::tree::

And we got it in and we got it all lit! It was intimidating to light, but not so hard once I got started.
What do you think? We think it's really fun.

And my favorite way to show a lighted tree!

And the little tree is hanging out in the pool table room. I have plans for it. I'll tell you about them later.

See the chile lights up on the window? Kris is excited about those, he's wanted some for a long time.
More later, as always!

::tree hunting::

We've only done it once before, but we want it to be a serious family tradition. Every year we go up in our mountains and find ourselves a special Christmas tree.
There was a big snow storm predicted for friday into saturday, and we were really hoping that it wouldn't stop our tree hunt. It was the only possible day to do it in weeks.
So, though it snowed a bit--much less than predicted--we didn't let it stop us!!

It's interesting searching for trees, especially out here in the desert. It's not like there are just a billion perfect ones sitting there for the picking. Especially when one has a car full of little 'uns and has to stay close to the road and the car.

And it's tough because a tree that looks good from the car can look completely different up close.
This is a cute little one, isn't it?

Well, not so little now that we see it in perspective, right?

It wasn't quite what we were looking for, so we pressed onward.

Finally, after some more bumpy snowy driving we spied a good looking one. And when we got out to study it, turned out that there was one behind it a little ways that was perfect! So we went for it.

It's like a puzzle trying to see the tree in all the snowy branches.
It was a little ways down a snowy bank. It was also super tall, and we only needed about the top 10 feet, so we cut it a little higher than usual.
Sandy was so good and patient.

He just hung out in the car and ate pretzels. Then when he ran out he squeaked and screamed until somebody filled his little fists again.

Here are the boys cutting the tree.

Max had the hold the saw for a bit while Kris moved the car--there was other traffic up in the snowy mountains, surprisingly.

Then he got tired and put the saw down, and when he thought nobody was looking he had a little snack.

Hah.
And here's the tree! Huge!!



And then we all hung out while Kris did the tough work of tying the tree up top.

We really like this picture. It gives a good feel for the whole experience.



Then on the way out we searched out a cute little tree for our other room. I got greedy and just couldn't leave without more than one.

When we got this one home it turns out it's a truly lopsided little guy. But fun nonetheless.

And afterwards we got to eat Dairy Queen, since that's really the only place to eat within miles. I guess that's part of the tradition!
And here are a couple of bonus pictures of our Sand, since he was stuck in the car the whole time. He was looking very festive and deserves some attention too!


And today I got the lights on, so more tree reports to follow!

**And I forgot to mention the poor Land Rover. It's truly our adventure car, but the Infiniti had to stand in for it this year since it's totally non-functional. Kris has plans to trade some dental work for repairs in the next year though, so we'll see if the poor thing can be revived. We're thinking of you Land Grover!

::st george pt 2::

So for part two:
One little bonus photo from the swimming. The Go Pro camera is so awesome.

I took pictures of Kari's family. I haven't finished editing them yet, but I have done a few and they're quite cute. Like this.

Then we left.
Poor little Sandy had a big puke--the first real one of his life on friday night. It was very sad, and then he seemed totally fine. We hoped that it was just overfeeding or travel or something. Anyway, he was fine after that and so we went on with life.
We left on sunday morning and the GPS told us to go through Zion's. It wasn't the quickest or easiest way to go, but it sure was picturesque.

It's gorgeous. And so fun to drive through a huge tunnel through the mountain.



The bummer was that the little twisty roads made everybody a little carsick--except Sand. Max especially felt ill, and we had to pull over so he could decide whether he was going to be sick or not at some point.

He wasn't quite himself.
We stopped in Flagstaff and stayed the night. We ate a kind of gross dinner and went to bed. Sadly, I woke up at 1AM sick and threw up all night. Then Max woke up and wasn't sick at first, but.... Kris didn't feel all that well, but survived without a puke, lucky for him.
Kris took the boys down to breakfast while I tried to catch up on a little sleep.

Sandy ate a large and healthy breakfast. He loves breakfast.
Max _tried_ to eat a large and exciting breakfast.

Wow, right? Kris said he managed to eat about 10% of all the food he had gathered.
Then he proceeded to be sick for the rest of the day. He threw up all the way home.
We did make it home in the late evening and we were so glad we made it.

Lucky for us we're not used to this sort of thing. Our boys are such great travelers. Hopefully we'll be spared this happening too many other times!
It was still a fun weekend though. Lots of fun pictures anyway!

::some family photos::

We posed for a few quick photos before we all split off to go to our respective houses. I set my camera up on the tripod and we went for it with the timer.
I think my favorite pictures though, are the ones before anybody is quite ready. The test ones. Like this one.

It's just funny. And I'm not in it, which is a plus for me of course.

But here's the real one. I think it turned out cute, except for Max's strange arm situation.

A bunch of cute people with a BUNCH of cute little boys.

And the other best thing--this is a tradition adopted from my family. The Silly One.

Not sure why it turned out so dark, but oh well.
It's hilarious to me because it looks like both Sultan and Sandy are pretending like they don't know the rest of us. Everybody else is on board though.

It was a really fun weekend. We missed the Kelly & Lechelle family though. It would be fun if they were in these silly photos with their own two little boys!!

More St George report to come though, I just haven't gotten that far yet.

::more st george pt 1::

Here's some more fun from our St George weekend.

First, a photo of Sandy on the way there. He's such a good sport. He and Max (and Sultan) all do a great job in the car. And poor Sandy has nothing to entertain him really, except the mirror and whatever toys I think to hand him. At least Max has movies and books and stuff.
Anyway, he's a great little guy.


One of the beloved things about staying in St. George is the pool. And the fact that it's usually warm enough for swimming to be tolerable. Sadly, the day we took Sandy to the pool it seemed way colder than usual, so he had to get into the hot tub, which was also cooler than usual. Still too hot for him to stay in for long. Too bad because he was having a blast.

He was splashing and giggling and getting very startled when he accidentally splashed himself right in the face.

He's not a serious as he looks.

But the bigger kids, of course, got to have the best time. They don't have to quit and go home for nap because the pool is too warm/cold. They play and play and play.
Here's Max and Parker comparing heights. We're not exactly sure how Max is suddenly a head taller.



These guys basically have WAY too much fun together.
And KC looks on, as usual. I'm sure he'll get over there and start pinching somebody at any minute.

And some launching:


What else are dads good for really?

In other news, we got to eat at In & Out Burger and Cafe Rio. We went to a movie with all six of the kids and survived. We put them all to bed every night and they stayed and there was actually some grownup time had. It was rather amazing--probably a blessing that we all needed!

More to follow--the drive home has some rather interesting events worth reporting!

::thanksgiving 2011::

We were lucky enough to have time to drive out to UT for Thanksgiving. We joined Kathy and Kari's family in Kathy's St George condo. This was the first time that we got to see the new condo--though it's been in the family for a while. It's very nice and airy and sunny and we approve!
We got to spend some time hanging out together, a little swimming, some yummy food and mostly just good family time.
It was short but worth it.
Thanks for hosting Kathy, and thanks to both you and Kari for working hard on the dinner Thanksgiving day while we finished up the drive out. It was pretty nice to arrive to a feast that was just about ready to go on the table.


(Kris says he is inserting green beans in his mouth to look like fangs for the picture, rather than eating them with his hands like it looks like he's doing. I'm not sure what to beleive!)

A bit more on the St George trip later. We're on our way home now and will get there sometime monday. Let all the crazy holiday times begin!

::out my kitchen window::

I was feeding the boys breakfast a few mornings ago, and when I looked out the little window over my sink, the sun was shining into my little tree there. I realized it had finally changed color, and it was just as orange as could be. Gorgeous. And with the angle of the sun, the leaves were glowing like fire.
So of course I grabbed my camera and tried to capture it. I mean, 1. it was so gorgeous I couldn't help it and 2. I wanted to prove to all you skeptics out there that not only do we have leaves and trees and stuff out here in the desert, but we have fall and pretty changing colors!

But the window screen kept getting in my way when I was shooting from the window.

Argh.
And it didn't look quite right when I stepped outside to try to shoot it--besides my feet got freezing cold on the bricks.

So if these photos look pretty to you, imagine them glowing with a lovely morning light, and then know what I was trying to show you.
Happy end of fall!

::max is a yellow belt::

Max has been going to his karate school since the summer we moved to Santa Fe. At first when he started he was just silly and crazy. He was enjoying himself and was excited to be doing karate, but really not that serious. He even got into trouble a few times for giggling too much.
But after he took a test and passed up into the next belt he suddenly became serious.
He was so excited and serious about karate that he could've gone every day.
Over the summer the sensai offered week long "summer camps" where groups of the kids would practice karate, play games and hang out. Max did a couple of these and loved them.

He was karate man all summer, and would try to wear his belts out of the house over his normal clothes.


But, the frustrating thing was that when it came time to take the next test--in October, finally! He didn't remember the stuff he needed for the test. So we had to do a private lesson or two and go to every class offered (which is like four per week) for a couple of weeks.
It was a huge pain.
But it paid off. He passed his test and is SO SO proud of himself.

It's exciting to see him so excited and involved in something.

Luckily (for him) he's proved to us that he's serious about it. Because the dojo just barely moved from right by our house to twenty minutes across town. If he wasn't so excited about it we'd be OUT. But as it is I can't take this away from him, so he gets to keep ninjafying himself.
We'll keep you posted on his progress. For now he's a big yellow belt and he couldn't be prouder.

::skills::

Some people have math skills, some people have nun-chucks skills, some people have dentistry skills. Some people have eating and forking skills. The latter would be our Sandy.
And you want proof?
Here's a video. He actually gets a banana on his fork completely on his own, and eats it! Am I just a biased mom thinking he's brilliant, or is it impressive for a barely one year old to use a fork functionally (albeit one time out of 100)?
Enjoy: