Thanksgiving in Bear Lake

We drove to Bear Lake last Wednesday night and spent Thanksgiving there. On late Thursday night we were joined by the Wilkinsons (Rob, Amy, Amanda and Matthew) and were able to spend Friday and Saturday with them before coming home Saturday afternoon.

Here are some pics:

Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner:

The feast (We had all the fixins, substituting a small ham for the turkey, since we already had turkey last week):


Washing dishes after the feast:


Cleaning up after the feast:

Getting to play in the snow with Amanda and Matthew, and looking for moose tracks:

Rori and Matthew in the horse-trough bath:

Rori and Matthew check out Amanda and Kai in the horse-trough bath:

Loving and playing in their pj's:

Kids' Breakfast:

Kids playing in the kids' club:

Ashleigh & Kai, Amy and Amanda on four-wheelers:

Two-point buck near the cabin:

We had a wondeful time. Thanks to the Wilkinsons for making it so fun. And thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Utah for letting us use the Cabin.

Happy Birthday Lance!

Today is Lance's birthday. We've been having fun all weekend. Kai reminds us every 10 minutes or so that it is his birthday weekend. He is an excellent birthday co-chair.

Friday night we surprised Lance with our very well thought out (by Kai) decorations.



Saturday Lance "celebrated" by going in to work in the morning and then cleaned up rain gutters and leaves in the afternoon. It's ready for Winter now. Last night Kai and Rori had a babysitter and we had a super nice dinner at Ruth's Chris in Park City curtosey of a generous gift card. It was a lot of fun and pretty tasty.

Today we went to William Boyack's blessing, we got a new Bishopric at Church (of which Lance is the new Executive Secretary), made curry and cupcakes for dinner, played with our football birthday blowers (Kai's birthday gift to Lance), and have been watching the snow start to fall outside.

Happy Birthday Lance. We love you very much and are very proud of all you do.

A Whole Lot of Leaves

This is what the kids and I worked on for several hours/ days last week:


And when we were done the trees in the backyard still looked like this:


And then it snowed a lot on Saturday which is why we wanted to get as many up as we could last week. And now it has felt like Christmas time for a few days even though it isn't quite Thanksgiving yet. And we are extra excited for Christmas this year because it is really exciting when you are 4 and 1 years old.

Early Thanksgiving & Birthdays

Last night we had an early Thanksgiving and birthday celebration. Lance's parents and siblings will be out of town so we got together last night instead. Lance, Grandpa Utah, and Donald (Kimberley's brother) all have birthdays this coming week. Kimberley made a beautiful and delicious feast. Kai and Rori had a blast playing with Kennedy, Jack and Ella. Rori definitely thinks she is as big as the other kids. We brought my Mom's holiday punch, some green beans, and a peanut butter cholocolate birthday cake. We're pretty excited about the peanut butter frosting we put in the middle. Tasty! Thanks to Tyler, Kimberley and Family for having us!

For Grandma Whitney

Snowbird

Today we took a quick trip up to Snowbird to take a ride on their Tram. We thought it would be a fun family activity on a nice day. As a plus we had seen on the news that you could ride for free if you brought canned foods. It was a short wait and it really was a lot of fun for all of us. It is amazing that we have these ski resorts right in our backyard.

Jump Right In

Today was a warm and beautiful Fall day so we decided to spend a little time outside. Raking leaves is a never ending Fall project at our house, so instead of working on the leaves today we decided to just make a huge pile and have fun jumping. Tomorrow we can work on them. :) And for the record most are still green up on the trees.

In the Beginning:


Making Just the Right Pile:


First Jump:


Success:


Little Sister Giving It a Try:


On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!


And When Everyon Else is Done- Bring Out Your Clubs For the Added Challenge:

Halloween 2009 Wrap-up

We had another Halloween celebration that went on and on this year. In all Kai got to wear his costume on 5 different occasions/ days (a Halloween birthday party, a great UT great-grandparents costume tour with Kennedy, Jack and Ella, Halloween story time at the library, the Halloween Program at school, and official Trick or Treating) which I think is great- might as well get good use of them. We also carved & decorated pumpkins, went to an 80's party, Kai made all sorts of cool Halloween crafts at school, and we began the never ending task of raking leaves.

On Halloween we went trick or treating with the Wilkinsons. We went out early for less than an hour and then came back to our house for pizzas in the shape of a pumpkin, a movie, and candy passing out. It was really a great way to do it while our kids will still allow it to be that way. Before we left for trick or treating we video talked with Grandma and Grandpa Whitney over the computer to do a costume fashion show. Then, after trick or treating Grandma and Grandpa Utah stopped by for a quick minute to check out the costumes.

It was a nice Halloween and now we are ready to call it a wrap for another year.

Leaves and Pumpkins:







My Favorite School Craft:



Visiting the UT Great-Grandparents:









The Halloween Program and Preschool:






(All year Kai has been talking about this little girl that is his friend at school. Turns out she is Emily King's niece. Emily was one of our good friends at Pepperdine. What are the chances of that? Classic!)

Halloween Night: