Here Comes Christmas!

We drove north a ways to get a Christmas tree. We almost missed our chance at a tree permit by waiting too long. But Polly found one area left that had permits available. So we drove to Evanston and then South 30 more miles to this place. They'd just had an ice storm, so everything was encased in ice, including the road. There weren't many fir trees around so we settled for a lodgepole pine in the end, but were very happy to cut it and be on our way before it started snowing again! Here's some photos to document the occasion and illustrate the ice encased plants.




Clay has made it clear that he knows the secret about santa. And yet he stood in line to sit on his lap still. I guess he's covering his bases just in case.
Dave asked santa for nails. Santa was very amused by the request.
Danny wanted nothing to do with the man. Except the candy cane, he was happy to snatch that from a safe distance.

Danny does enjoy wandering the house acting like santa now. "ho ho ho! Merry Christmas! ho ho ho!"

Big Man Adventure and the rest of November

The Big Man Adventure is at least an annual event in which all potty trained men get to go out in the desert and eat steak off a sage brush fire and play with sticks and feed deer legs to the dog.



Danny tried gymnastics. He was okay, but wore out after about 15 min of class each week and refused to do anything more.
We had a perfect fall outing to Maple Lake in Payson Canyon.
Fishing poles were cast out, but the boys had most of their fun poking sticks in the water. That's fine with me, since no one but Eric really likes to eat fish and the kids make a fuss about letting go a prize catch.
The whole forest there was a carpet of fallen oak leaves.

Halloween

Halloween morning we witnessed one of the best sunrises I've seen here. Of course the picture hardly does it justice, but it gives an idea anyway.
Clay as Osiris. He's a mummy behind the sarcophagus. He would open up the sarcophagus and say in a dry creaky voice, IIIII ammmmm Osirisssssss.
Danny as Bob the Builder. Soon after we left the house someone said Hey Bob! to him and he talked about it for blocks--That man say Hey Bob to me!
And Dave as Zorro. He's been watching all the old episodes of Zorro, carefully studying his swordwork to be ready.

We spent some of fall break with Polly's family at a condo at Bear Lake. A visit to the beach for digging holes in the sand, shell finding and getting soaked was a favorite. Might as well have been at the ocean!
Danny tried to sit on the dog while she chewed a bone and fell off when she stood up. Unfortunately he fell right on the bone somehow and really bruised his face up. I know it sounds an unlikely story, but really, we don't beat him! I've been amazed how long the color has lasted.
Davey had the time of his life on his first duck hunting trip. I guess it's hard to top waking up early and sitting cramped up in a duck blind in the cold.
Here's a pic of Dave from late September enjoying the raspberries in a rainstorm.

September

This is our adventure to U-Dig Trilobite Quarry, sort of close to Delta, UT, but not really close to anything. We saw a program on the history channel about this and thought we should check it out. They have a backhoe that they pull rock off the mountain with, and then you go through with a pick and bucket and break open rocks to find trilobites. Grandpa managed a nap, even on the rocky ground, but the rest of us kept pretty busy. We've brought home a big pile of rock with the cool little guys in it, now I need to figure out what to do with it all.
cool spider close to U-Dig Fossils
We have instituted a new program in our family, parent kid date night. First ERic takes a month, and each week takes a kid on a private outing, and then ideally me on the fourth week. Next month, I get to take each child out alone, and him on the fourth week. So Dave's outing was dove hunting, and this is the dinner they provided (that's it in the middle of all the parsley).
We each got one bite, I would say mouthful, but it wasn't really even that!
This is Dave's glove with a planet on top that he sculpted. But the reason I post this picture is because of that smile. I am happy to say that we see it more all the time. His nose started to get stuffy once this month, but 3 days later it just went away. I don't recall that ever happening before. Usually it's led to 4 and 5 rounds of antibiotics and misery to clear it up for a week or so before it comes back again. It's been great to have him happy more often then not, instead of the opposite.
Eric and grandpa had a good blue grouse hunt. Needless to say, we each got more than a bit of these guys!
Soccer season is here! Clay has a Great team this year, which has made it a lot of fun. (last year he asked if they could maybe play a handicapped team so they'd have a chance to win one) They are learning positions and spacing and passing this year and it is so much fun to watch! He's the shortest guy on his team, but has been working that to his advantage.
If you click on this picture and make it big you can see that great smile of Dave's again. He loves soccer. He still gets a little shy about scoring a goal and having people cheer for him, but that doesn't stop him from doing it again, and again, and again...
Eric has been a sport to coach Davey's team this year. It's been fun to see the improvement from last year in this age group. They are learning to control the ball a bit better.

August 2008

relaxing at grandma and grandpa's
Swimming lessons, the kids had a slow miserable start, but finished strong and learned a lot.

Clay started second grade in the middle of August...

And Dave started kindergarten a week later. Dave's really liked it, all of it. And Clay likes some parts (studying rocks, catching praying mantises and grasshoppers to feed it) and is learning to deal with the rest (spelling, math, reading). He's been difficult and frustrating, but in the end I give him credit for making good decisions and trying to do the right thing.

Montana, The Rest of the Trip

After Glacier, we went to Arlee, MT, just outside of Missoula. We rented a big house to stay in for a couple days. A short walk from the house was a river where Clay was excited to try out his gold panning skills. Alas, no gold. Uncle Mark was a good sport to help him out.
Some of Clay's creative flair manifest itself in this lovely floral decoration. He strung flowers on long stems of grass and hung them around. This one traveled on the roof of our car for the rest of the trip, all the way to UT.
Last stop: Bozeman. One of the favorite things was the Museum of the Rockies. They sure do a great job there. The kids loved the planetarium, saw the same show twice, How to Build a Planet. They also loved the kids room with dress ups.


Family picture, pretty nice group, eh?
We got to run in the 1 mile kid's run. Even Danny went the whole way.
I think Clay's time was about 10 1/2 min, Dave 11 1/2, and Dan was 23 something. Thanks cousin Christopher who ran with Dave so I could stay with Clay and ERic with Dan! Fun trip, we're tempted to make it a regular thing.

The Great Montana Vacation, part 1

We went to Glacier National Park via Salmon Idaho, a scenic route. One of our stops was at this rest station where a ranger kept a large supply of peanuts to feed the local chipmunks.
We stayed at this cabin about 10 minutes from the West Glacier entrance, in Coram MT.While I hiked to a chalet with my siblings and the older nieces and nephews, Eric and the boys (and the camera) went to the Logan Pass visitors center to hike to hidden lakes (I think that's what they were called). There was still plenty of snow, this was the last week of July! By the way, I would like to note that my hike was 6.5 miles to the chalet, then the long way out, another 13.5 miles. It was awesome, words nor pictures can describe it. But it was really cool.


Here is some goat scat that my kids were excited about.
And the goat himself

Glacier Lilies
Bighorn Sheep

Lily pad pond

Danny's tub, a big sink at our cabin