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

Halloween 2010

This year our family did the star wars theme for Halloween. Bryson wanted to be Luke Skywalker so I had Carley be Princess leia and Maddy be Yoda. it worked out great. The kids had so much fun. We had a ward trunk or treat Saturday night, but it was raining the whole time so we moved it inside. Eric took most of the pictures while I was passing out candy. The kids loved going around and collecting candy. After the first candy maddy had a death grip, but then she realized that if she put it in her bag she would get more.

Bryson, Maddy, and Carley

The Snow Family


Maddy Yoda

A rodeo clown


I loved this costume. It was homemade and it was a tree.

These costumes were also homemade, the dad also dressed up, but isn't in the picture. Yo Gabba, gabba

Yoda running away.
We had a fun night. We didn't go around the neighborhood because it was raining, but the kids got enough candy that they were happy and on sugar highs all night.

Princess Party

Carley had two princess birthday parties the week of Halloween. Good thing her Cinderella dress from last Halloween still fits. The first one she went to her friend Stella had a princess come. Her name was Princess Amerah. She read a book and sang and danced. The girls loved it. Maddy wouldn't sit still and watch as she read the book, but she had a lot of fun.




The birthday princess Stella

the first snow

So on Oct 26th we got our first snow. Bryson woke up in the morning and wanted to go right outside and play and shovel before school. he loves the snow. I didn't get any pictures of the girls, but Maddy loves picking up the snow and playing with it. This is the first year she can really understand and play in it and I think she likes it. Carley also told me after it snowed that we shouldn't eat yellow snow and I asked her why and she said that it was pee. I asked her where she learned that from and she said her friend Jed. She makes me laugh

Fall Break we went to the Zoo

So even thought I have lived in Utah for more than 10 years I have never been to the Hogle Zoo. I always seem to go to the Denver zoo when we are out visiting family. So over Fall Break I decided to enjoy the nice weather we were having and go to the zoo. The kids loved it. They had a baby elephant that the kids loved watching and Maddy loved getting out of the stroller and getting up close. I have to say the Denver zoo is better, but it was a fun day with the kids


Bryson and Carley watching the elephants

Maddy watching the rhino


Carley and Bryson with a giant tortoise in the back ground

maddy getting up close