We decided to finish the year by going to Adam's family cabin and eat a little food, watch a few movies, do some sledding.  It was a great New Year's Eve!

Go Grandpa, Go!

What is this big sled?

It was slow and we only used it a few times! 

Go Mommy, Go! 

All three girls on one sled.  Hang on tight! 

 Aw!  Daddy and one of his girls!

 Going to the top to ride down again.

 Ohno needed a ride up,  he was getting pretty sore in the hips!

 Ready, Setty, Go!

 The Leake Ladies!

 All done!

Time to go in for hot chocolate!

Thanks Adam, for sharing your families cabin!

We had a really good time!

Now bring on 2012!

2011 Christmas Letter

Begin with a dream of the exceptional.

Ponder the possibilities and exam the fire.

Chip away objections until a plan formulates.

Begin, Work hard and the result will transpire.

We indulged in the exceptional snowfall!

Reveled the mountain bike trails of St. George!

Experienced San Diego’s beaches at sunrise!

Someone had an idea and a plan was forged.

Cruising to Mexico was a remarkable week!

Running Ragnar was a two day Endeavour!

Harley trip to California with Dad was a gift!

All because we dared to imagine and desire!

River running at Jackson brought great satisfaction!

While 3 trips to Tulsa were tricky but just!

Skydiving for Chase was sweet jubilation!

Envision a quest, go forth; reap the harvest!

Bicycle ride all summer to a Lotoja finale!

Experience a slice of Heaven at Havasupai!

Now we take to the air with new aspiration!

Cause dreaming is a treasure of this life!

We Thank God that we were born now!

We Thank God for our family and friends!

We Thank God for the Son that he sent,

To bless us, befriend us and atone for our sins.

Merry Christmas to you!

May your dreams whether big or small

Come to fruition in 2012

Love Kevin and Shauna Leake

It is really nice to spread the dinners and get togethers out over a few days!

Christmas feels like a big holiday this way instead of a 6 hour holiday. 

So our shopping we spent months getting down, feels a little more appreciated.

Plus we get to see relatives that we don't see all year and enjoy our visit.

This year we had the Martinson family dinner Monday evening at Tom and Shelly's.

 Rodney got a ....it smells like lemons.

After dinner we draw numbers and put all the gifts in the middle.

Then you get to pick a gift when your number comes up.

If you don't like the gift, you can trade with somebody who has opened a gift.

 Jason waiting for his turn!

 Arial and Deb are deciding on which already opened gift they are going to trade for!

 Wayne got a chocolate diaper!  Rob was kind enough to demonstrate that the brown stuff in the diaper was chocolate, by taking a bite.....Wayne traded!

 Oh Adam, I think your swim trunks will hang on those real nice!

Anticipation.... 

The gift Froggie picked off the floor, unopened, was a frog hat.

How did she know?

Her Frog senses told her to pick that gift.

Did anyone try to trade her?  NO WAY!

Spoil that smile.

Merry Ribbit Christmas!

Christmas was on Sunday this year, so Monday was an official holiday.  We sat around and visited and ate all day yesterday.  Time to work off some energy.

 Jamie, Tiffany, Rob, Tom, Adam and Myself.

I love the Bell Canyon hike.  It is close to home.  It starts out easy to the reservoir and then you do some climbing up to the falls!

 Can you see Adam at the top of the falls on the far right?

 The falls were frozen over.  We couldn't even hear water running under our feet.

It was very beautiful!

 Beautifu, Beautiful!

 We went above the falls looking for the upper falls, but without the sound of water running, we didn't find them.  Made for a good hike!

The way down was steep and slippery, but we made it!

Myself, Rob, Tiffany, Adam and Jamie

Thanks for taking the picture Tom and coming along with us!

HO! HO! HO!

 It is that Christmas time again.  Our festivities started with Christmas Eve I finished the neighbor goodies and Kevin delivered them.  We went to the movie "Arthur's Christmas", with our kids and the Johnson's, came home and finished making my food to take to Grandma's, than over to Grandma and Grandpa Leake's for dinner.

54ish people gathered to celebrate Christmas at Grandma's.  It was noisy and good!

We got a cute little girl under the tree!

                             I'm dreaming of new skiis for Christmas!

Rob and Tiff are here.  Yea!!!

Christmas Day...Kevin and I opened our gifts to each other, than off to church.

Came home and started getting food ready for our Christmas Day guests.

The Larsen family comes over for brunch and to exchange gifts.

Shelly and Tom are sneaking a snuggle.

                                                                        It's purple - my favorite!

Oh Grandpa.


Garrett is thinking about the food in the kitchen.

         Yea!  I love my socks!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Leake's

This is it, the entire family minus one (Chase) who was taking the picture!

We are a wild bunch!

Grandma and Grandpa are proud of this gang!

 And here is our photographer!  Thanks for all the pictures you take Chase.  We love them and love you!

 It doesn't happen very often to have everyone of us all together, but this year we did!  It was amazing!

75 Thoughts for 75 Years!

Over the last couple of months I have been collecting thoughts from Kevin's family and pictures that I have taken over the years and created a book for Ray and Monica, "75 Thoughts for 75 years", for Christmas.

This was a lot of fun reading about things people remember.

This was something that I had wanted to do for a couple of years.  When we would go on motorcylce rides with Ray, he would tell us stories of his childhood.  I wrote down outlines of the stories and had always intended to put them to writing to share.  This was a bitter sweet project, with Ray suffering from liver failure, because of the illness, the book took on an aura of a eulogy.  But I am glad I proceeded and bugged the family to death for stories and spent the time to put it all together.  It turned out great.
Here are a few pictures of Ray and Monica over the years.

Life is Good!

Moon Eclipse!

We had an eclipse of the moon this morning and the moon was full to help see the eclipse, so I recruited Jamie and Kim to come out in the early morning dawn and go for a hike to see the eclipse.

We left the house at 4:30 a.m. and drove to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Then hiked to Bell Canyon reservoir.  Only we had to climb a hill on the west side of the reservoir to see the moon.

What a beautiful sight Salt Lake is at night.

The moon was spectacular also.

Sorry my camera and camera skills do not catch the eclipse very well, but the adventure was worth it!  Thanks Jamie and Kim for coming out into the cold with me!

Breakfast after was a sweet bonus!

Dreams!

They make us work harder!

They provide purpose in life!

Completion gives us a sense of accomplishment!

They dare us to do things that aren't on the normal agenda!

So guess what Kevin got for Christmas! 

 I'll bet you didn't guess this!

Well, Kevin spent a long time doing his homework, deciding on how big, what kind, how much he should spend and decided that, this was it!  When this plane came up for sale, the price was good, the size will get him his license and it will be fun!

 The cute little guy Kevin bought the plane from was living in his hanger with his wife, he was 85 years old and a man of many talents.  You can't see it, but he builds coffins in his spare time.  There is a coffin on the other side of the plane.  And his wife was just as talented.  She had many art projects and they were really good.

 Sorry babe, I don't have to live in a hanger, so therefore, I am not going to live in a hanger!  They did a great job of making it a comfortable home.  There was a bath and two bedrooms upstairs and they were comfy and roomy. The kitchen was all top of the line modern appliances.

Brandon; friend, commercial pilot and instructor, Kevin and Adam.

Adam already has his license, so he can fly any time.

Chase has always wanted to get a license, but it might be a little while before Chase is licensed, he has a heavy school load and that is by his choice. Go Chase Go!  We don't want to interfere with your school work!  So get it done so you can come fly!

And Kevin is ready to begin the process of school and lessons.

Did I mention how Kevin's eyes twinkle and he floats like a little kid who just got a brand new plane!  Adam is also!

So the year of 2012 will be up, up and away! 

Tree Down!

Utah had an East wind blow through and it was a strong wind.  The Bountiful area had hundreds of trees blow down.  Big beautiful 30 yearish old pine trees.

 

The Frog's (aka. Grandma and Grandpa Larsen) had one of their big pine trees blow down also.

 

So in good ol fashion family togetherness. We met on Sunday and cut that baby into pieces.  Rocket and Grandpa ran chain saws.

 The tree was wedged against another tree and had to be cut so it would come all the way down!

Kevin, Jamie and Adam ran a limb chipper and managed to chip up a huge pile of limbs.  Garrett, Myself and Frog helped where ever help was needed.

Tom and Arial are digging the tree root out.

In two hours we cut up the tree, chipped up the limbs, filled Rocket's truck full of wood, swept up the yard and dug up the trunk.  Then Froggie fed us dinner.

It was a good evening!