December 2015/Christmas Parade

This was our first year going to our town's Christmas Parade.  The weather is usually very rainy and cold, but this year, it was a gorgeous day so we met the Lewis family there.  The kids loved it!  Landon and Sawyer have never been to a parade and they thought it was just the best thing ever that candy was being thrown at them!  It was so funny to watch them.  They are already talking about the next parade!

That's Laurel's orthodontist!

Sawyer realized really quick that if you waved at the floats, they would throw lots of candy!

December 2015/Gingerbread Man/Savannah's Christmas Party

Every year the Kindergarten class does a whole week of spotting the gingerbread man around the world.  I always get dad to email the teacher a story, because he is the best at coming up with some stories.  Landon didn't know he was going to hear a story from his grandpa.  He was so cute when he got in the car, telling me all about the story grandpa wrote.  He told me how his friends, "were really into that story!"  Then when he finished telling me, he said, "now mommy, that gingerbread man isn't really real, is he?"  I love that mom and dad can still be a part of my children's school life even though they are miles away.

Here is grandpa's story:

 One day, deep in the Wasatch mountains, I was riding my old horse, Banjo, along a rocky trail enjoying the beautiful scenery.  Suddenly, off to my right, I saw something moving through the woods and heard a loud noise directly behind it. 

To  my surprise, it was the gingerbread man trying to outrun a bear.  He ran up beside me, I grabbed his arm, and he jumped up behind me on Banjo.  We ran down the trail and outran the bear. Then we talked as we rode along, and I discovered that he was a good, jolly man.  I invited him to have lunch with me, so we built up a camp fire and heated up Vienna sausage and had snicker bars for dessert. 

Just as we were finishing lunch, we heard a loud noise and saw another large bear coming across the sage brush field toward us.  He was so close we didn't have time to make a run for it.  I quickly stood, put my hands up over my head as far as I could reach and hollered, "Hoooo Bear! Hoooo Bear!".  The bear kept coming, and he was getting really close.  Then the gingerbread man jumped onto my shoulders, stood up as tall as he could, waved his hands in the air, and we both hollered, "Hoooo Bear!, Hoooo Bear!".  Because we looked so big and tall, the bear stopped just in front of us.  He then stood up on his hind legs, growled at us, and then  turned around and ran off.

As we rode back down the trail to take the gingerbread man home, we decided that we had had a very good and exciting day.  To this day, we consider each other very good friends.  After all, I did save his life, and he also saved mine.  THE END.

Savannah's class Christmas Party!

December 2015/Papa turns 80!

We celebrated Papa's 80th birthday!  We spent a lot of time playing in his back yard, trying to take a family picture, which was almost impossible to do with that many people.  One of the kids got my camera and took some very close ups of several people!  Fun, fun day and I know that no amount of money could top the present of having all of Papa's children and grandchildren with him.  This man loves family!