Mission - Accomplished!

Does it look like Conner did it, or me? Hopefully Conner! I really didn't do much, but cut all the pieces out. He did most of the rest of it. So glad it's done!
San Rafael Arcangle Mission

Happy kid (and happy Mom)!

** When Conner came home from school today I asked him how the other kids' projects looked. He said, "Mom, a lot of them looked like their moms did them!"

Do you have the Cottage Flu?

We've had pretty much non stop rain for the last week and the kids (and the teachers at the school) are going a little stir crazy. On our way to pick up Parker (in the pouring rain) I asked Conner and Calissa if they were getting tired of all the rain. Calissa said, "my teacher says we have (and then she paused) cottage flu? (read like a question)" I thought about it for a minute and then said, "Do you mean cabin fever?" She sort of had it right! Funny girl!

The Race is Over...For Good!

Last Thursday was our family's sixth and final Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. I recognize that, for some, this realization might evoke feelings of melancholy. And, to be fair, our kids might feel that way. However, for Jen and I, it was a day of celebration.

Don't get me wrong...it's a nice father/son experience to go over to Grandpa's house and use his table saw to cut the car to whatever design your son has created. The relief in knowing you've completed the cuts without either destroying the car or eliminating any digits on your hand feels nice as well.

But the night seems to last FOREVER! And I don't mean the lasting feeling you get from a first date or from the night you proposed or anything sappy like that. I'm talking about the feeling of waiting in line for two hours to ride It's a Small World or sit on Santa's lap. Anyhow, this post is in celebration of all the cars we've raced before and, more specifically, that we won't be racing again.

Here's the line-up of cars for this year's Pinewood Derby. Conner's is the blue & white striped car in the middle -- you know, the one that actually looks like a 10 year-old was involved in its creation (and, coincidentally, the one that looks like the Dad involved in its creation must be an accountant).


Here's a picture of Conner in his seat, waiting for his next race. One reason the night lasts forever is each car is involved in 12 races. Well, actually, at least 12 races. In reality, several races each year have to be re-run for various reasons so it's more like 15 races. And that's each car, which is only involved in about 1 of every 4 races. You get the idea. The saving grace is, of course, that Conner clearly seems to be enjoying the night.

In the first race of the night, Conner's car finished 3rd (out of 3 cars), so we got a little worried. However, as you can see in the picture below, Conner decided to race his car backwards the rest of the night. Would you believe he ended up winning race after race from then on? So much for aerodynamics...

After adding up all of the times for the 12 official races per car, Conner's car ended up in 3rd place (out of 10 cars)! Not a bad way to retire from the racing circuit. Also, Conner's car was nicknamed the "Iceman", as shown in the certificate below.

OK, so I did exaggerate the euphoria of being done with the Pinewood Derby at the beginning of the post, but I'm fairly convinced I won't have withdrawal next January when another Derby comes around. Nice work Conner...and, gentlemen, turn off your engines!

P.S. Jen asked me to take care of this post -- it took me a couple days to get to it but I eventually agreed to do it...with the caveat that this would be a short post. Clearly, brevity is not my forte. Oh well...I wonder how much money I just added to this year's blog book?

Lazy Sunday

We had church yesterday at 2:30 and then, only Sacrament Meeting. We had a long wait in the morning for church. We had a yummy breakfast and enjoyed Travis being home for a change on a Sunday morning! After watching a couple of the Living Scripture movies, the kids decided to build with them. Parker assembled this one below and then moved it to the Living Room when mom said that maybe wasn't the best place to put it. He then built a bigger one ...


It was quite tall and lasted until Christopher knocked it down while they were here for dinner.
(Which was OK since I wanted it put away anyway!)

Not to be outdone, Calissa built one of her own out of blocks

(since Parker used all the church videos!)

It was a wonderfully, relaxing Sunday! Wish we had those more often.

Cirque du Soleil - Ovo

Last night we went to see Cirque du Soleil - Ovo in San Fransisco. Andrew and Tina gave me (and my mom) a ticket for our birthdays and we bought another one for Travis and my dad. It was Travis and my first Cirque du Soleil experience and it was awesome!

We especially loved the grasshoppers (and all the other bugs ... but the grasshoppers were the best)! Check out the trailer at the Ovo website www.cirquedusoleil.com (OVO)Thanks Drew and Tina!

Christmas in Utah - LONG post!

We arrived in Utah on Sunday night (after leaving after Sacrament Meeting on Sunday so I could play the piano for the choir). We got in to Utah about 11:00 that night. We made great time and the weather was great!Monday, we took the Front Runner into Salt Lake and then rode TRAX to the Gallivan Center to go Ice Skating. It's an outdoor rink and it was very cold to our California bodies Here is Kaisen, Parker and Kylee.
Calissa

The boys
The girls. It always takes me about 20 minutes or so until I'm comfortable again on the ice.

After ice skating we went over to Starbucks for some hot chocolate. It was a little bitter ... we decided we liked Stephen's hot chocolate better (but at least it warmed us up)!

Then we took TRAX to Temple Square. We had an interesting time finding a train that was empty enough for us to get on. There were lots and lots of people riding TRAX that night!
Beautiful (and cold ... did I mention cold) Temple Square.

Salt Lake Temple

Everyone looking up at the beautiful temple (except Calissa :)

The Nativity

Tuesday, a storm was supposed to hit, so we stayed home and the kids played in the snow in the backyard. It ended up snowing only about 1 inch at Trav's parents house, but the kids had a great time sledding down their hill and playing in the snow.

Conner going down the hill.

Calissa getting ready to go.

Conner and Jarom had to be dragged in about an hour after dark. They were very intent on building something on their backyard stairs. (I really didn't want to know what it was since I think it involved sledding down the stairs).

Parker, Kylee and Eisley were just hanging out on the sleds in the backyard talking while Conner and Jarom were busy working.

Wednesday, we got up early and went tubing at Jeremy Ranch near Park City. We went last year and had a blast and decided to go again this year. We had a great time despite the 15 degree weather. It was beautiful for the first hour and then the clouds, wind and snow came and it was pretty miserably cold. We all did fine, except Calissa who complained the last 30 minutes.

Calissa and Trav going up the tube lift.

Conner riding up the lift.

The train of most of us waiting to go down. We got some serious air going over the hills! We had to close our eyes since there was so much snow pelting us, but I think it made it more fun since we didn't know when we'd fly over the hills!

The top of the small lift ... waiting to go to the top. (Jarom, Conner, Parker & Kylee) Calissa was old enough this year to go to the big lift. We told her we'd go to the big hill first and then go to the smaller one after. We never made it to the smaller hill since the big hill was so much fun!

Calissa and me

The group (minus Rob and Logan who were drinking hot chocolate in the car). We had a blast and need to do this every year!!

Wednesday after tubing we went to see my Grandparents in Layton for a few hours and then went to see my brother, Kevin's family as well. We went out to Roosters for dinner and then Calissa stayed the night with Abby.

Abby and Calissa

Conner, Sam and Parker (Sam didn't want to get his picture taken, can you tell?)

After dinner we dropped off Parker and Conner at Jarom and Eisley's house and they spent the night with them and Kylee. They stayed up until 4 AM! Crazy kids!!! (Calissa went to bed about 11 PM). They were pretty tired on Christmas Eve Day!

We picked them up on Thursday morning (Christmas Eve) and drove to Logan to visit my other Grandma. We only stayed for about 40 minutes with her and then went to lunch and headed back to Trav's parents house for Christmas Eve dinner. We had a yummy dinner and then played games with everyone. The kids went to bed (without complaint) at about 10, or so. They were pretty tired after their late night!

Christmas morning, we had to wake up Parker and Calissa at 9:00. Conner was up and ready to go and we told him we'd wake everyone up at 9:00 if they didn't wake up before then. After we were all awake we led the kids upstairs and then read the Christmas story in Luke and had a family prayer. Then, we went downstairs to see if Santa had come.

HE DID! Parker and Conner got a laptop and Calissa got a Baby Alive doll. They were all very excited!

Hooray~

Seeing if the Internet worked at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Getting ready to open up presents.

Happy boys with their new laptop! (Conner said there really must be a Santa since mom and dad would never buy one for them).

Calissa feeding her doll. You should have seen the expression on her face as she came upstairs to tell us that she had to change a poopy diaper! Priceless!

Christmas night everyone came over for dinner and to open presents from Melanee and Robert and to do our gift exchange.

The kids (well, all of us) got Super Smash Brothers Brawl from Azure and Rob. Thanks guys!!

Saturday, we did a little after Christmas shopping (Trav got to go pick out a new pair of cleats, and we had to get our Stephen's hot chocolate and check out the after Christmas sale at Deseret Book ...) We also went to see The Princess and the Frog. Unfortunately, half of our group didn't get up to the ticket counter before they sold out, so we ended up going to go see Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeaquel instead. Calissa managed to cry enough that she switched tickets with Kylee and got to go see it instead. Also, we all got to sit in the front row of the movie theaters. Never sat there before, but after the first 15 minutes or so, it wasn't so bad. I'd much rather sit towards the middle though! Saturday night we went to Nielsens for conrete's. Yummy! We always have to go at least once during our trips to Utah.

Sunday, we went to chuch and then had everyone (all 23 of us) over for one final dinner together. We had a great time, but it was pretty nice sleeping in our own beds again last night!

Monday morning we got up and left at 6:00 in the morning to drive home. We had a little snow in Utah that looked like diamonds falling as the sun was coming up and some more over Donner Pass, but managed to make it home in 11 hours. Calissa fell asleep the last two hours of the trip with her DS in her hands. Eventually she let go of it and it fell on the floor! With late nights every night and full days, our kids (and us) need some time to recover when we come home. We wouldn't trade our time with our family there for anything though!

Calissa's Christmas Gymnastics Show

Saturday, the 19th was a busy day finishing up Christmas things before we went to Utah, two basketball games, Calissa's gymnastics show and a fun holiday party. (Not to mention laundry and packing for our trip). We managed to get all our things done in time for Calissa's show. Here she is ready to go. The theme was a Charles Dicken's Christmas. All the music was Old English and they performed gymnastics and dances to English music. Calissa did a great job! She's improved a lot over the last six months since her last competition. We were very proud of her and I saw Grandpa wipe a tear from his eye as he watched!
Performing her song.

They collected money and donations to get in for the Monument Crisis Nursery. I'm glad that they do this each year for a charity at Christmas time. I am really impressed with Liberty Gymnastics!