Christmas Tree cutting

Ok so its the new year and I've got to get posting again. I'm sitting here with Grace going what should we say and she wants to post our Christmas tree cutting photos.

Every year,(except last year) we go to a local farm and cut our own tree down it's very fun and according to Wilson "our only Christmas tradition" (oh to be 18)
This year Veronica and Avery went with us.

Avery's comment was "you mean we have to cut down our own tree"

My response was "we get to cut down our own tree" fallowed by a very quizzical look.

The GIANT rope swing was going too so everyone got have a fun ride on that.

Here's a video of it, me racing around trying to keep up and getting motion sickness trying too. It was pretty fun!

This is the first time I've posted video so hope it works.

Home Coming Prince

Wilson was part of the senior home coming court last week. He had a great time and kept super busy with all the activities. Skits, relays, rally, parade, it was all very fun.

At the mission after the parade with everyone.

At the game.

Disneyland

We got to go to Disneyland last week. We did the "Give a Day Get a Day", where you volunteer for an organization and DL give you a day in the park. We went with Lori and the kids and had a great time. It was mid week so everyone got to ride everything 3, 4 or even 5 times.

Boys High adventure trip

The boys, Henry and Harvey got to take a 3 day trip up to the Sacramento area for a 20 mile trip down the American River. They had a great time riding the rapids, camping and eating tons of food. When they left for this trip the cars and truck were so full it looked like they were leaving for weeks. Food for millions right, no just 14 hungry boys and men.

Audra in Montana

Thanks to the Smith cousins, Audra got to travel up to Montana for 2 week of fun. She had a wonderful time with lots of great outdoor activities in this amazingly beautiful part of the country.
Yellowstone for 2 days

Learning to ride the quads. Oh correction drive the quads.

Spending time with cousins.

She got to fly up by herself this trip and she was challenged by all kinds of delays, flight changes, gate changes, you name it it happened and she did wonderfully so if anyone needs a flying companion here is your girl. I'm confident I could send this girl anywhere.

some summer fun!

It was a crazy busy summer. We didn't have a big trip this summer, but everyone had several small trips and the cousins came, so every week had something or someone coming or going.
I'm not going to post everything but I'm going to split this one up so keep reading.

New heights reached

Food is something that consumes much of my waking time. What are we eating, who will like it, how much will I need, when will I go to the store again, which store is having a sale, how many people will be home to eat tonight, how can I make it healthier? The list goes on and on.

A couple of week ago satsuma season started, its always greatly anticipated and during the first couple of week we go through quiet a few. The first day I brought home 32lbs worth, it disappeared in 24 hrs, gone, vanished, devoured. I was somewhat awe struck, that was fast.

The next day I make a pan(9x13, none of this 9x9 stuff) of brownies, pull them out of the oven and go outside because everyone was getting home. I head back into the house after I hear all the stories and whamo there is 1 brownie in the corner, the pan and the oven are still warm.... 1 brownie left, I took it, at least I got one, they claimed they left it for me, I don't know about that but I'll go with it.

I cooked 3 Turkeys this past month. The last one was this past Sunday. One of the first things the kids said was wow mom that one is tiny. It was 14lbs, "tiny" right.

I was telling my girlfriend the story and she states
"You have reached a new height in food consumption"
Boy have we!!!!! Tonight it was a double batch of taco soup. You guessed right, gone.
Side note we've leveled off to 50 lbs of satsuma a week.
whew!

Christmas Tree trauma

For years, yes that makes it a tradition, we've gone down to a local tree farm and cut our Christmas tree down. We search for the prefect tree critiquing them all along the way, this one is to small, this one is too wide, this one has hole in it, etc...then once the perfect tree is found, and with 6 of us this can take awhile, we cut it down, each taking a turn with the saw, ride the tractor back to the stand with our perfect tree and then swing on the giant telephone pole swing that is at the farm. It's been something the kids really love and gets us in a festive mood, it's an afternoon spent together.
This year Harvey was given a free tree for giving blood, what a good guy. The free tree was not from the tree farm it was at a lot. The kids were kind of upset by this fact but we kept reassuring them that if it was ugly or to small we wouldn't take it. We got to the lot and they ask us which size we'd like and then say we'll be right back. They come out with a tree all wrapped up with string and ask us which way our car is. Well we ask if we could see it first. They look at us like were from outer space after all it's a free tree. They cut it open and voila there it is, Harvey is happy, its free and tells them to load it up.
Grace burst into tears, "this isn't right we don't get to even pick it out, we don't get to cut it down, we don't get to ride the tractor, there's no swing" NOPE! This is it, 5 min tree shopping. Very anticlimactic!
On the way home were reassuring everyone that its a wonderful tree it smells nice, its a good size, there aren't any holes. Once home we get out the saw and everyone takes a cut, we trim 4" off the bottom so we have cut the tree, we learn to love the tree, we make peace with the tree, it does smell nice, it's free after all.
There are blessing here, it just depends on who you talk to as to what they are.

Everyone had a smile by the end of the evening.

Birthday party fun

Had the local family over for birthday dinner tonight. Mary wanted Pizza and Wilson wanted "food" so everyone was happy.

CC made the yummy cake

Love those girls cousins, they're so cute!

Surf wax = happy boy

Footsie jammies = happy girl

Love this photo!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday you two!!!!

I Modonnari

We had I modonnari this weekend. It's a very fun event and the girls and I have been participating for the last few years. This year we got a 7 x 7 square. We did a violin but it turned out to be a life size base. Harvey even got in on the act this year.


Anne's group did the boy with his beagle puppy. She diffinitly raised the bar this year.

I also had about a dozen students there who did an amazing job!!!!!!!!!!

Summer Holiday part I

We did another Home swap this past summer. I love home swapping!!!! It opens up so many possibilities for us to travel and makes it much more comfortable.
This year we swapped with a family in Brooklyn and their sister's family in Seattle. We stayed in Brooklyn in a wonderful loft/flat of one sister's, and then her sister from Seattle stayed in our home.(A little different then your standard home swap but it worked for all of us so...) We also had one of our previous home swapping families return for a second stay here. We actually overlapped trips with this family, got to meet them in person this time and share a family dinner with them. I can't say enough positive things about the great people we meet.

So on to the trip. As many of you have heard already we lost/deleted the first 4 days of images of our trip in NYC, BUMMER! (If you know of anyone who is pro at retrieving data off a memory card that has been over written PLEASE let me know)
We did Top of the Rock, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, sampled as much NY pizza as possible, went to the Statue of Liberty and got to visit the crown which has been newly reopened to 30 luck people every hour, Elise Island, Wall St, Ground Zero including a train through the actually work site, Grand Central terminal, China town with Chinese dinner, Central Park with Chess games, Natural History Museum, MET, Time Square, Macy's, Several Churches/Cathedrals, Columbia University, The NY temple, NY philharmonic in the park one night. And a ton of other stuff.....

I'm going to start uploading photos in no particular order....enjoy!!!

Chess in Central Park

Grace with her Carousel pony in Central Park

The Temple

Saint Something ( I can't remember right now) anyway it is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the World

One of my favorite images at the MET

The street we lived on, notice impromptu thrift store.

The famous piano at FAO Swartz

Yes those are Lego's my dear Briant

Light house walk with Armance & Girls

We hosted another exchange student this past summer for most of Aug. Her name is Armance, we fell in love with her, really enjoyed having her in our home and learned more about France.


At the beginning of Aug we had the opportunity to hike out to one of the local Lighthouses. It was a typical summer foggy day which made for wonderful hiking, it was weired though because the ocean was completely flat, it was almost eiry.


There was this giant swing in the trees over looking the coastline that all the girls had a great time playing in