Christmas Wrapped Up

Christmas this year was like none other. We started out by getting a new puppy on the 23rd. She's a Shiloh Shepherd (picture a German Shepherd but bigger and more mellow) and is pretty much a self-obsessed fur ball that needs to get her teeth into everything and has severe separation anxiety. Hopefully as we settle into our normal routine life with puppy, now named Zeta, will get better.

We all received wonderful gifts and have had fun playing new games of all sorts from cards to board games to wii games. Between Beaver Mtn and the wii, Gray has been snowboarding every day. What more could a kid want? I'll have to post snowboarding pictures later after I get them from Kory's brother-in-law. It was Naomi's first time snowboarding and she loved it. Guess I'll have to give boarding a good try again.




We had a party at Grandma Bronson's house. It's so great to get together with family especially at this time of year. I feel so blessed to have such a loving and fun family.


Here's a shot of the Pitcher family party, the group just keeps growing each year. Soon we'll need a shed like Grandma Bronson has.


It was hard to not see any of my immediate family this year. I think this is the first Christmas in my life where I haven't been able to see either my parents or one of my siblings. Although we had a wonderful Christmas here in Logan, there was definitely something missing.

Each year I am amazed at how quickly the holidays fly by but I am grateful for the time we take to remember our blessings, spend time with family and friends, give of ourselves to others and especially to center our thoughts on the birth and life of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas season.

What happened to November?

I just realized it's been more than a month since my last post. Since I'm short on time, I'll jsut post a bunch of pictures to cover what we've been up to. Kory and Gray did lots of Cyclocross racing during the past two months. I was only able to catch one of the races since none are in Cache Valley (mostly around SLC) and our truck was typically full of racers and their bikes.
Gray at the start line. The competition looks kind of overwhelming.

Kory tackles the barriers.

This is a tough section with a pretty steep hill and some very slippery leaves.

Gray's getting ready to ride and Naomi's getting ready to ring her cowbell. A side note about our cowbell. After a while Naomi refused to ring the cowbell because she was embarrassed by its small size and wimpy sound. I'll admit it was not a monstrous clangy cowbell, but hey, at least we had a cowbell.
Gray's trying to warm up prior to racing. It was deceptively freezing that day. (note the wimpy orange cowbell in my hand)


Steph came to visit for Thanksgiving weekend. It was so wonderful to spend time with her and the kids were especially ecstatic since I didn't tell them she was coming. They just walked into the kitchen and there she was. I feel so blessed to have such an incredible sister who still summons up energy and love for my kids even though she's going through such overwhelming personal struggles.

We went for a walk around the farm and the kids had to take a few minutes to sit on the tractors.


Kory and I got to have a fun pizza lunch with Naomi at school. As a reward for good behavior, a few kids get to do something special with their principal each week (I think it's each week). They have done things like playing twister in front of the school, running through the halls, and a silly string fight. It's quite an honor to be a part of this group, way to go Naomi!

Graysen with his piano teacher, Kara, after his Christmas recital. He played We Wish You a Merry Christmas and I Saw Three Ships.

We took our annual trip to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner and Temple Square to see the lights. I don't think I could every tire of seeing the lights at Temple Square, they seem to really set the spirit for the Christmas season.

Halloween

We had lots of fun this Halloween. We went to corn mazes, the heritage center, lots of cross racing/practice, carnivals, parades and of course trick-or-treating.

The witch and the vampire on Halloween night.

One of my favorite displays at this years pumpkin walk.

What a princess!

Yes, King of the Wild Things.

Naomi in her school Halloween costume parade.

Naomi and Bennett jumping off of the haystack.

Kory at cross practice, American West Heritage Center.

Gray cross racing in Salt Lake City.

Naomi Trick-or-treating with Logan and Landon. Gray's not there because this year he was out with friends then off to a party. It's been a hard corner for me to turn (seeing him become more independent and focused on friends.)

What a fun time we've had over the past few weeks!

I Love Vacationing

We got home a few days ago from a great family vacation to southern California. We stayed with Kimi and Jay which was such a great time. I love the rock that Kimi has on her porch part of which says "leave your worries at the door" because truly walking through their front door makes one feel carefree and relaxed. Thanks for letting us stay with you!!

Here are a few pictures of things we did while there:
A day at SeaWorld where the crowds were small and we saw all the shows from the soak zone (not one drop of water though). We fed the dolphins and pet manta rays and star fish. So fun to get up close and personal with such amazing creatures.

SeaWorld has kind of been taken over by Sesame Street. I love this picture of Gray with Bert & Ernie.

Naomi looks like she could keep on going and going and going.

Kory and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary while there so while the kids stayed to play with their cousins we went to dinner. From what I hear this is the hot anniversary spot for folks from Utah staying with Kimi and Jay. It truly was nice. We at at Fisherman's on the pier at sunset.

Yes!! Disneyland!!! Going to Disneyland with kids is so much fun. Watching their faces light up at every turn is incredible. Gray loved the coasters and Naomi could have stayed in fantasyland all day.

Rocky, Namoi, Gray and Byron with Buzz Lightyear.

The last ride of the day and look at those smiles! oh Kimi is that the beginnings of a yawn?


Gray and Kory had their first surfing experience.

Graysen was on cloud nine after being able to stand up a few times. Jay was so good to take him out and make sure he got on his feet.

Yes, the girls stayed bundled up on the beach. Naomi busied herself creating a fairy village in the sand. She did admit to having fun at the beach that day but couldn't wait to get back in the pool.




We spent an evening in Huntington Beach with Josh and Jen Wheeler. The kids had fun at the park (with the exception of Gray who was too wiped out from all the traveling/late nights/early mornings although he did make a comeback to play with legos after the park).
"Just so you know Mom, I want a drum set for Christmas."

A Meal Fit for a King

This might be a little premature since this project hasn't actually been completed, but I love the emergence of digital libraries. Every library has distinctive special collections, many of which are unique to that particular area of the world. For example, here at the USU library we have the skull of Old Ephriam and one of the nations largest research collections of Jack London material including a complete set of first edition books all of which are inscribed to his wife and include a picture of himself glued inside the cover. Take a look, the letters and pictures are so interesting. With the emergence of digitization we can experience special collections from around the world.

So I eagerly await the digitization of "Forme of Cury" which is held by the Univ. of Manchester. It's a collection of recipes used by the master cooks of King Richard II.
Written in 1390, it's bound to be tough to read (Grandma we might need your translation skills) but it will offer such an interesting glimpse into life in that age.

As a side note, a civil war diary held by the Digital Library of Georgia is also very cool.

DewTour2008

Yesterday we spent the day in Salt Lake City at the Dew Tour. We went down with Allen and Alisha Hill and their boys. I'll admit that I was overwhelmed by the number of people there and the lack of seating (although I can't really complain since our tickets were given to us by one of our vendors). I just had to remind myself that last years lack of enormous lines was due to the massive amount of rain that was falling. The kids were good sports as we spent most of the day in hot sun and lots of lines. The allure of seeing famous skateboarders, bmx and motocross riders, and free things getting thrown into the crowds at random was enough to keep them going. We started out by watching the FMX finals. Seeing this stuff in person is absolutely amazing. I tried to snap a few shots, but here's a video that looks a bit more professional and definitely from a better vantage point.


After that we headed to the booth/vendor area where there were all sorts of things going on: food, pro rider signings, games, give aways and other stuff. It was about lunch time and as it happened, Wendy's was giving away burgers so we got in line. Gray was standing there and something landed at his feet. He looked down and saw a box, looked up and saw a grundle of kids running towards him, he reached down and snatched up the box. Hooray, he scored a speaker dock for his mp3 player!
After lunch, Graysen took on Kory in a game of air hockey. The winner (Kory) got a Wendy's gift card.
Gray (on the far side with the white helmet), Logan and Landon took a few turns riding on the Mongoose track and had a blast.

We watched the amature skate park competition then headed to the bmx supercross final.

Kory snapped these photos since I was stuck by the concession stand when it all happened. Yes, I'm willing to make a child sit in time out even when we're away from home.

After dinner at the Gateway we thought we'd show up super early for the skate park final in order to get good seats. We learned that 1 1/2 hours early was not early enough. Oh well, it was fun anyway and the entire crowd occupied itself making paper airplanes. Amazingly one made it from the nosebleed seats across the energy solutions arena and into the seats on the other side. The crowd went wild. Gray was in 7th heaven. He got to see lots of his skateboarding idols. Check out this video of the final (my zoom just couldn't cut it). The youngest competitor took first place.

Thanks for the tickets Dan! It was a fun day with the kids and great friends.