Catch Up Post

Since my last post, a few things have happened....

First, Tori celebrated a birthday.  Happy Birthday!!!

 The print they are holding is one they got while in Africa.  For Tori's birthday, Jared built a frame and stretched the canvas so they can now hang it on their wall.

Gaylene also celebrated a birthday a few days after Tori.  Gaylene is a little (a lot) older though.  :-)

Thanksgiving was a little untraditional this year.  Rachel had a soccer tournament down in San Diego starting the day after Thanksgiving so we decided to head down there on Wednesday and make it a family Thanksgiving vacation.  Also, Jared and Tori spent their Thanksgiving in the Philippines with a Humanitarian group giving aid after the huge Hurricane they just had there.  Their mission area was hit the hardest and so they have spent the past 2 weeks helping in the relief efforts there.

Our adventure began with a very long drive to San Diego on Wednesday. We went out to breakfast on Thanksgiving morning before we headed to the San Diego Zoo.  It was a beautiful day and not very crowded.  

For dinner we went to a Chinese buffet and it was so delicious.  They even had turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy.  It really was a nice meal and it may be a new family tradition since it turned out that I didn't have to do any dishes either.  :-)

Rachel had 2 games on Friday and one game on Saturday.  It was the first time her new team has played together so they didn't win but they did OK.  They lost 1-0 and then 2-0 and on Saturday they tied 0-0.  David's comment on the tie was, "That's why I don't like soccer.... a game shouldn't end in a tie".

 Adam and Rebecca played during half time.  The picture of Adam is for Josh since Adam is wearing the soccer clothes he sent him from Spain.  :-)

In between games on Friday we went on a tour of the USS Midway which was quite fascinating and I recommend it to anyone going to San Diego.

On Saturday, after her game, we went to the beach for a while.  It was kind of cold (as you can tell by the picture of Gaylene) but Adam and Rebecca loved it.  Rachel tolerated it (she's not a big fan of sand...never has been and probably never will be).

Then we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. (It's the 14th one we've been to)

After dinner we headed to the San Diego Temple to do baptisms.  It was a nice surprise when we got there to see that they had all their Christmas lights up too and it was beautiful.  David and Adam waited outside while the rest of us went to do the work inside.   It was a beautiful evening.

Then we made the long drive back to Draper in time to get to bed so everyone could go to school the next day.  It's always so sad when vacation is over.  But, the day after we got home, we put up the Christmas tree and all the decorations.  We had a great time decorating it.

And to add to the joy of us all...THERE IS FINALLY SNOW ON THE GROUND!!!!

Phew!  That was a long post.  It seems like there is always something going on which makes life FUN!!!

Adam Earned his Wolf in Cub Scouts

Last night was pack meeting and Adam came home with his Wolf rank plus a ton of other stuff....belt loops in table tennis, soccer, snow ski & board sports, hiking, bowling, fishing, and chess; the soccer pin; 5 silver arrow points and 1 gold arrow point; 3 yellow beads and the Cub Scout Outdoor Activity Award.  He's been very, very busy!!  Good job Adam!!

Happy Halloween

I can tell that I am getting old when I only have one child left who dresses up for Halloween for school.  We didn't even carve pumpkins this year.  I bought one today (yes, on Halloween) so in case Adam thinks of it, I will have one available to carve.  The poor youngest child.  We did have our Halloween dinner last night though, which is a tradition, complete with Swamp Juice, Blood and Guts and Skull Rolls.  Here is a picture of Adam in his costume before he left for school.

This week they also had CRAZY HAIR day.  This is what Adam did for crazy hair but he took out the front 2 pony tails before he got to school because he thought he looked too much like a girl.  He took them all out by the time he got to lunch because he said he was getting a headache.  Hahaha.  Girls put up with so much to look cute.

Exploring Southern Utah

The kids had a couple of days off school in the middle of October so we decided to take a little trip to explore this beautiful state that we live in.  We rented a tent trailer and headed south.  We had a great time seeing the sights and the tent trailer was awesome (especially since it had a heater and it was cold at night).

Here are some pictures of the places we explored!

CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK

NATURAL BRIDGES NATIONAL MONUMENT

MONUMENT VALLEY

FOUR CORNERS

MONTICELLO TEMPLE (The kids did baptisms)

NEWSPAPER ROCK

Mexican Restaurant in MOAB, UTAH

DEAD HORSE POINT STATE PARK

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Yes, we did all that in about 3 1/2 days.  Next time we will definitely take along some bikes for the Moab area and we will go when there is no moon.  That was the only thing I was disappointed about.  There was a full moon every night so I really didn't get to see the spectacular stars.  It is ranked the 2nd best place in America to see the stars behind Alaska.  Next time.....