SNOW PLAY FUN!!!

Bret Haven and family came over this afternoon for tubing in the
field across from our house. Here Nathan and Ben share the tube
with Bryce and Coen...

Here is the whole Haven family including Bret, Jen and little
Renee. Renee didn't want to ride - but we finally coaxed her
to let us take a family picture. Mark even turned the
4-wheeler off so Renee knew they weren't going anywhere...

We watched the boys have fun on the tube.... but Renee
never agreed to take a ride herself. Maybe next year??

Grandma Shari even got to take two rides with Nathan

and Ben... oh what FUN!!!! Although I think Ben was

just as content riding the 4-wheeler with his Dad than

being on the tube and getting snow in his face...

Jen took a ride with Coen and Bryce..

Mark and Ben enjoyed giving the rides... later Mark took

a couple of rides himself and tried standing up for awhile

"until" he fell off. I was not close enough to get a picture,

I wish I had video of that one...

The snow was very DEEP and WET so it wasn't as

easy to plow through as you might think. In the

picture below you can see Mark was throwing

snow pretty good!!!

Here Mark and Bret took Ben and Coen for a ride...

Mark and Ben pulled the other boys on the tube...

One time I was pulling Ben on a saucer and he fell

off 30 yards into the ride. He wasn't very happy

even though he was the one that WANTED to

RIDE. I brushed the snow off of him and found

he even had snow packed in one ear.. That

must have been why he was crying. Sorry Andrea!

Renee didn't ride the tube - so she took a winter ride

on the tire swing. Brrrrrrr!!

At the end of our tube rides Nathan got out his dump

truck to haul some snow. It doesn't matter to Nathan

if it's dirt or snow as long as he can load it up and move

it out....

A final picture of the 4-wheeler Mark was driving and

the snow it was throwing... Mark was in his element!!

The View from Here..

When I arrived home from work today the snow was
blowing around our house.. Brrrrrr.....

Two hours later Dale said it looked like a snow lake out back
with the sun shining on it.. I had to take a picture.

This would be the 'snow beach'. I thought the wind was
making neat designs in the snow, just like the surf coming
in on the beach...

Jordyn and her family visited with us on the cold and

snowy Wednesday night for chili and Andrea snapped

this picture of Jordyn with my new camera..

Music - Friendly Competition - FUN!!!

Our adventure with friend 'Bev Ward' in 2006... was
great FUN!!!! We started in Tonopah, Arizona and
experienced many sights and activities from Sedona
to the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas... Here Bev and
Cori posed with the CocaCola Bear!!

At the FAO Swartz Toy Shop Cori and I loved the keyboard..
Here Cori experienced what it would sound like if there was
a keyboard at home plate when she Scores at softball!!!!
Hear the crowd ROAR....



Cori and I tried to play a duet but it was much harder than
it looks...


Here I tried 'tickling' the ivories... well.. I'm sure it was
more than a tickle.. LOL

The Swartz toy store was a mecca of games which both

Cori and Bev enjoyed. Here Cori practices her game

shots before taking Bev on in competition..

As Cori and Bev took their Best Shots I thought it was

interesting that their timing was about the same...

Cori enjoyed this picture because it looks like the

elephant was spitting on my head.. This was taken

after we attended the musical "Mama Mia" which

was great. We had front row seats.

Right now I'm looking forward to the 'warmer' weather

as we are being hit tonight with another snowstorm...

Oh me, oh my!!! That is the reason for my topic

selection today... remembering how warm (hot)

it was on our vacation compared to today's COLD,

COLD and more COLD!!!

Cori Lyn...

Before finally receiving my NEW Rebel camera last Friday
Andrea allowed me to use her Rebel on the trip to Illinois
two weekends ago... Here I got to play with the camera
taking some pictures of Cori... I like this picture - I
hope you do too!!!

"LauraLee Riley Plattner"

Because I don't have a lot of time to post 'many' pictures
today, I chose one of LauraLee that I took while we were
in Illinois, January 15th. Isn't she adorable?? The
answer is "yes"!!

Illinois Pictures Continued...

Yeah!! I found the picture of Iris and Doug I wanted to post..
Aren't they cute???

Paul and Vicki sitting in front of the fireplace where we stayed.
We had many good conversations around that fire - didn't
we Vicki??
Saturday afternoon we met Sheila in Rockford at the 'Machine
Shed' for a delicious lunch. I'm so glad we were able to stop
for lunch and conversation with Sheila. We got to catch up
a little bit on what the Davis family has been up to...

I couldn't post one of the pictures of Cori, Sheila and me because
we were laughing so hard when Mark took it. I wanted a picture
mainly of our faces and told Mark 'chest up'. What Cori did
when I said that sent us into spasms and the picture didn't
come out...so the picture below has to do.

Riley Family Picture Diary - January 2009

Thursday morning (1/15) Mark, Dale and I left at 7:30 am on a
bitterly cold morning to travel to Freeport, IL. The sun was just
coming up and fog was rising off the snow to the north of our
home... The roads traveled were not that good but we made it
to Chicago O'Hare airport by 2:00 pm to pickup Cori on the way...

Aunt Edith (on the right) with her two sisters: Florence and May.



Vicki with her sons: Chip and Scott. Doug with Iris who live in Baltimore, Maryland... I have a better

picture but couldn't locate it so this one will have to do for now....

Aunt Edith with sons, Bobby and Doug and daughters,

Vicki and Pam. Dale Riley's family with Mark, Cori, LauraLee and Chad with

their six children: Jesse, Javan, Jared, Jolene, Jubilee and
Jonas. At Christmas they announced God has blessed them
with a seventh child to be born around Labor Day!

Curt and Pam's family from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Donnie with sons Jim and Donald. (Marcy is Jim and

Donald's mother and Uncle Bob and Aunt Edith's daughter).

Marcy passed away when Donald was less than a year old...

It was GREAT to visit with the Riley family since we don't get
to see many of them very often. The time we spent laughing
and enjoying each others company was fantastic. I'm sure
if Uncle Bob was looking down from heaven he was very
pleased with the gathering that took place at his home
going. God Bless you everyone!!!