Christmas Morning

 We're at a really nice stage in our lives.  The kids waited until 7am to wake us up this year.  Everyone  entertained themselves letting us watch and relax.  Scott and I even got to exercise  and enjoy the beautiful sunshine.

Nemo!

                                     

Our friend Vicki spent Christmas with us.

Ryan's Birthday

 Ryan turned 15 on Christmas Eve.  We celebrated his birthday on the 21st with his friends Emmy and Ben.  We went to see "Frozen" and then had birthday cake and treats.  Ryan was a great sport as his cake was somewhat less than satisfactory.  I asked him if we could have cookies as a backup treat and he just smiled and said "sure!"  I love this boy!

Zeus found a new napping spot.  We all love having a pet, even Scott!

Christmas Celebrations

Bethany, Carter and Ryan all performed in Christmas concerts this year.  It was hard to get around to all of them because December is so busy, but we loved watching them display their talents.

My camera ran out of power during Ryan's performance but I'm hoping to get a recording from someone else.

I like our Christmas tree this year.  It's a very prickly blue spruce but I like the blue-gray color and the way the ornaments hand on the widely spaced branches.  Carter wasn't a fan at first, he prefers full trees, but he admitted after we got it decorated that our tree was"alright".

This picture is for Camille.  That's one frustrated kitty!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving day with the Butlers at Wayne and Deena's house.  I'm so grateful that they hosted because as everyone knows (I hope), putting on Thanksgiving is a huge job!  The food was great.  Everyone from our family was there except Laura, Ed, David and Thomas.  We missed them!  In addition Aaron's mother, Marilyn came with a friend.  It made for a lively group. Thank goodness all the kids wanted to play with the toys in the basement.

This next set of pictures were taken by my sister-in-law, Deena. The funny captions are also hers.

"What do you do when you reach a kink in your Science Fair project? You pray you have an Uncle Scott! ( A man who doubles not only as an uncle, but also as high school Chemistry teacher.) Fortunately, this kid does! Nothing like having a helpful Dad and a willing Uncle to help you out when it's crunch time. Thanks Scott! You're the best!"

"Makes me smile."

"Learning the hard way that science is the art of patience. Poor Scott, hanging out at work on his day off. That's love!"

"Role play at its best."

"Cute little lab rats on the loose."

"Cousins taking advantage of the opportunity to leave a message for the teens who will sit in the classroom come Monday."

"Cracks me up! This is how two young girls view high school life. A lot of smooching and ~brace yourself for my favorite part~ "WAILING UNCONTROLLABLY"! "

We loved having Wayne and Deena's family visit for the day!

Halloween

Introducing Bethany the Pop Star!

Carter with his best friend Ethan and their haul.

 I decided to have fun with the left over hairspray.

Our Black Rider

October activities

Bethany is becoming a great piano player!

I'm the leader of these cute activity day girls.  This was at their Halloween party.

The kids have been great about getting their homework done.   Yay!!  Carter and Ryan have had a lot of homework this year so I'm grateful that they are so responsible.

We all love to play with Zeus when we are supposed to be doing something else...

Everyone loves to read!

Our crazy cat. 

Saint George

We headed to southern Utah over fall break for some sunshine.  Because of the government shutdown all the national parks were closed.  The state park campgrounds were full of displaced tourists and we couldn't make a camping reservation anywhere.  We planned on going to the Red Cliffs nature reserve where the campground is first come, first serve.  When we got there the campground was closed due to the shutdown.  Apparently Red Cliffs is a national and a state reserve.  Very confusing.  We were prepared to primitive camp on BLM land but didn't know exactly how to get there.  Fortunately in St. George we saw a climbing/biking store and they told us where we could camp.  Scott loves exploring new places but I find it rather stressful not knowing where I am going to sleep at night.  It all turned out though and we had a great vacation.  I think Bethany even enjoyed using our "porta potty".

The kids favorite place was the sand dunes in Snow Canyon State Park.  The weather was wonderful, just right for hiking around and not too hot.

Carter's big hole.

Climbing around a slot canyon in Snow Canyon.  We also went to Pioneer Park in St. George.  Not a park in the playground sense, it has lots of red rocks that are fun for kids of all ages to climb on.  There is also a very narrow slot canyon there which everyone but myself went through.  It found it too claustrophobic!  Ryan loved it and climbed through it over and over giving hints to all the other hikers on how to get through.

Carter loves to build fires...

Camping in the rocks in Moe's Valley.

We did some rocks climbing in Green Valley which is just over the hill from Moe's but which we had to drive all over St. George to find.  Green valley has lots of family friendly climbs that are just right for us.  I was higher off the ground in this picture than it looks. ( I have some pride...) It was scary but fun.