The final hurrah for 2012!

Moss and Christie were great to host the family New Year's Eve celebration at their house.  Everyone brought food to share.  So many tasty choices, including Ferf's 5 lb. chocolate candy bar.  After getting full for the first time, we got a little exercise playing the Smith's Dance Wii.  I'm such an inhibited creature that it took a while for me to get out there, but it was fun!  The kids had a great time at it and were really good at it.    They inherited their dance moves some place other than from me.  Actually there were lots of the adults with some pretty good moves too.  After that the younger set watched a movie and the oldies played games.    Paul and I didn't quite make it til midnight.  I think we were just crawling into bed as the new year made it's way into existence.  We heard a few fireworks and went off to sleep.  Thanks to everyone for a really fun evening and Happy 2013! 

Didn't get many pics - here's the men's turn doing the Wii Dance.

Dancing and DQ

Once again I am way behind, but can't forget a very fun evening watching Ellie in her dance recital.  The pictures we took aren't too great, but the dancing was so cute.  Ellie did such a nice job.  After the recital we met up at DQ for treats.  It was a fun way to end the evening and some took the opportunity to "RIDQULIZE" themselves for Grandma's camera.  Good job Ellie.  We love you!

Snowy Views over the holidays

A couple of times over the holidays we took drives to see the snow.  Paul's knees are really bad right now, so hiking and skiing are out. Drives were the best bet.  The first drive was up to Pine Valley.

On the way home the sun was hitting the mountains just right and they glowed gold.  These pics are just cropped - not enhanced in any other way.  It was so pretty.

  

Our next drive was up to Zion.  We didn't get many pictures because it started snowing really hard soon after we arrived.  It was still nice to just get out a little in such a beautiful place.  We stopped in at the Visitor's Center and the Lodge and almost no one was there.  It was fun to just browse around with no crowds.  

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 - It started on Christmas Eve when we visited the Borrowmans to open presents with them.

The Weavers livened up Christmas at the house by sharing their fun with us on Christmas morning (and for a few days before).  It's a lot more fun with little kids than just us old folks that are left at the house.  

Moss and Christie dropped by our house instead of us going to them.  Brenden was pretty happy to get to open up his new cowboy boots.  They were very hard to get on...until we took the paper out of the toes!  Eliza was so pretty in her Christmas bow.

Then it was off to the Smiths to celebrate and open gifts with them.  Trigg stole the show .(Unfortunately the camera was goofed up on the pictures of Tasia.)

After lunch and a nap we headed up to the Randalls.  Afton was not too happy with her itsy bitsy spider!  We hope it will grow on her!  We had a fun time opening presents, visiting and sharing more lunch with them.

Bean and Brady had made some amazing Lego creations.  Ellie created a very tall tower.  

Christmas with Jay and Brynn came a little bit late, but loved it just the same.  

Thank you to everyone for all of the thoughtful gifts and most of all for your wonderful selves.  We are so thankful for each of you. We are so thankful for the most wonderful gift of all from our Savior Jesus Christ...the gift of a forever family.

Sunrise & Sunset on the Red Hill

I don't take the time to walk on the Red Hill as often as I would like, but when I do, the scenery always makes it worth it.  What a magnificent backyard I have!

Divas & Donuts

I am way behind since they changed the way you put pictures on here, but just remembering a good time with Kaebri and Tasia.  I got to come to their school and eat donuts with them and their mom and brothers and visit their classes.  Tasia's student teacher used to work in the class I work in as a practicum student, so that added to the fun of the morning.  Paul got to go with them to Dad's and Donuts a little later, but didn't get any pictures. He had a good time too. Thanks for the invitations girls! We are proud of you and how hard you work in school and how well you do.

December birthday and The Piano Guys

Catching up yet again, this time on the December birthdays.  We had brownies and cheesecake and presents for Brynnli, Paul and Gaige.  That made for a lot of smoking candles!  

One of Brynnli's presents was two tickets to see The Piano Guys.  She got to choose who to take.  Tavin was the lucky one.  It was such a fun concert!  Afterwards we stopped off at Burger King for hot fudge bacon sundaes and ended up chowing down some Whoppers too since they had a bogo sale for some anniversary celebration they were having.  Such a fun evening with fun people!  

Thanksgiving 2012

It was an everybody comes year for Thanksgiving this year.  There were 31 of us this time, and it is probably the easiest Thanksgiving feast I have ever prepared.  That's because I didn't do much of it!  Everyone just signed up on the family blog and I only did turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce and a couple of pies.  It was great food, great weather and most of all great company.  I was so busy gobbling, that I didn't really get many pictures.  Thanks to all for your tasty contributions to the fantastic feast!  The thing I am most thankful for is all of you.  

Birthdays late and early

The late birthday was Brynn's.  She was a good sport about us saving her present until she got here for the Thanksgiving celebrating.  Happy late birthday Brynn.  We love you!

The day after Thanksgiving Supe had Paul and I convinced to go out to a breakfast that he had earned teaching swimming lessons that he was paid for in gift cards from his friend Leo.  I don't know how we fell for it, but by the time we drove up to Weed and Derek's church I was more than sure he was not being completely up front with us.  Then we went inside to be greeted by the whole family who had prepared a  delicious Dutch Oven breakfast for all of us to enjoy.  It was an early birthday celebration for Paul's 60th!  The grand kids had decorated the gym and the ones who are old enough shared pictures and stories about "Grandpa".  Christie had sneaked pictures from our computer and prepared a fun video of Paul's life.  Then everyone helped to share "60+ Things We Love About Dad" and presented it to him in book form.  After that we played a fun game trying to guess Paul's favorite things - hard to describe, but very fun.  Brynnli and Tavin serenaded us with their violins too.  Thanks to everyone for a grand surprise!  Can't think of any way it could have been better... other than if I had brought a camera!  

Later on in the afternoon we got together for leftovers for lunch, more pie, and then went to a really cool park.  It was a really sweet day.  Thanks to everyone who made it so wonderful.  I don't know how we can make the real birthday any better than the early one!

Eliza Rae's blessing day

Since everyone was in town for Thanksgiving, Moss and Christie got permission for Eliza to be blessed.  It was so nice to have as many a could make it there for this sweet little girl's special day. Moss gave her such a nice blessing.  Afterwards Moss and Christie had us all over for a really nice potluck dinner with both families.  It was fun to hang out with the Key gang as always.  Eliza slept peacefully through the whole party. We love you Eliza!

A pretty little wahine

Wahine is another word for Hawaiian or Polynesian girl.  Kaebri showed off her hula skills with her dance group at the Jubilee of Trees.  She looked so pretty and did such a nice job.  I was glad I got to go and enjoy the performance.  Keep up the good work Kaebri!

Tasia gets baptized!

Tasia and her counsin, KJ, got to share a very special baptism with just the two of them and lots of family and friends.  We are so proud of you Tasia.   We love you very much.  (Tasia even drew the pictures for the cover of the program.)

Grandma Poulsen Visits

My mom got to come down for a quick visit.  She's 90, almost 91, so we were glad she made it down here where so many of us could have a chance to see her.  She still amazes us with her memory and poetry.  Thanks to everyone for making it a wonderful time for her.  She was so glad she got to see so many of you. She really enjoyed hearing Brady and Ellie do their poems, and she was also treated to a violin concert by Brynnli and Tavin.  

Fun with the Weavers - Red Hollow Arch and "Tiny Canyon"

The Weavers came to town for the Halloween party and after that to enjoy the sun and get some red sand in their shoes.  We got to hang out with them for one of their outings on Saturday.  It had to be close, warm and something for young and old.  We decided on Red Hollow Arch aka Lone Pine Arch and a side trip to what we call "Tiny Canyon".  It turned out to be quite an adventurous drive for the Toyota Highlander, but thanks to Lance's expert skills, we made it.  A four-wheeler passing us told us that it was quite a car that could make that drive without even having four-wheel-drive.  Other than that guy, we didn't see anyone else which was AOK with us.  We made it to the arch, which is really cool, and hiked around and ate our lunch. 

There were so many colors of rock all in the same area - dark red, pink and white - it was so pretty.  The arch blends into the background - it's up behind Juge and the kids.  

Lance hiked clear up to the arch and took these cool pictures from underneath it.  The kids found a "motorcycle rock" and had their mom and dad join them for a ride.  We found one tiny toad at our lunch spot.  Noah had fun climbing in the trees.  After that, it was more expert driving for the return trip and then we hiked over to "Tiny Canyon".

 "Tiny Canyon"  is a little slot canyon.  It was too deep and full of water for us to drop into at the point where we arrived, but since it isn't very long, we just hiked around and came at it from the other end.  We found a log that we could maneuver around the curves and set it where we could use it to walk across and get out without having to backtrack.    It's hard to take pictures that show how the canyon curves, but it is really a beautiful little canyon and just right for little kids...and old people.  I think I've heard that some people call it "the helix."

There are some petroglyphs near the entrance of the canyon. I think there are others around that we haven't found yet.  After going through the canyon it was time to head back down the trail for home.  It was a really fun get out there day.

 During the visit we got to see quite a few different hairstyles ala Sarai!

Juge and I tied a little Noah's Ark quilt for Noah and we also made the traditional trip over to feed the ducks.  They were very glad to see us.

Eliza Rae - Happy Birthday!

Eliza Rae's birthday is NOT on Halloween.  She joined her family, Christie, Moss and Brenden the day after.    We are so thankful that she arrived safe and sound.   Everyone is doing well.  She is such a cutie.  She's number 19 grandchild.  Happy Birthday Eliza!  We love you!  One funny thing - at first Brenden was calling her Eliza "Gray".  He's done with that now and loves his baby sister and is very into holding her.

Halloween 2012

It all started at Weed's house where she painted me up to be a cat. Trigg wasn't sure he liked me as a cat! Then off to school with lots of fun academically oriented Halloween activities for our class.  We really didn't even have very much candy going on.  The kids had a lot of fun.  I'm sure they got plenty of candy later!

Later we had a fun Halloween party at the house with lots of cool characters in attendance.  Thanks to everyone for the great food and fun games and prizes.  

Here's the group shot minus Paul.  He wasn't into dressing up this year.