Winter Visitors

Rob, Anna, and family have been in Provo for about 12 days to ski and spend time with the extended family. We dropped them off at the airport this afternoon and they are on their way back to Virginia as I type (actually delayed in Denver). We had a great time. The house was bursting at the seams with cousins from morning until night. We cooked and ate tons of food, went to the movies, ate out a couple of times, always with the whole gang. Rob, Anna, and I walked and hiked many miles for the sheer pleasure of it, and to try to balance all the good food we were consuming with some calorie burning. We sledded and most of the Hastings skied (you will see photos and videos on Anna's blog). Rob was a trooper: he took the Ensign cousins and Lucy's friend Malia (sp.?), none of whom had ever skied before. All in all, it was a great week and a half. We are suffering, as we always do after family visits, from empty-house syndrome.

A long walk "up and over"

Revisiting the scene of the kickoff

Auntie Em reading to the cousins

Pasta dinner on MLK Day

Clara eschews the crusts

Another day, another family dinner: quinoa stew

A morning of sledding by the South Fork of the Provo River

Catching some air

Tunneling in the snow

The Hastings

Squaw Peak

An afternoon hike to the top of Rock Canyon

Dickie and Rob pushing onward

Anna and Dickie near the top of the canyon

Delicious dinner at the Bombay House

Meagan in goofy-face prevention mode

On the way to the slopes

Maxwell was pinned in by the gear

Brazilian Dinner

The must like it -- they ate it

Colton and Millie hosting an expanded
Compound Dinner at Communal: fantastic

The troops waiting for a signal to begin

Salt-roasted spuds, roasted brussel sprouts,
steak, salad, and bread

On their way home -- sigh

Thanks for coming kids. We will miss you but will see you in the spring.

OXO

D.

Dickie Days are Done

Kris has gone back to work this morning, I start Winter Semester tomorrow, and Wednesday, Katy returns to Texas. So the holiday festivities are officially finished. On New Years Eve day, Ann decided she wanted to drive to SLC to the Broadway Theater to see The King's Speech, and Katy Kathryn and I tagged along. That was the best film I have seen in ages. Everything you would expect to be well done, was, but most importantly, it was a fantastic story -- inspiring and touching. That evening many gathered for snacky food and games. After midnight, Phillip set off some of Stephen's firecrackers, which, more or less, captured the spirit of Hawaii on New Years Eve.

In keeping with recent tradition, Uncle's family and ours gathered for a Greek feast on New Years night. It was excellent. There was lots of visiting and later in the evening several rounds of Rock Band. It was a fitting way to ring down the curtain on the High Dickie Days.

Excellent!

Lots of good food

Wax lips rule

Ann, Steve, and Phillip dig in

Gun-crazy cousins

The chef and his frau

Rock on!

Noisy celebration

We missed the various groups of cousins who were far away, but will see some of them very soon. Wahoo!

That's all for now.

OXO

D.