Skiing today

Last week we received a tremendous amount of snow. Anna asked Santa Claus for a White Christmas, and he delivered with record-breaking snow on Christmas Day. The skies cleared today and we spent a fantastic day skiing in Park City -- blue skies, relatively "warm" weather. I love living in Utah.

Turning 8

Before we do the Christmas blog posts, I wanted to document Jacob and Anna's 8th b-day. We had quite the bash -- took 20 kids to an indoor "bounce house" (~50 trampolines linked together + inflatable thingamajigs). The kids had a blast, and only one had an injury that drew blood. That's Jacob in the white shirt trying to impress his friends with his jumping "skills"....

Anna is excited about joining the Achievement Days group. Jennifer hosted a party for the girls last week where they had a fancy dinner and learned about manners. I guess they all tried to be funny using formal language (that's Anna in the middle on the left).

And then there is Nathan...the dude does not care what he's doing as long as he's laughing. Jacob got a Nerf gun for his birthday that has literally provided hours of entertainment for Nathan (shoot the bullet, make dad fetch, repeat).

Going large

We decided to go large on the Chritmas tree this year. It's not every year that we'll have almost all of our family on both sides in town for parts of Christmas.

Disneyland Trip

For Thanksgiving we headed to So Cal to visit family and spend a few days at Disneyland. We stayed at the Grand Californian, which is fantastic. Hotel guests get into the park an hour early, and by the time the big crowds arrive it's time to head back to the hotel pool and get recharged for an evening park visit. The highlights include getting soaked on the water rides (Jacob and Anna SCREAM in anticipation), the new Toy Story ride, California Screamer, pin trading, Nathan chipping his tooth on Dumbo (yep --walked into an ear), chillin' with cousins/siblings/grandparents, and riding Tower of Terror with Jacob over and over again until the park closed. I love the fact that our kids want to go on every ride -- even Nathan was ticked that he could not go on the big roller coaster.

Halloween 2008

This year for Halloween we had a cow, astronaut and Glinda (from the play Wicked). Mike and Jen passed on costumes this year because Mike had knee surgery on 10/30 (his leg is wrapped up so the kids thought he was a partial mummy). To maximize candy flow this year we attended a "trunk or treat" at the church -- you can hit a lot more cars in a parking lot than walking door to door. :-)

Nathan is progressing up the toy food chain. He used to be fascinated with Tigger, then he moved to Cars, and now he LOVES trains. Train books, Thomas the Train, throwing train cars at his brother and sister....etc. Here he is riding his train (oh, and this is why I hate Costco :-) ).

Check the calendar before hiking

Today we planned to hike to Silver Lake in American Fork Canyon. The area is beautiful this time of year...the picture below is from the start of the trail with Mt Timp in the background.

The problem? We get to the trailhead and find lots of people walking around in orange suits carrying guns. Apparently this is "Deer Hunt Weekend" -- so, if you hike and some ten year old with a rifle thinks you resemble an animal, you're toast. The hunters assured us we'd be safe so long as we were covered in orange, which we weren't, so we cut our hike short.

Seeing the sea of orange gave us another idea -- pumpkins. So, we headed out to find a pumpkin patch.

First Snow

We woke up this morning to find several inches of snow on the ground. Ski season must be coming! The video below shows the kids playing in the backyard.

Fall Colors

The American Fork Canyon is spectacular when the Fall colors come out. These are a couple of pix from this weekend.

Getting lost in the mountains

Yesterday Jacob, Anna, Nathan and Mike went on a hike while Jennifer did some girly thing. We headed up American Fork Canyon and ended up having a much larger adventure than we had bargained for. Our one hour hike turned into a 3 hour sojourn into the wilderness. Here's an explanation in Anna and Jacob's own words.

From Anna -
We were first having fun before we got lost. We saw really pretty leaves because they were changing colors. Some people on horses told us the way to go, and they were wrong. The signs were not right, and we got lost. I was afraid we were going to spend the night in wilderness. I asked daddy if we could say a prayer, and we stopped and had a prayer. And then a bike rider came and told us it was only 1 mile to the road. Today I am so sore. Next time we need to bring a map if we never been there before.

From Jacob -
When we went on a hike I started out as the fastest and did not see the horse "do do" until I stepped in it. When we got lost the horse people told us the wrong way to go. Anna kept on complaining and kept saying "what if a bird comes and takes me away, or a bear comes to eat me." I was scared because we only had 1 melted cookie left. I had a bike chain weapon that I found on the ground. After the biker showed us the right way we had to walk through streams, and I just ran through them. I loved the adventure.

So there you have it. Anna's advice is sound -- next time we'll bring a map. :-)

Jacob holds a human heart

Hi, this is Jacob. Yesterday I held a human heart, touched a cow eyeball, held a lamb brain, and a pigs heart. This is at the Body Worlds museum. There was like a bunch of people without skin holding their own hearts. There was a camel there and it's neck was split in three ways. My sister did not want to come because she hates seeing body parts. I wanted to go because I want to be a doctor when I grow up and gross my sister out. And its fun.

Afterwards we go'd to a restaurant and played pool there and had pizza. My dad and mom were with me.

Anna's performance

Anna's singing and dancing group had their big performance last night. Anna did great as usual, and had a lot of fun. A video of their performance is below (7 minutes). She told me last night that singing and dancing was her favorite "sport." :-)

Anna peformed in the age group one year older than her, so it's funny to see her as one of the shorter girls.

Parade Photo

Anna's dance group was in the Highland Fling parade this weekend. Part of the deal is she gets to bring candy and throw it to other kids along the parade route. The photo above shows Jabob on the left pleading with Anna to throw him more candy (Anna is on the right). It's just a funny picture.

The highlight for the kids afterwards was making it to the top of a rock climbing wall.

Funny picture

I just thought this picture was funny. Jacob is in true form -- trying to get a laugh. Anna is the nice girl, as always.

4th of July Visits

We had quite the crew here for the 4th of July holiday -- Denise, Ron and their 4 kids, Grandpa Frandsen, Great Grandma Halverson plus all the local people. The highlights included rafting down the Provo river, sleepovers with the cousins, fireworks, blessing baby Cameron, hanging out with grandparents, attending a baseball game and girls night out to see Little Women. Pictures below.

Uncle Chris and 8 of the 10 Frandsen cousins.

Throwing poppers on the 4th

Floating with our two boys, and cousin Sam.

48 Hours in New York City

I needed to be in the NYC area on Monday for work, so Jennifer and I did a last minute trip to the city for the weekend. Thanks to Michelle and Terri for watching the three amigos on such short notice.

On the first night we wandered through Times Square and then took a "bike chariot" to a Bobby Flay restaurant for dinner (he's a chef on the food channel famous for his spicy concoctions). The bike ride was crazy -- we sat in a bike trailer and this insane rider weaved us in and out of traffic on 5th Avenue. I felt like Nathan must feel as we take him on rides in his bike trailer. The food at the Mesa Grill was simply fantastic -- until Jen puked all of hers up. Seriously...but she recovered by the next morning.

On the next day we went on a stroll through Central Park. It was cool to see that the park is heavily used by people who live in the city -- lots of baseball games, rollerbladers, etc. We found a turtle pond and a castle that were just fun to explore, and had lunch at the Boat House.

When then headed for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Obviously a great museum -- our favorite areas were the Egyptian section with its mummys and rebuilt temple, the American section with a famous George Washington painting, the impressionists, and a Jeff Koons special exhibit of cool sculptures (like the shiny balloon dog below).

After getting our cultural fix we headed to Serendipity -- the creators of Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. It was delicious. I would have had a dozen servings if Jen would have allowed. Afterwards we decided we needed a workout -- what better way to do it than hike to the top of the Empire State Building, eh? Well, we learned that they don't allow you to take the stairs. Instead, you buy a $20 ticket, take two elevators, and suffer the harassment of vendors all along the way. The views from the top were impressive.

We capped off the day by attending the Mary Poppins musical on Broadway. We had great seats and really liked the way they changed the set from scene to scene. Great music, and lots of fun.

Our final day began with a cruise around Manhattan island. We saw some great sites, including the Statue of Liberty, and just enjoyed spending time on the water on a warm day. Afterward we headed to SoHo for lunch and perused the hip shops, and ended the day in Rockefeller Center. Jen jumped into a cab to head back to the airport exactly 48 hours after we landed.


The trip was awesome. I have the best wife in the world.

Daddy Daughter Date

Hi, this is Anna.

On Friday night my Daddy and I went ice skating. It was very fun. We first went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It is one of my favorites because it has one of my favorite foods -- spaghetti with red sauce. I also like to sit in the train at the restaurant. For dessert we ate spumoni ice cream.

I fell down like 7 times at the ice skating rink. Me and my daddy did a trick, twirling me front and back. I had a lot lot lot lot lot of fun. One the way home we got me and my mommy flowers. I got pink roses and my mommy got kind of a bouquet.

Guys trip to Moab

Jacob and I recently completed our annual guys trip to Moab ("annual" meaning that because we have done it two years in a row, Jacob will demand it every year -- which is actually great). We met several of my BYU roommates there, and the highlights of the trip include completing a Jeep trail without loss of life or vehicle, Jacob and friends getting lost in a cave, hiking to Delicate Arch, floating down the Colorado River, crushing our remote control Jeep under a real Jeep and shooting a gun (a real highlight for Jacob).

"Wicked" trip to LA

Lame roller coaster ride at the Santa Monica pier, $5
Overpriced parking at our hotel, $25
Cupcakes at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills, $40
Watching the kids dig Wicked, Priceless

For Spring break we escaped to California to see the musical "Wicked" and to spend time with family. The play was fantastic -- it was Jacob and Anna's first big-time play experience and they really liked it. For those who have not seen it, Wicked is the story of what happened to the witches before The Wizard of Oz. Fun storyline, great music.

We also spent a couple of nights at the beach in Santa Monica. The weather was awesome -- mid 80s at the beach. The kids woke up early the first day (6AM) and asked if we could go hunt for sea shells on the beach. We did -- and we let Jacob and Anna run ahead of us because Nathan was too distracted with playing in the sand. So we eventually catch up to J&A, only to find them playing in the waves. The water was frigid -- these kids are CRAZY!

On the second day we toured Griffith Park Observatory to fuel our kids' interest in space, and then took a stroll down Rodeo Drive. The former was great, the latter lame. We got suckered into going to a "famous" cupcake store. If overpriced cupcakes makes you famous, then I am in the wrong business. :-) The picture below is from the Observatory and includes all the Dutton cousins (current count anyway -- I am sure Krista has a few more in her).

To cap off our LA experience, we spent a day at Universal Studios. The place was empty so we could walk on any ride. The highlight was the Jurassic Park ride. Anna thought the ride was "so cute" -- until the BIG, unexpected drop at the end.

We also had fun spending time with the fam. The kids were spoiled as usual, so I've made it my goal this week to make life incredibly hard for them -- shock therapy to bring them back to reality. :-)

Happy Easter

We had a nice Easter Sunday at the Dutton home. The kids woke up early to collect their Easter eggs and to see what the bunny brought in the middle of the night. The biggest hit was a bubble maker for Nathan -- see the pic below. And, as is tradition in many homes, we dressed our like all alike, paraded them to church, and rushed them home before they could get snot on their clothes and ruin a family picture.

We hosted Easter dinner at our home this year and had over 20 people attend. Kim and Chris came bearing presents for the kids -- Kim created a cool display for Jacob and Anna with some butterflies from her collection (the butterfly is pinned in a shadowbox). Jacob totally digs it, and it being Easter and all he was trying to draw the connection between the bug, the holiday and what he had learned in church that day. Then he asked Kim, "was the butterfly crucified?" It was a great question -- the bug was dead, and he did have pins in him. After we stopped rolling we had a good talk with Jacob. :-)