28 November 2010

We got our fill of snow this week as we traveled to Utah and Idaho for Thanksgiving. When it wasn't snowing, it was freezing, with temperatures as low as 14 below. Helen was the only one of us to actually play in the snow.

We stopped at the Miller Bird Refuge in Salt Lake. Brandan proposed to Becky while standing on this stone bridge 16 years ago.

We stopped by the University of Utah. The large juvenile literature section in the library definitely interests Sophie.

We stopped by Temple Square. The decorations were the best we've seen.  We like how easy it is to approach the temple.

We spent the first half of the week in Utah visiting with Brandan's family. Helen, Abe and Sophie draw dragons with Logan and Kaylee.

Sophie enjoyed palling around with her sweet cousins, Salem and Sutton. 

On Wednesday we drove to Idaho-- through the snow, of course. We spent Thanksgiving at Keri and Joe's house with Becky's family. Sophie and Zina liked playing with Gage and Hayden. Having twin cousins meant they could each hold a baby.

Here Grandma attracted a crowd by feeding both of the babies at the same time. 

Here Grandpa swordfights Sy. 

More swordfighting-- this time Abe and Sy with light sabers. 

Here's a photo of Brandan putting chains on the car the 3rd or 4th time. He got very efficient at the chore, not a skill he was hoping to develop.

The snow was a pain, but the time spent with the family we dearly love was well worth it. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we give gratitude for the many, many snowplows we saw on highways all along our way. They worked day and night, holidays and weekends. Without their work, our trip would have been impossible. We'll never meet the operators of those plows, but we are very, very thankful for them. 

21 November 2010

Gibson fell asleep on the stairs earlier this week. He seemed pretty comfortable, but Brandan moved him to his bed after taking this photo.

 

Here's a photo of Gibson awake. He's caught a bit of the Harry Potter bug and likes to look at the illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. The picture of a dragon in book 1 is one of his favorites. 

Helen and Gibson were playing with legos Friday morning. Becky couldn't figure out the game they were playing so she asked for them to explain. They were playing fireworks-- they set up legos to represent fountains and mortars and then took turns lighting the fireworks and imagining what the fireworks looked like.

14 November 2010

We cleaned out our vegetable garden this week. Somehow it's not as much fun to scoop out the rotted remains of plants as it is to plant the fresh green vegetable starts. Abe was a champ and stuck with the job until the last moldy tomato was disposed of.

Sophie sang with her school choir at a Veteran's Day concert. Here's a photo of Sophie before the concert with her friends Rylee and Kristin.

The kids had 2 days off of school for Veteran's day. They will only attend 13 days of school in the entire month of November. Becky made sure to give them extra schoolwork and chores for the days off. The weather was clear and they also enjoyed playing outside. Sophie liked crunching through leaves on her bike.

Helen, Abe and Sophie spent some of their free time working on a fort. They came home every afternoon excited about the progress they had made. Becky went to see their fort on Saturday and they showed her all the features they had described. Here they are sitting on the fort's front porch. 

In all their descriptions they failed to mention that their fort was on top of a very large gravel pile. Brandan thinks the fort is perfectly safe. Becky sees a lot of potential energy waiting to slide down.     ~     No photos, but Sophie gave her first talk in Sacrament Meeting as a Young Woman. This was not her first talk in Sacrament Meeting, however. She spoke as a 3 year old as part of a Mother's Day program. She was just as poised and relaxed today as she was back then. Sophie has natural ease and grace in front of an audience-- a talent we are in awe of.

7 November 2010

It's finally looking like fall! It's been unusually warm and dry this year. Brandan took Abe, Helen and Gibson to a park on Saturday and their favorite part was playing in the thick blanket of leaves covering the grass.

The kids piled leaves on the bottom of the slide and took turns plowing through the leaves. 

They scraped more leaves together to make a pile to jump in.