2013 In Review (Photos)

       Now that 2013 is over, here is our year in photos......

Fishing in Alaska

This is our wonderful guide, Jay Yoder.  Seriously, this guy is so good that under his guidance, we caught fish faster than a lot of the native fisherman!  Thanks, Mr. Yoder!

Our church Christmas play

This is one of my favorite pictures of all-time!  Chelsy was shooting pictures of other people, when she turned around and saw Carson in this interesting position!

Home-made donuts!

I'm sure glad that I don't pay the grocery bill for these two!

One of the "not-so-good" days on the farm.  

I love wildlife!

The only thing better than seeing a turkey is shooting one.  (Which, of course, leads to turkey on my  dinner-plate......)

A herd of mountain goats, with Hudson in hot pursuit!

Brothers are so much fun!

 Axis and Allies has become one of my favorite games.  This past year, my brothers and I learned how to play while at the house of our good friends, the Pauls.  This game is a blast!

Had a long day, honey?

Chocolate covered almonds.  Speaking of chocolate, did you know that studies have shown that 11 out of 10 people like chocolate?  Now THAT'S something for you math majors to ponder.

If I could pick any group of guys to go hiking with, I would pick my brothers hands-down.  This picture was taken in Alaska, where our family (most of us, anyhow) hiked a mountain in Skagway.  It was three miles up and three miles back down (that is six miles total, for all of you who AREN'T math majors), there was snow and rain and wind at the top, and Hudson (who was seven at the time) did the whole thing- in crocks!  So much for all those expensive hiking shoes and boots; Hudson prefers his "old faithfuls"!

Bontragers are EXTREMELY competitive!  "Now, did he make it safely home or not?"

But as the saying goes, "All's well that ends well."

Or maybe it didn't end well.......

    

 I love puns!

And rubber band fights!  This picture was from our family battle, which was a walk in the park compared to our war when the Wilsons came to our house in December!  The older boys slept in the bus, and one night us guys had an all-out war.  I'm talking, no shirts (it hurts more that way!), and no blankets for cover, either!  We didn't take any photos, but let me tell you, some of the guys (I won't mention any names) had some major welts by the time the fight was over!  It was a blast!  I know that any girls reading my blog probably won't understand, but guys get a really big charge out of inflicting pain on other guys!  (All in fun, of course!)

        Just imagine eight of these guys, confined in a small bunk-room, with one goal in mind- shoot somebody else hard enough with a rubber band, that you inflict pain.  Yeah, it sure was wild!

 Ah, yes-food! 

I had a lot of highlights this year, but one of the biggest was preaching at our church's New Year's Eve service.  From left to right- our pastor and the eight preacher boys.  

     "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."

Thanks to Chelsy for the great photos!