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.