Welcome Home to Winter

We picked the best days to travel to and from Chicago. The day after we left it snowed 2 feet in 24 hours in Spokane, the day before we left Chicago 500 flights were canceled and the day after we left they had freezing rain and shut down the city.

We woke up this morning to another 6 inches of wet snow. It took a couple of hours to shovel. The front steps had 3 feet of snow drifted on them to get cleared. Having even thought about the back deck yet, except for maybe a trail to the hot tube. We are thankful for Dori and Brent who shoveled for us and kept the cats alive and in the garage while we were gone.

We are sticking in there though, can't wait for our cruise in 10 days to the Caribbean.

Merry Christmas from Chicago

Mom's busy with the Christmas Eve dinner. We just had a photo shoot with two week old Jackson. He looks big for his age. I'll put in a couple of pictures.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We'll talk to you all tomorrow. The weather has been bad both here and Seattle, so we hope we make it home.

We love you all and miss you.

Below Zero in Chicago

Very cold here. It is -3 here as I write. We went to church here yesterday. It is an interesting ward, in Hyde Park, just two blocks from Obama's house. We drove by his house on the way home from church. He is in Hawaii for Christmas, so we were able to go by the house.

Their ward ranges from University of Chicago professors, to students, to the poor black people of the hood. Everyone was nice, just a very eclectic ward.

We've been keeping warm here cuddling the baby. He really is a good baby. He loves the Wii and guitar hero.

Merry Christmas, I'll post more later.

Playing With the Baby

Chicago is chilly, but sunny today. We were able to get out of Spokane before the big snow storm hit. Our baggage didn't come with us, but it did arrive later and we got it okay.

Little Jackson is a keeper. He Slept most of the night last night. Basically it is eat, sleep and be held by someone. We sure love our newest grandson.

Keep shoveling snow, hopefully our cats are keeping warm somewhere.

Fun Time in Utah

Sorry I'm slow getting a post out. We were in Utah last weekend for Ashley's baptism and we had a fun weekend there. Besides the baptism David, Ben and I played golf, went to Body World 3 with David and Dori, and had our family Chistmas bingo party.

Here are a few pictures I took. Didn't take too many.

Happy Holidays

It was great to have Denton and Krystee here for Thanksgiving week. It was pretty quiet after Mexico and fun to have them home. We went to movies, bowled and played lots of games. Krystee and I were the Hand & Foot champions.

We have lots of animals around. Grace would stand at the kitchen slider on one side and pepper standing on hind legs on the other side, so I brought them together one night. Grace loved petting pepper and he enjoyed being inside for awhile.

Santa is missing a deer. We found Rosy doe in the yard on Sunday morning. She jumped in front of a car I guess. I had a deer the other night jump right in front of us going up our driveway. We need David up here to hunt them.

Happy Holidays to all. We be traveling most of December.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

David give the evil eye. DaNae the angel.

DaNae's birthday

I haven't updated for awhile and last night I was making picture CD to send off and had lots of space, so I put some old pictures on it to fill it up. I thought some old pictures would make a good Halloween post. I put the ghosts and globlins on tomorrow.

One Hot Mama

The St. George Marathon and Girls Trip

The finishers were Ben, DaNae, Dianna, then Dave and Dorianne. They were all great. We were so proud of their accomplishment.

Just got back from the St. George Marathon last weekend and being with the girls for their trip to Las Vegas. The weather was hot, except for cold and rainey for the marathon day. Here are an assortment of pictures.

Here is Ella's new halloween costume.

The group at Lake Las Vegas

Happy Birthday Derek

It has been fun to have Derek here for a rotation. Last night we celebrated his birthday a day early.

We started with dinner at Wolf Lodge. We had the swinging steaks for an appetizer. (Rocky Mountain Oysters) Gavin really liked them. We told him they were just like chicken nuggets only from bulls.

We came home and opened presents. We put the old won't blow out candles on the cake, and had cake and ice cream. It was a fun night.

We'll miss Derek going home on Saturday, but his poor wife needs him home. Happy Birthday Derek, number 29.

A Busy Cool Labor Day

We had a busy Labor Day today. The boys went golfing this morning, Dad won. The kids had pony rides on a Shetland pony named flower. Then we took a hike to Little Payette Lake and watched a helicopter haul logs. The kids made brownies for FHE treats. We went to Goldfork hot springs to warm up and then had family home evening. The kids are tired and being put to bed as I write this.