Merry Christmas Day 2025!

We didn't wake up at the crack of dawn!  I've been enjoying getting a bit more sleep during this school break!  Paul and I took our walk and then Supe texted us letting us know that we could come over any time...so we saved breakfast until later and opened our presents at home so we could head over there.  I forgot to take a picture of the most amazing gift that Paul gave to me...us.  He talked to a travel agent to start the process of us taking a Hawaiian Islands cruise over Spring Break next year.  We are hoping to see Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Cultural Center and then be able to visit other islands and go to the two volcanic national parks there.   After that surprise gift, we went to visit Supe and Beacher and kids.  So much fun with all of the kids excitement about the cool toys that littles get!  Jem took us into the darkest room in the house to show us how great his new light saber was!  

Next stop was Moss and Christie and kids. They are a mix of teenage fun and still some littles with Kai!  Christie made them some really fun shirts that they opened on Christmas Eve!  She's so creative!  

After Moss and Christie's we came home and had some breakfast.  Ferf and family were still waking up and not ready for us that "early".  She had all of her kids plus Brynnli's fiancé, Ryan, and Tavin's significant other, Eli, there this year.  It was good to see them all!  

Then we were off to visit the Smiths.  They are another place with all teen agers that like to sleep in!  Tasia was down from BYU.  We had a fun visit with them and learned a lot about Tasia's summer internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab.  She worked with exotic birds and showed us a collection of beautiful feathers that she was able to gather as the birds dropped them.  We also got to visit with Ellie (Sister Randall) while were there.  Lou shared Ellie's call from her mission Christmas day visit with us while we were there.  So fun!  

Next we came back home and had a break, ate, took a nap and talked to Jay.  We didn't get to talk to Brynn and the girls.  It's kind of hard to connect when it's convenient for everyone during the busyness of the day, but we did enjoy hearing about their Christmas from Jay.  They will be down for a New Year's visit soon!  

About 3 pm the Weavers arrived at our house.  They always visit us on their way to a big Christmas dinner, etc. with Lance's folks.  We had fun doing it outside because it was a beautiful afternoon.  They all opened their presents and then we opened some group gifts from our kids with them.  One of them was a new BIG screen picture showing device for our counter.  The other gift is an airplane flight with Lance and his stepbrother/pilot over the Zion area.  They said it will be more close up than the helicopter flight we did last year was and probably longer. Lance will come along to tell us about the geology probably.  We are excited about both gifts and confused about which is from who, but many thanks to everyone! We also had fun participating in Lance's treasure hunt for his Christmas present from Juge (a new climbing rope).  She left it here after she bought it and then sent us clues to hide to help him find it while they were here.  It was fun to be a part of it.   

We left about 4 pm to drive up for a visit with the Randalls.  It's a fun tradition that they are so nice to include us in their Christmas dinner and then we open presents!  Then we played one of their new games - a Sherlock Holmes version of Clue.  It was fun, and I actually won by some fluke of luck.  

We gave rather boring presents - socks to the grands, See's candy and dinner gift cards to the parents.  We appreciate how hard they try to give us something exciting every year.  

Starting in the weeks before and  then after Christmas we attended four funerals.  We started with Anna Lou, then Kade Smith, and then two people from our ward also passed away.  One (Brent Snow) was like Anna Lou's was, with a worn out body getting released to enjoy Heaven's peace. Kade's felt like too soon, but yet a relief from his terminal illness. The other one was a man of only 54 who was a great husband and father and stepfather to 10 kids in all.  They all loved him.  It was such a shock and so sad and unexpected.  Through all of these funerals of such varied circumstances there was peace. Our gratitude for the Savior's birth, life, death and resurrection was brought front and center to our hearts.  We are so thankful for that matchless gift to each of us that Jesus and Heavenly Father gave!  Merry Christmas 2025 to all!!!

PPS - Jay and Brynn came down on the 30th and brought our Christmas present with them.  It's such a fun gift.  It's a box of many games for two or more people.  We used it all during the holidays taking it to other people's houses and here at home with them learning to play new games, and enjoying playing some old ones too!  

Christmas fun + Christmas Eve - 2025!

 We have had many Christmas activities with our Single Adult Ward.  I don't have pics from all of them, but we had a toy drive/white elephant activity, Tuacahn Live Nativity/DQ night and a great Hawaiian Christmas Party. We have had  fun with them.  They are some wonderful people living good lives that have so far not included the marriages they hoped for.   

We went to Trigg and Zade's Christmas Band Concert!  Wonderful!

Juge and Lance hosted a Christmas Adam party (a few days early)!  It was such fun and we had delicious food that everyone helped with!  

Other fun activities:  2 new kids in our class at school didn't have school pics for their ornaments, so I took them so they could have one.  They are cute kids from hard places.  The girl, Harli, drew an amazing picture of Santa's reindeer and sleigh in one writing activity.  The little ornament was made by a child from our ward Primary who has been leaving us  cute things on our porch as a secret grandchild.  

Christmas Eve day we took Bean and went to see the new City Hall.  Really cool mosaic there.  We also went to the new county building and saw the stuff from the Desert Reserve and some statues.  Then we went to the Visitor's Center and saw the amazing stained glass replica from the Rome Italy Temple and the manger scene.  Also, Paul and I have been enjoying my time off school mornings by taking walks to see the sunrise and the beautiful Christmas lights, etc.  

More Christmas Eve fun - we had a delicious dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, roasted carrots and rolls.  All Delicious.  Then we did some Christmas light looking.  We actually started the night before and used the Hedgehog Electric map to find some very beautiful light displays we would have otherwise not found!  Then we went again on Christmas Eve. After that we came home and had our traditional gingerbread with whip cream dessert.  Merry Christmas Eve.  

December Birthdays - Brynnli, Paul, Kaia and Gaige & other Dec. fun!

Brynnli celebrated her #26 this year.  We had a nice phone chat with her!  She's a sweetie!  Happy Birthday!  We love you!  Today (December 5th 1998) is Brynnli's fiance, Ryan Howell's, birthday #27! They could almost celebrate them together since hers is on December 1st!  

Yesterday was Paul's #73 birthday.  We went out for dinner to Anasazi Grill (thank goodness we had a gift card from the kids).  It was lots of fun!  Our waitress was great!  She brought small "fireworks" with the dessert that was free!  The food was great!  We had some steaks that were so tender...came from the belly of the cow she said.  We had cheese fondue for an appetizer that was delicious and fun.  I made cheesecake at home, but they gave us one there that we shared and one to take home that we ate later.  So we will be having cheesecake for a little while!  Happy Birthday Paul!  I love you to the moon and back!  More birthday fun included stopping by Juge's to pick up something they had something for Paul a few days later. They gave him a set of really bright, amazing, and so lightweight headlamps!  I'm excited for him to share one of them with me!  Jay and Brynn gave him more fun with a fun birthday card and a gift card to Texas Roadhouse...another fun thing for me to share with him! Lucky him and lucky me!  He had a nice phone chat with them and calls from the other kids.  Ferf came by a day early with another great gift card to Chubby's! (I wasn't there and not picture happened.)

We had a great harvest of little tomatoes this year and have been enjoying bruschetta with them.  Yummy!  This week we went to a Christmas play that was ok.  The preshow was a by a young man I had in kindergarten years ago!  What an amazing voice...and he was such a shy little kindergartner!  

We had fun celebrating with Kaia for her #3 birthday at our house after enjoying a yummy dinner of Bacon Spaghetti/bruschetta (made with the last of our tomatoes), almond green beans and green olives!  Kaia seemed to really like the spaghetti and olives! Then it was time for some birthday cake and presents!  She's such a cutie!  Happy Birthday Kaia!  We love you!  

Gaige celebrated #20 on his mission out in CA.  We sent him a present.  We have very little communication with him, but he did send some pics.  Here he is.  Happy Mission Birthday Gaige!  We love you!  

Quarry Visit and Grosvenor Arch

Paul got directions to an alabaster quarry that we decided to go and take a look at.  To get there we drove over Cedar Mountain and just past Kodachrome Basin State Park which was a beautiful drive.  The quarry itself didn't yield the rock we had hoped to find, but was very interesting and we did get some small stones.  Most of the stone had been exposed to sun and weather and was too deteriorated to be good for carving. After that we took another dirt road and checked out another gypsum/alabaster quarry not far away.  It was interesting to see how they had worked to get some of that stone out.   Just a few more miles down the road was Grosvenor Arch. We always love to see this amazing masterpiece of nature.  We enjoyed the front view of the two arches as well as the other opening on one side.  Then we decided to hike to where we could look through the two main arches from behind.  We had never done that before.  It was an uppity walk, but we made it and the view was awesome and we even discovered that there was a small reservoir down the road that we had never seen before.  It was very cool weather, but when the sun was shining and the wind not blowing it was pretty nice.  We decided it was nice enough to have a little snack at the picnic area in front of the arch.  We had to keep our coats on, but it was still awesome to eat and enjoy that amazing view.  We made it home with a quick stop at Juge's for Paul to pick up a birthday present and visit with them a little bit.  It was a beautiful day in beautiful places!  

Happy Thanksgiving 2025

 It was in-law year, so we were small in numbers, but it was still lovely and delicious.  We had some trouble with the smoker, so we had half smoked/half baked turkey...very good!  Ferf and Kennis joined Paul, Bean and me.  They brought lots of yummy food to add to what we had.  It was good to visit with Kennis since she's been off at school at U of U.  Ferf's other kids went other places this year.  I always think I'm not eating too much...not too much of one thing, but there are so many good things that you still end up feeling very full. Ferf and Kennis couldn't stay too long because they both had a lot of homework waiting for them.  Ferf is in nurse practitioner school right now.  Kennis is focusing on Computer Science I believe, and is a TA.  She seems to be doing pretty well.  She's like her mom and always works hard and gets good grades.  My pics are not the best ever, but they're what I have!  After Ferf and Kennis left Paul and I sacked out for a nap.  Then we took Bean and went out for a walk at Snow Canyon/Johnson Arch to get the body up and moving!  It was beautiful.  We were there for sunset. After we got home Juge and Eden stopped by to eat some pie with us!  More good times!  Happy Thanksgiving 2025!  Small but good!  

Jem goes native!

 We had such a fun time going to see Jem dance with his friends from the Siva Pasefika Polynesian dance school.  This was his first time, and he and the other boys did great!  It was put on at the Jubilee of Trees as a fundraising event for the hospital.  

Soup, salad and dessert party/pre-Thanksgiving family dinner - Zion #12!

We decided that since the kids all go to the in-laws for Thanksgiving this year we would have a little get together the Sunday evening before at the church.  There was so much great food - about 8 different kinds of delicious soups, a wonderful salad, homemade sourdough breads, and great deserts!  Afterwards cousins had fun playing basketball, hanging out visiting, and lots of the adults and some teens enjoyed playing a really fun game that Juge brought.  It was some work getting it all put together, but looking back, I feel like it was worth the trouble. We also sang happy birthday to Zion for his 12th there.  

Pine Valley erosion damage

 We had a pretty good rain not long ago and it reeked havoc at Pine Valley because of the erosion that happened because of the fire that burned off the ground cover.  We had hiked up and seen the fire damage, but this erosion is making it even more terrible.  The lake is full of sand that has washed down turning it into a streambed instead of the beautiful small reservoir it used to be.  The streambed is  filled with sand/mud and not longer has a channel.  Rocks were washed down everywhere and have all but obliterated the bike trail.  It is just a huge devastation of the whole area.  I can't see it being open for camping, picnicking or hiking for a very long time.  There may not even be a trail left to get to the top anymore.  So very sad.  We didn't make it up to see how the upper picnic areas and campgrounds fared yet.  

After Thanksgiving we went up and walked some more in Pine Valley and saw the erosion damage up by our favorite picnic area.  A couple of them were fine, but the one by the stream was totally demolished.  That stream became a conduit for major destruction/erosion.  The main road was totally blocked by what had come down and the road into the picnic area was a major rock and logjam.  So sad.  We took Bean with us.  

Owen's Loop, Snow Canyon & Supe's Pond

 We took some beautiful morning walks that showcased the beauty of the desert after rain.  It took us a couple of mornings.  Here are the pics!