The Mortensen's: December 2006

Christmas 2006

Santa has made the deliveries, all is quiet... for now.

In the blink of an eye, the frenzy begins! It was all a BLURR!

Santa brings Rebecca a coat she has had her eye on for a long time!

Luke put on everything he received from Santa, hat, gloves, PJ's, slippers and of course his new soccer juggling belt!

Luke finds some flies and poppers in his stocking, he seems happy with the selections!

Mom and Dad just had to get out of the way!

Our Christmas moved to Murfreesboro later in the day. After a horrible trip traveling in the driving rain for 4 1/2 hours we arrived for a great time with Tina's family. Aaron does his best impression of James Dean... Aaron, no dobt had a great Christmas.

Josh, Emilie and Beth are hanging while gifts are exchanged... there was no cooler place to be than with this group.

Matthew, Dean, Vince and Hugh watching the events of the day.

Just another outake of Luke unwrapping his presents.

Luke told his Mom he got everything he wished for from Santa and his family, he was definitely a happy guy!

Becca's Birthday

Rebecca, Boo, Becca as she is known turned 13 on December 3rd. She had a laid back birthday, dinner at her favorite restaurant, Liberty, icecream cake and her friend Grayson spent the night.

Christmas in the Hood!

After two days and 5.2 million lights later we have liftoff! Only problem is Tina says the Magnolia needs to be lit because it is blocking the view of the lights! My neighbor says to use a chainsaw to clear the view....

Our family has been going to Boone NC now for the past 3 years with our friends, the O'Brien's, to cut our own tree. We always have a great time and come back with some good stories. While Dad was lighting the front yard, Mom was putting the lights and finishing touches on the tree.

We always use up all the branches cut from our tree and any misc. stuff growing in the yard to make our wreath. It is a combonation of Leland Cyprus, Nandina, Magnolia, Douglas Fir and plastic fruit.

Halloween 2006

A very scary group assembled at the Richmond House where we had Brunswick Stew and a large assortment of other foods. After stuffing ourselves, the kids hit the streets in search of tricks and treats.

Rebecca and Katie made their costumes, Katie of course was Elmo, and Becca dressed as Winnie the Pooh.

Luke was finally able to dress as his hero Phillip Rivers, NCSU quarterback. Luke was able to "pass" a lot of treats Dad's way throughout the evening.

Reed really work the crowds with his vampire costume, good thing he had all that dental work done!

Grayson actually dressed as "herself" Miss America of course!

The kids wanted to carve Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean this year...

The night time lit up version of "Jack".

Fun Soccer Stuff

Emilie started playing High School soccer after taking a few years off to concentrate on swimming. This is a game as a Freshman this past spring. Emilie starts as Left Fullback for the JV squad.

Luke is wide open during a game, he is an aggresive keeper...

Our family made a trip to see Tina's brother Dane and his family in November. They live in the Hot Springs area near The Homestead. Luke had fun messing around with the soccer ball, this series of pictures is of Luke juggling.

Visit with the Fitzgerald's

This is the unbelievable view from John and Chris's back deck. This looks directly into the National Forest Preserve, the red arrow shows where John took us fly fishing.

John, Scott and I hiked 3-4 miles into the National Forest near Roaring Gap North Carolina. The scenery was wonderful, fern everywhere and a pristine stream the three of us fished for hours.

For 3-4 miles this beautiful stream rose from the valley to the top of the mountain.

John and Scott pause to get a breath. The old trail was the road 100 years ago, the mountain folk used it to get to town.

This was Scott's first attempt fly fishing... E GADS! I think he is hooked!

Scott ties another Adam's, finding a seat on an old mill stone that outcrops from the stream bed. This mill stone came from a small village that was washed away in the early 1900's, the result of two hurricanes meeting in the mountains.

We caught several brookies throughout the day.

Some Rainbow also liked the flies, this one ended up on the grill that night!

Hal, Scott and John back to the cabin after a great day of fishing.

Saturday morning we took the kids with us to another stream. Pictured is Luke, Reed, Alex, John and Scott.

John shows Alex how various knots are tied the night before we fished together.

John shows Chris some of the finer points in grilling chicken.

Tina checks the junk food for trans-fat info and calories...the determination, Tina says we should not eat these muchies. We overpowered Tina, and ate the whole bag anyway!

Scott and Beth were chillin on the back deck before dinner.

Ben takes a good photo of Alex in the evening sky.

Emilie and I were enjoying the mountain view while dinner was being cooked.

The end of the day...these views were plentiful.

Fishing at Carol & Pete's

Luke and I took an afternoon off to fish in Gibsonville. It was a great day, Luke caught several large mouth bass with the fly rod, and Dad had some luck as well!