Milestone Eight

Naomi has hit some exciting milestones. She turned eight in April. I think that being eight comes with losing just as many teeth! I love this smile.

I'm not a huge fan of putting on friend parties and as a result my kids get to have friend parities when they are 8, 12, and 16. On the the other years we have small yet fun family parties. Naomi chose to have a skating party and had such an amazing time. I enjoyed watching her and her friends, many of whom had never before worn skates.

Turning eight also meant another great opportunity for Naomi. She was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by her dad. It was a beautiful day we were surrounded by many loved ones. Naomi is growing into a wonderful young lady and we absolutely love her!

Packing it all in...

Here is my post to highlight some of the things that have been going on this spring. April and May seemed to be so full of activites. The kids both have piano lessons, Gray played lacrosse, Naomi danced, we had spring break, Easter and birthdays, new puppies, traveling, and playing outside between rain and snowstorms. Here are a few highlights.

We spent a day in SLC with cousins. Eliza, Phoebe, Maisy, Xander, Lucas, Gray and Naomi at the LDS Conference center fountain. It was a great day and so good to get out and explore!

Our spring cleaning was limited to the garage. The kids built all these shelves and we did some much needed organizing. I think the kids would have preferred to leave the shelves empty and I did feel kind of bad when they had to clean up their club house.


Gray and Naomi spend a lot of time in the pasture with shovels, hammers and bikes. This is one of the jumps they have built. I didn't know Naomi had been going off it until this picture and some excellent video footage showed up on my camera.

The Green Canyon nature park gets better and better. It a perfect place for the kids to ride their bikes and for us to walk our dogs. Yes that's plural. If you look closely you'll see a Munsterlander puppy, Benny, sitting between Kory and Naomi.

Naomi just after her spring dance recital. She had so much fun with Irish dancing this year and can't wait for August when she gets to start again.

There he is, no. 40. Gray played lacrosse in third grade but found it too intimidating and painful to play against sixth grade boys. His friends convinced him to start up again this year and he has loved it. Gray says that lacrosse is the most painful but the most fun sport he's played. It's fun to watch his team play. We travel kind of far for games and Gray frequently plays four games each Saturday. He plays teams from Roy to Pocatello, ID. There just aren't enough teams out there yet to play everything locally. We've had a great time, but I'll admit that I'm ready to have our Saturday's back.

I had a conference in St. George and we were lucky enough to make a quick vacation of it... just Kory and I. Crazy, I don't remember the last time we went somewhere without the kids. I'm definitely committed to doing it more often. We have some amazing friends who let our kids be part of their family for a few days. Thanks Jeff and Jaime!


It hasn't been warm enough to go lounge on the beach, but we did make an evening drive to Bear Lake for a picnic dinner. It was a beautiful night and I have to say that I love this picture of the kids.

Board Fever

My kids would go snowboarding every day if I let them. Here are a few of our recent adventures. Last Monday we went to Powder Mountain. It was bitter cold, but oh so fun to see how much Gray and Naomi have learned. Gray took one run with me to be my instructor. He was great, giving me pointers and telling me how great I was doing. He made me feel happy to be giving snowboarding another try.

This morning I took Gray and his friend to Beaver Mtn. then headed down to Beaver Bottoms for some cross-country skiing. It's been a long time since I last put on my skis and it was a good thing that the track was all but empty. I had forgotten how much I enjoy cross-country and also how much energy it takes. Hopefully I get up there again soon.

The groomed track I skied with Beaver mountain in the background. I love this part of the country! Every direction I turned there was a different winter sport taking place (including snowmobiling - is that a sport?) and on my way out two buses pulled up do deliver the Special Olympics athletes to compete in snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. How great is that!

SUPER...CALIF...RAGIL....ISTIC....

Over Valentine's and President's day weekend, we took a relaxing and warm trip to Arizona. The main reason for our venture south was for Mary Poppins and although I have no pictures of our night at the theater, it was so much fun! Naomi has been singing the songs ever since.

We spent a morning at South Mountain park hiking. This is our favorite trail and a must do every time we go to Arizona.

Steph and Naomi (and the yellow chick) get ready for story time at my favorite bookstore in the world, Changing Hands! We made lots of great book finds then headed across the parking lot to stock up at Trader Joes.

We explored a wonderful botanical garden. They had a children's garden and Naomi tried out the human sundial.

There were so many kinds of cactus, some that you could touch. I can't remember the name of this one, but it was covered with little velvety patches.

On Valentines day we went to the Mesa temple. Many of the flowers had just been planted and the grapefruit trees were were loaded with ripe fruit.


There was some pretty high jumping done to get these since all the low hanging fruit was already gone. This little chick went everywhere with us.

We went fishing at Tempe Town Lake. Gray was a bit envious of the people down the walk who were pulling out fish after fish but we soon found out they were using "questionable" bait. One trip to Grandma's pond and he'll have his confidence back.

Finding good food is always a must. A friend suggested Chino Bandido (a Chinese/Mexican place) and it did not disappoint.

All too soon, it was time to go home. I loved having time to spend with Stephanie and my parents. We don't get enough time together and it was fun to have this weekend. Also, after 30 hrs. in the car I love portable dvd players!

Who can resist this chair at the Beaver, UT Chevron!

Definitely January

We've spent most Saturday's heading to Beaver Mountain. The kids are having lots of fun on their snowboards and I think Gray's been averaging hitting the slopes twice a week. As soon as we park the car at Beaver, Gray's got his board and is heading for the lifts with a "I'll find you later!". Because of this, I have no pictures of Gray snowboarding. Here are a few of Naomi's first day this year.

Kory and Naomi heading up the "Face" lift for her first time ever. Definitely not a crowded day (mostly due to the vegetation still visible through the snow).

Home for the Holidays

We had a wonderful Christmas spending time with family and friends. It's hard to believe that another year has passed by. Looking back over the past twelve months and thinking about how much has happened I feel blessed. Our family has experienced joy, excitement, restored health, much change, loss, struggles, a depressed economy and we have grown through all of it. Christmas time brings everything together for me, helps me take note of where I am and inspires me to be a better person.

December began by putting up our Christmas tree. This is what our tree looks like to a 7yr old.

The night before Christmas Eve. The kids were too excited to sleep in their rooms so they camped out in the living room.

Getting the table ready for our Christmas Eve dinner. I like to have our fancy meal on Christmas Eve (a tradition from my own childhood) and leave Christmas Day for nothing but playing with new toys, games and leftovers. Honestly the last thing I want to do on Christmas is spend the day cooking. Well, we do make a big breakfast, but it's easy stuff.

Yeah!! Christmas Morning!!

The aftermath of wrappings!!


Even though there wasn't a ton of snow, the kids had to try out their new sleds. We love having the town sledding hill next door. As I sit here now, the street is lined with cars and the hill is full of fresh snow, dozens of kids, sleds, four-wheelers, rhino's, and lots of excited screaming. On Christmas day though, we had it to ourselves.


Naomi heading back with a kitten on her shoulder. The cats follow the kids around like puppy's would. Zeta got some energy out chasing sticks (and cats).

While the kids were sledding, the cats honed their tree-climbing skills. It was pretty funny to watch. I think this was the first time they realized they could climb trees. In the picture above Nacho and Libre are on a branch together, below is Inkie (the more daring of the trio).

It was so much fun to have Dan, Rachel and James as well as Erin and Abe here the day after Christmas. We dipped lots of food and played some great games. I love all of you!

A Bit of Irish

Naomi has been taking Irish dance lessons. Julie, her teacher, is wonderful and Naomi has absolutely loved every minute of class. At the end of class last week, parents were invited in to see what the kids have learned so far.