I have to hurry up and finish this post, or else I won't get it in before February is over.  I'm betting most everyone gave up that I would ever post again.  I'm just keep expectations really low, so when I do post, it is a big surprise!

February 1st, Kyle and I went snowboarding with Justin.  We were planning on also being with Aaron and my cousins, Marcia and Ryan, but we never actually ended up together.  I guess that is what happens when you leave your cellphones in the car.

Here are Justin and I ready to start.  I will refrain from posting pictures of us snowboarding, as I don't want to embarrass anyone.  I'm really considerate, aren't I?

Ok, this doesn't exactly count as snowboarding, so I'll post it.

Here is a cool lizard that's meditating on the back fence.  Did you ever stop to wonder what lizards think about?  Maybe about the best place to shed.  That's a good possibility.

A couple of weeks ago, the little Johnson kids stayed out our house for the day.  It's always fun to have them around to play with.

Julie was cheerful (she seems to be a lot)

One of the best ways to entertain Julie, is to let her look at herself in the mirror.  You know, I'm not sure, but I think that might technically count as vain.

I don't know if it is just me, but Bethany looks really grown up here.

Ok, she back to normal here.

Paul took this artistic shot of Rebecaa and Julie.

To the untrained eye, this might look like a boring picture.  But if you look closely, you will notice that all of the wonderful babysitters are playing dice... making the 1 year old take care of the baby.  Actually, Timmy is doing his job.  Michael looks like he is about ready to die he is laughing so hard.

To the untrained eye, this picture also looks quite boring.  And you know, quite frankly.  It is.

Kyle, Justin and I went horseback riding a couple of days before Kyle's birthday.  Birthdays are a wonderful excuse for going horseback riding.  Who gets which horse, and which is the best, is always quite the suspense.  I think I've had a string of bad luck lately, though...

Ok, not only were their horses better than mine, but they were also taller, and they looked cooler on them.  How incredibly insulting.

Last Saturday, we went to an open house at the local sheriff station.  Here Michael, Bethany and Julie are riding in their triple stroller on the way there.  I can't wait to see the stroller after the next baby.

We got to walk around and see a lot of the various vehicles and booths they had there.

Now this is what I call a real sheriff car.

Paul looks like he is a little bit more ready to cruise.  Hmm

Michael in the driver's seat of a fire engine.  He could barely see out of the window when the door was shut.

Timothy inside of the little helicopter that is stationed two blocks away from our house. 

Philip inside of the same helicopter.  It is constantly flying over, and I think they had a blast sitting in it after watching it all this time.

I don't think Michael appreciated it for the exact same reasons as the others, but he certainly had a blast.  He especially like the lever that moved the spotlight.

And here is the bomb squad.  I guess they control this little robot from inside of the truck, pick up the bomb with it, and take it to the safety of inside of the truck.  Remind me never to be the guy inside of the truck.   Ok, so I don't think that is exactly how it works... they might have a couple of other minor saftey precautions.

And here we are all deciding what to do next.  It started raining on us on the walk home.  Of all times, it would pick then to rain.  It's Murphy's law.

It was a lot of fun to see the different parts of the sheriff station that you don't usually get to see.  Afterall, it isn't every day that you get to get inside of a S.W.A.T. truck and hold an M16. 

I haven't posted in awhile, so I'll actually start off by posting a couple of pictures from when we went to the beach on the 17th of December.  We filmed a little video of us having fun down there, which we uploaded to www.dhpfilms.com. 

Here I am filming our remake of "Chariots of Fire".  We didn't get past the running on the beach part...

Playing a little football on the beach.  We were actually doing it for a little video we were making, but it was still fun... even if it was just for the video. ;)

The guys intently staring at the opposition... waiting for the serve.  Only later did they realize that the ball was sitting at Kyle's feet.

We got a fire pit for our backyard for Christmas this year.  We've had fun sitting around it and roasting hotdogs for dinner a few times so far.  It's not the same as doing it at the beach or in the mountains, but it still is a lot of fun, especially with the cooler weather we've been having lately.  If anyone wants to come over and roast a few hotdogs with us, you're welcome! (just bring your own hotdogs )

We had a few days off for Christmas break, so Kyle, Kevin, Stephen and I went on a little two day camping trip.  There was supposed to be a big storm coming in on Thursday when we left, but it didn't actually arrive till late Friday night when we were driving home.  We wanted to try somewhere new, so we headed down to some of the mountains in the San Diego area.  We ended up in the Cuyamaca and Laguna Mountains in the Cleveland National Forest.  It is really pretty there.

Here we are next to Mt Laguna off of the S1.  There was a great view from where we were.

Same place, different view.  I'm sure you all were just dying to see a picture of a bench. 

You could definitely tell there was a storm coming in.

A dead bush.  Ok, I'll stop with the random scenic pictures for now, but I'll get back to them.

We thought there was a good chance we would get snowed on, but we didn't.  The picture with the old snow will just have to do.  Everyone thought we were crazy for going right when there was a ton of rain/snow predicted, but we actually wanted the elements... makes things more exciting.  I bet it would have actually rained if we didn't want it to...

Here we are on a hike near our campsite on Thursday afternoon.  It may not have rained or snowed, but it got chilly enough.

On Friday morning we set out to find a nice trail, but the one we chose ended up being paved the whole 0.2 miles of it.  Talk about roughing it.  It did lead to this lookout though, which had an absolutely stunning view.

I'm helping the trees to block the gorgeous view in this picture.  I blend in pretty well... my pants match the fence, and my shirt matches the trees.

We did end up finding our nice long trail.  Walk around for a bit and you are bound to stumble onto a trail which leads to a better trail, which leads to an even better trail.  That theory only works when you are in a decently populated area.

Kevin, Stephen and Kyle hiking to nowhere.  We hiked for a long time and then headed back when we felt we had hiked long enough.  I'm not actually even sure how long we did hike because I lost track of time.  When it is overcast and you are just talking and hiking along, you can lose track of time very easily.

A barbed wire fence we hiked along for quite a ways.

Stephen picking out our next destination once we got back to his Jeep. 

We ended up hiking Japacha Ridge at dusk and well into dark.  A really heavy fog rolled in which made it even darker.  Flashlights weren't an option, they were a necessity.  We found a trail that said it went to "Airplane Monument".  We decided to take that one, as it sounded interesting, and found the monument pictured above.

An airplane crashed there on December 7, 1922, and they cemented the engine from the plane for the monument.  The story behind it is kind of interesting, and you can read about it here: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/v51-3/pdf/v51-3_crash.pdf

Once we got down from our hike, we ended up back at Lake Cuyamaca for the 3rd or 4th time, and then headed home.  The roads were really winding, and there was a really thick fog, but Stephen was driving so he had all the hard work. 

It is really hard to describe our trips... it is easiest to say they are "camping trips", but we are way too mobile for them to be considered regular camping trips.  We end up driving around and stopping in all sorts of different places, so it can be hard to tell which spot we actually "camped" at.   I guess the spot we put up our tent would have to be it.

Getting back to work after a break is no fun, but I guess what makes a break so much fun, is that it is actually a break from work.  If you never work, you can never take a break from working!  Ok, I'm trying too hard...

Hope you all have a great week!