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!

This is Homework Adam.  He is so close to being down with school.

Graduation in May - Go Adam Go!