Childhood Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday this year!  Their were wonderful Christmas programs.  John read our family moving Christmas stories every night.  Family was able to come visit and we were able to shortly visit some of our family.  Mos of all, we felt the Christmas spirit, the spirit of serving, loving, we felt  the Holy Ghost.  

On Christmas Eve we all went to grandpa and grandma Giles home to have a dinner and fun Christmas party.  We were able to read the story of our Saviors birth and have the children. All act it out.

Multiple people played the chimes as others sang the select Christmas carols.

Matt's baby Gavin is 8 months old now and my girls love I see him and assist him in his play time.

Children are always so excited for Christmas morning, wondering what Santa Claus will leave for them around the tree.  We have some early risers in our family but they are not allowed up until 7 am.  I'm wondering how much longer this little rule will last.  Probably not long at all.

Alyssa was so excited to get a bicycle from Santa!

Abby was excited to get a "real" American girl doll, Rebecca.  She has been wanting one of these for a long time.

Here are our little girls in their new stocking caps!

Macey got magnet toys and barbies, all she ever wants is barbies.  Where could she have gotten that love from?

Hailey received a new coat, shoes and razor!  She didn't want us to post a picture of her shaving her legs.

Here is Alyssa out going for a ride, in the freezing weather, on her new bike.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Frontrunner

Last spring, Utah transportation started their frontrunner train running from south Provo up to north Ogden.  There are multiple stops along the way and a few of them connect in with the Trax stations.  

We have been wanting to ride the frontrunner, but to ride to downtown Salt Lake it is a whopping $12.40 per person (round trip). Just for my family alone, it would cost $60, not really an option I would choose to take.  This month I found that 4 people could get a group pass for $15 and December had a special for a 6 person group pass.  Wow, we could now make the trip!

My visiting teaching companion and I decided to take our kids up after school one Friday to see the beautiful Christmas lights and the Church History Museum.  School gets out early on Fridays so it worked great!

My girls had so much fun, riding in the upper deck.  I think they changed seats 15-20 times!

Abby loved being able to play with Danielle and Rachel Kochenower.

Macey was just Macey happy to go anywhere!

Let's say the train is warm but we almost froze outside at temple square!  The lights were beautiful, but to cold to take a picture.

My parents came to visit for a few days before Christmas.  They too, wanted to ride the frontrunner and see the beautiful temple square lights.   We ate at the lion house, walked around temple square and almost froze again!

Dad and mom stayed with us until Christmas Eve, when the journeyed on down to Leslie's house in Richfield Utah. I'm so glad that they were able to spend some of this holiday season with us.

These are my sweet Christmas angels, although sometimes they don't act at all like angels.

Here are some other fun things we did this holiday season:

Went to Abby's ballet recital.

Quilted and quilted and quilted some more, on my parents Christmas quilt.

We attended band concerts for our flutist, Hailey.

Attended choir concerts for our little singer, Alyssa.  She really does have te voice of an angel.  They had tryouts at church for the solo at our ward party and Alyssa was selected. 

State fair

State Fair, the Rogers and Hamerstein movie, has been my favorite movie for most of my life.  The fun family values, driving across the state in that little pickup with their big hog, all just look so fun on the TV screen.  Then there was the entertainment, the exciting carnival and everlasting romance.  

Growing up I always wanted to go to a state fair, but it was during school and as my parents would say 'it's to far away'.

This year, being the parent, I decided that I could go.  We looked at the calendar and debated a little on dates and times, trying I go when the crowd would be down.  It couldn't be done, and so Macey and I, along with 4 of our friends went to the date fair on opening day!

My favorite things to look at are the quilts and scrapbooks.  This t-shirt quilt was so much fun!

Maceys favorite thing to see was the animals.  Particularly the baby goats, some were so tiny.

There was so many things to see and the kids had so much fun (we never let them see the carnival).  This is Macey, Nathanial Page, and Julia Evans.

Can you see Macey in the space suit?  She's in there.  

We had a wonderful time and while it may not have been the 1940's fair, it was still great.  Remember, "Our state fair is a great state fair, don't miss it don't even be late!"

It's a Bike Day

Abby has been avoiding the topic of daddy saying she needs to learn how to ride her bike!  Finally this weekend she gave in and gave it a try.

John said she needs lots of practice and planned to assist her again the next day, well.... she practiced alone all day while he was at work.  And, tada she is an avid bike rider now!!!

Camping

John and I decided that if John could sale his 1980 CJ-7 jeep, we could buy a small camper. The jeep was up for sale for quite a while and we had almost given up when it finally sold.  Yeah!  Right away john started his search for the perfect camper.  He wanted something so the girls would have a bed that folded out on one end and us the other end. 

Yet, he didn't want to big of a camper so that it could fit by our house.  We found one on KSL classifieds and it was just right for our family!  

Our first camp out was diamond fork canyon  in July.

The girls loved playing cards, hanging out around a campfire and just being little girls!

Our next camp out was to Vernal, Utah.  We went here the weekend before school started as our final summer activity.

Macey absolutely loves camping and exploring with her sister!

Here are some pictures at Dinosaur National Park.

Hailey in the quarry.

She the dinosaur bones in the rocks behind the girls.  The quarry was really cool.

Their were petroglyphs all over on rocks form te ancient native Americans.

Lots of hiking and hot weather meant tired girls!

And mommies!

See this petroglyph

Cabin of Josie Morris in dinosaur national park.

And after a long day walking around the parks, everyone was happy to come bak to the camper an have a relaxing,  yet fun, evening. 

We can't wait til next summer when we can you hang out today go camping again!

Summer fun

We had such a fun summer!  Let's start out with pictures of the freedom festival.  Here is Abby tossing hoops at a game.

Alyssa being hung for treason

And Hailey dressing up as a knight in shiny armer.

We hiked up rock canyon

Had ice cream at bYU creamery multiple times

  Visited old faithful in Yellowstone during our family reunion

Walked aroun in canyonlands 

Toured Mesa Verde

Enjoyed the carnival at Manassa pioneer days

Played at the park with a cold drink

Took swimming lessons

Played in the waterparks and more

 Rode the grass hopper

Visited thanksgiving Point

And all out had a wonderful summer!