Friday, December 24, 2010

12/18 - Tubing at Snoqualmie Pass

          On Saturday, we spent much of the day tubing at Snoqualmie Pass, in the Cascades Mountains. We had 2 hours on the hill, and we went down around 10 times! There were 12 lanes, and there was a tow that pulled your tube up - with you inside! We had lots of fun - the place had just gotten new tubes, so we had some really great runs. There was only one problem - there were tons of people, and the lines for the steepest lanes were really long, but they were nothing compared to the line for the tow. Most of the times, I walked up instead of waiting in line for the tow. The place we were at also had big ski hills, and we could see people going down as we left.

                                                                                    -Written by Joseph

Here's a picture of Henry and the tubing hill:

The Cascades Mts. in the background, tubing hill and tow in front of Henry

Sunday, December 12, 2010

12/5 - Seahawks Game!

          Last Sunday, Joseph, Daddy, and Jack went to a SeaHawks Football game. The SeaHawks were playing the Panthers, and won 31 to 14. It was my first NFL game ever - Jack's first too. The SeaHawks improved to 6-5, in first place in the NFC West. At the game, the SeaHawks retired #71, Walter Jones.

                                                                                  -Written by Joseph

Here are some pictures of the game:

View from inside Qwest Field, Home of the SeaHawks 








The SeaHawks on the field








12/4 - Christmas Trees!

           Today we got our Christmas Tree, put up lights, and decorated the house. We went to a Christmas tree farm and got a tree, on one of the many Christmas tree farms in the state of Washington. We put lights on it, decorations, and our ornaments. We also put up our Christmas lights, on the mantle and outside in the front yard. We also put up lots of decorations, and started playing Christmas music again for the first time in a year.
           It hasn't snowed since Thanksgiving, but we gotten a ton of rain. Had it been just a few degrees colder, we could have around a half a foot of snow by now! Also, it's been dark and cloudy, and the sun hasn't been out much.

                                                                                 -Written by Joseph

Here are some photos of our Christmas Tree:

 Looking for a Christmas Tree
 Our Christmas Tree - Right before we cut it down

11/25 - Thanksgiving In Seattle

          We had a very white Thanksgiving this year, thanks to a big snow storm the week before. There were still about 3-4 inches on the ground, but it all melted away by the next day. We had had a big Thanksgiving dinner with Granny and Grandpa in our dinning room, with lots of delicious food. Also, we played our yearly Rodgers Bowl in the snow. Daddy, Jack, and Henry beat Mommy and Joseph in our backyard, running through the snow in cold weather. We didn't really go anywhere, because it was so snowy.

                                                                                 -Written by Joseph

Here's the Rodgers Bowl Field:

The field from above

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

11/21 - Snow in Seattle!

          It was recently snowing here, and it's all over the ground. We got over 5 inches of snow, in a storm that lasted all day. It was really windy, and cold, too. Temperatures aren't supposed to get above freezing until Thursday! We were at school when the snow really began to build up, and my bus barely got home. At Eastgate (Jack and Henry's school), some of the buses couldn't get out, and the roads were so bad no one could drive on them. My dad was on his way home from work, and the traffic around or area was so bad he couldn't drive.
          We played in the snow a lot today, throwing snowballs, and sledding. School has been canceled Tuesday and Wednesday, and we would normally get Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving. Granny and Grandpa are here all week, and leave a week from tomorrow. It really will be a very white Thanksgiving.

                                                                                 -Written by Joseph

Here are some photos of the snow in our backyard:

A few trees on the edge of our yard










Snowy bushes and trees in our yard and our neighbor's yard








Pine trees along the fence in our yard

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

11/12 - Grandma Carol Visits

Grandma Carol came for a visit in Seattle, becoming the first guest to stay overnight in the Rodgers' house. She arrived Tuesday night (11/9), and left Monday morning. We played all sorts of games, including Scrabble, Stratego, and Sorry. Grandma Carol visited the Seattle Aquarium, Cougar Mountain Zoo, SeaTac Airport, and Leavenworth, Washington. Leavenworth is a small town in the middle of Washington, and is decorated to look like a Bavarian village. They have local restaurants, gift shops, and regular stores/restaurants (McDonalds, 76 Gas, Subway, Starbucks, etc.) but decorated like they were actually in Germany. To get to Leavenworth, we had to cross Snoqualmie Pass, a pass in the Cascades Mountains. There, it seemed like it was winter, and there was sonw on the ground, snow in the trees, and temperatures under 32 degrees! On Sunday Night, we celebrated Grandma's birthday 10 days early, with a cake and a video camera for the computer (so she can Skype). Monday Grandma Carol left for New York, after all of us had gone to school.

                                                                          -Written by Joseph Rodgers

Here are some photos I took while Grandma was here:

Grandma Carol with the cake we made her.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Rodgers Family on YouTube

You can now see the Rodgers Family on YouTube @ this blog! Originally, it was just a link to the Rodgers Family YouTube channel, but now, the actual videos are in the sidebar! If you click on a video, a little box will come up, with the video inside. The videos sometimes take a while to buffer on this blog, so you can click on the link just below the video to view it on YouTube. As of right now, no videos have been posted since May, but hopefully we will be able to add more soon.

-Written by Joseph

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Welcome To Our Blog !

Now that we've gotten a bit more settled in Seattle, we've launched this blog as a way for everyone to keep in touch with what we are doing out on the West Coast. Joseph is our family 'blogmaster' and has written a few posts below. More posts will follow from everyone in the family. We plan to update this blog regularly with our family activities, updates, and photos.

Also, check out the links to the right - we will be using a website called Flickr as our virtual family photo album, with current photos of our family. (Right now we just have four photos loaded, but more will come). You can follow the link to get to the site.

We also have a link to our YouTube page which has our family videos. These haven't been updated since May, but more current ones will be coming.

                                                                                        -Written by John

10/24 - Henry's First Tooth!

          Last night, Henry lost his first tooth! It fell out on the carpet in Jack's Room, but Joseph found it eventually. Henry put it under his pillow, and got some money from the tooth fairy! Henry now has a small hole in his mouth, where his tooth used to be.

                                                                       -Written by Joseph Rodgers

Here's a picture of Henry's new smile:

10/23 - Lots of Deer!

          On Saturday, we saw lots of deer walking through our neighborhood. One of them was really big, and had a really big pair of antlers. It was raining, but I still went outside and took a few pictures. There were three deer, and they seemed to be a family. We watched them until they ran away into the woods behind our neighborhood.

                                                                          -Written by Joseph Rodgers

Here are some photos I took of the deer:

A picture of the biggest deer







 Another picture of the big deer

Saturday, October 23, 2010

10/17 - Hike to the top of Tiger Mountain!

          This weekend, our entire family hiked to the top of Tiger Mountain. We saw some neat views of Mt. Rainier, Lake Washington, and the Bellevue and Seattle skylines. The hike was in Issaquah, a town right next to Bellevue.We hiked through a forest, and the hike went steadily up hill. There were two viewpoints, one on each side of the mountain. One had a view of Mt. Rainier and the cascades, the other had a view of Bellevue, Lake Washington, and behind the lake, a view of Seattle. At the second viewpoint, there were a few people launching paragliders, and landing in a field at the botton of the mountain. On the way back, the trail was very steep, and sometimes we couldn't keep ourselves from running a little.

                                                                              -Written by Joseph Rodgers


Here are some photos I took while we were on the trail, and at the two viewpoints:

View of the Lake and the City
 View of the Cascades Mountains
 View of Mt. Rainier
 View of Mt. Rainier