Rollerblades

A quick trip on the rollerblades with the girls was moms request.

 Ashton made it very clear that she was not happy about the idea and that she thought it wasn't any fun.  It didn't get better until mom got her planning her birthday party and then all of a sudden things were ok again.

Family Bike Ride

 One of the benefits of living in NorCal is the opportunity to ride bikes over the holiday break.

 Jacqueline was quick to point out that she needed a bike with gears for this trip as there were some hills.

 Ashton was not thrilled to be riding this day so we had to hug it out a bit.

Christmas 2012

 Mom and Jaq's traditional Santa hat Selfie.

 Crab feed with the cousins and Grandpa Bob.

All the lights are up.

and way too many presents!

Girl Scout Nutcracker

 The girl scouts had the opportunity to see a bit of the backstage of the Nutcracker.  One of the options was the chance to try on the costumes that were retired.  Even Ashton couldn't resist the draw of the beautiful costumes.

 Jacqueline of course, went straight to the line for this opportunity.

 and tried on several.

apparently they were fighting over the phone as they waited for the show.

this wasn't even the full group who attended, it was a lot of fun for the girls to see the show with all their friends and while we were inside the rain stopped to let us get this photo after.

Halloween 2012

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays in Burlingame.  This year was no exception

We had parties, parades and lots of fun trick-or-treating with somewhere between 400-500 kids coming for candy.

Even after the costume comes off the face has some reminder of the holiday

As a zombie prom queen Ashton seems to be right in the mix of the popular 4th grade themes.

Not to be outdone, Dan and Jani stole the show, I'm not sure what "The most interesting man" does with a whoopie cushion but I'm sure there is a good quote there for sure.

The girls insisted I get a new costume this year.

Familty costumes followed a theme this year with Dad a vampire, Mom a banchee, Asthon a Zombie prom queen and Jaq a devil.

Musical and other talents

Some talents require special acknowledgement.  The Bear girls have a few of these.  I don't often post videos but below are a few that seemed important to capture.


I have no idea what "shingle bells" are, but real artistic expression can't be contained by real words or phrases that make any sense -- it's all in the delivery.

Ashton just started her flute lessons a few weeks ago, so I was really impressed with her progress here.

And last but not least, no video montage would be complete without Gangham style.

10U Soccer

Ashton spent much of this year playing goalie, stopping a very large number of scores against her team.

 She really got to be a very strong player with lots of hustle and energy. 

Ironically we didn't manage to get any photos of her or the team outside of these two so you will just have to take our word for it.