Thanksgiving Break

We started off our Thanksgiving break by going skiing/boarding on Wednesday. The snow wasn't the greatest but the weather was awsome. We all had fun on our first trip for the season. Here is David with his board. I forgot my camera but took just a couple of pics with my phone.

Kage at lunch in the lodge!

Thanksgiving morning the boys got up and went shooting. I worked on the pies and sweet potatoes. (Those were my assignment for dinner.) That afternoon we went to my mom and dad's for dinner. Everyone except for Ashley (missed you) and her family were there. After dinner we watched Cameron and Gregg let off a few rockets, chilled out and talked, and played a game. On Friday, Kelly and I went shopping for a while then that night we went to dinner and a movie with some of my family. Saturday I got all of my Christmas decorations up. After some hiccups with the tree we got it all done. here is a pic of my tree, and my planter shelf. I decided not to put all of my decorations this year and it still took me over four hours, not counting the trip to Tai pan trying to figure out how to get the lights working or to just get a new tree. (We found a nifty tool that tells you what light bulb needs to be replaced to make the string work.) Thanks Kelly for spending a lot of time helping me move furniture and getting the lights on the tree working.


Sunday afternoon we spent time playing games with friends. It was a great, busy holiday break. I am greatful for all of the time I got to spend with family and friends.

Pie

So lately I have been making pie for dessert. The first two turned out great, the next two not so much. I started it with a pecan pie about a month ago. Then I made a pumpkin pie the next week. Then about a week and a half ago I made another pumpkin pie but I only had fat free evaporated milk. When I poured it in I knew the consistance wasn't correct. I cooked the pie for what seemed like forever. It turned out okay but it was still gooey in the middle. Then this last Sunday I made a coconut cream pie. I put too much corn starch and used half and half so this pie was like cement. I just made a banana cream pie that looks better so hopefully it will taste good too. I need to get it right soon. I'm in charge of the pecan, and pumpkin pie's for Thanksgiving.

Halloween

This week was filled with Halloween activities. Tuesday Kage had a school program that was Halloween songs. It was really cute!

On Thursday my mom had a Halloween party for the kids. Here she is with Colby, Tyson, Kage, and David. They carved pumpkins, ate fun food, went through a spook ally, fished in the fish pond, and went trick or treating. The boys had a blast!

Friday we celebrated Halloween at school. Here is my cute class all dressed up.

Saturday we carved pumpkins.

Here are Kelly and the boys in their costumes. Kelly was a scarecrow, Kage was Snake Eye's, and David was a mad scientist.

This is the tunnel Kelly set up to get to the house for all the kids to go through.

Here is David, Kage, and myself at the entrance to the tunnel.

This is what Kelly looked like at the end of the tunnel.

We had my brother Cameron and his wife Kathryn come hang out with us on Halloween. Cameron helped Kelly out scaring people in the tunnel. We had a ward party late in the afternoon. Kelly dressed up in a costume that was a black robe and a skeleton mask and wore it down to the party. Then when he came back he had Cameron put that costume on. It was a great decoy. Everyone was ready for Kelly to scare them but they didn't realize it was Cameron in the first costume. So Cameron would scare them then they would keep going to the door. Kelly looked pretty fake so they would ring the door bell and then he would scare them. We had lots of tears from the little ones and just as many or more screams from the adults. It was really fun. Now what will he do next year?

Primary Program

Yesterday was our Primary Program. It turned out really well. We had a short power outage that made me nervous but luckily it didn't last long. Great job to all the primary kids. The theme (Just in case you didn't know) was "My Eternal Family." It's amazing that 160 noisy 3 -12 year olds can make you feel the spirit so strong.

Riding, Witches, Rockets

Saturday was another rocket launch. The boys participated in the NAR contest. They were the only ones in our family that flew rockets. Other people had some spectacular crashes!

Friday night I went to Witches Night Out at Gardner's Village. It was just Mia, her daughter, and me this year. (The last couple we have had bigger groups, we missed you all!) It was a lot of fun. This is a terrible picture but it is the only one I took.

Friday morning we went out riding. Kelly ran over this baby rattle snake. It stunned it enough that he caught it for a minute. We let it go and later drove by and it was gone.

We did some geocaching along the ride as well. This is Kage's favorite thing to do when we go out riding.

One of the geocaches was full of balloons that you are supposed to make into things. They could blow them up but they kept popping. The balloons were about six years old. It was a fun cache out in the middle of no where.

Finding a cave

Saturday we went riding up AF canyon. We went up above Silver Lake Flat on a trail that ended up at an old dug out mine or cave. You had to climb in on your belly but then when you got inside it was over six feet tall.

We had flashlights in our emergency kits on the four-wheelers. We wandered around inside for a few minutes. Kelly got a kick out of scaring the kids.


Last Monday, Labor Day morning we had a lady come over who is writing a book about a kid that is into rockets. She is American but living in Ireland. She was here dropping a son off at BYU and was trying to find someone who had kids into rockets to talk to, to help with research. We showed her some of our rockets and launched a couple in the park. It was fun to meet her and hopefully it was helpful.

Happy Birthday David

Happy tenth birthday David! (Yes I said 10, I don't know how but I am some how old enough to have a 10 year old?) I had back to school night tonight and Kelly is the Uintah basin working so we celebrated his birthday over the weekend. Saturday we went to Lagoon all day.

We did some of the extra things like the sky coaster, and the catapult.

The kids were so brave when it came to the sky coaster. Sunday night we opened presents and had cake.


Just a few other notes about what we have been up to lately. Of course we are back in school. So here is the traditional picture on the front porch the first day of school.

Also David earned his Bear last week at pack meeting.

Friday David had an egg drop at school. Here he is with his egg. It survived!