Happy Holidays from Elvis

This holiday season we had a ton of family in town -- Jen's dad from California, Jayme and Blake from Nashville, Great-grandma Halverson from St. George....plus the usual locals. We enjoyed sledding, lots of snow, skiing and of course, feasting.

Santa, in all his wisdom, decided to bring Jacob a guitar for Christmas. I hope you enjoy this unique rendition of "Blue Suede Shoes."

Disneyland Trip

We made the trek down to Disneyland for Thanksgiving. Had a blast -- Jacob and Anna are at such a fun age for Disneyland, and Nathan...well, give him a few years. We met my Mom and Krista's family at the park, and Jennifer's Dad joined us for the 2nd day. How those old fart grandparents keep up is a mystery. :-) (that was for your benefit Mom). Actually, they were troopers and help us open the park in the morning and close it at night.

The best part of the trip was just hanging out with family (except for the 30 cousins showing up for Turkey...seriously, 30. I would have preferred to have been the bird.). It was nice to see that Dad is doing well and still has his sense of humor.

Go Cougars!

Anna and I attended the BYU football game this weekend (BYU crushed Colorado State). I have never walked so much while "watching" a football game -- we had to walk over to the band, then to the cheerleaders, then to give the players high fives. Combine that with a dozen trips to the bathroom and two dozen trips to the snack bar, and only a few minutes were spent actually "watching" the game.

But we still had blast.

Halloween

We survived another Halloween. Nathan enjoyed blowing the fire out of people's pumpkins more than getting candy, Jacob really thought he was a pirate, and Anna loved parading around as a princess with her counsin Allie. And yes, Jacob's pumpkin is ill.

Dance recital

Anna had a dance recital yesterday. She was the star of the show (some may say I am biased, but I don't think so). Check out the video below -- just click the play button on the screen. She perfoms another song at http://youtube.com/watch?v=5g8gFt4IHsg.

First Snow

We had our first real snow of the year last night. It started snowing while Mike and Jacob were at the BYU game yesterday, and we woke up to several inches of snow in our yard this morning. Ski season must be just around the corner!

Top Summer Memories of 2007

We got busy over the summer and our family blog suffered. To catch us up a bit and get us back on the blogging track, I've listed our Top Summer 2007 Memories below.

• We vacationed at a beach house in San Diego. The kids tried their hands at surfing, we went to a Padres baseball game, Anna caught a huge halibut, and we had a nice time visiting with family.


• In early summer we decided to move. We sold our home in record time -- and before our new home was completed. So we moved into a temporary house and anxiously await the completion of our home on December 1st.





• We enjoyed visiting with family this summer. Grandma Frandsen purchased a new home only a couple of miles away, and on most Sundays we took a family bike ride to her house. Grammy Dutton, Aunt Krista and family spent some vacation time with us and we had a great time hiking in Sundance.

• Aunt Kim and Uncle Chris introduced us to float trips on the Provo River. We went a couple of times this year and I am sure the kids will demand we make it an annual tradition. Oh...and Kim and Chris are having a baby.
  





• The kids also enjoy hiking. Our favorite hikes this summer included Stewart Falls (Sundance), Battlecreek Falls (Pleasant Grove), Timpanookie (American Fork Canyon) and the Three Pools (Zions).








• Mike completed the Wasatch Back Relay for the second year in a row (200 mile relay race from Logan to Park City). While his team did not break any speed records, they did send one of their team members to the hospital, and finished 29th in the corporate division (OK, there were 30 teams.... :-) ). So inspired by this performance, Mike started training for another triathlon and injured his knee in the process (requiring surgery....and he's milking the sympathy for all it's worth).

So that catches us up to today -- I think. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this must be my longest blog posting ever!

Jeep trip

Jacob and I just returned from a Jeep trip in Moab. We met several of my BYU roommates in Moab and hit the trails. The first day we did the Poisen Spider and Golden Spike trails -- the picture here is from the "crack." It was amazing to see the obstacles the Jeep could crawl over. The second day we spent 4-wheeling in Arches National Park.

We had a great time. It was fun to bring Jacob on a boy trip -- he was so excited that he spoke more than the rest of us combined! We'll have to do a similar trip next year.

Snowshoeing

We got away last weekend to Midway, Utah for some winter fun. In addition to the usual skiing, we took the family snowshoeing -- including 8 month old Nathan. He was a trooper in Jen's backpack as we all tried to keep up with Anna.

Ski Race

This week we completed the kids' ski lessons for the year. On the last day of class they have a ski race -- down a hill and around some gates. The teachers were smarter this year because they did not have Jacob and Anna compete against each other (in which case the winner would pick on the loser all year). Both ended up winning their races.

With victories in hand, the kids asked me to take them up a "big" ski lift. Of course, I did, and they made sure we found our way to the half pipe (where snowboarders and skiers compete in freestyle competitions). A friend and I did the half pipe earlier in the day for the first time and both ended up on our rears. Jacob and Anna leisurely cruised up one side and then the other -- all the way down the pipe without falling. Beyond the half pipe about 100 yards is a 20-foot high jump. Jacob took off toward the jump, tucked down to get as much speed as possible, and I was fearing for the worst. Luckily, his momentum only took him 3/4 of the way up the launch ramp and he stalled before the jump. YIKES!!!

Happy New Year!

To ring in 2007 today we went sledding in American Fork Canyon with Jen's extended family. Had a blast -- and blasted off some jumps (that's Anna with me catching some air in the picture).

Fun at Disneyland

We spent the 3 days after Christmas this year at Disneyland with my family (parents and sister's family). As always, we had lots of fun. The last few times we've gone the kids have traded pins with other guests, and this time discovered cast member pins. A friend of mine offered them $10/each per pin and they were trading like crazy to find them.

The best part of the trip was spending time with family. Sounds cheesy, eh? But really true. The kids could be cleaning their bedroom with Grammie and Papa and think they're having the time of their life. To top the trip off, Jen's sister's family and her father joined us for one day of the trip.

We also splurged one night for prioirty seating at the Fantasmic! show. We had seats right on the water and all the chololate we could eat. Highly recommended experience.

Halloween and Pumpkins

This year we had a Little Mermaid and a Vampire in our home. Jacob and Anna dig Halloween -- the holiday is a very close second to Christmas. So when our pumpkins were stolen this year they were very upset. When they noticed the "crime" they ran into the house to tell Jennifer, who made the comment that some teenagers probably took the rotting orange veggies as a prank.

Not satisfied, Jacob and Anna schemed to find the perpetrators. When Jennifer was not looking, they snuck out of our house and ran across the street to accuse our neighbors of the crime. These neighbors have 3 teenagers -- the only teenagers that the kids know. When Jen finally saw the kids across the street the dad was at the door fielding questions from the twins: "where are our pumpkins!?", "why did you take our pumpkins!?" etc.

Ahh, the joys of having bold 5 year old twins who know how to fire each other up. 

First Triathlon

I completed my first triathlon this weekend. It was a lot of fun and I think I'll do another. There were 155 participants -- I had the 24th fastest pace in the swim, 90th in the bike ride, and 106th in the run. So I guess I am much like a whale -- good swimmer, poor runner. :-)

The picture is of the kids giving me a high-5 during at the end of my run.

The kids are growing up

Last week the twins started kindergarten. I was very excited about the start of school -- someone else would assume some responsibilty for turning the creatures into productive human beings, and Jen would get a break for a few hours in the day (OK, not much of a break becuase of the baby).

So I was surprised by how I felt when we dropped them off for the first time. After getting them situated in their class they were happy to see us go. They were making friends, having fun...and I realized that we no longer had total control over their lives. For a control freak like me that was pretty scarry. :-)

And then last night Anna and I went on a daddy/daughter date the see the Beauty and the Beast play. We had a lot of fun and it didn't feel in the least bit like babysitting! :-) I cannot believe the kids are growing up!!!!

A few pictures are attached (one was taken from my cell phone so the quality isn't great).