Spring 2008
Finally, sunshine and warm weather.
The willow still looks a little forlorn and the wood is still stacked on the dormant hostas that are supposed to grow there. It’ll be interesting to see how it looks when it’s leafed out.
Water is running freely again and it’s nice enough to enjoy a walk along the creek.
Dylan is 2!
Just cake and ice cream at home with Grandma and Grandpa and aunt Rachel, but Dylan really enjoyed his second birthday.
Always feeding the obsession.
Unlike Christmas, Dylan actually got into the unwrapping of the presents this time. However, he still had to try out each present in between opening.
He was VERY excited about his tool set from Yaya and Papa, which was no exception to the “try it out” rule.
Dylan was very excited when we lit the candles, but our singing must have sounded terrible, because when we launched into our rendition of “Happy Birthday” he started screaming.
Fortunately, chocolate cake is a sure fire cure for birthday song blues.
Capping off the evening with a bit of coloring while the adults chat around the table.
The park (in January, no less!)
My kids had been getting a little stir crazy from being cooped up inside for a few weeks, so the first day it was dry enough I took them to the park and they were glad to be there.
Keilana decided she didn’t want her picture taken that day, so this is what she did when I took it anyway.
Dylan was determined to figure out how to get up this ladder, but he’d always get stuck at the top.
The slides are his favorite. He loves them even more than cars!
Since I put the grumpy picture of Keilana up, it was only fair to put up the grumpy Dylan.
Keilana loves the monkey bars, but has trouble actually going anywhere on them.
Sunshine and green grass--life is good!
Jenna’s 6!
January 19, 2008
4-Star Music
Eldon and Michael played again at the 4 Star. I walked past a drunk woman crying into her cell phone in the parking lot and was a little surprised to see the Mormon crowd rocking inside. Valerie and I played tag team--I babysat while she went to the first part of the set, then she came home and I drove down for the second part, so I only heard a couple songs. Pretty nice.
I believe I heard the band was called Wicked.
Christina didn’t actually fawn on Eldon like that all through the set. They were mixing dancing with his singing. Usually when he was singing she was dancing with some crazy man with long, curly hair.
Michael dressed special for the occasion.
Lex Landon: 3 Months!
January 26, 2008
Good thing the cold weather keeps us in inside these days. My poor skinny little boy would just blow away in the wind…
Raptor Reef- January 1st 2008
1/1/2008
This year Mom and Dad got everyone suites at the hotel connected to the Triple Play Fun Center in Idaho:swimming, hot tubs, waterslides, pizza, video games… Everyone else brought cameras with batteries so they probably actually even have photos of all this stuff we got to do. I’ll remember a charger next time.
Christmas Eve 2007
Everyone gathered for Christmas Eve dinner at Mom and Dad’s house again. Grandma and Clark made it down from Ronan, too. We had a reenactment of the Christmas story after dinner, more pajamas, the cousin gift exchange, and stockings for everyone from Janice.
Our two newest additions. This was the first Christmas for both Lex Landon and Isaac.
Gwen organized a nativity play for all the cousins to perform. It all went surprisingly well considering the cast she was working with from the naked cow to the beautiful angels to the wise men with afros and the shepard with a mullet. Maysa was largely in charge of the casting and did a nice job of playing Mary. Bryce wasn’t interested in his role as Joseph so she had to work with Zoran, his understudy.
Bryce and Zoran have at least temporarily outgrown their fighting stage. These days they get along extremely well and are nearly inseparable if they get their way.
All the cousins in their pjs.
Our family back home in our pajamas.
Poor Lex...sometimes his siblings like him a little too much.
Elementary Christmas Program
December 18, 2007
The kids had their annual Christmas Program/ Concert the week before Christmas. One of the good things about having short kids is they are always right in the front row which makes photography a bit easier. (Jenna and Daij made it to the second row so that is a little trickier.)
Montana Trip Part 4-Stump Ranch
My kids had never been to the Stump Ranch, and Doug had only been in the summer, so it was a lot of fun to take them all up there in the snow.
Keilana triumphs over her first tree downing.
Yaya and Dylan off in search of the perfect tree.
Keilana and Azia take a break from climbing the mountain, while Doug enjoys the view of the snow covered valley.
Keilana was glad for the warmth, but still afraid of the fire due to a bad BBQ incident when she was 1, and Dylan was glad for the warmth and the fire--he got so close a couple of times that I was afraid he would melt his boots or his pants.
Papa manned the entertainment center for smaller (and much colder) hands.
Montana Trip Part 3-Thanksgiving.
Montana Trip part 2--Snow!
My California babies really liked the snow. Well, Dylan liked it better once I convinced Keilana that being in the snow didn’t mean that you had to throw snow on people’s heads!
This was Keilana’s favorite thing to do in the snow--roll around in it. After discovering snowpants, I don’t think she’ll ever be the same.
. . .and Keilana’s second favorite thing to do with snow--throw it.
Dylan enjoyed knocking snow off of things. Actually, he enjoys this activity in many contexts. He frequently “cleans off” my coffee table by knocking everything to the floor.
Yaya gives Keilana a good spin.
Warming up inside with Paisley and Maysa (who Keilana has told me several times this week is her “best friend").
Montana Trip Part 1--Utah
We took a couple days in Utah on the way to and from MT--here are some of my favorite shots of that section of our journey.
We decided to explore the quarry where most of the granite for the temple came from. Keilana like the BIG rocks.
There’s a nice walking path through the quarry (essentially, its a boulder field, actually), and the kids rather enjoyed this.
On the way back, we took the kids to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. It was pretty spectacular, though not a great place to take photos unless you have a tripod and subjects that don’t run.
Rockin’ the FourStar
December 1, 2007
Michael and Eldon’s band had their first pubic show Saturday night. They played for about a half an hour and even included a Prince cover. They had quite a cheering section --a lot of loud, enthusiastic groupies in the front row. Of course how could they go wrong. The Four Star is definitely one of the top three music venues in Ravali, Montana.
Israel’s 10th Birthday
November 24, 2007
Israel had a busy day for his birthday this year. We celebrated a day early so we could have the party and Saturday (and since Sunday was our traditional Christmas tree day). He and Dev got up early and went hunting that morning. When he got back a gang of his cousins and friends went up to Mission Dam for a few hours of sledding. When they all came back home the rest of the family came over for hot chocolate and chili and cake and ice cream.
Lex Landon and Isaac hanging out after most of the other guests headed home.