Catch up! - Trip to Utah wrap-up

Hello, Blogger Readers!

Well, the kids are back in school, and I'm finding myself with two seconds to rub together, and lots of pictures to catch up on.

Back in November 22nd, Adam and I spent the day at Solitude skiing with Whitney, Lizzie and Eli. Finally, after years of teaching the kids, we reap the rewards of skiing together. It was true Skiing Bliss! No crowds, fresh powder, great company. Also noteworthy is that Whitney taught us the song "Hot Cup of Cocoa" which went on to be the theme song of our trip, as well as a new favorite for the CCC Christmas parade in December...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The next day was our 12th Anniversary! We seem to attract snowstorms this year, and we certainly did that night. But we braved the icy weather for a French dinner at Franck's as the snow fell outside. Beautiful!

Oliver was making the rounds to get to know lots of family members. Here he is at the Eastman's house, happy, rosy, and chubby as can be.

The night before Thanksgiving, there was a cooking party at the Eastmans, and with the looming pie contest the next day, we made ourselves useful creating this amazing masterpiece. I love me some lemon meringue!

And don't think our Turkey bullies forgot us this year just because we traveled out of state to avoid them! This year, instead of a turkey, we got a warning. It was terrifying, it was shocking. I've just barely recovered enough to write about it. It was...

A RUBBER CHICKEN!!! Do you see the fear on my children's faces? Oh, make it stop!

Well, the big day finally arrived, cold and snowy, and filled with delicious food and lots of family! We spent the day with Adam's family, who were all there - Vickie, Alan, Lloyd, James, Jennie, Tom, Megan, Jason, and Jack the Dog. We had quite a group! We took lots of family pictures that morning, so I must have been pictured-out, because the only pictures I have of that wonderful day are this:

...which makes it look like we served toast for Thanksgiving... And this cute one of Megan and Jason:

And here we are helping the older generation with their texting. Where is Whitney when we need her?

The next day we visited some museums in downtown Salt Lake. Here we are doing anti-gravity stunts on the moon: (sorry your cool pose was obstructed by my arm, Whit-whan!)

...learning how to fly a helicopter,
And I had to include this picture to show you what Ivy wore that day. If you can't quite realize its whole glory, I will go ahead and describe to you: Electric lime colored leggings under a red and black plaid pleated school-girl skirt, a shaggy brown sweater under her favorite super-colorful t-shirt that reads "Friends are Forever". Wow.
Oliver! Don't touch that Dial!

We sang Christmas songs around the piano, and Ivy was her usual shy self. No wait, she wasn't.

The day after Thanksgiving is the first day the Christmas lights are turned on at Temple Square. We had primo seats and got to see them turn on that night!

Later we went down and braved the cold weather to see the sights in person.

We went inside the Assembly Hall where mom and I had our recital last year:

The next morning we left for home. Thank you Eastmans and Palmers for a wonderful Thanksgiving Week!

Thanksgiving Polar Bear Swim

This Thanksgiving, the Club consisted of One.

This One:











Sixty-two Degrees, Friends, Sixty-two Degrees.

Irritable Ike Update

We thought concerned readers would want to know that we received the following letter yesterday:

Dearest Adam, Aimee, Lizzie, Eli, and Ivy,

It has come to our attention that one of our employees, a Mr. Ike P. Irritable, has insinuated himself into your household and proven a considerable nuisance. We hope you appreciate that our policy here at Honeycomb Turkey Industries, Int., has always been to bring joy and delight to our customers - not unmade beds, choral discord & automotive disfunction. Our turkeys are meant to sit quitely on a mantel or perch on a dining room table and BE NICE! We are distressed to have seen your video - oh, oh, we forgot the part about the torn up homework - horrible, horrible! Or as we at Honeycomb Turkey say at times of great dismay - Gobble horribilis! Gobbilis horrible! OR gobble, gobble, toil and trobble! (Hunh?!)

Please accept our sincere apologies. Rest assured that next year you can expect a much better behaved Turkey. We've already set aside a coule of suitable candidates: Mean Maniac Mike or Peter Pesky Pest. Until then, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Sincerely - Cyrus B. Wonkel Bottom, President & CEO

In a show of good faith, we thought we would publish Honeycomb's apology letter, to avoid any further damage to their company's reputation our turkey and his exploits might have caused. But be assured that we will think twice before inviting Maniac Mike into our home next year...

Pie Party

Pie Party is code for luring family and friends to come and sing and play with you! For me, it was an extension of my overflowing feelings from Thanksgiving: for Friends, Family, the dozens of people who helped us turn rocks into grass in our front yard, for abundance of food, for glorious music and for people to share it with.


And to Adam Dibble for letting me steal his cool photo collage from that night!

Much to be Thankful For

This rainbow appeared on Thanksgiving, reminding me how thankful I am for rain. And the beauty of nature.

And bounteous food prepared lovingly from scratch. And to be surrounded by family ...who I think we wore out because they worked really really hard to make a wonderful day for the whole family...
Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Thanksgiving Extravaganza: The Phoenician!

Dad treated all the boys to a day of golfing at the Phoenician. The weather was perfect! Eli learned to tee off and putt - he even got his own clubs and of course loved to drive the golf cart. But in the end, Dad was the one who won it all - just the way he likes it!! :)

Thanksgiving Extravaganza: Guitar Hero III

Truly, this was a highlight of the week: Watching Matt rip it up on HYPERSPEED EXPERT level playing Cliffs of Dover. It was pretty sweet.

Rock on, Brother.

Thanksgiving Extravaganza: The Feast!

We have some serious cooks in this family! John made the butternut squash soup, asparagus, and carved the turkey, Erin made the salad, Adam made the stuffing, Mom made the shrimp cocktail, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams and dessert, and I did the turkey and cranberry sauce! YUM!!!