Winter Has Arrived

After a dry, warm December -finally some snow!

 Matt's "mini-man"

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve Prime Rib dinner with Grandma and Grandpa O. and Mommer and Grandpa L.

 New PJs were BYU sweats this year

 Obligatory asleep on the stairs picture.  This worked better when they were a little shorter.

 I'm not sure what prompted this picture.  They look like they're guarding the Christmas tree, but I think it's one of Scott's tough guy poses and everyone else is copying him.

Finally, everyone is smiling normally! These pictures can be hard to come by.  Merry Christmas!

Camille's Home!

...And she gets a turn at gingerbread house making, too!

Matthew's Choir Concert

Matthew performed in an awesome Christmas Choir Concert.  Even Santa thought so!

Gingerbread Houses

Mmmm...merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

 Grandma, Grandpa, Olga, Steve and Karleen came over for Thanksgiving dinner

 We spent a couple of days at the cabin over Thanksgiving weekend.  There was an intense Speed tournament.  In the end it came down to Niel and Camille in the championship, with Niel squeaking out a victory.  Quite exciting!

 We dug up the time capsule that we buried before Grandma and Grandpa's mission.  Each of us had written a letter to ourselves and placed a meaningful item inside.

It was a very fun and relaxing weekend.  It's always nice to be able to spend time with family.

Happy Halloween

 I have one child left who goes trick or treating.  Sigh

 Mummy dogs for dinner

 Scary jack o-lanterns

 We didn't have as many trick or treaters as usual this year, but Kevin's friends made up for it.  I dropped him off at a friend's house for a party and about an hour later the party started showing up at our house, group by group.  Soon the entire party had relocated.  Trick or Treat!

Fall Photos

 I dragged my kids to Beus Pond today to snap some quick photos.  Beautiful day, cute kids :)

 Matt, age 10

 

Kevin, age 14

 Scott, age 17

Camille, age 20 (next week)

Fall Sports

 Sorry about the picture, Kev, but it's the only one I got without another runner in my way.  Kevin ran cross-country with the high school this year, and he did great.  His team won the 3A state championship today.  Kevin didn't run today, because the JV team didn't compete in the state meet, but he ran in the region championships last week and got his PR of 19:10.  Not too bad for a 9th grader.  Especially since he has been playing club soccer at the same time, and he decided at the beginning of the season that when there was a conflict he would give soccer the priority.  He missed quite a few x-country practices and a couple of meets so he could fulfill his soccer obligations.  Next year if he does both, those priorities will most likely switch.  He has been good to not complain about his busy schedule and to keep his grades up this term, so maybe he can do it all. We'll see.  Now that x-country and outdoor soccer are over it's almost time for school basketball and indoor soccer to begin.  It never ends with this kid.

Matt has been busy with soccer, too.  He has had a good season, but unlike the rest of our kids, the intensity of club soccer has become a little too much for Matt.  He has started to be sad when it's a soccer day.  Now that the fall season is over, he's going to take a break.  Soccer is so all-encompassing (2-3 hours a day, 3-4 days a week, year round) that if a child isn't enjoying it, there's really no point.  We're going to try tennis lessons for a while, and let him see if he likes that. He took some from the city this summer and thought they were fun, and the best part -they'll only be once a week :) If he wants to play a session of indoor soccer with his team he can, but he's not going to do all three sessions straight through the winter like last year.  Personally, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if he were done with soccer for good.  It has been really fun and good for my older children, but it takes so much time, and Matthew, at least right now, just doesn't have the same love for it.  Time will tell.

Back on Matt's birthday, before the season started, -Strikers Cup Champions

Back to School

 Senior year for Scott.  I can't believe it.  Apparently Kevin is sleepwalking his way into 9th grade.

Starting 4th grade with a smile.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

I can't believe my baby is 10!

Matt has brought a decade of joy to our family.

Some of his favorite things:  Building things, science, card tricks, piano, friends, playing wii, learning new things (especially about space), scouts, and hanging out with Dad.

 On Matt's birthday Camille was out of town and Scott was working (new job at Orange Leaf) so Matt, Kevin, Dad and Mom went out to dinner after Matt's soccer tournament (they won!) and came home to a make shift ice cream sandwich birthday cake.

 We celebrated his birthday with the family a couple of days later at iFly - an indoor skydiving facility.  He chose to do that instead of having a friend party this year.  It was super cool and we all had a fun time flying high!  Thanks, Matt!

Camille made this awesome rainbow cake.  Sweet!

Last Days of Summer

Summer is winding down and we've been trying to make the most of it the last couple of weeks.  We've been enjoying the mountains and family time at the same time.

Last week Scott, Kevin, Matt and I drove to Silver Lake Flat up American Fork Canyon with Grandma and Grandpa O. and hiked up to Silver Lake.  That's a hike we did quite often when I was growing up, but I haven't been up there since, so it brought back a lot of memories.  The boys fished and each caught a little brown trout, which we threw back.  The wildflowers, cliffs, and lake were beautiful and the boys were goofy.

 

The day after we hiked to Silver Lake we left for a few days in the Tetons.  We stayed in a condo in Teton Village at the base of the Jackson Hole Ski Resort, between the Tetons and Jackson Hole.  We had a good time swimming, biking, hiking at Jenny Lake, rafting down the Snake River, and chowing down on BBQ ribs at Bubba's.

After returning from the Tetons, Camille, Matt, Kevin and I hiked to the top of Mt. Timpanogos with Grandpa O. the very next day.  It was Matt's first time and he did an awesome job -all 18 miles of it.  There was a lot of snow to cross, even thought it's late in the summer and we had to be careful.  At the very last tiny spot of snow before reaching the saddle -about a mile before the top- Matt lost his footing and slipped down the snow and some of the dirt at the below the snow.  It was kind of traumatic for him and he scraped his stomach and his elbow up, but he calmed down and decided he wanted to keep going because he wanted to make it to the top and slide down the glacier.  We were a little nervous when we saw the glacier because it was huge and really steep at the top this year, and most of the people on the trail were turning around and going back the way they came up. We watched a few people go down and they did fine, so we were brave and took the plunge.  It was a great ride and took us way down the hill.  No walking over rocks this year.  Matt did great on the hike down, too, even though his ankle was quite sore.  Kevin and Camille were nice to wait for us slow pokes.  They finally ran the last two miles and Kevin said he timed himself at an 8 minute mile the last mile!  I can't do that when I'm fresh on a smooth surface and not carrying a backpack.  Again, the scenery was spectacular -especially the wildflowers.   We saw two moose and several mountain goats.  I only had my phone, so the pictures aren't great, but it was a gorgeous day. I was sore all over my body the next day, but it was worth it.

This outhouse has seen better days -but the view can't be beat!

The Golden Mantle squirrels wanted to share our lunches at the saddle.  This one is eating from an apple core.

We made it!

Looking back at the top from the trail to the glacier