Florida for New Years!

This was our yellow banana car and the bird that came to visit our place in Tampa.  Jason and I rented bikes and rode up and saw some pretty views of Clearwater, FL.  This is the Clearwater, FL beach in our background.

The Raven!

This is a special gift my parents gave me that I will keep forever.  It is a large bronze raven.  And this was the opening ceremony.  It is an amazing piece of art.

Christmas with the Fischers

This is opening stockings on our porch and my cats "hanging out" along with pictures of our tree that we loved, and my new socks!

German Christmas Eve Party!

Our family friends have a food theme Christmas Eve party every year and so this year was German.  Our family decided to dress for the theme.  Here we are living up our roots.  

Jason's X-Mas flowers

These are flowers that Jason sent me and my family for Christmas and they were so amazingly beautiful!  So here are some shots of them.

Beginning of Christmas!

Kim, my dad, and my mom and I in front of this years Rockefeller Tree.  And these are our beautiful RED holiday flowers!

Activities of the winter!

A visit to the city with my family to visit my Manhattan family...the Dikmans!  They are my parents great friends and I lived with them when i first moved to the city and planned to live with them for about 2 weeks but lived with them for 4 months.  It was a GREAT 4 months!  I miss them dearly and so we went and caught up with them for a dinner.  Then Fernando came and met my parents and I for a Jets game.  I wanted to wear my jersey from Jason so my mom and I took pics of the jerseys.  The last one is when Kim visited and we all got together to share in our love for Kim.  So fun!

POLAR BEARS #6

Some last pictures of Canada with the sunset and the moon.  So beautiful!

POLAR BEARS #5

Could they be any cutier!

POLAR BEARS #4

SO....here are the POLAR BEARS!!!  It was unreal and you could go out on the back deck and see them but you couldn't talk because they do not want the polar bears to be used to humans or human voices.  This was a mom and her babies, and some pictures to show you how close we were to the bears....even though they wanted to eat our face off.  It was the most majestic animal I have ever been near and such a surreal place.  Since we stayed at the research center we learned so much about the animals and area and what we were seeing. 

extras of polar bear trip #3

We went on a dog sled ride which was so fun.  The stone structure is called an Inukshuk which was made by the people there to pretend to be an extra person.  It was started when the men would hunt and have to get an animal out of a heard but they didn't have enough men so they build some of these to make it look like they had more people.  They were also made when the people were made to leave their land they were upset and would travel feeling alone so they started to build Inukshuks so that if people traveled threw the same area they would see that their people had been there before and they wouldn't feel alone.  It was said that if the people looked through the hole in the middle that they could see the direction the people before them went.  It made them feel less alone, which i thought was a nice message.  We also ate lunch at the local place in town and this was the big hummer/school bus like vehicle to see the bears in.  So on to the bear watching...

Helicopter ride- POLAR BEARS #2

The first day of staying at the research center on the grounds of Winnipeg, Canada where the polar bears live because the edge of the water there freezes first and melts last and so the polar bears have the most time on the ice to catch seals and get as fat as possible before the go on land when the ice melts and wait on land for the ice to come back.  We first took this helicopter ride to see the whole area.  We saw a few moose, there is one in the picture with the trees.  And the vast land.  It was beautiful and amazing!  Great way to see the whole land before going around by vehicle.  

Visting Canada to see POLAR BEARS #1

This begins the POLAR BEAR EXCURSION!  Our family flew to Manitoba, Canada and then on to Winnipeg, Canada and all as a surprise to my mom.  This is my brother and mom trying to manage through the yucky weather.  We had an overnight in Manitoba.  Just long enough for Tara to take a GRE test and for us to see this chrysanthemum flower show.  Then the next morning off to see the furry white bears.