Goodbye 2010 ... Hello 2011!

New Year's Eve we celebrated in Kaysville with Chandler and Jennifer and family. We had pizza for dinner and lots of yummy snacks to snack on through-out the evening. Jennifer had organized some games after we ate. Here we are playing the games. There was Hangman, Checkers, Connect Four and Battleship.
It was fun because all ages could play.
We had the brackets listed on the wall to keep track of who was winning.

Parker ended up being the Connect Four Champ!

We did a White Elephant Gift Exchange before midnight.

Here we are watching Ryan Seacrest getting ready for the countdown.

Happy New Year!!!

Jarom, Chandler and Jennifer

We got home about 12:45 or so and enjoyed a shorter night sleep after which we all (23 of us) had breakfast at Village Inn. In Utah they don't even blink when you ask for a table for 23. In California they would laugh at you! After breakfast the kids played in the snow one last time as Trav and I packed up to head home. We were only going to drive to Sparks, NV, but once there decided that since no chains were required over the pass we would just drive all the way home. It was a little hairy over the pass with several inches of snow on the freeway and blizzard conditions ... but we made it and it was sure nice to sleep in our own beds!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Thursday we were supposed to go tubing at Jeremy Ranch up by Park City. Unfortunately a big storm showed up on Wednesday and kind of changed our plans since it was still snowing. It was also REALLY COLD! We decided to head to a golf course by Trav's parents house. There was a huge hill to go down, but then you had to hike back up. It was also (with the wind chill) about 6 degrees outside!Parker getting ready to go.
Calissa freezing to death!
She crashed a few times on the way down.

Bravely smiling for the camera with Eisley.

Conner ... not so happy since he crashed a few times and knocked the wind out of himself. Once he recovered he ended up having a fun time!

Calissa called it quits after about 1/2 hour. I sacrificed my time sledding to go back to the car with her. (Really not a sacrifice since it was freezing!)

Travis has some new grey in his hair from a couple of trips down the hill.

After lunch, we went back to Grandma's house and the kids did some sledding in the backyard. (These pictures were taken from the nice warm house ... my kind of sledding!)

Parker crashing into a small tree on his way down. (Don't tell Grandma!)

Parker, Conner and Eisley having fun!

Ice Skating

Tuesday afternoon we decided to go Ice Skating. We usually go to an outdoor rink in Salt Lake, but decided to go to an indoor rink. It was nice to have a bigger rink to skate on and it wasn't as cold!Calissa skating
Conner, me, Azure and Logan

Azure and Logan with Parker flying in out of control!

(At least it looks that way!)

Conner was cautious ... but that's Conner!

A meeting of the gang in the middle of the ice.

Smile!

Farmington Fire Station

We arrived in Utah on Monday afternoon and had dinner with the family. This year was our Service Christmas and we tied blankets and donated those along with coats to the Farmington Fire Department. So, on Tuesday morning we went to the fire station for a tour.
Here is one of the volunteer Firemen trying on the gear for us.
(He was the newest one, so he got the privilege of showing us).

We got to get inside the fire engine and also the ambulance.

The kids all got hats, badges, pencils and carabiners.

Above: Kaisen and Parker

Below: Eisley, Logan, Maddie, Calissa, Conner and Jarom

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house again this year. (I think it's becoming a tradition). After everyone arrived, Grandma played Christmas Bingo with the Grandkids that they had made earlier in the day.


Before dinner we attempted to get a good shot of all 22 of us.

What do you think?

Back row from left to right: Chrystal, BJ, Danny, Jen, Trav, Parker, Lindsay, Maddie, Grandma, Christopher, Abby, Grandpa, Charlie, Kellie and Kevin.

Front row: Drew, Tina, Conner, Kaylie, Nathan, Sam, Calissa

We had 3 different soups for dinner (another tradition) that were yummy and then we sang a few traditional Christmas songs (with Grandma doing the actions to 12 Days of Christmas) and then we did our spiritual Christmas program.

After that, we did a white elephant gift swap. Grandma and Grandpa brought all of the gifts and we each chose one and didn't open it. Then Grandma read the Night Before Christmas and we passed the gifts right and left as she said right and left. Then, we opened them in order. Funniest moment of the night was when Drew and Kevin both opened socks that had toes in them.

Christmas Morning dawned not too early.

Calissa was excited that Santa brought her a new DS.

Parker and Conner were excited with their iPod Touches.

This is what they looked like all day. They were not out of their hands except to eat and then we forced them to put them down!

After we looked at what Santa brought us, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to open presents with everyone.

Lots of presents (and chaos), but lots of fun!

Here is Drew modeling his toe socks and warm winter hat for work.

Good look, don't you think?

(He told me I couldn't put it on the blog, but he doesn't ever look at the blog! Don't tell, OK?)

Christmas Eve Day at Sky High

Christmas Eve Morning most of the family went to Sky High to jump off a little energy.I sat and held babies and chatted with Kellie!
Uncle Kevin doing a flip.

Uncle Kevin, Uncle Drew, Christopher, Trav and Conner getting ready to show their stuff!

Uncle Drew getting into the act.

Calissa and Conner showing their stuff.

Calissa flying through the air.

Not to be outdone, Trav shows off for everyone.

(Pretty impressive, huh?)

Dodgeball, anyone?

Good news ... no one got hurt!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Golfing Mishaps

One of the nice benefits of living in California is the ability to golf year-round. On December 23rd, Jen's brothers and myself decided to take advantage of that opportunity and golf at Tilden Park. It had been raining much of the week but was nice that day, so we figured we had lucked out. That's when the adventure began.

First, BJ was late getting to his parents house to meet us. When questioned, he blamed the "fog." Which would normally be a reasonable excuse -- in fact, the last time we golfed at Tilden Park, we could only see about 50 yards in front of us for the first few holes. That was quite an adventure. However, as we drove through the Oakland Hills and could see all the way to both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, his excuse didn't make a whole lot of sense.

A few minutes after we left the house, BJ got a call on his cell phone. It was his wife Chrystal, wondering if he might know where the keys to their car were. Sure enough, they were right there in his pocket. At this point, we weren't sure we would even make it to the course on time, so going back was not an option.

Eventually, we got to the course and quickly put on our golf shoes. I realized at that point that I'd brought my old golf shoes on accident. I figured -- oh well, at least they still fit...more on that later. We checked in about 3 minutes before our tee time, then hurried to the 1st tee and we were off!

We found out quickly that the golf ball wasn't going to roll much because the ground was very wet. In fact, most shots would kick up mud into the air. After only a couple holes, the back of our legs had mud polka dots all over them.

Things started getting weird about the 9th hole. Because of the mud, I noticed the sole of my shoe started pulling off just a little. I tried to change my walk a little bit to minimize the pulling. I'm sure it looked funny but I needed to make sure they lasted until the end of the round. We each bought wraps to eat between the 9th and 10th holes. The wraps were pretty good -- in fact, while I was putting on the 10th green, a squirrel came up and grabbed the last bite of mine and took it up a tree.

The shoes got worse and worse from there. Eventually, as I would walk the soles would go clap-clap as if I had flip-flops on. As you can imagine, this wasn't great for my golf game but Jen's brothers enjoyed it immensely. In fact, Kevin kept telling me to stop "clapping" for myself after each shot.

I made it to the 18th hole and still had the shoes hanging on (barely). While in the fairway of the 18th hole, I wound up and swung hard and my golf ball split into 3 pieces. I stared dumbounded and then saw Kevin laughing uncontrollably. I put another ball down (I mean, what are you supposed to do in that situation?) and my next shot went sideways -- at head level, right between two people on another hole. You can imagine my chagrin as I clap-clapped myself over to that hole to get my ball.

I saved the shoes so we could get a couple pictures since I figured nobody would believe how bad they were. The evidence is shown below.

The shoes have officially been retired now. Golfing around Christmas is more than fun, it's entertaining!

Christmas Cheer

OK, so this first picture isn't the best picture (taken from my phone as we were driving) but we have an annual tradition of driving past this house on Olive Dr. and looking at the Christmas lights each year. They do a wonderful job and we always love looking at all of their beautiful lights. Must take them a long time!This is our front window on our house and what we woke up to this morning.

What a fun surprise!

Thanks Taylor family!

Merry Christmas!

Only a few more days.

A Fairy Tale Christmas

Calissa's Gymnastics Studio each year does a benefit show for the Bay Area Crisis Nursery. They collect canned food as you attend the show and also, all proceeds from getting in go to them as well. I think it's a great tradition that they have and a way to give back to the community. This year the theme was A Fairy Tale Christmas and Calissa's group did a little dance to Bibity Bobity Boo! Here she is waiting for her turn and watching the show.
Waiting in line to see Santa at the end.

Calissa, Santa and some random girl who climbed up next to Calissa!


Here is her part. She's really improving and we're very proud of her!
(She's in the black).