"2nd Best Christmas Ever"

 To chronicle Christmas 2013, we'll start and finish with our little Jack-attack.  Jack and I were the first ones on the Sugarloaf on the morning of Christmas eve.  It is once again that time of year in which we pass the time on the "longest day of the year" by hiking on the Red hill.

 Emily is reminding us that the blue blue sky and shorts weather on Christmas eve is just one reason we love living in southern Utah.

 It felt to me like the rocks have been getting closer together over the past year...just sayin'.

 A new and enjoyable addition to our Christmas eve was lunch at the newly established BW3's.

 B-Dubs always brings a smile to my face.

 That night was Grandma Sullivan's Rockin' Christmas Eve party with the Sullivan clan.  Jack can be seen getting gift wrapped by George in the Minute To Win It competition - and the winner is...

 Jack! (or at least he was led to believe so)

 Seth and McKay dominated.

 As did Shana

 As did I

 BOOM! and suddenly we're at Christmas morning.  The kids told me (to my face), "2nd best Christmas ever, Dad."  That hit was below the belt.  Who wants to hear that?

 Laynee - running stuff

 Drew - Bike and phone

 Seth - baseball stuff, excavating kit, and remote control helicopter

Jack - stuff

 Seth wasted no time finding the gems in his Smithsonian  excavation kit.

 Careful - Don't get whiplash with the post.  Now we've made it to the wonderful Christmas breakfast at the Rimer's.

 We're all pretty good at eating.

 Suddenly, we're playing kickball with the Wells, Sullivan, Beckstrand crew.  This was a first.  For years we've been having a home run derby, but with growing children, it was long overdue that we have a Christmas activity that involved everyone - and kickball was perfect.

 What a gorgeous day - James was the MVP.

 And back to eating.  This time it is Christmas dinner at our house with the Burgess crew.  Home made Cafe Rio was the menu of the night.

 This is Seth with his prized Christmas gift in mid-flight.  I talked to him about being a pilot for a living.  He had some valid concerns about the pressure involved in being a pilot and we talked about the education, supervision, and instruction required.  Then he cut to the chase - "Dad, do pilots make lots of money?"

We started with Jack and we will conclude with Jack...drinking his chocolate milk through his glasses.

Gingerbread Weekend

 House update

 Flooded house update

 Let the games begin.

 The gingerbread house decorating contest was held at 1pm (after lunch) and beside each house was a piece of gum...both unsuccessful ploys to keep the candy out of the kids' mouths.

 Oh, the concentration.

 Grandma came down to heckle the contestants.

Everyone is a winner (except Jack)

Still Cold Outside

 How cold you may ask? This cold.  The ice in the pool entertained the boys for hours this weekend.

 The snow from a week ago is still everywhere.  It's a bit frustrating how cold it is.  It hasn't warmed up enough to melt - even in the areas of full sun.  The kids love to push the envelope by walking on the ice.

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 We had a very special opportunity to hear from one of our apostles - Elder L. Tom Perry.  This is Laynee getting ready to shake his hand.  Drew also shook his hand, but Seth and Jack declined.  Our stake split and two new stake presidencies were formed as our Stake President was released.  

 Two hours in one seat is a long time for a 6 year old to handle - so this is what we turned to for help.

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 This past Friday marked mine and Shana's 16th wedding anniversary.  This set of hand-spun plates was given to us for a wedding gift and we've used them every single week for all of those years.  A few of them have had cracks in them for a long time and as I was doing the dishes today, it finally broke...unlike our marriage.

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 Last but not least, Laynee needed to stop by my mom's house for just a minute to use the computer and heard some dripping.  Upon further inspection - a sprinkler pipe out back had frozen, burst, and was leaking water into a window well of the basement, completely covering the floor with water.  The troops were called in.  Insurance was contacted and they sent over a disaster clean-up crew.

 This is how we look at it.  Using the words of a 1960's Relief Society manual (which survived the previous 40+ years, but did not survive the flooding), "Happy Families Do Things TOGETHER."  Amen to that. 

Lauri had started a bit of de-junking a few weeks back, but this is the impetus to carry the job through.  We are a happy family.

Baby, its cold outside...

 Laynee took off to Cali with her XC team to the Footlocker meet.  Every so often she goes to school too.

 Laynee and her friend Kassidy on the Santa Monica pier...it all started off so fun, but the plot thickens on the ride home.  To be continued...

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 The snow started to fall on Wednesday - that wasn't bad.  It wasn't a lot of snow, but unlike typical St. George snow storms, it wasn't gone by noon.  The temperatures had dropped to ridiculously low, and it set us up for an epic snow storm on Saturday.

 The main snow storm started in on Saturday.  We already had some snow on the ground.  The temperatures weren't climbing above freezing.  It snowed, and snowed, and snowed - I'm saying 8 inches.  When I got home from whatever I was doing on Saturday, Jack was proud of this little 1.5 foot snow man - Olaf.

It just so happens - the snow was perfect for making a snow man - and when I discovered this, Jack and I put together this 7 footer you see below.  I thought I was going to put my back out.  We even recruited Shana to help hoist the body up on the base.

 After the snow man, we threw together a fort out back.  I had a great time with Jack that afternoon and evening in the snow.

 The Homefront

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Back to the story - Laynee did awesome.  She came in 10th place among Frosh/Soph girls from the western United States.  Yes, 10th!  And overall, among all racers, Freshman through Seniors, she came in 42nd out of approximately 500 racers. Oh, and first on her team.  The real story begins on the trip home.  They made it to Mesquite, but the snow storm that we were experiencing was worrisome and was hitting the gorge.  Because of a couple semi-truck accidents, it took the charter bus they were riding (and about 300 other vehicles) 13 hours to travel the few final miles before they made it home.  They were tired and thirsty but safe and thank goodness for being able to text-message Laynee even while in the gorge.  The story even made national news. 

Thanksgiving Week

It was my privilege to join Drew for an early morning breakfast and recognition for being named one of the Students of the Month at Sunrise Ridge Intermediate.

Drew was chosen by his social studies teacher, Mrs Thompson.

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The kids didn't have school on Wednesday and we had a little temple work to take care of, so we were up early enough to take care of that and a nice breakfast at Village Inn before I headed down to Mesquite for work.  Drew hardly made a dent in those pancakes.

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For the third year running, the kids requested the volcano on Thanksgiving morning.  The Davis crew joined us once again and came dressed for the occasion this time.

On our way out of town, we called Jeremy to see if he would be interested in hiking with us.  He was just getting out of the shower but was happy to join us.  Even though he is born and raised in St. George, this was his first time ever hiking the volcano (little did he know, it would be his first and second).

As the party was separating - Shana and Jeremy were going down the back of the volcano and taking the Davis girls and the rest of us were going down the steeper and more dangerous face of the volcano. Addie Davis wanted to go with her dad down the face but we thought we convinced her to go with Shana and Jeremy for a more leisurely descent.  Somehow, she got left by everyone by herself at the top of the volcano and it wasn't til Emily, who was hiking with Shana, heard screaming and knew it was Addie clear back up at the top...so back up went Shana and Jeremy to retrieve the lonely Addie.  All's well that ends well.

We broke off and held our own Thanksgiving feast.

We were joined by the Davis family for a wonderful day.

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It has been since April 21st that I was last in Zion Canyon, and I was very excited to be back.  This was Seth's first time ever hiking Observation Point.

The weather was a perfect crisp autumn day.  We start of layered, but are quickly down to our t-shirts as our bodies warm up on the hike up.

Enjoying a great mountain top lunch.  We made it to the top in one hour and twenty minutes.  Seth fit right in and didn't complain once.  I'm so glad to be able to add him to my crew of hikers...grateful that they can and that they are willing to tackle these hikes.

At the summit we sit at an elevation of 6,508 feet above sea level.  The hike is 4 miles to the top and an elevation gain of over 2100 feet in elevation.

Candids on the way down.

Mom and Jack had a long date and went to Disney's 'Frozen' while we were hiking.  Jack will hopefully join us in a year or two.

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Much to our surprise, the Young's decided to join us the day after thanksgiving.  We partied with our good friends all day Saturday.

We were thoroughly entertained by a long game of 'Kill the Carrier' at Snow Canyon sand dunes.  Good times