The Crash of 2011

Not talking about Wall Street.  My computer crashed and I have been slowly limping back to life.  It's been a struggle, but fortunately I had backed up my pictures!

So before it gets to be really old news, here's a little of what has been goin' on.....

Shane graduated!!!  Yay for him and all his hard work!  He went to school, worked full time and is an awesome Dad - gotta give him credit for all that effort!  We are very proud of him.

Then, guess who came to town?  No, not Santa - Patrick, Heather, Hunter and Cameron!  They were here for Thanksgiving and I was lame in the picture taking department.  When you are enjoying company, it is hard to remember to grab the camera.  I did take some on the Saturday before they left when we were at Bass Pro Shop.  Guess who we saw there?  Yup - Santa.  Hunter didn't want to get up close and personal, but Cameron was OK with him.  In fact, when Patrick was taking him off Santa's lap, he kept looking at him.

Hunter was also unsure of Rudolph.

But he did like the candy cane he got from Santa!  He worked on that while Mom worked on his fishing lure ornament.

Hunter tried out the tents and the sleeping bags.  He liked them!

He and Kyle also tried out the quads.  You'd think they were really moving with that grip Hunter has on Kyle!

You can't have a trip to Bass Pro Shop without trying to bag the big buck.  I'm pretty sure they got him!

Guess who else isn't sure about Santa?  Kendal.  We went to breakfast with Santa and she was all excited when she saw him (from afar), saying "I'm excited. There's Santa."  The girl doesn't walk the talk.

She did like Mrs. Claus and her story time.  She wouldn't sit right in front of her, though.  Just off to the side was just fine!

She did all the actions Mrs. Claus asked the kids to do.

And Kendal and I even took a train ride at the mall.





Spending the day with Kendal was great.  Not yet 2 and she has a mind of her own.  She will even tell who will push her in the stroller - "no, Papa, Gramma push."  It's funny now.  Won't be in 10 years.  Wendy will have her hands full!!

Pumpkin Time in Idaho!

We went to Idaho at just the right time.  We got to carve pumpkins!!




I don't know why we need gloves!




For that matter, why do we need goggles?

Lexi sure is having fun!






Papa is too 'cause all he is doing is watching!!

Lexi drew her own pattern.







Mom and Lexi are having fun working on Lexi's creation!

Logan working on his, uh...I really don't know what he's doing!

But Lexi had to do it, too!!








Our finished work....Logan's pumpkin eating monster along with Dad's, Lexi's cute little girl, and my poor little pumpkin that ate too much candy.

We did other things besides carve pumpkins.  We baked cookies in the shape of pumpkins and ghosts!






























We licked icing and ate cookies, too!

Three big events were celebrated while we were in Idaho.  First, we had Papa's birthday pie!!  (The candles are courtesy of my sister, Elaine.)










Then, we celebrated Logan's birthday early - lucky kid got two parties this year!

Yes, those are candles in a ghost cookie!

And....we got to go trick-or-treating with the kids!

While we were out we saw some of Indee's kin trick-or-treating.

 

We had a great time as always!  I'd leave you with the video of Jon playing in the street on a ripstick, but I like him too much.  Use your imagination - picture a tall guy on little wheels trying to make it go!!  Priceless, I tell ya.

Celebrating Fall in Utah

Cooler weather and cute kids - who could ask for anything more?  We left the heat and found beautiful weather and fun times with the kiddos.  

Papa spent time outside with Cameron - a favorite place to be!

Hunter loves, and I mean LOVES, rockets.  He and Momma built a launch pad and his rocket was launched many, many times.  His countdowns were cute - sometimes random numbers, sometimes the 3-2-1, and sometimes 1-2-3 - and then we'd shout "blast off!"

Papa and Hunter made it a regular thing to look for rocket launches on the computer!

 

The park is not too far away and another favorite place to be!  It's crazy how Cameron gets so excited to be there and throws a bit of a fit until he is let out of the stroller

This was the cutest day!! Lowe's has a hands-on building workshop for kids on Saturday mornings.  It was so much fun watching Hunter, his Dad and his Grandpa working on his monster car.

Doesn't he remind you of a minion?

 

Brotherly love!  Always gives his brother a push to get him down the road!



Just look at he beautiful outdoors!  We enjoyed the scenery, foil dinners, and of course the cute kids up in the canyon.  Oh, and the great smores!!

And, I"ll leave you with this. What do you do when a rocket gets caught up in the trees?  Anything you have to - including putting your brother-in-law on your shoulders and arm him with a broom!  Some of these are blurry because I was laughing so hard!!