Christmas Highlights

Temple Square in Salt Lake City

Spending time with family and friends

Aunt Karla's Christmas Party

Ella's pink wooden kitchen

Tinker Toys

Wooden dress-up dolls from Grandma

My personal highlight:

(after a very long night on Black Friday)

THANK YOU SANTA!

Nutcracker Ballet

Addison and Olivia performed in the Nutcracker Ballet right before Christmas. The production was FABULOUS and the girls absolutely loved it. They were in a performance Friday night and two on Saturday. Busy weekend! Olivia danced in the Chinese Tea, she was the smallest ballerina in the show-ADORABLE. Addison danced in the Arabian Coffee. The Arabian dance was beautiful, Addie was fantastic. We were not allowed to record or take pictures at the show, but here are a few pictures from dress rehearsal.

Playing in the SNOW

Bobcadette Minis

The Bobcadette Minis performed this week at a local high school basketball game. Addison and Olivia love to dance. They are performing in the Nutcracker Ballet next weekend and can not wait to be on stage again. So cute. Little girls are so much fun!

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Click here for a Thanksgiving message. Love it!

Family Pictures

Veteran's Day

THANK YOU to our wonderful veterans who have served to protect our freedoms. THANK YOU to those who are currently serving our country. THANK YOU for your courage and sacrifice. This morning we were able to attend a very touching ceremony paying tribute to our military and veterans. After the ceremony, we had a great day honoring family veterans and hearing stories about their service. We were very impressed and intrigued by their experiences. Wow. They are heroes.

HONORING OUR HEROES

Children's Nature Park

Today we visited the Children's Nature Park. We are frequent visitors to the park, we love to walk along the paths that circle the park pond. Our favorite... the waterfowl. This afternoon, we sat by the pond feeding ducks and savoring every moment of sunshine and warm autumn weather. Hope this beautiful weather stays for a few days.

H A L L O W E E N

Costumes:

Vampire(trying to be as spooky as possible),

a sweet little bunny and a dancer.

H a p p y H a l l o w e e n !

Mesa Falls

We absolutely love spending time in the mountains. Yesterday, we visited Mesa Falls. The upper and lower falls are breathtaking. We hiked, played in the leaves and fed the fish at Warm River.

Feeding the fish at Warm River

Upper Mesa Falls

Love this time of year!

Our little sweeties

Lower Mesa Falls

Night at the Derby

Diamond Princess

Brad is a fan of the pinewood derby :) He is lucky to have three little girls who share in his enthusiasm. I go along with it, slightly embarrassed to enter the derby without a scout in the house, but eager to support their ambitions. This year the girls and their cute dad entered the "Diamond Princess" car. She was double the weight and three times the height of the other cars. Diamond Princess flew down the track (we about lost Snow White when they crashed into the finish line). At the end of the night we had 3 very proud little girls. They won a prize for best design and that is all that mattered to them :)

Glitter Pumpkins

Glitter pumpkins have become an annual autumn project at our house! We make them in October and they last through Thanksgiving. We love them. Click here for directions.

The kids each did their own pumpkin this year.

They were very proud of themselves and very messy :)

The Bench & The Bar

Yesterday, we had another opportunity to sit in on a session of the Supreme Court... this time Idaho. Brad was admitted to the Idaho Bar along with two good friends, Blake Murray and Adam Andersen. The ceremony was awesome. Idaho only had 99 admittees, so the Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court called each new attorney to the stage, one by one, and congratulated them personally. It was a great honor. Another fantastic day!

Mount Timpanogos

Uncle Steve, Sadie, Brad and I at the summit.

SUMMIT

Distance: 15 miles

Elevation: 11,749 feet

Time: 8.5 hours

View: SPECTACULAR

Mountain goats along the trail.

Bear Lake

This week we spent a few days with my sister and her family at my parent's condo in Bear Lake. We enjoyed our time playing in the water on Bear Lake's north beach. It was the perfect week to visit the lake. The weather was so nice and we were surrounded by autumn leaves beginning to show their color. BEAUTIFUL.

The kids played in the lake for hours.

Have you heard the legend of the famous Bear Lake Sea Monster?

Click here to check it out.
I think we got a picture :)

Good News

After a long wait, results are in...

Brad PASSED the Idaho bar exam :)

We are celebrating.

Congrats Brad! I love you.

Survivor

Here are the clothes of an ice cave survivor. Brad started his journey early yesterday morning with his brother and a few other guys. They started in the ice caves and climbed through to the wind caves. They were in the caves for over 6 hours. The day was full of adventure, a little more than he had planned on...hiking, sliding, rappelling, crawling through mud, wading through ice cold water and climbing. Sound like fun? I am glad he made it home safe, sound and with another mission accomplished :)

Labor Day Weekend

We had such a great Labor Day weekend! The weekend started with camping on Friday night. We cooked brats and s'mores on the fire, played games, sang songs and then disco danced in our tent (flashlight-strobe light effect) late into the night. Brad was champion of the dance off. When it comes to disco, he can't be beat-seriously :)

After our camp out, we spent a fantastic evening in Island Park at my Uncle Chris's cabin. The food was fabulous (fresh fish caught in Alaska) and it was so great to spend time with Chris and Tina and their family. Our girls had so much fun playing with all of their cute cousins. We will have to get together again soon!

After Island Park, we went with my parents to their condo in West Yellowstone. It was a nice get away. We especially enjoyed the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. We observed and learned a lot about the mighty grizzly. Very big, strong and impressive. I have been telling Brad all summer that I want to see a bear in the wild. After this experience, I have decide that I am fine observing bears behind a fence, and that we are going to start hiking with bear spray :)