling his wagon up to the gate of the farm yard fence, untying the string locking the gate, and bringing it to her.  The apple really does not fall far from the tree. Carl and Iris are looking down on us and LAUGHING THEIR ASSES OFF!!!

Happy Birthday, Dad!! Love you and miss you!! 

A few pictures from my recent trip to Norway and Iceland!!! Hope you all enjoy! :)

 This is Siri's house in Oslo... This is Norway capitol city, but there are protected swaths of forests around alot of the city... Siri lives in the forests of Oslo.. pretty cool!!

 This is Siri and I on the harbour front in Reykjavik, Iceland... beautiful city!

 This is a huge waterfall in Iceland called Gullfloss, we rented a car so had an opportunity to tour the countryside!

 Icelandic sheep... they are very, very fluffy....

 Example of a lot of the roads in Iceland... there is a lot of pavement too, but doesn't take long, or much effort to get off the beaten path and feel like you are the only person alive in the entire world... it's a very cool feeling!

 This is a volcano... Hekla is predicted to be the next on to blow... it's fairly regular, and is currently about a decade overdue!!

 The "Viking Ship" sculpture on the Reykjavik harbour front!

 This is me hanging out in the Blue Lagoon... what an incredible place!!

 The Blue Lagoon... heated entirely by geothermal heat, its a natural body of water...

 Back in Oslo... this sculpture is outside their new museum of modern art.. I couldn't resist posing beside him!!

This is in Siri's kitchen... She made me reindeer stew (and yes, rudolph was delicious!!)