Christmas Eve

We've eaten Christmas dinner and opened the new pajamas. We are now watching the end of A Christmas Story. Almost time for bed!

Scuba with Santa

A local place that offers scuba classes had a "take a scuba photo with Santa" promotion last week. Harrison and I went over there, had a quick scuba tutoring session, put on all the gear, descended to about 12 feet deep, and then got our photos taken.
We spent about 15 minutes at the bottom of the tank. It was a blast - we may have found a new favorite activity! Maybe we'll have to get certified now. There's also a scout scuba patch we can earn. I'd like to take Kerianne next time we go - I think she'd like it too.

Ice Skating

This week Kerianne and I took the kids ice skating. The kids weren't sure at first that it was going to be fun. They were a bit wobbly and we all fell down a lot. After a while, they figured out how to keep their feet and ankles straight and glide. We had a great time and they ask every day if we can go again. I wouldn't mind going every week or two - it's great exercise for all of us!

Basketball - Spencer

Spencer is playing basketball again this winter. His friend Michael is on the team. Their first game was last week, and Spencer almost made a basket. The coach seems to know what he is doing and runs a lot of drills. Spencer says he's having a lot of fun. A lot of the kids on the team are from his school.

Happy Birthday Harrison!

Harrison turned 12 today. Happy Birthday buddy! I can't believe you are 12 years old. It doesn't seem that long ago when you were born and we brought you home from the hospital. We've sure had a lot of fun since then! I know you're going to go far in everything you do.

I love your idea for the eraser guy cake. Very cool!

Christmas Program

Our ward did the annual Christmas Program as a breakfast this year. It was fun and the breakfast food they served was delicious. As usual, they had a Nativity with some of the kids dressing up and playing parts. All of our kids were asked to be in it and Kerianne sewed the costumes yesterday. Keri and Kaylee were angels, Spencer was a shepherd, and Harrison was Joseph.

Halloween Costumes

Here's some photos of the kids Halloween costumes. We had a great Halloween - it was so warm compared to other years. I only wish that our ward did the trunk or treat on a different night and not on Halloween. I still prefer the good old fashioned trick-or-treating.


Kaylee was a "nice" pink witch. Her Build-A-Bear monkey had a matching costume.










Spencer was some type of ghoul that has an exposed brain and pop-out eyes. I think he's going for the gross-out factor. It's comical and not gory so we were okay with it.








Keri was a cheetah because they are so fashionable.










Harrison wanted to be an alien (no surprise there).

2nd Grade Field Trip

Today I went on the 2nd Grade field trip with Keri, Spencer and Kaylee. We had a great time. They had a fun hayride with a stop in the pumpkin patch, a cow train, and an exhibit with singing chickens that taught us about chickens and eggs.

There were swings and slides and lots of fun things to play on. We really liked the "jumping pillow" - this huge plastic thing filled with air that we all jumped on together.
There was also a "corn box" which was a shed type building filled with dried corn kernels about 10 inches deep. We played in that for a while and took turns covering each other with corn. It was a blast. I'm quite sure I didn't have this much fun when I was in 2nd grade.

Click here for more photos from the field trip.

Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year to pick out pumpkins to carve into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. There's this great pumpkin patch near our house where we like to go find the perfect pumpkin. It seems like the kids have to look at pretty much every pumpkin there before finding the one they want, but we had a lot of fun.

First Class Scout

Harrison has been working very hard in scouting and has earned his First Class Scout award. In addition to the weekly scout meetings, this summer he went to a few camps and worked on the skills needed for advancement and passed the Board of Review. At the Court of Honor a couple of weeks ago, he was presented with his Tenderfoort, Second Class, and First Class at the same time.

We are very proud of Harrison. We hope he keeps working towards his Eagle Scout award in the coming years.

Disneyland Trip

We just got back from our Disneyland trip a few days ago. We had a great time. It seems that no matter how many times we go, we still experience new thrills and have a such a great time there. This trip was no different - we had so much fun.

This year Disney was celebrating the "Year of a Million Dreams" and they have cast members that walk around and award "Dreams" to people at random. On the third day we were at Disneyland, as we got off the Jungle Cruise ride, we were surprised when a person walked up to us and asked a few questions and then told us we were going to be the Grand Marshalls of the parade that evening. She told us that we'd be riding in a fancy car at the start of the parade and they'd announce our names as we rode down the parade route.

We had to meet them at a certain time and they took us "backstage" (Disney-talk for behind the gates or doors where only cast members go) and we got in the car and they took some photos. Then after the Mayor of Main Street (the announcer) talked to us a little bit and learned our names, we took off out into the park and went down the parade route. We waved and smiled at everyone lined up to see the parade. It was really cool to see everyone waving back and cheering for us. (I've removed our name on the plaque from the photo for security - stop by the house to see it - it's way cool!)

When that was over they gave us the balloons from the back of the car and the kids handed out some of those to people watching the parade. We then watched the parade from a special spot they had reserved for us. It was a great experience.

We also met up with Kerianne's Aunt Judi and cousin Claire for part of the time there. Claire is going to college at a nearby school and met us every day we were there for a few hours. Judi flew in and spent two days with us. It was fun to have them there and we had a great time going on rides together. They are great "ride buddies" - Spencer loved riding with Judi and the girls took turns riding with Claire. I actually got to go on few rides sitting next to Kerianne which hasn't happened for a while. They have some new rides there, including the Finding Nemo Submarines and the Toy Story Midway which was so dang fun I couldn't believe it.

As the kids get taller, they are able to go on more rides. This time Keri and Spencer went on California Screamin and loved the upside-down part. Spencer was even tall enough to ride Maliboomer, so Harrison, Claire and I rode on it with him. Wow, that was fun - I've never ridden that before. Kaylee didn't do either of those, but she was no longer scared of Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, or Thunder Mountain and we rode those a ton of times.

We also spent a day in the Carlsbad (near San Diego) area and went to Legoland. They have some really cool Lego displays there - someone puts a ton of time into those. There's some fun rides and some that are probably for younger kids that we didn't go on. The kids got to drive in little cars, a little like bumper cars, but with roads and turn signals and stop signs. The goal is to learn to drive with rules. They got a "driver's license" at the end of the ride. Legoland has a great water playground where the kids got soaking wet and we just watched them play. Harrison got to spend some time at Mindstorm where he got to program a little robot to do various space-themed "missions" - that was fun for me to watch. He gave it several steps in order to accomplish a task, then would put it on the Mars site and see if it did what it was supposed to do. If not, he could go back and correct it and try again.

After Legoland, we went to the beach and played for a few hours. We all loved that. I find the ocean waves so relaxing (other than trying to keep the kids out of them and freaking out as the kids get sand in the car). Kerianne says the beach is her favorite place to be. We stayed there long enough to watch the sun set. It was so cool. We gotta do more of that.

It was a great trip. It was good to get home and rest from our vacation, but I think I'd prefer to be on vacation all the time. I gotta figure out how to make that happen ...

I'm a little camera crazy and took over 400 photos. Click here to see some of our favorites in a slide show.

Fathers and Sons Camp

Harrison, Spencer and I went to our ward's Fathers and Sons Camp a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time. They had great dutch oven food for dinner and breakfast. We had a lot of friends there and it was just fun to relax and enjoy being together. It got a little colder at night than we had thought - there was frost on the van windows when we woke up in the morning. After breakfast, we went to a really beautiful set of waterfalls and hiked around the area. I'm really glad we went.

Today's Half Marathon

I ran a half marathon this morning. It was a new course that I haven't run before. I had seen a map of the course and knew it was basically an "out and back" where you run out to a point, loop around, and come back the same route. Most out and back courses are fairly flat. However, I was surprised at the slight uphill during the first half and a couple of steep hills just before the halfway point.

After starting maybe a little too fast, I tried to keep my pace steady for the most part. In the half I ran a few weeks ago I started to really slow down around mile 9 or 10, but today I felt strong and kept my pace even. I finished at 1:48:45, almost 3 minutes faster than a few weeks ago. I felt better at the finish and now a few hours later I don't feel anywhere near as sore as I did a few weeks ago. I did bloody up a toe a bit - it's just a badge of honor for me.

Today's half marathon marks my tenth half. I think I understand 13.1 miles better than a full marathon and know about how I'll feel each mile along the race. Not that anyone cares other than me, here's a list of the ten and the times:

3/2005	2:03:56
3/2006	1:58:53
8/2006	1:53:15
9/2006	1:48:53
3/2007	1:52:02
4/2007	1:49:21
8/2007	1:43:39
4/2008	1:51:35
8/2008	1:51:38
9/2008	1:48:45

Yes, I plan to do another ten.

Carousel at the Zoo

Last weekend we went to the zoo and rode on the Carousel. The kids all got to ride on their favorite animals.


Keri likes the cheetah - I believe it's mostly for the fashionable coat.

Monkeys have always been Kaylee's favorite.






Spencer has loved elephants ever since he was little.

And Harrison is riding the "Poison Dart Frog" which I think must be a new favorite based on the cool sounding name.


Yeah, we have blue lips and tongues. It was a really hot day and the blue shaved ice really hit the spot. Spencer was embarrassed when we told him about his blue mouth and he wanted to go wash it off.

Harrison in Braces

Harrison got braces about three weeks ago. Since neither Kerianne nor I had braces, we didn't really know how this all works. It's been a learning experience. One of the things I learned was how much this all costs. Ouch!













Harrison has done really well with the whole thing - we're really proud of him. The first two weeks he wore a "palette expander" which we had to give a half twist twice a day to push his teeth out. He says it's like some medieval torture device.

Here's an x-ray they took before they put on his braces.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. Keri, Spencer and Kaylee are in 2nd grade. Kerianne is their substitute teacher for the first two weeks while their real teacher is out with a new baby. They are all excited about that.

Everyone seemed happy to go back to school, except maybe Harrison - he had been enjoying the freedoms of summer. He's in 6th grade this year.

Backyard S'mores

Tonight after FHE we made S'mores over a little grill in the backyard. This is as close to camping as Kerianne likes to be. The funny event of the evening was when Spencer's marshmallow caught fire and he was yelling and screaming too much to blow out the fire. We had a good laugh at that.

County Fair Winners

After going with Grandma and Grandpa their county fair, the kids thought it would be fun to enter a Lego display to be judged at our fair. They all won blue ribbons for their entries.

This is Kaylee's entry called "Jungle Path".

Keri's entry was called "Keri's Pyramid".


Spencer called his entry "Hot Mountain" - I'm guessing he's referring to the volcano parts. Spencer also won an additional "High Blue" ribbon, one of only two given. We think they did a great job. Spencer is already talking about his next year's entry.

While at the fair we had a fun time looking around at the various exhibits. There's a lot of strange stuff there and some really stinky animals. The midway rides looked scary so we didn't do that. We did get to watch a pig race - Keri picked the blue pig to win and got a ribbon.