Annual Christmas Tree outing...

I have never had an artificial tree for Christmas, never! We have had a tradition every year of cutting down our own Christmas tree. Out first Christmas together we cut a beatutiful tree from a tree farm in New Jersey. The only year we didn't cut our own was the first year we moved to Utah (1993). We bought one from someone in Payson who cut trees from their property and sold them. It will forever be kown as the "Christmas bush." We picked it in the dark which as you know in Utah starts about 5:00pm around Christmas time. They had spot lights and we had a flashlight. We thought we'd picked a good one... not!

Our tradition of cutting continued at Riley's Orchard in Payson until they sold out to development (boo, hiss) and now we buy a permit and cut trees from Forest Service land. It has been an adventure most every year including the year we went to the area south of Tooele which the kids refer to as "the desert."

This year we returned to Ephraim Canyon and here are the results:

We posed on a log fence as we looked for a few good candidates.

Here's one possibility (this was my choice).

...and here's the next.

And finally, here we made the choice!

Halloween, better late than never!

Here are some photos of the family in costume for Halloween this year, taken at the local Mormon Church's "Trunk-or-Treat." (That's where you go car to car instead of house to house.)

Alan is Van Helsing and Benajmin is a Blaze (arena football league) football player.

You want candy? You'll have to fight Death to get it!

2008 school pictures are here!

Well, we recieved our school picture packages this week. Neither kid was impressed with their photos. Alan is finally to a stage where he has an opinion about how he looks in a photo. He did not like his picture. He complained that the photographer did not get him smiling.


I loved the concepts this school photo company has but the photographers are always terrible. You can see for yourself (I'm a little biased):

Alan is eleven now and growing up fast!

Benjamin is a boisterous boy at seven!


They are still MY beautiful boys!

First day of school 2008

I finally got around to posting pictures of the kids' first day of school. Enjoy!

Fall already?

Last week the kids started school. Alan is in 6th grade and Benjamin is in 2nd. Where does the time go? It doesn't feel like summer is over! It's still hot and we just didn't do as much as I hoped. We're camping this weekend and once more in September (with our medieavl group) but gas prices helped to keep us from camping more. So much didn't get done in the yard! Ah well, I guess there's always next year...

Sleep... or lack of it and other things.

What is it about getting older that wreaks havoc on your sleep patterns? It seems that I wake earlier and I am tired earlier. The worst is if I wake in the night, I often can't go back to sleep until it is time to get up. Last night being one such incident. I woke at 2:30am and couldn't go back to sleep until about 6:00am. I get up at 6:30am and I had been up watching the Olympics until about 11:30pm last night. Needless to say, I am a little fuzzy today.

Well, Lagoon was more fun than usual. The boys behaved well and we were all fairly happy even though we did not get to Lagoon-a-beach (the pool/water park area). The boys rode the go-carts and the adults drove the dragsters. I am proud to say that we raced each other as well as two men (four cars on the track) . I won twice and Alex won twice (we got an extra race due to technical difficulties). It is really quite fun and exciting!

Yesterday we spent with out of town relatives: Juliet, Rob and their two boys Kayden and Kyler. They visited the boys martial arts class and then went with us to our weekly medieval group meeting. (We hope it has piqued their interest!) We had a great time with them and hope we can visit them in WA next year.

Things are always busy and hectic for us but I'm glad to say that we are happier than ever regardless of our troubles. No matter your age you continue to learn and grow as a person. (I should be perfect by the time I am 100!) It is wonderful to love and be loved! It is never too late to choose happiness.

So I've tried posting between the last time and now only to have pushed the wrong button and my post is gone. A bit frustrating. I've been busy enough not to get here as often as I wanted. I'll try to remedy that...

I just wanted to make sure if someone is reading this they know I'm still alive!

Tomorrow we go to Lagoon ( the local amusement park) for my company's annual party. It'll be hot and muggy but the kids will have fun.

Hopefully, I'll soon have time to update more on what's been going on in our lives...