Friday, December 28, 2012

A Merry Little Christmas


 It's pretty hard to get a good family picture with these goofy kids!  They're lots of fun, though, and we had a terrific Christmas!  Here's a recap:

Every year we draw names for a DI gift exchange, and it's my favorite part about the Christmas presents because you never know what treasure you might get!
 
Chris got this fantastic marionette from Emma, along with a homemade mission call to Peru.  She can't wait to find out if she's right.  She called Devin to Hawaii, though, and he went to Mexico, so her odds aren't good.

Devin's DI gift was a heater for his bedroom, since his room is always colder than the rest of the house.  I also gave him a nice dress shirt and vest and pajamas, but I never had any intention of them being worn all at the same time!  That's quite an outfit, Devin!
Emma and Maren both love Captain America, so they were thrilled with their shirts.  Emma also got this great new coat and owl gloves.

 Maren takes after her mother and loves books, books, and more books for Christmas!  Her DI gift was the Narnia set in hardback (great used find!).  I think her favorite gift, though, was the complete Andrew Lang set of fairy tale books, originally published from 1889-1910, but her copies are late 1960s reprinted editions.  Hours and hours of great reading!
 Here's Del's favorite gift! The after-election mourning is fading away and a little humor is slipping back in.
Devin figured out how to set a timer on my new camera so we could get a picture with all of us.  Thanks, Devin, for this treasure, even if it's not quite in focus!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

In Mourning

I was so sure that this year's presidential election was going to signal big changes, a return to Constitutional values, and restoring of common sense in Washington.  So sure that I invited my family over for a patriotic party to watch the vote counts come in and celebrate a victory.  
 I made red, white, and blue food and bought a patriotic puzzle to work on while we waited.  We soon realized, however, that the night wasn't going to bring anything good.  We couldn't bring ourselves to eat the food or work on the puzzle.  Decorations went in the trash.  
 
Now we're in mourning, trying to remind ourselves that this path our nation is on was predicted centuries ago.  We know what the end will be, so I don't know why we were so saddened to see this step.  It's just that we felt we had a real shot with Mitt Romney at balancing a budget and making wise decisions for our nation.  He would have been a good leader, one I could have supported.  Oh well.  We'll make the best of it after we come out of mourning.  I'm so glad we have the gospel to help us keep things in perspective.

Monday, November 5, 2012

A Happy Halloween

As usual, we had lots of fun with our Halloween costumes.   Maren decided to go as Robin Hood and Emma was Little Orphan Annie.  The weather was so gorgeous that we didn't even need jackets!  It was perfect! 
 
We love going to the ward Trunk or Treat because it gives us a chance to see all of our friends in their awesome costumes.  Here Emma is with Rachel Brown, Jessica Tolman, and Laura Riley.
The Trunk-or-Treat also gives us a chance to get insane amounts of candy in less than an hour, which the kids love!  The drawback, of course, is that we have to buy about 15 lbs of candy for the hoards of cute little Trick-or-Treaters, instead of the 15 pieces we would go through if they came to our home!  
Del and I dressed up for our annual couple's book club at the Johnson's house.  We went as Mahana and Johnny Lingo, although I was only the 2 cow version, since that's all the cattle I could find at DI.  I love the awesome dress I found there, though, and I wish I could wear it to church!  Muumuus are so comfortable!  Much more comfortable than the wig I wore!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Our Mini-Vacation

When I almost won a car back in August, I got free tickets to Bear World as part of a consolation packet, so we decided to combine it with a work trip for Del in Driggs.  He had already been working there for a couple of weeks, so he met us at Bear World, which is about halfway.  Even though it is geared to smaller kids, we had a great time!
 It was fun to drive through the park with bears walking right up to your car for handouts.  Of course, you have to keep your windows rolled up for safety but even with a window separating us they still seemed a little too close at times.

A friend of ours went to Bear World a few years ago and a bear bit his tire!  It probably looked like a big, yummy, chocolate doughnut to the bear, since they throw old Hostess products to the bears from the bear truck to make them come up and beg! Poor bears.  What will they do now that Hostess has filed bankruptcy?

 After the park tour we had some fun on the little kid rides. Really, I made them ride the roller coaster and tree hopper just so I could have a picture.  They aren't very exciting rides if you are older than 6. 
The boys refused to join in the kiddie ride fun.  Party poopers!
 Next, we went on the nature walk tour.  Devin thought their measurements were a few inches off, but regardless, that grizzly bear is huge!
Emma's favorites were the playful little bear cubs.  
You could pet and feed a baby cub if you paid extra, but there was a line of preschoolers waiting for that, so she felt silly about standing with them to wait for a turn.  She didn't feel silly about this, though!
  
 We had fun feeding the ducks and the fish. 
  Our favorite animal on the tour was Stiltz, the moose. 
 Apparently, he is shy because they have this sign for him:
We didn't have a hard time spotting him, though.  He stood right next to us on the bridge.  
 
He even let us pet his head, although Del says you should never do that because he could gore you.  In fact, we think he may have been trying to gore us because he got his antlers stuck in the bridge!  Needless to say, Stiltz is not very shy!
 After playing with wild animals for a while we went to the gift shop, where we bought lots of yummy fudge and souveniers.
 Maren and Emma got to pet a real (sort of) bear!  
Del tried to pet a bear, too, but he picked one that wasn't as friendly!
 After our fun at Bear World we headed to Driggs.  The girls had fun taking pictures from the car.  They saw an ice cream truck...
  some nice, new tractors.... 
a leaning barn...
 the Rexburg temple...
and Del's van in front of us.

 Finally, we arrived in Driggs!  It's heaven for skiers and outdoorsy people (of which I am neither).  The mountains are beautiful, although this picture through the windshield doesn't do it justice.
 The Cameron's condo is really nice and surrounded by a beautiful little lake and fun places to walk.
They have been remodeling it since they bought it over a year ago. Del was working on bathrooms, tiling floors and showers and building cupboards in the bathrooms.  The floor in one of the bathrooms was the tile that looks like hardwood, and Del put in a pedestal tub with old-fashioned fixtures after we left.
Trissa wanted farm-style open front cabinets in the bathrooms to keep things neat and easy.
Most of the bedrooms are finished but haven't been decorated yet.  I can't wait to see it when it's finished!
 Trissa has great taste and I love the way she designed the open kitchen (done last year, not by Del).  The subway tile, glass-front cabinets, and barnwood accents look great.  
They'll be renting the condo when they're finished to recoup their investment, and we loved being some of the first guests.  After a short stay, we headed back home and left Del behind to work.  A short but sweet mini-vacation!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Celebrating Friends

It's so fun to celebrate the birthdays of good friends.  We have an unofficial birthday lunch club, started by my good friend, Farhana Hibbert, and we love to get together on birthdays, eat good food and talk.  Farhana is an amazing person who cares deeply about her friends and is willing to do anything for them.  She is happy, kind, and generous, and she is also (drum roll)........41!  Happy birthday!
 I feel blessed to be her friend, and so do many other people.  Here are just a few of her friends: 
 Back row: Sally, Myndee Wells        Middle row: Anita Vallaidolid, Dawn Christiansen, Beena Rahim
 Front row:  Pearl Myers, Ronna Dueling, Farhana, Priscilla Hensley, Tammy Scardino, Uma Rahim
Glenna Smith is another good friend who celebrated a birthday this week.  She turned 89 (and looks 70!), so we made her a Boston Cream Cake and sang on her doorstep.  She has had an amazing life and 89 great years.  She told me it's all due to good living.  Since Glenna loves sweets, I'm assuming that good living includes good chocolate, so I figure I should be good for at least 90 years!