Made It!

After a thankfully uneventful trip we arrived at the end of the really
long dirt road that leads into Camp Hale. A week of running around in
the 90's should slim all of us down a wee bit.

Bring on the Crackerjack!

Tiffanie and the symphony are playing at the ballgame tonight (with
the fireworks, too) so we got some comp tickets - sweet! General
admission was just fine by me.

More for Mema!

Just leaving you some proof that we were here first...

Happy Birthday Mema!

And happy retirement, anniversary, mothers day, thanksgiving,
christmas...

Happy Summer!

Each summer we come up with some crazy experiment to try. This year it
was a root beer tasting contest. We found ten different flavors and
ran them head to head (no pun intended) for flavor. Stewarts and
Shasta garnered the most praise. Mug and Sprecher were pretty high on
the list, too.

Nary Contrary

Our garden is doing great this year!

Father & Son Campout

We had a great weekend campout! The boys and I tried out some new
inflatable boats on the lake and had a generally good time.

Now that's my kind of food pyramid!

Corn on the cob and ribs for dinner tonight! Excuse me while I go buy
stock in some napkin companies...

Temple Trip

Loads of good work done this weekend!

Sno Cone Slaughter

St Louis Zoo was loads of fun yesterday. Judging from the thousands
there, it was exactly the right thing to do in this beautiful weather.

Bare bear

The skull of a cave bear. These things make grizzlies look like toys -
and they used to live right here!

Mammoth hips

No, not a posting about my love for snack cakes. This is a mammoth's
rear leg bones.

Paleontologists Rock

I went with Benjamin's pack last night to the Riverbluff Natural
History Museum. What a surprise to find such a fabulous collection in
our little city! They've been pulling mammoth bones and other neat
stuff out of this cave for the last few years since its discovery. Now
it has turned into quite a treasure.

Photo Op

Do you know how hard it is to get most of the cousins to smile
(nicely) at the same time?!?

Neon egg dye rules

One of my favorite traditions (almost as good as eating them).

Sugar me up!

The annual easter egg hunt was a rousing success. Now if we can just
make it through the sugar blues...

Weird Clouds

We've been seeing these lately with the spring storms.

Breakorific

To a six year old this is what heaven looks like.

Breakolicious

Disney stores are fun!!

Happy Days!

Guess what's open again for the season?

More pizza

Nice to know you can still trade in tickets for quality merchandise, eh?

Spring Pizza

We had to start out our spring break right by visiting one of the
kids' favorite haunts - incredible pizza. They were showing some old
Haley Mills movie tonight. Boy, her family must have had major stock
in Disney or something because this one was a stinker.

Spring Took a Detour

What in the world is all of this white stuff falling from the sky? I
was expecting buds on the trees, and tulips popping up!

Meet some more family

No one in my family has apparently ever seen or posessed a picture of
Grandpa Fred's father, Isaac B Grandon. I had a scan emailed to me
this week from a distant cousin. Not sure I see much resemblance, but
nice to finally lay eyes on him.

Sledding - Day 3!

Slippery back roads has provided us with a third day of reprieve from
school this week. We will probably regret this in June. But for now,
time to hit the slopes!

Snow Days are an Educator's Friend

Its hard to worry about make-up days in June when you hear the kids
howling like wild banshees in the snow. This morning's activity of
choice was swinging onto the snow covered trampoline for a splashdown.

O Give Me a Home...

Tiffanie finally talked us into stopping by Lone Elk Park just outside
of St Louis. We decided that elk are really quite ugly, but the
buffalo were pretty huge.

Now that's big!

A little scale comparison.

IMAX

We had a boy's afternoon out at the IMAX theater. Quite a way to see
Despereaux!

Relax Time!

We keep wondering when the peace and joy part of the holidays starts,
so we spent the afternoon playing games with the family. A much needed
time, as Tiff and "Cheeks" McIlquham are here demonstrating.

Nativity sets

This nesting doll set was many of our favorites. 30 pieces in all! The
smallest are under glass in the front. Must be the Russian blood in
us...

Nativity continued

Hannah picked this interesting one from Africa as one of her ten or so
favorites.

More Nativity

Amber's favorite.

More Nativity

This was Tiffanie's favorite (aside from our set, which was there too).

Nativity Celebration

This weekend was the annual nativity exhibit at our church. We always
enjoy the music and focus this brings to the start of the holiday
season. Since we each picked a favorite, we thought we would share a
few. This was James' pick.

The Holidays in Branson

We enjoyed a Friday out of school at Silver Dollar City. It was plenty cold, but always festive. We took the kids to the saloon show this time, and as you can tell from the pictures, all were smitten with the showgirls. (That rosy glow around Ben's cheeks isn't from the chill!) Pre-teen boys are sure fun to tease.

Halloween!

The Kennings joined us for some rousing trick-or-treat adventures this year. The kids went for the first time 'sans adults' with gypsy Amber and her cellphone leading the way. It all went just great until they reached that distant street and Hannah the mouse decided she forgot use the facilities. A short drive later and the looting resumed. Daddy tax was good this year.
Be sure and notice Kimberlie's self-made medieval dress!

Kimberlie the Star

Kimberlie spent the whole day today in an all-city honor choir practice and performance. She was great! The place was standing room only.

That's What I Call Family Night!

Time for a break! We needed some time to just play around a bit, so we visited a chinese buffet (every other block in this town) and then stopped by a long time haunt - Fun Acre mini golf. Everyone did very well, but it was Hannah who stole the show on hole 19, where she dropped her ball in the impossible cup for a free game ticket. I've only done that once in my life! Not too shabby for a 5 year old.

Another Anniversary

Number 16 already! We decided it was time to get away for a bit, so we spent the day in Branson trying out some of the sights we have avoided all of these years. We wandered down the Branson Landing, a mile or so shopping strip, visited Ripley's, and just enjoyed a day together. Joe's Crab Shack was a fun experience that was new to us, as was the starring role in a classic movie!