Nick's Play

Nick's fourth grade class put on two plays today, A Christmas Carol and A Holiday for Santa. Nick was an elf in A Holiday for Santa. His teacher, Mrs. Jenson, does these plays every year and does a great job! The kids all have to memorize their parts and dress in costume and then the parents and other fourth grade classes get to come watch. Nick did a great job and knew his parts perfectly. I was very proud of him. These are pictures of my first graders at Canyon Rim Academy. I am a teacher's aide there this year for Dena Lundgreen and the children are so cute! I love working at Canyon Rim Academy. It is a great job and I feel so lucky to be a part of these wonderful children's lives. Basketball started this week so I will get pictures up of that soon. Brandon is going to be a referee for the county rec league where both he and Brandon play (Nick plays in two leagues, the other one started already). He has to go to a training class this Saturday. I think it will be an eye opener for ALL of us to have Brandon on the other side of the whistle. I'm sure we will all leave with a little more understanding and compassion for the guy in the stripes. Brandon is really excited to ref (and to make money!) and I know he will do a great job. Dan had surgery on his foot again two weeks ago and has been a tough guy in the recovery - he went back to work after only 4 days! Hopefully it will work this time! I hope everyone is having a wonderful December and Christmas is less than two weeks away! Merry Christmas!

The 4 Elfs

I have to thank Marshall for this one - it is so funny! Follow the link and then elf yourself!!! Merry Christmas everyone!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1475547392

Yellowstone last August

I know it seems a little lame to go back and do a blog about a trip we took back in the summer but I was looking through our pictures and found these. The warm weather seems to be a wonderful thing to look back on now that we are in the grips of winter. Yellowstone is such a beautiful place. This was our third trip to the park. We always camp at the Canyon Campground that is located right next to the Canyon in the park. It is beautiful. Everything there is gorgeous. It is so removed from the "real" world. We love just spending the week with no TV, no phone, now news, etc. We have lots of pictures (once again, Dan was in charge of the camera - the boys and I would have moved on to the next elk many times but Dan was smart and took the car keys with him as he ventured to take pictures of the wildlife.) We did get to see a male bald eagle just as we came in to the park. We could see the nest (it was huge!) from the road and way off in the distance we saw the female bald eagle. It was really cool for our family to see the national bird! Also pretty but smelled REALLY bad were the paint pots, they are cool to see. They smell like rotten eggs, too bad our blog doesn't have smell-o-vision!

Every day we head out a different direction. One day we ate lunch in Roosevelt, a town named after President Roosevelt who was important in helping establish Yellowstone. The lodge is still there and that is where we ate lunch that day. Out on the porch they have rocking chairs and we all sat and looked through the menus while we waited for our table. Coming back from Tower Falls another day we got to see a mom bear and her two cubs. They were pretty far away but Dan got some good pictures.

Nick did the junior ranger program that they have for children 12 and under. Brandon has done it on past trips. It is a really cool program that helps the children learn about Yellowstone and everything in it and it is really fun! When Nick had completed his requirements we took him to the visitor center and he was "officially" sworn in by a park ranger.

It was really fun to see the buffalos - LOTS of buffalos. They go where they want, when they want - even down the middle of the road and nobody argues! They are huge! We were able to see the herd move across the road one day and it was amazing how many buffalo are there!

Our trip was so much fun and we look forward to going again soon!

Las Vegas Slideshow

We had sooo many pictures from our trip to Las Vegas(yes, Dan was in charge of the camera) that I wanted to put more on but not take up so much space. Following Amy's wonderful lead I am going to put on a slideshow. I hope it works! Some of the pictures aren't great, I just marked some quick not knowing what to expect. Enjoy!



If you want to look at the pictures larger just click on the box and it will open in a new window - have fun!

Thanksgiving In Vegas

We did something different for Thanksgiving this year - we spent it in Las Vegas! Brandon's football team decided to go to the NYFC tournament this year and it was so much fun! We left Wednesday morning and arrived about 2:00pm. The rest of the team and their families started arriving and by the time everyone got there we were using 20 hotel rooms. That night we all made the rush to In 'n' Out Burger - yum! The boys had a game the next day. The first game was against a very strong Nebraska team and the loss was not fun. Luckily there is plenty to do in Vegas to distract the boys and we headed to the Strip for Thanksgiving Dinner with several other families. After many reminders not

to "look down" or take any "flyers" we hit the Strip including the M&M store and saw the water show at The Bellagio among other things. I had never been there besides driving through and it was amazing! Brandon's name for Las Vegas is now Naughty Disneyland - what a perfect description! The next day it was time for football again against a California team and this time a better outcome! They won which earned them a HUGE trophy to bring home. Back to the Strip for dinner and The Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood. The best entertainment there was watching the amount of crab legs Nick ate. He loves seafood! We went there based on Marshall's recommendation and it was sooo good! That night we stayed up way too late - all I have to say is it is amazing how far you can launch a paper airplane from the fifth floor window -

quite amazingly all the way to the pool below when you get lucky! Brandon, Dan and the Hilton boys (from Dad down to their own Brandon) got really good at it and enjoyed the stealth missions to recover the airplanes and start all over! We got up Saturday and began trying to find a place to watch the BYU vs. Utah game. The only place we found showing it was The ESPN Zone and when we called the room it was showing in was already full. So the game was spent getting texts and phone calls updating us on the game - which had a HORRIBLE outcome. Maybe next year, PLEASE!!! We spent the rest of the day doing more sightseeing before we had to go pick up the trophy that night. Later on we went back to the Strip and had dinner at the Luxor with more friends.We walked down to the Bellagio again and watched the water show a couple of times. I never got tired of seeing it! After we checked out on Sunday we took Brandon to the Bellagio to see the Picasso show at the art gallery. His history teacher gave his class the option of writing a paper or going to the art show if they were going to be in Las Vegas - of course Brandon picked the art show! After one last stop at In 'n' Out Burger for food and t-shirts we left for home. We had a wonderful trip, had fun with some really great families and have fabulous memories to remember!

The glass flowers as part of the ceiling at the Bellagio.

Nick and Jenna Hilton on the Strip

The Week in Review

I have decided it is time to become a regular blogger! Now we will see how that actually happens. With football being ALMOST over maybe it can actually happen. This was an up and down week. It was lovely having our afternoons back to ourselves with no football practice! I think we have all decided football could go year round if we could just go to games and no practices! Of course nice weather would help, too. Nick's little 8-9 year old team had a great year and made it to the championship game but came up a little short for the win. But they had a great time and Nick made quite a few new friends that I am sure he will continue to have fun with. This was Brandon's last year of little league and after having a fabulous season (8-1 )they played the game of their lives. They won the championship in true champion style! A fourth down, 20 seconds left in the game, down 13-12, Nelson Johansen run that broke 5 tackles to score and win the game. I was hoarse from the cheering all day for two days! We now leave this week for a tournament in Las Vegas and lots more fun.

What a happy boy!

A lot of hard work pays off - the 2007 Junior Champs! Now they are off to Vegas!

In the middle of the week I got a phone call from our pediatrician's nurse (who has also become a dear friend through the years of my boys going there - especially Nick!) telling me that our darling doctor was diagnosed two weeks ago with pancreatic cancer. He is one tough guy and I am sure will come out of this fine but has a battle to fight in the meantime. We love him like family so this was hard news to hear.

Back on the upside Nick raced in his very first 'Rain Gutter Regatta'. He, Nick Snyder, Brandon and Jordan Snyder spent Wednesday night building the boats and they must have know what they were doing because Nick came in first place and won a really cool trophy! Way to go Nick!

Last night we had a fun time at the University of Utah football game. We went with some friends and watched Utah beat New Mexico. The weather was perfect and we had a great view of the game. There is no better place to be than with your family at a football game on a beautiful fall afternoon with friends. By the time we hiked up to our seats (remember I said we had a great view, not great seats but a GREAT view :) it was a party at the top of the stands! Dan kept telling my friend and I that the players could not hear what we were screaming from up there but we kept trying!

Okay, my first attempt at a "real" blog, pictures and everything. Please don't look too close, I hope it turned out okay! Have a great week!

Stephanie

P.S. For those of you (like me!) who are new to reading blogs you can click on the pictures to get a larger one to look at - I just learned that last night!

Here we go!

Everyone out there seems to have a blog so now I will join the masses! I may be the only one who ever reads this one but at least I am making the effort. Next I will learn how to add pics so it will be a little more entertaining for the world to see... Thanks for taking the time to read! I promise the next post will be more informative.