All Lit Up!

Well, after a couple of Saturdays, the lights are finally up. Doesn't our house look great with Christmas lights? We sure think so.

It doesn't usually take us this long to get the lights up, but Robert went to eight different stores to try and find a couple more strands of the white C9 lights that we have always used in this house. For some reason, these lights are nearly non existent now. I guess we are just behind the times as all the stores had plenty of lights, but they were usually of the LED variety. In the end, Robert used his Martha Stewart skills and bought three more strings of clear lights and then proceeded to spray paint them white (I guess he was looking for something to do today). If you can guess which lights are the spray painted ones, we will give you a prize. Now we just need to add the final touches outside, and set up Christmas inside.

Blue Christmas

We always know it is Christmas time when our friends (Hi guys) put up their blue snowflake Christmas lights. We can see them clearly from our house and they even give our living room an interesting blue glow when all our lights are off. It's the kickoff to the season and we love seeing them every year. Thanks Ryan & Robynn, we love you!

Wicked-Tennis

Dad and I played some wicked tennis today. (That's a sneak peek reference to the 2nd half of this post). I like to run, he likes to play tennis-so we compromise. Last night he ran 3.1 miles with Kayla and I around the Rose Bowl, and this morning I played tennis with him at his friend Brenda's house. He is a very good tennis player (being ambidextrous can only help) so he doesn't get much competitive play from me, but we always have a great time. This time he was helping me work on my serve. I couldn't combine serving hard and keeping it within the box. I learned I was hitting the ball on it's way up instead of waiting until it was staring to come down. I did get several good hard serves in and never hit any of my home run type balls over the fence. Oh, isn't tennis so fun when you're not very good. It is fun when I play with Dad. Thanks for a great morning Dad!

In the afternoon Grandma, Aubrey, Kayla and I went down to Hollywood to see Wicked at the Pantages Theater. It's always fun to got to Hollywood, and it's not that far from where we grew up. Robert & I, we seem like the Hollywood type, huh? Anyway, it was Kayla's 1st time seeing Wicked, and she loved it. We've been listening to the soundtrack for a long time, and all those songs come together when you see the production. We had a fun time and got some neat souvenirs to remember our experience.

Let the Journey Begin

The Girls and I are headed out on a 24-day journey. Grandma Webber flew up to Salt Lake to drive back to LA with us. Here are the girls about 5:15 am when we moved them from their beds to the car. We were hoping for a few more hours, or at least a few more minutes of sleep from them. Doesn't Emi look tired back there in her seat?

Once the sun and the kids arose, they watched the new American Girl Movie, "Kit Kitridge". We had seen it once before as a family, and I do recommend it. We stopped in St. George for breakfast and ate at IHOP, one of the girls favorite breakfast restaurants. Emi ordered the chocolate funny face pancakes and I thought this picture captured it well. After endless stacks of pancakes and french toast, we were back on the road. Our next meal stop was in Baker, CA. Not a good choice. The service was slow, the food was okay (though Mom did have a good salad) and about 10 minutes after we left, Brenna started throwing up in her car seat. This is one of the things you dread on a long road trip. Aaagh. Not so fun. Aubrey's undershirt became Brenna's new outfit, and we carried on.

As we came into town, we could see clouds of thick smoke. This photo was taken as we exited the freeway in La Crescenta, the city where Robert & I grew up, and where both of our parents still reside. We did not know we were about to enter the worse series of fires in the Los Angeles area in the last 50 years.

We were glad to finally arrive and be able to move around outside of the car. We had made it, and we're looking forward to the adventures ahead.

Tour de South Jordan

Many of you know that Robert bought a road bicycle this spring and has enjoyed riding it. He has been bugging me to get one for a few months, so a couple weeks back we went on an 18-mile 'test bike ride' with a friends bike and I really enjoyed it. Last week we went to the bike store and came home with a fancy orange bike specifically designed for a 'short woman', that's me. I had been practicing using the special shoes and pedals in our family room using Robert's trainer (a machine you hook your bike to so you can ride it like a stationary bike) and felt ready to hit the road. Well, that's exactly what I did. I took some asphalt to my shins, thighs, and elbows as I tried to get the hang of unlocking my shoe from the pedal. Balancing on the road was a little different than balancing on the trainer. I was glad when I finally got the hang of it, and we headed down to the Jordan River and then around South Jordan. We are looking forward to some fun rides together when it gets warm. Thanks for the bike bub!

Catching Up

It's Sunday night. The kids are in bed, and I am catching up on the blog. For those of you who don't have little kids, the daylight savings time extra hour actually comes the next night, when you can put the kids to bed early. I have been out of town this week, but am slowly getting back into the routine. I can't beleive it's already November. Amazing. We were just mentioning how a farmer down the road on 2700 West will be putting up his manger scene soon. It seems like it was just up not that long ago. Time is flying by. Our goal is to enjoy it.

Pyrmaid Time

Oh, the joy of school projects. The last week before tracking-off is always 'big project' time. This weekend Aubrey worked on making a pyramid, (notice it is hallowed out to show all of the interior chambers) . This picture doesn't really do justice for the sweat and tears shed on this project, not to mention the 2 day dilemma of what type of material to use to build the pyramid. We finally gave up on thinking, and wandered the aisles of the craft store, until we saw the Styrofoam cube. Boy, with 5 kids in school, we've got a lot of craft aisle wandering ahead of us.