Dad's 59th birthday was the pits! He had to work all day even though it was Saturday. He got home around 6 for dinner. After the second bite of dinner some roast got stuck in this throat. He tried for two hours to dislodge the meat. He coughed, threw up, about everything he could think of. He was so miserable. Every time he swollowed the sliva would go into his lungs. I decided to take him to the ER after 2 hours of this. He didn't argue. That was a pleasant surprise. He was hurting so bad from everything his body was going through he was willing to do anything. The ER wasn't very busy when we got there. He was helped at once.

Kim was very uncomfortable. The emergency room staff was great. He was put right into a room and was given a tool to remove the sliva from his mouth because if he didn't it would go into his lungs and cause him to cough to the point he would throw up. Kim had to wait about an hour for the specialist came back in to the hospital to work on him. It ended up that the doctor was the same doctor that I had for my colon procedure. He is a fantastic doctor. I was very happy to have him be the one who was one call.

After the procedure to remove the meat Kim slept for an hour. He was given a drug that made it so he didn't remember much after the procedure. I am very grateful for modern medicine. I have no idea what would have happened if he could not have had the porcedure. The meat chunks (yes there were two), were huge. The picture I was shown showed it blocking most of his wind pipe. I am glad to have Kim home and doing well. His throat is feeling okay now. He will go see the doctor in two weeks and the doctor will suggest things that can be done for some problems he has with his throat.

The kids had an early New Years Eve party. They had a great time. Will taught all the kids how to do the booty dance. It was great. We had the disco light ball going and lights low. Glow stick nicklaces and balloons. You don't need much more for a great time.

I can't remember if I would be killed for posting this photo... Here is Ellie Maye LaDawn. Dad had Dawn's name in our dollar gift game. He bought these for Dawn for $1. Not bad buy.....Well maybe not.

What a fun night of Chinese food and good company. I wish Candice, Scott, Lily, Blake and Keith could have been there. Then it would have been fantastic. It was a great anniversary party.

We all had a fun time having a pedicure. What a relaxing fun day

Ready-set- time to pick blackberries.

Darren didn't realize this was the easy picking- it wouldn't be long and he would be standing in the middle of the torture bushes.

Ruth, Christoffer and Mickayla deep in the picking. Christoffer was the funniest one out there picking. He was crying out in pain all the time. It shouldn't have been so funny but it was.

Erin looks to happy to be in the middle of Blackberry bushes.

The end results is very red hands. Erin said we looked more like we just killed something. We did, ourselves. Those were wicked bushes!

Ruth, Mickayla, Will and I made the pies. Mickayla and Will love to cook. They never want to be left out of the fun. The pie turned out great.

Day 1 for our new Van started with Mickayla saying good bye to our old van. She had a very hard time letting the van go. She called it Bessie. It took both Kim and I to convince Mickayla that Bessie would be happy with her new family. (We didn't turn her in for scrap metal.) Kim worked hard to get me a good van for a great price. He called around until he found the van I wanted for a great price. He and Mickayla then drove to Lynnwood to pick the van up. It took him 3 hours to get it. We thought they wouldn't be busy on a Monday night but they were. The van is beautiful. It has more gadgets than I know what to do with. It is comfortable, with leather seats, a DVD player and control for air comfort seperate for the front two people and then the back passengers. I won't list all the other cool stuff. Kim really did a great job getting us a wonderful comfortable van for a great price.

Day two with our new van. Mickayla and Will were very excited. We broke the van in with a drive to Seattle with Darren and Ruth's family when they arrived that afternoon. We all fit into the van very well. We had a pleasant trip into the Seattle center, Pike place Market and the International district.

Day three of our new van Darrren, Ruth and our families were traveling along on our way to Orcas Island when we guess a big semi flipped a rock up that hit the side window next to Will and shattered the window. Poor William was very scarred by the glass falling down on him. I pulled over and Ruth and her boys broke out the rest of the glass out toward the street and we moved Will to the back of the car. We had just started our trip to Orcas Island (we were in Lynnwood). So we travelled along with full air plowing through the van.

Darren putting together our new window that we purchased at True Value hardware. Black plastic bag and duct tape. It was a lot better than the wind at full force at freeway speeds. The difference in pressure was painful so we had to have other windows open along with this one. The Black plastic bag made it so it wasn't so bad. Mickayla said that she thought it made us look like we were red necks. I am afraid we were more like white trash. We didn't have to have it that way long. We got it fixed the next day. The window is as good as new.

I love the fire pit. It is a lot of fun. Yet it seems when ever we have the fire pit going every one talks about hating blue bunnies!

I thought you all would enjoy seeing Blake after getting his wisdom teeth out. Doesn't he look lovely.