Christmas Morning

This is the first year we decided to stay in Arizona instead of going home to Idaho for Christmas. It was a really hard decision for us but this year we were not able to take anyore work off. Plus, we just saw Grandma and Grandpa Moustache (Pierce) over Thanksgiving and Grandma Cathy and Papa were planning on coming to visit in January so we thought we could do it on our own.

The kids were so excited to see what Santa brought. They weren't disappointed. Santa brought a lot of great things. For their big gifts they got Nintendo DS Lites. Which are the latest and greatest in hand held video games. (If they only knew what Santa had to do to get them!) They also each got 2 games to play. Pierce got Cars racing and Super Mario Party. Cole got a Disney Princes game and a Dora the Explorer game. Their big shared gift from Santa was a new Wii game--Mario Kart racing!

Mom and Dad got everyone new outfits to go and get family pictures in (which we never got around to).

Later on in the day we called home to see what everyone was doing. Grandma Cathy and Papa were at Uncle Seth's house sledding. It was a little hard to imagine since we were all wearing shorts playing outside here in Phoenix.

A Visit with Santa

I had to go to my work Christmas Dinner so Clint bravely took all three kids to the ward Christmas party by himself (thanks to Jamie for taking pics). Pierce and Cole were so excited to visit with Santa, Cooper wasn't so sure though. Pierce brought a big long list to give Santa, but Cole is a girl who knows how to get what she wants this year. She brought Santa the cookies she had decorated earlier at the primary activity along with some pictures she had colored and of course her long list. Pierce asked Santa for a skateboard, a kid kinex rollercoaster, a science set and pixos micros. Cole wants a Rosetta Fairy Doll, a computer, a scooter and make-up! I hope Santa delivers!

First Grade Field Trip to the Pioneer Museum

Clint bravely volunteered to go with Pierce on his first field trip of the year to the Pioneer Museum. Pierce was so excited to have his dad go with him. Everyday leading up to the trip, he would tell Clint something like, "Dad, don't forget we need to pack a sack lunch." or "Dad, don't forget your water bottle." It was so fun to see him so proud to show off his dad to his friends.

On the bus and ready to go!

Clint's Group--Rheannan, Clint, Zander, Daniel (who just wanted to be in the picture) and Garrett

This was the gun fight show where they taught the kids gun safety. According to Pierce, the girls won since they were the good guys and the boys were the bad robbers.

Pierce says this is the "Big Trap" since it has a big trap door under the rope.

Thanksgiving in Cali

We have been looking forward to this week forever! We left Phoenix Friday afternoon, and after a long 6 1/2 hour drive to Carlsbad, CA we are finally here! Our resort was amazing with lots of room and tons of storage but the best part was the spectacular view of the beach and the ocean and the other best part was that my parents came down from Idaho to spend the week with us!

On Saturday morning we woke up to RAIN! Clint and I got up early to go jogging on the beach while it was just drizzling, but by the time we got back it was a full on downpour. Despite the rain we headed into downtown San Diego to Little Italy to the farmers market. Within a few minutes the kids were cold, wet and hungry so we found a cute Italian restaurant in the back of a grocery store and had the best pizza ever.

My parents took the kids back to the condo to play on the beach and hot tub while Clint and I met our friends Dan and Jamie White and Scott and Nichole Smith, who came to San Diego for the weekend so all of us could go to the Utah v. San Diego State game which Dan's brother got us awesome tickets for.

After dinner we headed over to the Chargers Stadium for the game in an absolute downpour! We had the best seats and 2 sideline passes which the boys loved. It was funny to see Clint put on a Utah Red Shirt to go down on the field since he is a serious BYU fan. The game was really exciting and Utah pulled a win in the end! Thanks Dan and Jamie for inviting us!

On Sunday the weather was lots better. No rain, just cold. Of course that doesn't matter to kids how cold it is when you're at the beach!

Cooper chased the seagulls all over!

The amazing sunset from our condo's deck!

As good as it gets!

So here's our attempt at family pictures. It always starts with a crazy mommy planning the pictures and the outfits and yelling at everyone to get ready and stop whining and stop moving while I'm fixing your hair. Then as soon as we got there, Pierce and Cole started running around like crazy. Cole fell in the parking lot flat on her face. There was crying involved and so she has red puffy eyes. Not to forget she also has a big chunk of hair missing from the top of her head where she cut it yesterday! Pierce either fell or was playing and somehow got grass stains on his knees. And Cooper would not hold still for a second! So this is as good as it gets this year!

Scissors (Enough Said)

Cole has been on a scissor rampage! She somehow got a hold of a pair of scissors during quiet time and did some serious damage! I came in to help her clean her room and noticed bits of yarn everywhere and it took me a second to realize what it was...her blanket. Yep, she cut a huge hole right in the middle of it. I was crazy mad! Then I find 2 skirts and 2 shirts and some of Cooper's clothes that she did her magic to and I was ready to blow a fuse! So I can't really blame her when a few days later I find a bear who has obviously had his ears hacked off by the master herself and when I ask her what happened to him she says, "I don't know." So I tell her she better not lie to me and to tell me what happened to the bear. Then finally she breaks down and the tears start and she says, "(sob sob) I just (sob) was hugging him (sniff) and I just hugged him so hard that his ears just POPPED off (now hysterical sobs)" As I'm trying to muffle my hysterical laughter (seriously where did she come up with that one?!!), I attempted to punish her. Apparently I wasn't strict enough though since just yesterday she whacked off a big chunk of her hair a day before our scheduled family pictures!

Halloween

We had such a great Halloween this year! It took us quite a few weeks to decide on costumes, but finally we made our decisions. Pierce and Cooper were scary skeletons and Cole decided to be Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. We had so much fun getting ready. Cole loved her necklace and crown and getting to wear pink make up and getting Pierce ready with all his make-up and black fingernails was a great time.





We started celebrating on Friday the 29th at the ward trick or treat carinval. The kids had so much fun playing games and getting candy! They came home with a huge bucketful and we spent a long time sorting it out into piles to see what they had. Andrea tried to make rules for the piles like all the chocolate should go into a pile for mommy but they were having none of that!

On Halloween night we headed over to Dan and Jamie Whites' for a party with all our friends. We had a blast eating soup and rolls and lots of treats with Steve and Jen Jurca, Scott and Nichole Smith, Dan and Jamie White, Brian and Shelbie Clement and Rob and Lanea Clement. We trick-or-treated the neighborhood until our buckets were full and then came home and crashed from sugar overload!

Here's the lineup: Taylor, Cole, Kylie, Pierce, Joe, Parker, Jaycee, and Cooper.

It's Halloween Time at Disneyland!

It's Halloween Time at Disneyland! This was another quick weekend trip for us--we're trying to get the most out of our season passes before they expire in November. We got up early on Saturday morning (4:30am) and got to Disneyland around lunchtime. As soon as we had parked and taken the tram to Downtown Disney, Cole started complaining her feet hurt and sure enough she had a big blister on her heel. A pair of $15 dollar Minnie Mouse socks and some bandaids and we were ready to go!
We started our day in California Adventure Park. We rode Monsters Inc. and then headed to Pierce's favorite ride Muholland Madness. Clint, Pierce and Cole rode it 2 times and then we went to Andrea's favorite ride, Grizzly Rapids. We always seem to pick the busiest weekends, we had to wait over an hour in line. Clint and Cooper played in the playground while we waited and waited!





That's all the rides we got in before we headed to our hotel for a nap and then some dinner. We came back to Disneyland later that night but had missed the fireworks (big disappointment) and everthing was so crowded that we ended up leaving without riding anything because the waits were up to an hour and a half long!

The next day turned out to be better. We got to the park right when it opened and Pierce and Cole and Clint rode Haunted Space Mountain and Andrea and Cooper waited in line for Pixie Hollow so Cole could meet Tinkerbell and Fawn. Cole was so excited to be the first one to meet the faries.






Then we hit our favorite rides...The Matterhorn, Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted Holiday Mansion, Indiana Jones (our first time since Pierce is just now big enough), Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain one last time.



We rode Space Mountain one too many times as we were all motion sick on the ride home. At one point we had to pull over as Cole lost her lunch into a paper bag. Luckily she told us she was sick and she got it all into the bag so we didn't have to clean the whole car like usual!

Our Weekend Getaway to Durango Colorado

For my 33rd birthday, Grandma Cathy volunteered to come down to Arizona and watch the kids so Clint and I could get out of town for a long weekend. We were headed for Santa Fe, NM but only made it as far as Pagosa Springs, Colorado. We left Thursday night and drove up to Flagstaff, thru Tuba City and made it to Kayenta, Arizona where we camped out in the back of the Explorer. On Friday morning we realized we were close to Canyon De Chelly and decided to take a detour on our trip to go and see it. We pretty much had the park to ourselves. It was so beautiful and peaceful.






Taking the railroad from Durango, CO to Silverton was a last minute decision. On our way to Cortez from Canyon De Chelly we came across a really bad accident and were told to take a detour around. We reprogrammed the GPS and headed north into Utah with barely enough gas to get us to Cortez. Our GPS started to lead us out in the middle of nowhere on small unnamed roads and pretty soon it quits working since we don't have Colorado programmed into it. So there we were, a long ways from anywhere with no gas and no idea how to get there! Luckily we made it into Cortez on fumes but took 2 hours longer than we planned.

Since it was getting late we decided to stay the night in Durango and to take the train, which is supposed to be one of the ten best train rides in the world and we were there on one of the best weekends since all the leaves were changing colors.
Durango is a fun westernish little town built right around the Animas river. It reminded us both of Jackson Hole. Friday night we wandered around downtown and window shopped for awhile after we got our train tickets and found a hotel room.





Our train ride started out at 7:30 in the morning on Saturday, September 25 (My Birthday). It was freezing since it was in the 50's and we were in what they called the Gondola Car which was open air seating. As soon as we got on board, the train conductors told us we needed to wear eye protection since there would be a lot of cinders in the air. They weren't kidding--By the time we got to Silverton, four and a half hours later, we were pretty much black. It took me 2 days to get all the coal out of my hair!



The ride was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Since we got our tickets so late we were on the wrong side of the train for part of the trip through this narrow gorge. On one side, the train tracks hug the granite mountain with only a foot in some areas between the train and the rock and on the other side a steep drop off a couple hundred feet to the river below.

Silverton, Colorado is only 50 miles from Durango, but by steam train it's four and a half hours away! There really isn't much to the town of Silverton and we only had two hours to explore anyway (which proved to be more than enough time). The town is nestled in a valley in Colorado's San Juan National Forest. It is surrounded by giant mountains that were covered in beautiful fall colors on all sides. Most of the buildings in the town are national historical landmarks dating back to the 1800s when Silverton was a booming mining town.

There were a lot of places to eat but they were all crowded with train passangers. We ended up choosing Handlebars restaurant and saloon for my birthday lunch and had a good time.

After lunch, we spent some time walking around town and enjoying the cool fall air. We took lots of pictures and just took our time wandering around in the laid back atmosphere. We walked up to the end of town to the courthouse that was built right next to a mountain with the most amazing display of yellow aspen trees.

This picture is my favorite. I couldn't resist a picture with the wooden statue at Grumpy's Saloon since he looks exactly like Grandpa Mustache!



After we got off the train around 6pm we got in the car and headed to Pagosa Springs on our way to Taos, New Mexico. We stopped at this restaurant around sunset that was right along the river. Our food wasn't impressive, but the location more than made up for it! Our dinner took so long though that we decided not to try and cram in a trip to New Mexico but to head back to Durango and go to Mesa Verde tomorrow instead.



Unfortunately, we only had time to visit one of the several dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. We chose Spruce Tree House since it was one of the largest dwellings and it was a self guided tour so we didn't have to wait for the ranger tours later in the day.

We were really facinated by the cliff dwellings and by the culture of the Anasazi Indians. The ranger told us that this area was occupied by the Anasazi about 700-800 years ago and was in really amazing condition.


About 90% of Spruce Tree House is origional and intact. The only structure the National Park Service rebuilt was the roof and ladder to one of the kivas so that you could see what that structure would have been like 800 years ago.


We wished we would have planned to spend some more time here-you could easily spend a day or two. Someday we need to bring the kids back here and explore some of the other structures that are in the park. Unfortunately though it was time to head home.

We enjoyed the rest of the trip through northwestern New Mexico and eastern Arizona. We listened to several books on tape, did a lot of talking and planning, and had a lot of fun being together. We're so lucky that Grandma Cathy would be so generous to come down from Idaho to take care of the kids so we could get away.

When we got home the kids rushed me upstairs and when I came down, they had all the lights off and were hiding to throw me a surprise party. Complete with streamers, balloons and a cake made by them!