This years tree hunt took us into the trenches of our back yard.  We have a row of trees in the back that I love having for privacy but they are planted a little close now that they are quite a bit bigger and need to be thinned out.  Even before we bought the house Greg saw these trees as future Christmas trees.  So, on a frozen morning we bundled up and headed out.

These trees obviously wouldn’t fit into the house whole so we were going for a Home Alone thing and just going to take the top.  It’s really hard to see what the TOP of a tree looks like when it’s tall and crammed in with others.  We did our best checking to out from all sides and committed.

We usually have this “tradition” where everyone gets a turn cutting the tree with the HAND saw.  This year we started a new tradition…chain saw!  Greg was not about to put hands on a hand saw when we’re at our own house.

And down she came in record time!

The man with his kill…I mean tree.

Greg, Zoe 6, Zeke 2

Aren’t they a sweet bunch.  This is the part we kept.  A little different close up.  And one thing I would recommend (if you should ever find yourself cutting large Christmas trees from your back yard) don’t do it when they are frozen!  We lost a couple of branches when it came crashing down.

Oliver 1

This is what Oliver thought of the whole process.  He does not like being cold and despite my best efforts this is how he felt when we got back into the house.

Here she is all decorated.  A slight Charlie Brown resemblance.   I asked Greg if we could glue in a few extra branches but being the practical one that he is he assured me they would die.  Honestly I did not like the tree at first but it is growing on me.

One of our camping trips this summer took us to Southern Washington/Northern Oregon to visit family and friends.  Most of the days were spent just relaxing, visiting and watching the kids play.  One one day we trekked to the Oregon Zoo.  The day started our rainy and gross but cleared just enough for us to enjoy the morning and lunch there.  It started to rain again just as kids were starting to loose it.  Always a good time to stop the fun.

Despite Zeke’s “smile” in this picture he did not enjoy this particular spot to pause.  The zoo had a new exhibit with dinosaurs that moved and roared.  This one of course did both and this was way to close for his comfort.

One of my favorites were the elephants.  The little guy is only a year or so old and was quite entertaining.  As with most kids they are way more active than adults so he gave us quite a show.

All and all a great day.