Late Night Out

Last Wednesday night Conner got to go to his first professional basketball game. We went to the Globetrotters last January, but I'm not sure they count. He was invited to go with Miles for Miles' birthday. Conner had a great time with his friends.

Unfortunately, the game went in to triple overtime and the Warrior's didn't win. Because of the triple overtime, he didn't get home until midnight. He survived the remainder of the week, but wasn't his usual cheerful self. With a late night at the Pinewood Derby on Thursday, cleaning the church on Saturday morning and early church, we're excited for our Monday holiday so he can catch up on some much needed sleep!
Conner and friends measuring up to the Warrior's. Conner normally seems tall to us, but compared to the players, he's looking pretty short!

(Thanks Brittany for the pictures ... I borrowed them off your blog!)

Biggest Brute!

Last Thursday night was the annual Pinewood Derby. This was Conner's 2nd year competing. He had a fun night. Here is a picture of his car which won "Biggest Brute."

(If you can't tell from this angle ... it is a shark.)

Here is Conner placing his car on the track for one of his 12 races of the night.
Conner and Lincoln doing the flag ceremony before it started.

Conner designed his own car, help cut and sand it and painted it. Dad and Grandpa helped a little, but Conner did most of the work himself. We were very proud of him (especially for being a good sport)!

Band for Hire

If anybody is in need of a band, we've got one in our house and we'll play for cheap. Of course, you get what you pay for. Parker, Conner, and Calissa (mostly Parker & Conner) have been saving up their money for months to buy a Wii. They saved enough to buy one but, lucky for them, Santa brought one so they used their money instead to buy some games.

Most of their money was spent on Rock Band 2, including an extra guitar -- while we will play for cheap, the game is not (cheap, that is). It's been lots of fun and Uncle Drew and Aunt Tina came over this week to be part of our band as well.

Here's Trav bringing down the house with Parker on vocals.

Here's Conner on the other guitar and Mom celebrating an awesome drum solo.

And here's the whole family, rockin' and rollin'.

Here's Grandpa getting into the act at Sunday dinner.

If you've never played before, you've got to give it a try sometime. Makes for a great family home evening (I'm sure you can find a gospel message in there somewhere). Something about unity and all working together to make good music or good choices or whatever you want to throw in there. Anyhow, good times were had by all -- feel free to e-mail us with your upcoming band needs.

(Posted by Travis ... despite what it says below)

Utah New Year's Fun

We went to Utah to visit Travis' family on Sunday, December 28th.

Monday, we made ice sculptures in the front yard that had something to do with Christmas. We (the kids) went sledding in the backyard. Thanks to Uncle Chandler and dad no one crashed into the fence in the backyard (at least we'll tell Grandma and Grandpa that).

Working on the masterpiece. My suggestion was a candy cane ... they ended up with Rudolph.

Chandler's family Christmas Tree

Our reindeer.

Aunt Monique's beautiful snowflake! She definitely won and we definitely didn't!

Sledding in the backyard.

Calissa getting air.

Tuesday, at the tubing hill in Park City. We had so much fun!

We'll have to do this again next year! Calissa will be old enough next time that everyone can go on the giant hill. (The smaller hill was lots of fun too!)

Calissa, Conner and Travis riding up the tube lift.

Sledding without all the work of climbing up the hill!

Kylee, Parker (who we didn't see almost the whole time), Chandler, Jennifer & Jarom (I think :)

Wednesday(New Year's Eve), we went on the Front Runner train into Salt Lake to go ice skating outside at the Galavan Center.

Calissa, Conner, Kaisen, Kylee and Parker

(Jarom and Eisley joined us later)

Parker hugging the poles!

Conner skating without the rails.

Surprising ... Calissa did the best out of all of our kids ice skating. Maybe because she is closer to the ground and she's not afraid to fall.

We went to see Bedtime Stories at Gateway and then rode the train back to Bountiful. We had to wait about 20 minutes out in the cold for the train, but we had a fun time!

Grandkids with Grandpa Burr getting ready to welcome in 2009!

Thursday, Travis went skiing and the kids and I enjoyed a down day at Grandma and Grandpa Burr's house. Friday, the kids went to spend their hard-earned money to buy Rock Band 2. Then, we went to Uncle Chandler and Aunt Jennifer's for dinner and to watch the Utah bowl game. It started snowing about game time and we left at half-time to head back to Trav's parent's house. We almost didn't make it back up to their house because of all the snow. They got about 4-6 inches that night. The kids were excited to have it finally snow while we were there. It was a pretty warm trip until the last day. We had a great time like we always do visiting with our family in Utah. (It was nice to sleep in our own beds last night though!)

Happy New Year to everyone! We're excited to see what's in store for us this year.