THE GIFT OF FRIENDS...

This year it was my turn to host the Christmas party for my best friends from good ol' Murray High School! We met for breakfast at Kneader's, then went to my house to visit and open gifts. Stefani couldn't come to the party because she was going out of town, but delivered her gift a few days earlier, so I snapped a photo. Deb was sick, so she wasn't able to come. 

Marti, Laureen, Janet and I had a great time enjoying delicious french toast and frozen hot chocolate at Kneaders. It's always fun to talk and reminisce. I'm grateful to still have these amazing women as my friends...

Blowin' in the WIND!

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 hurricane-force winds wreaked havoc in northern Utah (we had to go sleep in the basement because of the noise), blowing over semitrailers, toppling trees, downing power lines, forcing the closures of schools, and created extensive property damage across Davis and Weber counties. The strongest winds were reported near Centerville, where gusts of 102 mph, 100 mph and 86 mph were recorded by the National Weather Service. A 100 mph wind gust is the same as a Category 2 hurricane. Estimates put the damage in Centerville alone at $8 million.

Bountiful had wind gusts of 78 mph and at the U of U 69 mph. (This information came from the Deseret News-Dec. 2, 2011...)

These winds were unlike canyon winds that create local gusts at the mouths of individual canyons, the larger weather pattern created down-slope winds that were most intense along I-15 and the Legacy Highway. It's like a wave of wind coming over the mountains. The bench area was in the tube of the wave, it got wind but avoided the impact. Areas like Centerville and West Bountiful took most of the wave's crash and had the most severe damage (per KSL-TV meteorologist Kevin Eubank). In Bountiful, 40% of homes were still without power at 9:00 p.m. (luckily ours came on before that)...

Twenty-eight schools in Davis county were closed on Friday because of storm-related issues. In addition, windows in 30 buses were shattered.

Damage at our house was minimal...blown over deck furniture, our hot tub cover got bent, we lost a lot of shingles,and a pine tree was uprooted. The grandkids came over and were very scared...as we drove around our neighborhood, the damage was more extensive (see photos below):

Photos taken in downtown Bountiful, West Bountiful and Centerville...someone is going to have to get a new tramp!

Chris &Shannon had lots of shingles blown off their roof, their fence was damaged, and their yard was a mess...

NOVEMBER NEWS

November was a fun and busy month. Here's what we did:

Dale & I decided it would be fun to have a play set for the grandkids (and Darren!!), so we cleared out an area in the backyard that was not being used....let the fun begin!

November 11th, we celebrated Brett's 29th birthday, played in the leaves (it's funny how we have no trees in our yard, but seem to have tons of leaves!), and a critter decided to eat Jake's pumpkin that was sitting on the bench (he was broken hearted)...

A tradition at High-Tech...collect groceries for the Food Bank. Way to go!

Jacob's preschool Thanksgiving Program - Nov. 22nd...

Grateful to have all these wonderful people in my life!

GOBBLE, GOBBLE...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy "Howl-o-ween"!

On Halloween Night, we had a cute pirate, a "bat-witch", a dinosaur, Scooby Doo and their parents visit us. We had chili, cheese & crackers, and apples with caramel dip for dinner, then went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. The weather cooperated this year!

Darren & Becca got super creative with their pumpkin carving! Their costumes were also very unique-they wore each other's work uniforms...

DALLAS

October 27-29 Dale & I took a quick trip to Dallas with Pat & Rey to watch BYU play TCU at Cowboys Stadium. The guys wanted to experience this amazing stadium and the girls just went along to keep them in line!! Dallas is the 3rd largest city in Texas and the 9th largest in the United States. We stayed in Arlington, within walking distance of Six Flags, Rangers Ballpark and the Stadium. The Rangers were playing in the World Series while we were there (too bad it wasn't in Dallas)...
We had some time before we could check in, so we drove into the downtown area just to look around and ended up here:
The Dallas World Aquarium was amazing. It's located in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas. The upper level is an artificial reproduction of the Orinoco Rainforest, where we saw three-toed sloths, crocodiles, lots of birds, and vampire bats. The lower level houses aquariums featuring fish and other sea animals from around the world. I wasn't very impressed with downtown Dallas, but we were glad we took the time to visit the aquarium! That night we had dinner at Kirby's Prime Steakhouse in Southlake-it was delicious!
Friday, was a beautiful sunny day. We spent some time at Southlake Town Square, which is home to 250 stores and 120 restaurants! That night we ate at a Texas BBQ place before we walked to Cowboys Stadium for the big game...
Cowboys Stadium was unbelievable! This domed stadium with a retractable roof was built in 2009. The stadium seats 80,000 and is the largest domed stadium in the world. The high definition video screen hangs from the 20 yard line to the 20 yard line-gigantic! Originally estimated to cost $650 million, the construction cost ended up being $1.3 billion. BYU didn't win the game, but it was fun to experience the game sitting on 6th row-50 yard line...

FUN AT "SCARY HILL"

October 21st the kids were out of school, so we took them to "Scary Hill". They had a lot of fun miniature golfing, rock climbing, and going on a tractor ride. They thought the "skeleton couple" driving the motor home was especially funny...

Autumn Adventure

For our 37th anniversary, we decided to take a trip to Jackson Hole over General Conference weekend. Friday morning we drove over Monte Cristo to check out the autumn leaves (gorgeous), then stopped in Alpine, Wyoming for lunch at Tootsie's Pizza.

When we got to Jackson, we checked into the Rusty Parrot Lodge, walked around downtown and did a little shopping. Then we drove to Teton Village where we saw this huge moose just resting in someone's front yard. That night we ate dinner at the Wild Sage Restaurant-where we got to watch the chefs prepare our food! My halibut was some of the best I've ever had...

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at Cafe Genevieve and then drove to Grand Teton National Park, stopped at gorgeous Jenny Lake then entered the south end of Yellowstone Park...
We ate lunch at Grant Village, then drove to West Thumb to see the Geyser Basin and on to Old Faithful. Along the way we saw one elk from a distance and a fox trotting along the road, but no buffalo or bear! Old Faithful wasn't going to "erupt" for 45 minutes, so we didn't wait...

There were wild fires in both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park, so the view of the magnificent Tetons was not ideal. That night we ate dinner at The Kitchen-fun atmosphere, food was just okay.

Sunday morning we had a yummy breakfast at the Wild Sage then started home. We took a different route on the way home...through Montpelier, Idaho, past Bear Lake and up Logan Canyon. The autumn leaves were amazing in Logan Canyon, but weren't very colorful yet in Sardine Canyon. It was nice to get away for a few days! Thank you Delbert, and Happy Anniversary!!

Twenty-five...

Darren's 25th birthday was a 4 day celebration! On his actual birthday, he went to a birthday party for Becca's nephews. On Saturday, Becca spoiled him! They did yoga at The International Peace Gardens, went out to breakfast, then fed the ducks at Liberty Park and went to dinner at Brio Tuscan Grille and to see the movie Warrior. She also gave him a gift he was super excited about...a Derrick Favors jersey! (Which he wore to the Utah Jazz vs. NBA Exhibition Charity Basketball game they attended on Nov. 7th).

Sunday we had a family dinner and his favorite chocolate chip ice cream cake from 31 Flavors.

Monday, Dale & I took him to Tuscany (the restaurant, not Italy...) for dinner to celebrate 25 years of having this great son in our lives...

Happy 75th, Mom!

My mom turned 75 on Sept. 13th...she decided for her birthday she wanted to go on an adventure to visit Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln! Here my cute parents are at some of their stops on their road trip (Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills-Custer County, South Dakota).
They loved Custer State Park in South Dakota and thought Mt. Rushmore was spectacular!
On their way home, they stayed at the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone Park, and the next day went for a boat ride on Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Unfortunately it was a rainy day, so the view of the Tetons wasn't too grand! I'm grateful to have such an amazing, dedicated, loving mother and am so happy she got her wish to visit somewhere she's always wanted to go. Love you, Mom!

The Greatest Show on Earth...

For Ashley's birthday party on September 24th, she went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus with some family and friends. They left the circus "Fully Charged", and ready for pizza and cake & ice cream at Ashley's house.

Circus Favorites: Tabayara and his twelve ferocious tigers, the galloping stallions, the silly clowns, the dancing four-ton Asian Elephants, the Ukrainian strongmen, flying trapeze performers, and The Human Fuse (a man who rockets through the air all ablaze)!