Thanksgiving and Christmas tree harvesting

This year was the in-law year for Thanksgiving, so we did it small scale with the Randalls and Grandma Kurtz in Enoch.  We had a wonderful feast and then enjoyed getting some indoor type exercise playing Wii bowling, archery and cycling, etc.  It was a fun time!  So glad the Randalls rescued us from a very quiet day at home.  That evening we joined the Weavers for pie, pie and more pie.  After we ate all we could hold, the kids had fun with cousins and the adults had some fun too. Then it was home to rest up from enjoying too much of good things!  (I was so busy eating and being grateful I didn't take many pictures.)

Even though we didn't get to see everyone for Thanksgiving, over the week we did play games and have hot chocolate and chocolates with Ferf and Ryan, get technical support and enjoy visiting with Moss and Christie and kids and play games and eat more pie with the Borrowmans and Smiths.  So, we saw all of the local herd at least.  

On Saturday with Weed and kids we went and harvested Christmas trees on Cedar Mountain.  It was a pretty quick harvest since it was cold and it was pretty easy to get stuck on the snowy roads.  We ended up helping someone get unstuck and then they helped us get unstuck later down the road.  Luckily Weed's truck was a non-stick vehicle!  After the harvest we headed down to a park in Cedar to eat our lunch freezing picnic style very quick like.  For such a fast harvest, we got some pretty nice trees and came away grateful, as always, that we don't live where we have to deal with the snow on a daily basis.  It's really pretty and fun to see...but way too cold too live with for months at a time.  

Fun with grand kids!

Brenden was excited to show us his 1st Place flag football trophy and we were excited to get to attend his last soccer game of the year!  Way to go Brenden!

I'm not sure they would call it a good time, but we took the grandsmiths on a freezing hike to a pretty place while they were spending a little time with us while their parents were out of town.

We had fun around the house with Spot It, Risk and checking out the Desert Garden.  Bean has a great time entertaining the kids and they have a great time being entertained by him!

November birthday fun!

We stared off the celebrations with a surprise dress up like old people birthday party at the park for Ryan's 40th!  The cousins like getting together for any reason!

Sweet Eliza was happy to get some new Care Bear friends when we wished her a happy #3!

And Zion was happy to play at the park and get lots of new stuff, but not so happy to have to get close to an on fire cupcake!

Wish we could have been there for Brynn's big day too!

Love you all!

Enjoying Fall

Fall is the best...but it is just never long enough.  We have to hurry quick to enjoy it.  Last week for FHE we went up to Pine Valley for a cook out.  It was great!  We hurried up after work and had time to cook our dinner and take a walk before it got dark. It was quiet and cool with almost no one there...just the way we like it.  

Saturday we had a funeral to attend in the morning, but we had the afternoon free, so we decided to take our bikes up to ride in Zion Park.  Since the shuttles are running you don't have to deal with traffic on the ride up to the Temple of Sinewava which you can access via the Pah Rus walking/bike trail which again lets you avoid the traffic.  It was a beautiful ride and we saw lots of deer and many of them were bucks with pretty good racks.  We finished up just before dark and had a great time.

  

Happy Weaverween!

Juge and Lance had a wedding to attend in Hawaii, so between Lou and Bryan and us we tended the kids.  We just had them on the weekend of Halloween.  Juge had everything very well organized, so it went pretty smoothly.  We were pretty worried that Zion would hate us, but he had a good time other than not wanting to be a dog for Halloween.  Paul and the other kids went trick-or-treating and Zion stayed home with me to hand out candy and he was content to eat Skittles and look at the people who came.  Thank goodness the time changed and we had an extra hour to get ready for church the next morning!

A unexpected free Saturday!

With the cancellation of a meeting and a new dishwasher that comes with a free installation and hauling off of the old one we ended up with an unexpected free Saturday!  We decided to use it for a going out to lunch, taking a nap, a stop by the latest job and a bike ride in Pine Valley!  Enjoyed every minute of it!

We picked out these stones a few weeks ago on a trip to Arizona.  They fit just right as the natural hearth and mantle that the owner wanted for this fireplace.  It will be amazing when it is all done!

The cool fresh air and Fall colors made for a beautiful bike riding venue.  

Happy Birthday Koen and Tasia!

It was the 7/11 birthday week - Koen and Tasia!  We enjoyed cake and presents with Koen, but Tasia was out of town attending a BYU football game for her birthday, so we had to be satisfied with a phone version of the Happy Birthday song.  Her present got taken care of earlier in the week when she got to attend the Piano Guys Tuacahn performance.  I'm sure they were both happy birthdays and we love them both!  

UEA at Brian Head

We had a great family get together at Brian Head for UEA.  We stayed at Sheffield's cabin.  They were very generous to let us redeem our rock repair trade work with the whole family.  Paul and I went up Wednesday evening and then from Thursday afternoon on the rest of the gang minus Moss and Supe's families joined us(they were enjoying time together in Oregon).  We had a great time playing, hiking, eating, watching football games, eating, celebrating Jay's birthday, going to church (those that could stay for Sunday), etc..  It started out as very nice weather and then turned to rainy and was about ready to snow by the time we left.  We were very comfortable in the cabin when we didn't want to be outside.  It was such a fine time in such a comfortable, beautiful setting.  Glad so many could make it!

Paul and I enjoyed a drive Thursday morning waiting for everyone else to arrive.  

The Borrowmans arrived first and we went for a little walk. Brynnli and Tavin got a little chilly and had to share a jacket.  

We enjoyed a concert from Brynnli and Tavin one afternoon, along with all of this other fun and tasty stuff.

On one outing we hiked the Alpine Loop at Cedar Breaks.

On another outing we walked over to Aspen Mirror Lake.  The fall colors were still present to be seen and enjoyed.

FHE - Lou's #40 - at Ben Lott's fun park!

We missed celebrating a big #40 with Lou since she was celebrating it on a cruise.  So we did it as a surprise a little later thanks to Juge and Weed's careful planning.  We replaced a family Sunday dinner with an FHE birthday party dinner instead.  We went out to a really fun place near Leeds - Ben Lott's fun park!  It's just sort of a conglomeration of fun stuff he has put together.  There are two zip lines, hamster cages racers, pedal cars, horse exerciser swings, a climbing wall, a small animal zoo, a museum, etc. plus a nice place for a picnic.  We did it all along with a birthday cake for Lou Anne.  It was a blast!  So glad Weed and Juge put it together! And thanks to Christie for coming up with a great present!  Happy Birthday Lou!  We love you!

Into the Woods...with the Webelos Day Hike 2015

It's done!  As soon as I got done with the Cub Day Camps it was time to get busy on the Webelos Day Hike.  Paul is always a great support to me.  This time they asked us to teach the Into the Woods requirements which is all about trees and a little about plants of the woods.  We aren't experts, but we do have the interest and it was fun to learn more to be prepared.  We set up the tree and plant ID course along the trail and then taught at the station at the top.  We had fun, learned lots and several people said ours was their favorite station!  They all looked really good to me!  Glad it's over and went well!