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!