So we took a camping trip earlier this month with our good friends the Terrys. We went up to the Sawtooth Mountains and camped at Alturus Lake near Stanley, Idaho. It was breathtaking. We try to go here at least once a year. This picture of Max should be at the bottom. He's trying to do a flip but he described it as a "belly-flop-flip"

This was the preferred form of entertainment among the kids. I wish I had a picture of all the kids together. I think the Terrys have a picture on their blog http://www.theterryfam.blogspot.com/ Nikki was not the dirtiest of the bunch. This is the fox that would not leave us alone the first night. And River, the Terry's dog, gave me no added comfort since he didn't even notice the fox, and when he finally did I think he was scared of it.

Kids in the lake. I think Whitney thought the whole trip was especially arranged just so she could be in the water. She is a total water baby.

Nikki and Ayden, the Terry's oldest daughter. Looks like they could be related.

Max was having a blast searching for dead fish.

Here is Wade's version of a morning bath. It was cold.

Notice how everyone is all bundled up? Now imagine jumping into the water like Wade and Brad.

Here are Brad and Jenni with their second daughter Alex, the only brown-haired kid in the whole lot. Brad was being a little grumpy and wouldn't give me a decent smile.

Apparently Whitney and Alex really really really like chips. They pretty much ate the whole bag of Dorritos by themselves before moving onto the Ruffles.

This is me and Jenni. I told Jenni we were getting in the water for sure. She didn't really want to . When we got to the lake I sat and my duff and watched Jenni swim. I had fun watching though.

This was Wade's second of three naps for the day.

Whitney's a little excited to be at the lake. Looks a little crazed to me.

According to Max this is his favorite place in the whole world. The dads took the bigger kids on the paddle boats.

This was Nikki's first day of Pre-school. I cannot tell you how excited she was to be going to school. I can't believe how fast she's growing up.

Per my mother's request I am posting some pregnant pictures of me. These were taken two and three weeks ago, so about 8 months pregnant. Mom, you're going to have to click on the pictures to enlarge them, cause' heaven knows I'm not about to put these puppies on full-size.

We spent a whole day in Old San Juan. The streets were all really narrow cobble stone and totally shadowed by huge trees and vines. It was exactly how I hoped it would be. There was this cool little sweet/coffee shop under a monstrous tree.

The whole city is surrounded by a 500-year-old wall that is dotted with these really charming lookouts. The walls come to a point at this huge fortress right on the cliffs by the ocean. It was really cool to see how this half-century structure had held up to time and the elements.

Someone shaved their dog to look like a lion. I was totally convinced. I guess they had something pretty valuable they wanted protected.

Out of nowhere it started to pour. We had to hide in a doorway while the street turned into a river. I guess we were in a tropical rain forest.

Here is another picture from Flamingo Beach near where we were snorkeling.

Wade and I took a 9 day trip to Puerto Rico the end of July. It was amazing!! Wade tried really hard not to look like a tourist.

I pretty much sat at the pool or the beach for most of the time reading Harry Potter.

My favorite part of the the trip was the snorkeling trip we took. It was so relaxing. I think I just about fell asleep 3 or 4 times while I was snorkeling. Something about feeling weightless when you're 7 months pregnant is just fantastic! This is from the beach we went to near where we were snorkeling. It is rated one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world.

The sand was so soft and the water was so clear. We saw some really amazing fish and coral reefs. I didn't really think I would like the snorkeling much. I was so wrong

We went down to Wade's parents to see Janice play in the orchestra in Cinderella and we got in some sledding while we were there. Nikki could hardly believe she was standing next to a real Cinderella!!
Max looks pretty cool in his snow gear. Me, not so much.

So these are about 4 months old. Yes I'm an aweful blogger. Oh well. This was up in Macall, Idaho at the ski hill. we went up for the weekend. It was Max's third year skiing and now I think he's finally got it well enough to go with no help. He can turn and stop really well now. This was Nikki's first year and she's just about as good as Max!! she can turn really well but stopping is another story. She took out a few people before the day was over. I couldn't believe how fast she picked it up, though! Whitney just wanted to eat the snow.

Sadly, we lost a member of our family last week. Root Beer became the victim of a hit and run. Luckily it was Wade and not the kids who found her. Max was pretty sad and cried a little bit. Nikki tried really hard to be sad for about 2 seconds. Then all she cared about was finding out how flat she'd been squished. "Is she flat like a pancake?" Now she likes to tell everyone, "Our cat got squished by a car and we're going to put her in a box and bury her and she's gonna turn into a skeleton." Is my daughter unusually morbid? Poor Root Beer. We'll miss you, well, some of us will (Wade not as much).

Max and Nikki helped act out the Nativity story on Christmas Eve. Whitney was supposed to be shepherd, but didn't want to wear the robe.

Merry Christmas!! We had one, I hope you all did too. The kids got to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas, a few times. Max saw santa at the mall, and at church and we stopped and talked to him while he was driving his Jeep down the street. Max wasn't sure how that worked. We spent our first Christmas in our house.

This picture is from this summer, but Max was feeling a little left out of the blog so I has to put a "cool" one of him on. We'll have some good pictures of him after this weekend when he and Wade going skiing.

Nikki is going to try and be extra good for Santa. Can't you tell?

It's Christmas time, which translates into ski-season in the Wade Pilling household. Tree compliments of Kent Pilling and his mountain adventures. Thanks.

We celebrated Whitney's first birthday in November. I can't believe it's already been a year since she was born. It feels like we just had her.
Whitney was more interested in the wraping paper than in the her new toys.

This is the newest member of our family, Root Beer. We've had her for a couple of months and have already managed to lose her. We got her back a couple of days ago. Apperently she needed a break from the tortures of living in a house with Nikki

We went to a pumpkin patch and got a picture of all the little piggies!
Some more of the little piggies.
One of Whitney's favorite places to hang out is in the bottom drawer in the kitchen.