Ryno brings Keoni home to meet the Savages.

Ryno has been gone to Boise now for about 4 months. He has been dating an "amazing" (that's what Ryno says about her) young lady named Keoni. She is attending the same college, they met in his photography class. He was just dying for us to meet her so he invited her down and she didn't know us well enough to decline.

Ryno & Keoni

They got here and we had a couple of hours to visit before we met up my brother Jake and his family in the Tri-Cities for Pizza and Bowling. We figured if we were going to scare her, we might as well scare her big time.

Jake & Steph

The dudes figuring out the score.

Sooooo Cute.

The pressure of the game is just too much.

We had an awsome weekend with all our boys and Keoni. We hope we didn't scare her too badly

Christmas 2009

I am one of those people that just can't wait for Christmas to get here. I start planning for it and decorating for it way before it's politically correct. I would start even earlier than that if Ryan would let me. He keeps me rained in.

This year was as busy and crazy as usual. The festivities started on the 23rd with the Savage family gift exchange. We decided to change things up a little and we had Italian food. That was kinda cool.

On the 24th we had the Raines family(that's my side) Christmas at my sister Jill's house. My Parents came down from Nampa ID for a couple days. It wasn't near enough time, but it never is. My Unlce Dave, Aunt Sandy, Cousin Crissy, Jenny and her new husband Jared and baby daughter came by for dinner. We had a wonderful Prime Rib that Jill and Dustin made. It was sooooo gooood.



Finally the big day had arrived Christmas Day. The day that the boys get to open all of their gifts. The hard part was that we had to wait for Ryno to get there. Colby and Cameron only had to wait about 15 minutes, but you would have thought it was a couple of hours.

This is a picture of Colby & Cameron showing me their impatient faces.

Colby's surprised face.

Cameron's surprised face.

Ryno's version of the surprised face. They all need a little work.

Basement Construction Has Started

We have lived here at 1918 Benson Ave for almost 2 years now and have wanted to finish the basement since the day we moved in. Well the time has finally arrived. It has been just a couple of weeks now and things are looking good. We (I mean Ryan) has put up some walls to separate off an office area and another storage room. We( I mean him and I) hung sheetrock on both the walls and the ceiling. If you have never hung sheetrock on a ceiling it is an experience, one that we do not recommend doing with your spouse. We ( I mean Ryan ) are now down to taping and texturing. Things are looking good.

The walls are up.

Sheetrock and Tape.

Getting ready for texture.

Fire!!!!!!!!!

A couple of times a year the fire station burns a vacant house down (on purpose) to learn more about fire and how it grows in a structure. This year I was invited down to take pictures of the event. The fire crews involved included the City of Sunnyside Fire and Yakima County Fire Dist. There were a lot of fire fighters there.

What they do is set a fire in a corner of the house and watch how it grows. When it starts to get large, they put it out. Then another group goes in and they do it again in another corner. Once everyone has had a chance to watch the burn, they let the fire take over the house. Very cool.

Ryan and his friend Chad getting ready for their turn in the house.

Them coming out of the house.

Time to let it burn.

Ryan's shift.



Fire fighters don't usually stand around and take pics while a house is burning down.

My very own HERO!!!!

Day Of The Notables.

Day of the Notables is a right of passage for those attending the 5th grade at Prosser Heights. For those of you who are not familiar with this, it is a day that every student in the 5th grade dresses up and gives a little 50 word speech about a notable person in history. Cameron chose Benjamin Franklin. He did a great job. His class spent a few weeks before their presentations researching their notable person.

The day of the presentations (aka The Day of the Notables) each student has an assigned area in the halls that they stand and when you give them the password (a word listed on their poster) they begin their little presentation. It was very cool and quite informative.

Cameron as Benjamin Franklin

Cameron's friend Taylor Giles as Henry Ford.

Cameron's friend Logan as Albert Einstien.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit.

So my sister Jill and I decided we needed a little shot in the arm to get this Holiday season really rocking. So we planned a morning to hit all the fun Christmas type places. We first hit Beaver Bark. If you have never been there, you should check it out. They have some of the cutest home decor stuff. You would never know from the freeway, but it is very cool.

Jill and I in front of a tree that looks like it is covered in giant candy at Beaver Bark

Second we hit the Heritage store over by Costco. They have a bunch of Christmas trees all decorated up. We just couldn't resist taking a few dorky pics. We are such rebels, the hole time we were afraid we were going to get caught and kicked out.

Jill striking a pose with the safari tree. Totally not practical, but very cool.

Here I am hugging a huge tree covered in all gold ornaments. It was awesome. What this picture does not show you is that when I went to step back away from the tree, I stepped on my own foot and about knocked the whole thing over.

We only had a half of a day, so we decided to round out our morning at Costco. After all who can resist Christmas in bulk. Not to mention Pizza for two for lunch for under $7.00.

Colby's Hair Cut

Believe it or not, he finally did it. Colby cut his hair. It was the darnedest thing. He just came home from school one day and said he was ready to cut it off. Not just a little trim, but a real hair cut. I must admit it was a little hard to do it. Part of me had gotten used to all that hair.

The good new is he can still play his guitar like a true rocker and he is as handsome as ever.

Minutes before the big cut.

Wow that is a bunch of hair.

Colby after. Did I mention that he is as humble as ever.