CHRISTMAS CRUISE...

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

CHRISTMAS DAY - 2011

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we had the privilege of hearing President Henry B. Eyring speak to us in Sacrament Meeting. He spoke about the sacrament and how we should always remember Him. He asked, "When you remember Him-what do you remember?" He also said how grateful he is for the Holy Ghost and that we need to take care of the poor to gain a remission of our sins. He promised that we would never forget this Christmas and blessed us that we will always remember this Sabbath Day. He also reminded us that we can be forgiven of our sins and that our homes should be filled with the constant care of others...It was a perfect way to start our Christmas Day!

Other highlights of the day:
Breakfast at Mom & Dad's - Christmas bread, sliced oranges, egg nog, and fried ham - YUM!

Spending the morning with some of my siblings and exchanging gifts.

Surprising our grandkids with a week-long Disney Cruise to the Mexican Riviera. Dale even made every family member their own special ticket that looked authentic! They were SO excited and were shocked that we were leaving the very next morning. 

*We did NOT have a white Christmas! It was a very warm day with no snow on the ground...

SUGAR COOKIES & CHRISTMAS EVE..

I'm trying to get caught up... (it's May 2012 and I'm blogging about Christmas)! Here's a little bit of the fun we had celebrating the season!

CHRISTMAS COOKIE FUN - DECEMBER 22, 2011

A sweet "elf" left this drawing on my table before she left...when I found it, I was so touched! What a great reminder about what Christmas is really all about...

CHRISTMAS EVE - Ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, visited Grandpa Dee & Grandma Colleen, drove around looking at Christmas lights (the grandkids fell asleep before they got to our house, so they went home to wait for Santa), watched A Christmas Story (it wouldn't be Christmas Eve without Ralphie!), and Darren & I finished our puzzle (before midnight-that was our goal!)

"SQUARE TEMPLE" & HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHRIS

December 11th, we had cake & ice cream for Chris' birthday then went to Temple Square. On the way there Jacob kept asking me "When are we going to get to that square temple?" 

It was a busy place...seemed to be a popular thing to do on a Sunday night during the Christmas season. Our favorite red tree was lit this year. Because it's so old, they only put lights on it every other year. We were also able to listen to some of the young women in our ward sing with their choir group from BHS. I loved looking at the Christus and remembering that special night and the true meaning of Christmas...

PIANO RECITAL

Piano Recital - December 6, 2011. Jensyn played "Happy Holidays" and Ashley performed "Jolly Ol' St. Nicholas". The entire recital only lasted about 15 minutes, but was wonderful!

THE GIFT OF FRIENDS...

This year it was my turn to host the Christmas party for my best friends from good ol' Murray High School! We met for breakfast at Kneader's, then went to my house to visit and open gifts. Stefani couldn't come to the party because she was going out of town, but delivered her gift a few days earlier, so I snapped a photo. Deb was sick, so she wasn't able to come. 

Marti, Laureen, Janet and I had a great time enjoying delicious french toast and frozen hot chocolate at Kneaders. It's always fun to talk and reminisce. I'm grateful to still have these amazing women as my friends...

Blowin' in the WIND!

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 hurricane-force winds wreaked havoc in northern Utah (we had to go sleep in the basement because of the noise), blowing over semitrailers, toppling trees, downing power lines, forcing the closures of schools, and created extensive property damage across Davis and Weber counties. The strongest winds were reported near Centerville, where gusts of 102 mph, 100 mph and 86 mph were recorded by the National Weather Service. A 100 mph wind gust is the same as a Category 2 hurricane. Estimates put the damage in Centerville alone at $8 million.

Bountiful had wind gusts of 78 mph and at the U of U 69 mph. (This information came from the Deseret News-Dec. 2, 2011...)

These winds were unlike canyon winds that create local gusts at the mouths of individual canyons, the larger weather pattern created down-slope winds that were most intense along I-15 and the Legacy Highway. It's like a wave of wind coming over the mountains. The bench area was in the tube of the wave, it got wind but avoided the impact. Areas like Centerville and West Bountiful took most of the wave's crash and had the most severe damage (per KSL-TV meteorologist Kevin Eubank). In Bountiful, 40% of homes were still without power at 9:00 p.m. (luckily ours came on before that)...

Twenty-eight schools in Davis county were closed on Friday because of storm-related issues. In addition, windows in 30 buses were shattered.

Damage at our house was minimal...blown over deck furniture, our hot tub cover got bent, we lost a lot of shingles,and a pine tree was uprooted. The grandkids came over and were very scared...as we drove around our neighborhood, the damage was more extensive (see photos below):

Photos taken in downtown Bountiful, West Bountiful and Centerville...someone is going to have to get a new tramp!

Chris &Shannon had lots of shingles blown off their roof, their fence was damaged, and their yard was a mess...

NOVEMBER NEWS

November was a fun and busy month. Here's what we did:

Dale & I decided it would be fun to have a play set for the grandkids (and Darren!!), so we cleared out an area in the backyard that was not being used....let the fun begin!

November 11th, we celebrated Brett's 29th birthday, played in the leaves (it's funny how we have no trees in our yard, but seem to have tons of leaves!), and a critter decided to eat Jake's pumpkin that was sitting on the bench (he was broken hearted)...

A tradition at High-Tech...collect groceries for the Food Bank. Way to go!

Jacob's preschool Thanksgiving Program - Nov. 22nd...

Grateful to have all these wonderful people in my life!

GOBBLE, GOBBLE...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy "Howl-o-ween"!

On Halloween Night, we had a cute pirate, a "bat-witch", a dinosaur, Scooby Doo and their parents visit us. We had chili, cheese & crackers, and apples with caramel dip for dinner, then went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. The weather cooperated this year!

Darren & Becca got super creative with their pumpkin carving! Their costumes were also very unique-they wore each other's work uniforms...

DALLAS

October 27-29 Dale & I took a quick trip to Dallas with Pat & Rey to watch BYU play TCU at Cowboys Stadium. The guys wanted to experience this amazing stadium and the girls just went along to keep them in line!! Dallas is the 3rd largest city in Texas and the 9th largest in the United States. We stayed in Arlington, within walking distance of Six Flags, Rangers Ballpark and the Stadium. The Rangers were playing in the World Series while we were there (too bad it wasn't in Dallas)...
We had some time before we could check in, so we drove into the downtown area just to look around and ended up here:
The Dallas World Aquarium was amazing. It's located in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas. The upper level is an artificial reproduction of the Orinoco Rainforest, where we saw three-toed sloths, crocodiles, lots of birds, and vampire bats. The lower level houses aquariums featuring fish and other sea animals from around the world. I wasn't very impressed with downtown Dallas, but we were glad we took the time to visit the aquarium! That night we had dinner at Kirby's Prime Steakhouse in Southlake-it was delicious!
Friday, was a beautiful sunny day. We spent some time at Southlake Town Square, which is home to 250 stores and 120 restaurants! That night we ate at a Texas BBQ place before we walked to Cowboys Stadium for the big game...
Cowboys Stadium was unbelievable! This domed stadium with a retractable roof was built in 2009. The stadium seats 80,000 and is the largest domed stadium in the world. The high definition video screen hangs from the 20 yard line to the 20 yard line-gigantic! Originally estimated to cost $650 million, the construction cost ended up being $1.3 billion. BYU didn't win the game, but it was fun to experience the game sitting on 6th row-50 yard line...