Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2008 in review

2008 was an eventful year for the Holloman clan.

January - Lon accepted a promotion with Les Schwab and transferred to Fortuna. He left for parts south within days of the promotion. Lori and the kids stayed behind to finish out the hockey season.

February - Bryce's hockey team qualified for the District Championships to be held in El Segundo, CA in March. They placed 2nd in the State Championships.

March - Bryce turned 12. We traveled to El Segundo for Districts. The highlights of the trip included beating the Spokane team for the first time this season, time at the beach with the hockey team, qualifying for the semi-finals despite the severe beatings we took from the California teams, a brief trip to Disneyland (I mean brief - time for 3 rides before we had to head back for the semi-final game), watching our first professional hockey game - Go Ducks!, and best of all, 4 whole days with Dad!

April - Bryce makes the PacWest Timber hockey team, so the family decides to stay in Kennewick a bit longer, for this last chance at hockey. In April the team goes to the Mainland tournament in Vancouver and wins their division!

May - The family has a going-away party for all their friends and team mates at the park. We get a new car, and trade in the van with lots of miles on it. The Timber win their division at the Challenge Cup in Vancouver. Hockey is over for a while for the Holloman family. Lon meets us in Vancouver and drives back to Kennewick to get us moved. Memorial Day weekend finds us all together again as a family, in California.

June - The kids finished out the school year in a new school, and begin to adapt to life in a new town.

July
- Lori and the kids drove to Wyoming for a couple of weeks. It's a long drive between here and there! Bryce's friend Kyle came to visit for a week from Kennewick.

August - Fair time, back to school time, and lots of birthdays. Lori turned 40-something!

September - Bryce started football and both kids started soccer. It was a bit of a challenge juggling two sports for Bryce, but we muddled through with only a couple of conflicts. The whole family is missing hockey, but both kids excel at soccer and Bryce starts to get more touches in football. Lori fully immersed herself in her new photography hobby.

October - Both kids continued with soccer and football - and get better each week! Bryce got to go trick-or-treating on his own with friends for the first time. Lori and Meghan got to meet new friends while trick or treating. Lori got an opportunity to remove her foot from her mouth and finds a volunteer niche with the school district.

November - Football finished up with a trip to the playoffs (and a loss in the first round). Soccer also finished up - with a very rainy final weekend.

December - Bryce makes the basketball team. G'ma Jude and G'pa Bob came to visit for a couple of weeks. Meghan turned 9 (!) and Lon turned 39. Yes, really. Lori's grandma passed away in the middle of the month. We celebrated a quiet Christmas at home, we were blessed to be able to provide the local economy with quite a few funds!

The Holloman family wishes you and yours a New Year full of peace and Joy.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!



It was a season of music and.... artillery at our house this year! The family's main present from Santa was Guitar Hero - World Tour for the Wii.... not just the guitar, but the whole dang band! We rocked out on drums, had two guitars going, and of course, vocals. Don't look for us on Billboard's Top 40 anytime soon.

Bryce was loaded with weaponry (you might be a redneck if....) - he got the much anticipated air soft rifle, with a bonus pistol. Targets and gallons of extra BBs filled the bill. If it's too rainy to shoot outside, he can kill pixels with a hunting game for the Wii.

Meghan enjoyed new Uggs, Nintendo games, Bobby Jack clothes, her very own photo printer, and lots of art supplies. She'll be ready when art club starts in January.

Lon and Lori both made out well with gifts too!

Weather-wise it was an interesting Christmas. We had rain, wind, thunder, lightning, hail and a brief power outage. The waves at the beaches were predicted to be around 35 FEET at high tide today. We stayed away, at the Coast Guard's request.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and wishes for a peaceful New Year!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Up on the house top....

...click click click


Bryce helped his dad put up lights around the eves the other day - he took a minute to peek in on me through the skylight!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Belated birthday stuff

We've been so crazy around here - Meghan turned nine last week. For a change, we were actually able to have her party on her birthday, instead of waiting for a weekend when we weren't traveling for hockey. She had a pool party and invited a bunch of friends from soccer and school. The Grandparents both came, and she had a really good time!



White day in Fortuna




No, it isn't snow - but there is snow on the hillside outside of town! We had wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning yesterday. Wicked weather on the coast! For a brief time, the streets were white. This morning I woke up to a good layer of ice on the windshield of the car, and 30 degrees. What global warming????