We are thankful for Vacations!

 We were able to go on our annual family vacation to Southern California and to Arizona to see Aunt Lynn and Uncle Jake with their families and then Arizona to see Grandma and Grandpa Chesley's house to see cousins and have Thanksgiving.  The trip was so much fun.  We had a bit of weather on the way down there...we bought snow chains just as a precaution in case we needed to use them.  But the snow issue was short and we didn't need them.  Thank goodness.  We are ever grateful for Travis and his foresight into taking good care of us.

We went to Jake's parents house on Saturday morning.  The kids hiked around their property and played on scooters on their tennis court.  Although it was ridiculously cold for southern California.  The kids loved it.  Later in the day we took them to Magic Mountain (the lines were amazing ).  Jake had tickets to an LA Clippers game and took Travis with him to see it while we were at Magic Mountain.  He had a blast as well and forgot how much he loves going to see professional basketball games.

 On Monday we went to Magic Mountain again!  This time Lynn met us there (oh and Trish and Matthew were also there).  It was  a super fun time, although the lines were worse on Monday than they were on Saturday.  Dallin was just shy of the 48" mark to be able to ride several of the bigger rides, but he ended up being about to get on a few and loved them!  He is a thrill seeker for sure.  Tyler also loved it because it was his first time being able to go on many of the big rides.  Gwendalin and Hunter had fun as well.  Taking turns riding with different cousins.  At one point we lost Jack (Lynn's 3 year old) it was so scary - we think he was gone for about 10 minutes or more before we realized where he had gone...Lynn was hysterical and the rest of us just ran around looking for where he might have gone.  Travis ended up finding him up the hill about 1/2 mile from where we currently were in the park.  It was so so scary!!!

 Hanging out in Aunt Lynn's bed one morning.

 Annabelle measuring Uncle Travis' muscles.

 Hunter consoling Aunt Lynn after we found Jack.

Eagle Middle Wrestler

Hunter wrestled Varisty this year for Eagle Middle.  He was so fun to watch and wrestled his heart out during each match.  I captured a picture one day after watching him wrestle.  I am so proud of him for trying every time and giving it his best.  He is such a good boy.

Freezer meals

In an attempt to make our food money stretch further I tried making freezer meals.  I made 6 meals this in one afternoon.  It wasn't too hard and honestly the house smelled divine when I was cooking.  I will have to see how everyone likes the meals to see if it's worth continuing, but it sure is handy to have them in the freezer just ready to pull out on a day when I don't have a plan.

Meet 'Lil Bass

Two years ago (July 2011) the kids earned free goldfish from a summer reading program at the library.  We ended up bringing 4 home (one for each child) and our neighbors gave us 2.  We had 6 fish at one point.  They all died off one by one and this guy  - well, we were sure he was a gonner as he lasted the longest and then began swimming sideways with his gills top/bottom of tank rather than side to side.  It was the craziest thing...we were just waiting for it to die.  But alas, it did not.  And here we are 2 1/2 years later same fish.  He has his own tank and has grown immensely.  Travis has named him 'Lil Bass and so he remains...huge goldfish.  We will now be sad when passes away.

Randoms.

Dallin fell asleep with his hand on mine while I was holding him....I couldn't resist the picture.  The next picture is Hunter in a sumo suit and Jared's 40th birthday party ....

 And this is our primary practice.....I only have a picture because I am the primary secretary and the historian wanted a report.  :)

Halloween

Kids scored big time with candy this year!  Hunter went out with some buddies (he was a shadow guy) and came home with a pillow case full of candy.  Travis and I took the other kids around our neighborhood for a while and then he left with our hometeacher (Kip) to go Elk hunting....I took the kids for another hour and they did pretty darn good.  Tyler was spiderman- shooting webs everywhere, Dallin was Iron Man - after I had already spent money on a vampire costume he changed his mind....and Gwendlin was the cutest witch you have ever seen.