Moab

In June, we got to take a trip to Moab. We left Axle and Atticus with my parents and met Frank's mom in Moab. The five of us rented a yellow jeep and took to the trails. We did a trail called Hell's Revenge. It was very scenic and fairly scary in spots. However, my expert driver husband knew the trail and never put us in any danger. (His mom might argue otherwise!) By the end of the trail we were all sweaty and ready for lunch in the shade. After that we wanted a less intense, cooler trail and so headed for Cane Creek. The funny thing is that of the six hours we were driving that trail we only saw water for about thirty minutes. It was hot! We went over some boulders that I know were not meant to be driven over! The trail had so few markers that for several of the hours we thought we were lost. On one particular spot the jeep tipped so far to the side that Sydney let out a high-pitched squeal that made us all start laughing.
The little water that we saw of Cane Creek

On Hell's Revenge

Frank or "Driver" as his Mama calls him

Toward the end of the Cane Creek Trail. Perhaps the scariest thing we've ever done lies beyond this rise. The trail was narrow with many boulders, with a steep cliff on the right and a sheer drop on the left. We all got out and walked while Frank navigated the dangerous stretch. Nobody warned us of the intensity of this trail! Frank's mom got a t-shirt printed to say "I survived Cane Creek!"

Who's the Man?

Summer Photos

Here are pictures of some of the fun things we did this summer:

Atticus keeping cool at the Highland City Fountains.

You can't see it, but Gretel is smiling as they take away two picked over VW's from the back yard. The guy came back for a third car the next day. Hooray! No more eyesores!

Colin was invited to go to Washington with his Grandma. They drove there and he got to fly home. First time on a plane. Great times with Grandma and poochie!

We got to visit the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum and loved it! Too bad we won't go back until we get another free pass! ( $8 a person adds up fast)

Sydney earned some money babysitting little Sofia. She got a taste of what a baby sister would be like. As if she didn't want one enough already!

Colin turned 11!

The family worked together to stain our bench, deck chairs, deck, and the fence. Wow, that took alot of hours and alot of stain. But, it looks great back here!

The smiles and good cheer were overflowing as we pulled weeds and tried to get the back yard presentable for a Westech barbeque we hosted!

I am so glad I gave in and got the trampoline repaired this Spring. It never ceases to provide fun and thrills. This is Atticus being bounced by the bigger kids. He didn't even get hurt on landing. They were jumping off the shed roof for awhile till a neighbor got hurt. Now they jump off the ladder, instead.

Birthday Bashes

Sydney wouldn't feel it a proper birthday without a party including all her girlfriends. They went on a service scavenger hunt, doing small acts of service for the people in the neighborhood. They also played charades and ate homemade pizza. In the picture above Sydney is stoked that she blew out all 13 candles, but the friend on the right is pointing out that she missed one. Haha! Colin also played DJ and kept the girls dancing while the pizza baked.

What a beautiful cake, eh? Sydney and Mom made it together.

Atticus turned 5 and it was a beautiful day for an outside party. The little guys ate cupcakes, played red light green light, duck-duck-goose, and jumped on the trampoline. Colin stayed home and was my assistant. He really has a knack for being silly and making people laugh!

Paint Party!

Sydney built this flower box with a little help from Dad. The fun part was painting it with her friends. It was over so fast that they expanded their "canvas" to one of Dad's cars! Too bad the car is going to the junk yard.

Grandmas are Great!

We got Frank's mom for a whole two weeks in February! There's nothing like reading books on Grandma's lap. She was such a hit with Axle and Atticus. She went on bike rides and walks out in the cold when noone else wanted to go. She even made a plastic bag kite with Atticus one day. He held onto it and rode his bike up and down the sidewalk a hundred times.

Atticus got an official BMX racing bike and a helmet. He wore it non-stop for a week after we bought it, even while he played Sesame Street games on the computer. He loves to race around the dirt BMX track and the trophies he gets are taking over his room (every kid under 5 gets one after every race).

I love having Mary Margaret stay with us. She is very happy, positive, and always willing to help. She helped me slice and dry 52 lbs of apples while she was here. She won't give up her California sunshine to move to Utah, though. We've tried but cannot tempt her enough!

Mary Margaret sent a big box of slot race cars that a friend of hers found. They tried them out at a little place in Salt Lake. They stayed inside for 10 minutes max and came back. Frank said it is truly a dying sport.

Grandma didn't spend all her time reading "The Truck Book" as it appears. She herself got through 4 out of 5 books of "The Lightning Thief" series. The deal was whoever read the first book got to go see the new movie. She got hooked and I had to tell her to put the books away and go to sleep several times after midnight! We love Oma and are sad she can't stay with us more often.

Short trip to Bethlehem

In Highland this time of year you can take a trip back in time to witness the Nativity. What a beautiful reminder of the birth of the Saviour. The whole family enjoyed it, despite the cold weather.

My sister Lindsey and her cutie, Emme. Her big cutie Thomas was at home recovering from an apendectomy. One thing I look forward to every Christmas season is the chance to pull out and dust off my violin. I love to play duets with Lindsey on her flute. We played for my sister-in-law's R.S. lesson, and I got to play in my ward also. My grandpa has stopped threatening to take my violin back if I don't play, but he is happy when I can tell him I did play!

The camels were awesome, so big and loud!

Its been a snowy Winter this year. Sydney and Colin got inflated truck inner tubes for Christmas and have been able to use them a lot already.

Not a proper Christmas without some attempt at a gingerbread house, right? This was a kit so required very little work on Mom's part, just cleanup.

One of our traditions is to open a present each night for a few nights before Christmas. One night this year we all got marshmallow shooter guns that Frank and I made out of pvc pipe! Another night we got the Knock 'em Sock 'em Robots game, along with Apples to Apples and Scrabble. Scrabble has been our favorite so far. We stayed up late playing with Sydney and Colin a couple times, until they got so tired and silly we had to send them to bed.

Grandma and Grandpa Collings have made it their tradition to give the grandkids new pj's on Christmas Eve. Don't they look cozy?

Although we opened several gifts before Christmas, we saved at least one big one for Christmas morning. They were almost drooling!

Frank took Colin snowboarding on Christmas day. They froze and Frank's board broke on the first run, but they had some good bonding time! I took the rest of the family over to my parents for dinner and some games. This is my dad and my brother, Chris.

Thanksgiving in Reno

This year we spent Thanksgiving with family in Reno. We got to do some fun things and spend time with people we don't get to see often enough. Above is Frank's cousin, Lily. She is a bit younger than Sydney and they have a ton of fun together.

One of the chief reasons we made the trip was to visit Frank's dad, Frank, and his wife Ruthie. She had been in the hospital but was at home by the time we made the trip. They have a one bedroom apartment or we would have stayed with them. Instead, we made them breakfast on Thanksgiving morning and tried not to wear poor Ruthie out. We hope she will continue to improve in her health.

We got to camp out 6 nights at Frank's Uncle Harry's house. That is him playing the guitar for my boys, some song about breakfast! He let us stay as long as we wanted and kept us fairly entertained, too. We swam in his pool several times, played billiards, ping-pong and watched UP on a huge home theater screen. It was better than Best Western!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was spending time at Frank's aunt Marilyn's house. That's me between aunt Rhianna and aunt Marilyn. Marilyn had the whole group over for some delicious barbeque and some good laughs. Rhianna also had us over and both women made us feel very loved!

Frank reading books to Axle and Johnny(Rhianna and Jim's boy) in their matching flannel pants.

We thought we should spend time on an educational fieldtrip, so we went to the Harrah's automobile museum! Pretty fun, especially the car we got to touch.

Uncle Jim's old fire truck was better than any museum, though. He gave us a ride around the neighborhood, and invited us to ride in it for the Reno Thanksgiving parade (we passed on that due to the blizzard).