Sorry we have not posted in a while. We have been having great times with some company from back home. In late February Mama and Papa Punt came to visit us. We spent a few days in Boise, played a lot of pinochle and got them hooked on Nintendo Wii. A few weeks after they left some of our college friends came out to visit. We skied at Pomerelle and finally made the plunge and skied Sun Valley a couple days later. Sun Valley is a world renown ski resort that we didn't know if we were ready to tackle yet. But, we did and we loved it. In fact, we just got back from going our second time. Here are some pictures that were taken over the past few weeks.

Rory on his treacherous climb.

The Group at Pomerelle.

The River on our last trip to Sun Valley

Amanda and Lyndsey had a great fall, but recovered quite well.

Lois

Us at Sun Valley

Dining at the lodge.

Hiking around Pillar Falls.

Justin getting ready to take some pictures
(He took most of these pictures).

The town of Ketchum.

Amanda in the snow.

Curt enjoying a game of bowling on the Wii
(Look at that form).

Eric and Rory giving Lois a little attention.

Justin and Amanda on the slopes.

River Run Lodge at Sun Valley.

Some Nintendo Wii tennis action, Eric loves it.

Soldier Mountain

Chris lost a ski going up the chairlift.

We had a fresh 18" of powder.

View from atop Soldier Mountain

Amanda with the lodge in the background.

Bogus Basin

This weekend we went up to Boise to go skiing at Bogus Basin. We are good friends with the youth pastor and his wife at our church, so we tagged along with them and the youth (it was cheaper that way). It was very pretty up there and a lot bigger than any ski area we had been to before. It took us a little while to get used to the mountain, but after that it was a lot of fun. We were exhausted last night when we came home, however it always seems to be worth it.

Us near the peak of the mountain.

I think Amanda is taking a break.

Chris

Amanda

The View (not the one with Barbara Walters).

Skiing at Pomerelle

We spent our New Year's Day on the slopes at Pomerelle in Southern Idaho. We had a blast and were dead tired by the time we were done. There was no wind and the temperature was very mild. This was our first time skiing out here, so we were fairly cautious. They had already had over 6 feet of snow this year and they had just received 10 inches the day before we got there. We had never really skied in powder before. It was tough at first, but after we got the hang of it that was all we did.

Amanda posing for the camera.

A couple runs as seen from the chair lift.

Silly Mandas

Us

The trees were covered in snow.

It looks like I fell, but really I never fall (haha).

It was so much fun skiing through the powder.

Most of the tracks in the snow were from us. Hardly anyone was on that part of the mountain.

The weather was perfect.

Christmas in Minnesota

We had a wonderful Christmas in Minnesota. We spent Christmas day with the Punt family and a couple days later celebrated with the Gustafson side. It was amazing to see how much the little ones had grown and changed. Of course, the trip was too short for our liking, but it was great to see all our family and friends from the area. We hope to get back there this summer and spend more time than we were able to now. All in all, the trip went well, but there were still a few teary eyes when it was time to say goodbye.

Michael loving his trail mix.

A smoky moment.

Caitlyn with a big smile

Megan likes her babies

California

This past weekend I got the opportunity to catch up with some friends in California. One of them is going to Grad school at Stanford University, so that is where we stayed and did most of our Sightseeing. Sadly, Amanda was not able to come along, do to her new job. We had a lot of fun in a short period of time and were blessed with awesome weather.

Brian, Marnee, Steve, Me and Mark at the University.

Us pretending to see something (that Mark obviously dislikes).

Stanford's Student Union

Everybody at the Beach

California

Tis' The Season...

The weekend after thanksgiving Chris and I drug out our little Christmas tree and all our Christmas decorations (which wasn't much) and set the mood with Christmas music. The only thing we were missing was the snow. Apparently when you live in the desert you don't get much snow. Lois, because she has become a part of the family (or so she thinks), decided she wanted to get in on the fun of decorating.


Except she waited until all the decorating was done before she wanted to play with the ornaments. Chris and I have both tried scaring lois to keep her out of the tree.


She soon learned that if she wanted to get anywhere near the tree she had to be quick. As Chris and I were sitting on the couch one evening she came booking around the corner from nowhere. She made a giant leap to the very top of the tree and hung as it slowly tipped over, pinning her between it and the entertainment center. Unfortunately, it still hasn't stopped her from staying out of the tree.

I almost made the decision of taking it down today. I know Christmas hasn't even come yet but I was so sick of putting the tree back together and making it look presentable. We finally came up with a solution.....