North Pole Express

We had the opportunity to go on the North Pole Express today. Eric took off work and we took Bryson out of school. The kids had fun on the train and then we got to see Santa again at the North Pole. This was a good looking Santa. It was a fun day as a family.
Acting silly at the train station

Bryson on the train

Carley on the train

madalyn on the train

Bryson and Madalyn

Bryson and Dad

Bryson with Santa


Carley and Santa


Madalyn still wasn't sure about Santa

A beautiful picture of the north pole (aka soldier hollow) I love that I live in this beautiful valley. We had a fresh dusting of snow this morning.

Mom and madalyn

Carley, mom, and Madalyn

All three of the kids with Santa.

Town Christmas Party

Each year, Midway has a town Christmas Party. At the end Santa comes. This was the first time Maddy has seen Santa so she wasn't quite sure, but after the candy cane she was happy. Bryson asked for a skateboard and Carley asked for a pillow pet.
Bryson and Santa


Carley and Santa


Maddy wondering who this man is

Maddy starting to cry


The candy cane makes it all better

christmas lights at temple square

Monday night we were in Salt Lake so we decided to go to the lights on Temple Square. I love seeing the lights. The kids had fun too.







In one of the nooks of the temple. Maddy is getting to be a cheese with the camera

When Maddy rides in the stoller usually one child rides on the back and one walks. Eric was pushing the stroller because I was taking pictures and Carley asks if she can ride on his back. So he is pushing Maddy, Bryson and carrying Carley.


Bryson and Carley in front of the Christus statue



These pictures were taken before our ward christmas party

O Christmas Tree

We put our Christmas tree up last night for Family Home Evening. My kids love it. Our ornaments are handmade or bought when we are on vacation or have special significance. Eric's mom gave us all of his from when he was little. The kids love putting them up and remembering where we got them. They fought over who would put the star on top of the tree so Eric had to lift both of them up at the same time. I also had to get a picture of Maddy helping although she really took the star off. We had a great night listening to christmas music and putting the tree up.

Beautiful Sunset over Mt Timpanogos

I love my view out the front of my house. Mt Timpanogos is a beautiful mountain and I remember since I was little my Grandma telling me about the indian princess laying down. Her head is on the left and then her arms and then her legs are bent. It took me forever to finally figure it out, but everytime I look at it I love it. My blog header is of a sunset that was taken on an Easter night four years ago. I happened to be looking outside last week and this is what I saw. I love it.

San Francisco

I love San Francisco. To give you a little background I was born and lived in the Bay Area until I was 10. A lot of my early childhood memories come from going to San Francisco with my Mom. She worked in the TransAmerica Building (or pyramid) on the 33rd floor. I used to love going to work with her on Saturdays or when I was sick. You could walk around the whole floor of the building and get a perfect panorama of San Francisco – the bay bridge, golden gate, Alcatraz, Coit Tower, and many other sites. I remember for lunch we always went to China town and got Chinese food. When I was little we went on the cable cars and to Alcatraz and to Fisherman’s Wharf. I lived there during the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake and will always remember watching the news and seeing the bay bridge collapse. It has traumatized me with bridges for life.
Eric had a conference in San Francisco in September, but it didn’t work out for me to go with him. When he got back he told me he didn’t see what was so special about San Francisco, it is full of crazies and homeless people all over the street. To me it holds the memories of my childhood
My Mom still goes back to the bay area for work a lot so I finally found a time to go with her and leave the kids. The last time I was there I went with my Mom, but I also took Carley with me and she was 5 months old.
This time my main point was shopping, but I also wanted to go and take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and Fort Point. Out of all my memories I never went there. Fort Point is military fort that was built during the civil war to protect the city. When my oldest brother was in 5th grade he was able to spend the night with his school class and reenact parts of the war. I was excited to go and see the fort and see the Golden Gate Bridge. I knew the city always had fog, but I was so sad when I couldn’t even see the outline of the bridge when we got there at 11:00. We walked around the fort and then had lunch and walked around some more. We decided to watch a movie about the making of the bridge at 1:30 and when we came out the fog was finally starting to clear. I was so excited. I finally got my pictures. Even though my Mom wanted to walk across the bridge I told her I would never go. I didn’t even want to drive across – it terrifies me. After taking pictures we went and shopped and shopped and shopped some more for the rest of the weekend. We had a lot of fun and I had fun being in the city


The first picture I took


the fog starting to clear

Sail boats in the bay

Fort Point

Clear Skies

One of my favorite pictures



My mom and I on the roof of Fort point with the bridge in the background


A view of the city. The pointy triangle building or pyramid is where my mom worked

A big chevron ocean tanker was going under the bridge



A funny story with this. About five minutes before this picture was taken a guy had stopped with his bike to take a picture. I guess he didn't realize that the waves splashed on the land he got drenched. A convertible car also got drenched. It made us laugh