SNOW!!!

Yes, my right leg is completely straight into the snow right now!!

It was sooo deep! 28 inches to be exact!

This is what I was doing while the others were working and shoveling off the deck.

I mean I could say I was working to entertain the dog (Mocha!)...

This is the BBQ we had to uncover to make the turkey for tonight!

Thats just persepective on how much snow there really was!

Just enjoying a nice snow cone. Hand made.

haha. just having some fun!!

Now this my friends, a hand-crafted tunnel made by the very own Scott Griffith and Chris Tomlinson, yes they dug a trench under the snow that connected on both sides!

Chris had some trouble getting out one time!

More fun in the tunnel!

Tomorrow's project... bunkers for the most intense snow ball fight ever.

Also we will be having a family football tournament!!

Okay, now its time for some Christmas dinner! I love this whole celebrating Christmas twice thing! haha. talk to you all soon!

When I woke up this morning..

This morning, after sleeping off and on for 15 minutes here and there, this was the beutiful sight to be seen! The snow was still falling! We got about 6 to 8 inches of snow last night. I was so happy to wake up to a day of white.

"It's like a black and white picture in color!"

-Cory Tomlinson

Those were just a few of the multiple pictures I took! Then after waking everybody up, come to find out Santa came again!! As per tradition on Christmas, The Hogle, Griffith and Tomlinson families all have strings tied to our stockingings and the pictures below show how that went! The strings all lead to a present that is from Santa!

All the stocking's were hung by the dining room chairs, in hopes that Saint Nicholas would please remember to come again! (that rhyme scheme was horrible!)

Let me take you on my little blue ribbon adventure.

First, I started out in the dining room with the others, which led me into the piano, out the living room into the family room, into the kitchen, through a few cabinets, under some shoes, then it led me to the freezing cold garage, and then down into the basement, and then through Uncle Craig's woodworking shop, under some bags of soil, up the stairs into the hallway that i began in and then into a small basket behind the Christmas tree!

HAHA. Chris had to go out on the frozen deck, IN HIS PJ's!!

These are just a few of the Nutcracker's in Scotty's never ending collection!

The PJ picture!!

Can't forget the lovely PJ picture!

From Left to Right: Cory, Scott, Chris, Chelsea

COUSINS

Upon arrival...

Well, we have arrived safely in Spokane Washington and here are a few pictures to show you what we have done thus far. The events happened as follows:

1) Chelsea and Scott (cousins) picked up the Tomlinson clan from the Spokane airport.

2) Walking outside of the terminal, we approached the first feeling of snow! It was a great and glorious feeling!!

3) Scott drove us to Rocky Rococo's! Only the greatest Pizza Parlor in all of history!

4) We drove home in the lovely snow!! At home we all bonded and caught up!

This is a bridge in Downtown Spokane that was being flouished with snow. It was glorious that we were welcomed with a flurry of snow! There are actually 25 inches of snow on the ground as we speak and it is still snowing!!!!

Just a tree that i wanted to take a picture of! Sorry for the blurriness :/

This is our little present from Chelsea and Scott!

Scott and Holly's creation.. it's the biggest one ive ever seen!!



Oh! Just the glorious deepdish pizza from the lovely Rocky Rococo's!!

Tomorrow Santa is coming again! Gotta love the family! Talk to you all tomorrow!
I love you all and i miss you very much!

Here we come.

As the Tomlinson family is putting the finishing touches on packing, i would like to take this opportunity to make you all aware of the activities of the day and how bored i will be.

First off, mom wants to leave at 11:30 for a 2:30 flight. I dont know why.

Second, we will fly from Orange County to Oakland, we have a one hour layover and then off to Spokane! Hopefully our flight wont get cancelled out of Oakland due to weather in Spokane area.

PS. There is 26 inches of snow on the ground in Spokane, I dont know if I should be excited or frightened.

ME AND MY BROTHER ARE GOING TO FREEZE!

IT HASNT BEEN ABOVE 35 DEGREES IN 3 WEEKS!!

Upon arrival, I believe the plan is for my cousin Scott to pick us up and then transport us to the headquarters of the Griffith family, otherwise known as, my aunt and uncles house.

I am looking forward to a GRAND trip up in the snow, but I am going to miss all my friends!

If you read this, TEXT ME!! wooo!

You'll here from me daily and hopefully I will have pictures to show you!!

pre-christmas!!

Well, i havent posted in a while, so I thought this would be a great time for an update! The end of last week was dreadful, utterly grotesque. The work load was crazy and the tests were intense. Stress became a way of life. 2 nights I stayed up until 1 in the morning slaving away on homework. Schools these days i swear. Fastforwarding a bit, last week, around Wednesday, the teachers broke out the truth and layed the huge pile of winter vacation homework on our shoulders. Lets just say that I have more homework over break than I had all last week. This is nonsense. Not to mention some of the extracurriculars that occurred throughout the week last week. On Wednesday, I was asked to take headshots, groupshots, and buddy pictures of the Off the Wall Theater Company at THHS. I was over joyed to do such a wonderful thing. I did it out of the own grace and love in my heart and I believe that through my gift of photography, I couldnt of done it for anything more. In the midst of this photoshoot, I became closer to many of the thespians [yes i really just used that word, bite me] of our own high schools theater company.

Madeline Derenze

Kennedy Ramos

At the end of last week, I began to become better friends with many people. Through the struggle I faced with not seeing my best friends through the duration of the week, I have come to realize that making friends at Trabuco is imperitive. So, I took it upon myself to befriend, or i sould say, further develop, some existing friends. I wont go into the juicy details of it all, but I have come to know and love Kennedy Ramos, Maddy Derenze, and Matt Phillips a lot more than I even did during this break. Seeing them everyday definitely has brightened each day and I hope I am doing the same for them as well. From new inside jokes and very deep conversations, I can see these friendships going a very long way!

On Friday, I was summoned to go to a park and take some pictures with some friends of mine, and some of the results are as follows! The lighting was really bad. We are going ot go have to do another pohotoshoot some time soon!

Lauren Ferik, Grant Jacobson, Cory Tomlinson, Danielle Soltero

Cory Tomlinson, Heather Leith, Grant Jacobson, Melissa Cripe, Lauren Ferik, Kaiulani Bush

Cory Tomlinson

This winter break, thus far, has been utterly amazing. No regrets. seriously. It has been the greatest. Everything has happened for a reason so far, and I pray all this will continue! I am now here to wish everyone a glorious Christmas and just remember the real reason for the season!

PS. You will be hearing from me a lot soon. I will be in Washington so I am sure I will be keeping you updated on all the exciting events while im there! HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas time!!

So last night some fellahs came over to the Tomlinson fortress and decorated some Christmas cookies!! oh and 1 cookies with the star of David on it. Just so we wouldnt offend anyone. It was a very fun night!!

Pretty amazing what you can do with some dough and frosting eh?

I guess he liked to eat some of the dough..
Oh Tobin..
and please excuse these girl with the red cups.. they went kinda wild.

I mean i told them we would only drink water but they decided to whip out the sparkling cider.

Review: OTW

Up the down Staircase was fantastic. I truly enjoyed every minute of it. The message was portrayed very well and I think that it was a good message to be brought to the stage of the THHS Little Theater. Maddy did a great job and so did the rest of the cast! After the production i took a voyage to Denny's with OTdubbers and it was very enjoyable. We stayed until about 11:45 and Maddy drove me home. Lets just say that the last hour of Denny's was the greatest. Kennedy, Megan, Matt, Maddy and myself all went outside and we had a grand time. The entire conversation was about laughing and how we think laughing is contagious. It was so much fun. Denny's 08 NO REGRETSS!!

Up the Down Staircase

So i am about to leave, my home and experience what is known to be called, Up the Down Staircase, performed by Trabuco Hills' one and only Off the Wall Theater Company. I have to admit i am pretty excited to see one of my really good friends Maddy, play the lead in this performance. I will definitely be sure to inform you all of how the result ends up with my opinion of the play. I am excited to say the least. Au revoir for now.

P.S. this is a picture looking up from the inside of a double helix staircase in Le Chateux de Chambord in the Loire River valley of France. It was very interesting!

Commit this to memory.

Some know "commit this to memory" as a popular Motion City Soundtrack album, but it has multiple other meanings. The picture at the right, I am sure many things come to mind. This is a picture that i took while meandering upon Notre Dame in Paris, France. While I stood there and took this picture for my brother(honestly), the phrase "commit this to memory" came to mind. It was at a point on our wonderful tour that i began to journal about the many situations i was put into and the amazing culture i was being surrounded by. Journaling was my way of committing our wonderful voyage to my memory.

Upon the return to the states, although it was one of the toughest transitions to face due to the differences in the standard of living and such, i knew that through my gift of photography and journaling, i would have the memories of this trip for a lifetime.

Today i was gathering photos for a French Christmas project I have to do, I continued my streak of everlasting nostalgia! It seriously hasn't stopped since I have returned. Everything basically reminds me of Italy and France and the happenings on our trip, and it makes me want to open up my journal again. I actually opened it tonight and began to read. I remember every conversation that was made on all the bus rides, every french person i encountered and especially every gypsy that approached me asking if i spoke english (remembering this is amazing because i was approached by at least 100 of them). I am not sure how i would of remembered all these things without "committing them to memory". Definitely a lesson i have learned real quickly!

It's my first day! so what?!

So a little friend of mine named heather leith, well she had this status that said that I should go look at her blog. Ha. Then a little switch was flipped to the on position in my brain, and made me remember that i had made one of these a while back. And now, thanks to her little AIM status message all will hear of my thoughts daily!

WOO!

I am super stoked to do this, as lame as it may sound, but as you read this in the future, you may or may not find a few little rants of particular subjects. who knows?

Currently this is my favorite picture that i took while on my voyage in Europe this past summer. This is a very famous aqueduct in France called Pont du Gard! It was so unbelieveably beautiful there! right below the arches in this picture is a very blue river. We all wanted to jump 2000 feet just to plunge into the gorgeous water. Madame Keith said no, so we refrained! I will probably tell some stories of my glorious adventure throughout many posts. I am sure you are very excited! who knows when the next story may arrive. it could be in 2 minutes?!?! who knows!!