Valley of Fire

This last weekend we spent a day in the Nevada desert with Grandpa and Uncle Spencer at the Valley of Fire. Abbie & Dallin quickly discovered how to have a good time.



It looked like Dallin had fun playing in the sand, but later on he denied it.



Emma, however, had plenty of fun during the Leaping Lizard Rodeo.

So, we took the kids to the ultrasound and had a great time

watching this little baby jump around on the screen.

And what are the chances of this kind of perfection

happening but, it did - A Boy!!

Two girls, two boys - We are totally excited!!!

Stonehenge

I'm in the UK for business and had the opportunity to see a few sights before getting to work:

Stonehenge

Portchester Castle

Every cemetery deserves to have a haunted castle looming over it; it goes well with the crooked headstones.

From the top of the Keep - this view got me thinking that I ought to attend to some of those pending projects around the house before too many accumulate on the "to do" list.

At one point this castle housed 7,000 French Prisoners-of-war. It's a much happier (and I'm sure better-smelling) place today.

My Life In Print...

This comic bears such a likeness to my own life

I had to give it a voice on my blog.

Does it ring true for anyone else?

(love you honey, and no offense intended :-)

2009: Year of Adventure

Emma, Abbie, and I decided to start the new year with an adventure. We settled on a nature hike in Saratoga Springs.

Above: Emma & Abbie by the hot spring.

When we were finished hiking around, we noticed that there were several fisherman down on the Jordan River. So we went to check it out.
To our delight, we discovered that those fisherman have been boring holes through the ice all up and down that river.

So we went for a stroll...

...up the river and out onto Utah Lake. Which is also covered by ice (and fishing holes).

Such fun!

Some fishermen were more successful than others, we watched the guy who caught these pull one out every minute or so. We had a really fun time discovering something new. After all, it's not every day that you get to walk on water.

Little Reminders

Our house has been full of the Christmas Spirit this morning

with the making of our families' favorite Christmas Slush!

It's one of our best-loved traditions.

So the trick to this recipe is remembering to stir while freezing.

While we cleaned up, I gave the girls their charge:

REMIND MOMMY TO STIR THE SLUSH

and here we have it.

Learning from previous experiences

I took the kids to the playground yesterday and they insisted on playing in the sand volleyball court, to which I conceded. They had a fun time; Abbie especially enjoyed making sand smoke...well "enjoyed" may be up for debate. See for yourself - watch for her in the top left corner of the screen.

The incredible thing was how she could be seen rubbing her eyes immediately before making the second cloud of sand smoke. Dallin had a different kind of repetition going on. Apparently he was conducting an experiment to see if the flavor of the sand differed from one part of the court to another. I managed to catch one of his trials on video.

Sand and all, the trip to the playground was a success. Unfortunately, we won't have a lot of opportunities to repeat the experience in the coming months. (Of course we will eventually have sledding - woohoo!)