Winter Fun

I know, I know, I am a blogger slacker. No excuse. But here are a few shots of our winter, and I'll try to do better! And hey, since it's snowing here today, the winter pics don't seem so out of season.

Merry Christmas

Consider this your christmas card since we failed to send them out yet again. An online shapshot 3 1/2 months late--pretty par-for-the-course for us! And no, I don't know why there is a big white dot on Josh. But I do know that out of ten pictures this is the only one all three kiddos are looking at the camera, so dot or no dot this is the best shot.

Birthday Fun

Josh's birthday party with his buddies. You haven't lived until you've taken 4 five-year-olds bowling!

Happy Birthday Landon! Two years ago I was cussing and yelling and giving birth to this little cutie in a blizzard in the car. Doesn't he look innocent? Who'd have guessed!

My baby girl is seven now--I know it's cliche, but were has the time gone??

Ice Skating

Little old Newton had our own ice rink this winter. It was great! The kids really enjoyed skating, and the ice stuck around a long time!

Even Landon and Annie got into the skating

Landon LOVES to eat snow. And aren't those pink/purple boots precious?? They were all I could find, and he's too little to argue with me. I tried the same trick with Josh when his boots were missing--no dice on the pink boots.

Josh like skating but he LOVED hockey--of course.

And here is our little dancer--someday she's going to really enjoy all of these posing shots she likes so well.

Okay, this was our official good-bye winter post--bring on the sunshine! Winter was great, but we're ready for some warmer weather!

Aloha!

We had an amazing trip to Hawaii before Thanksgiving. Here we are at our gorgeous hotel--they actually had sand shipped in from Australia and blasted away the natural coastline to make their own beach! It was the perfect beach for kids--calm water, gorgeous sand.

This was another of our favorite beaches--great snorkeling!

Savannah and Josh loved the snorkle gear! (swimming around with their faces in the water, not so much!)

This was my favorite stop on the whole trip--Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai. It was absolutely breathtaking.

We discovered Landon LOVES cheetos on this trip. We also discovered he's not so big on sharing. (okay, so we already knew that).

Savannah and Josh all dressed up for church. Landon and I missed church, since he vomited all night Saturday into Sunday. Definitely NOT the highlight of my trip, but he was such a sweetheart, I just felt so bad for him.

The kids had a great time with their "surfboard."

Okay, let me explain this one. There are chickens roaming free all over Kauai. I mean everywhere. Not just a couple of chickens. (There was a hurricane back in the early nineties, in which they were released, and have continued to multiply since). Anyway, Grandpa Clair told the kids that in order to chase chickens, you need to run at them with your hands in your pockets. They took it hook, line, and sinker. For the remainder of the trip, they tried chasing the poor chickens. If one of them would forget proper hand placement, the other one was quick to remind them. I know I shouldn't have let them chase the poor chickens, but really, how could I stop them when I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe??


Look! They even got Landon in on the "chicken chasing" as they called it.

We had such a great time! I'd never been to Hawaii before, and it was amazing. I wish it didn't take seven hours of flight time, plus layover time in the LA airport to get there, but it was worth it! Here's a slideshow for those of you (ahem, Karlee) who'd like to see more photos!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

New Cooking Blog

Hey Y'all! I love cooking, and I especially love new recipes (but most of all, I love eating!). My sister Katie started a recipe blog for us to collaborate on. Check it out at http://www.cooklikecrazy.blogspot.com/. And if anyone is interested in joining in as an author, just let one of us know.

Good-bye Bear

Our much-loved family pet, Bear, died Sunday. I gave Bear to Barry as a college-graduation gift nearly ten years ago. (wow, we're getting old!) Although I was doubtful when Barry chose the most rambunctious, ankle-biting pup of the litter, he couldn't have chosen a better dog. Bear was an awesome bird-hunter with Barry, and a great running companion for me. And he was incredible with our kids. All three babies said "Bear" as one of their very first words, and he was so great with them. He never once snapped at any of them, no matter how they pulled his fur or stuck their hands in his mouth (Landon).

He got into a lot of trouble over the years, usually with other animals (who knew there were so many racoons, porcupines, and skunks on the hill where I run??) You'd think after getting sprayed by a skunk, or stuck by a porcupine he would have learned to stay away. Nope. Instead I think his thought process was "hey, there's a skunk/porcupine I HATE THEM--I think I'll go get a little closer."

Good-bye, Bear. We miss you so much already.

Salmon Run

Even though we live in land-locked Cache Valley, every fall we have the opportunity to see a Salmon run. Porcupine Reservoir is home to Kokanee Salmon, and it's become a family tradition for us to take a picnic and go check it out. It's a gorgeous time of year, and the fish really are beautiful. It's one of my favorite traditions! The kids had a great time this year.

Savannah made her own fishing pole--salmon is one of her very favorite foods, and she was dead-set on catching some for dinner.

Landon pulled his shoes and socks off within 30 seconds of our arrival. He dug his little toes in the sand, and especially the mud. Notice him looking right at me while burying his foot in the mud--Yep, I had just told him not to.

Oh, okay mom. I won't stick my foot in the mud. How about my head instead?

Notice the lovely stripe of mud down his head. Bath, anyone?

Josh wasn't so sure about the water--he started shivering the first step in.

The day wouldn't be complete without Savannah striking a couple of poses. At least she'll look at the camera, unlike a certain one year old who steadfastly refuses to look whenever he senses a camera is near.

It just doesn't get any better than this.

The Honey Harvest

For those of you that don't know, Barry is now a beekeeper. He got his first colony of honey bees last year, and he is absolutely enamored with the whole endeavor. Through trial and error, and hours of reading about the ins and outs of honey bees, he learned a lot last year, and expanded to two colonies this year. We harvested the honey the end of August. I've given him a pretty hard time about the "bee experiement" but I must admit that harvesting the honey turned out to be really interesting. For about an hour, that is. Then it got pretty boring, and really sticky. For those of you not familiar with honey harvesting (and I'm assuming that's all of you) here is how it works. We bought a honey extractor, into which you put three frames of honey. You then turn a crank and it spins the frames around fast enough to pull out all of the honey. The honey accumulates in the drum and slowly drips through the spout at the bottom. Barry double strained it, then poured it into quart jars. It was really pretty golden honey, much lighter than last year. From what I've gathered, the color and taste of the honey is dependent on the types of plants the bees pollinate, so it varies from year to year, even in the same location. We got about eighteen quarts of honey, so that is one item we can check off our food storage list!

The next progression in this set of shots is missing, since I had to drop the camera and go de-honey Landon. He put the frame of honey on his head. Maybe a buzz cut wouldn't be such a bad idea--lately he sticks everything in his hair--jam, pizza, you name it.