AUSTIN 18 AND A SENIOR

Austin turned 18 this month.  It's so hard to believe.  This could be our last Christmas with him for two years.  We are getting him ready for college and he is taking his classes to become an elder.  I remember so much about his youth and what a great kid he has always been.  I'm excited to see the awesome man he is going to become and I love him so dang much.  I better enjoy every minute of him this year!

Never too old for SANTA

Moab

We went to Moab with our great friends the Wilkeys.  We had never taken our family there and I have no idea why.  We had so much fun.  We mountain biked all over.  We hiked the arch.  We went Jeeping over crazy things.  It was so scary but I loved it. Once again we slept in the motor home as a family.  We are getting very used to the squishy motor home. We will spend a lot more time in Moab in our near future!

Our Christmas 2010

As usual we played all Christmas Break!  We went to a Jazz game, the nutcracker, festival of the trees, bought Christmas for an angel, saw a few movies and went skiing.  Christmas Eve we spent with the Stalker family.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone and Jess came down for Christmas Eve and stayed for Christmas morning.  It was so good to have the whole family around for a night.  We cut way back this Christmas with our spending but you wouldn't of been able to tell by the excitement of the house.  I got great deals on Amazon.com and made our dollars really stretch.  Austin got an amp he really wanted, Sid and Jess got new iphone 4's, Nikki got a used computer,and Conner got a lot of fun toys.  This year Conner figured out the Santa secret and it was really sad.  I think we will just keep leaving Santa out and pretending that he came because it is so fun.  I don't want to give that all up.

Skiing at Sundance

This year our whole family got Sundance ski passes.  We have already been 4 times! Turns out to be a cheap family activity once you pay for the passes, the ski's, the snowboards, the ski outfits, the lost gloves, the hot hands, the new helmets you feel guilty not buying for the safety of you children and last but least the sundance chili and nachos that taste extra yummy when you come in from the cold.  We sure have fun though and everyone is getting really good.  It is beautiful up there if it would just warm up a titch!

Cousins

We went to festival trees again this year with the cousins.  The next week we had a huge cousin sleepover with all the Stalker side kids.  It was a blast.  We cooked, made ginger bread houses, and danced.  We hung out at Pirate Island for hours, everyone got a ballon animal and tons of tickets.  All the cousins then slept together on the family room floor and watched Kung Fu Panda.  The next morning we loaded them all into Grandma's van and took them to Kripsy Kreme in their pajamas.  This has become an Aunt Sandi tradition that they all expect when they sleep over at our house.  We came home and gathered everyone up and they went home.  Now that I have no more little ones in the house I really appreciate those little ones so much more.  They are just adorable! Kids, I'm not in a hurry but it makes me excited to be a fun, spoiling grandma!

The New Year!

Another year has come and gone.  2010 was a pretty good year.  We did a ton of stuff as a family together. We all grew emotionally and spiritually through various trails thrown our way.  We had some great trips to Moab, Disneyland, and San Franciso. Excited for the new year and all it has to give.  Bring it on we are ready to face the good and the bad. ( Hopefully more good times)