Happy Easter

We had a nice Easter Sunday at the Dutton home. The kids woke up early to collect their Easter eggs and to see what the bunny brought in the middle of the night. The biggest hit was a bubble maker for Nathan -- see the pic below. And, as is tradition in many homes, we dressed our like all alike, paraded them to church, and rushed them home before they could get snot on their clothes and ruin a family picture.

We hosted Easter dinner at our home this year and had over 20 people attend. Kim and Chris came bearing presents for the kids -- Kim created a cool display for Jacob and Anna with some butterflies from her collection (the butterfly is pinned in a shadowbox). Jacob totally digs it, and it being Easter and all he was trying to draw the connection between the bug, the holiday and what he had learned in church that day. Then he asked Kim, "was the butterfly crucified?" It was a great question -- the bug was dead, and he did have pins in him. After we stopped rolling we had a good talk with Jacob. :-)

Yeehaw! Our trip to Nashville

We went to Nashville last weekend to visit Jayme, Blake and family. It's a great town -- we took a tour of Vanderbilt (where Blake is a medical student), went Honky Tonkin', visited the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, toured an old southern plantation whose owner was the inspiration for the Scarlett O'Hara character in Gone with the Wind, jammed out to some country music at the Grand Ole Opry, and walked the grounds of The Hermitage (home of Andrew Jackson)....all in three days!

There were three highlights of the trip. The first was spending time with family (gotta say that one, but it's true). The second was going Honky Tonkin' -- which basically means going from club to club to see different country bands playing in the heart of Nashville. It ended up snowing that night a few inches which caused some crazziness -- schools closed, firemen stopped their truck in the middle of the tourist center to they could take pictures of the snow, and revelers started doing snow angels in the street. The third was going out to dinner with Jen at the Opryland Hotel and then seeing the Grand Ole Opry. We are not huge country music fans, but the music was great and it was nice being somewhere new without the kids so we can plan out the rest of their lives without interruption. :-)

We left Jacob and Anna with Grandma and took Nathan with us (thanks g-ma). On the final day we took Nathan to an aquarium to see some "feeeeshhhhhies." They had a stingray petting zoo -seriously, and it was cool. The stingrays come and eat shrimp right out of your hand. Nathan liked watching them from a distance but wanted nothing to do with touching them.

So, a very fun trip. Thanks to Jayme and Blake for hosting us.

Aladdin Play

Anna and Jacob "starred" in the Aladdin Musical at their school this week (well -- they performed the opening act). They did a great job. Anna loves an audience, and Jacob warmed up to the idea after a while.

Nathan was ready to party. See the picture below -- we'll certainly use this photo to embarrass him when he gets older. :-)

Basketball

Jacob and Anna have been taking basketball lessons. You'll see from the video below that the lessons have "really" paid off. :-)

Park City trip

We spent President's Day weekend in Heber and Park City. Jacob, Anna and I did some skiing while Jen and Nathan shopped. We also all went ice skating, swimming in a hot spring in a crater and jammed out to Guitar Hero on our Wii (yep -- we've succumbed).

The twins are becoming good skiers. Anna is cautious and tries to show good form, and Jacob has nicknamed himself "the bullet". He tries to go strait down any hill, and sometimes hits trees, people or ends up in a massive wipeout (all of which happened on President's Day). So...we are working on staying in control.

Caught in a blizzard

Last week Jen and the kids had quite the adventure. At about 3PM last Wednesday they were headed to basketball practice, and a massive storm blew in. At 3:15 I got a call from Jen and she said that she could not see past the end of her car -- all cars are the road had simply stopped. The storm was supposed to pass quickly, but ended up stalling right at the Point of the Mountain (which is where Jen was). Jen then noticed that she was not on the road at all. In the "white out" conditions, she followed a car that crossed oncoming traffic and they were now all in a field on the wrong side of the road. The Highway Patrol shut the road down and they had to simply wait the storm out.

I was able to get within a mile of Jen at about 6PM, but cars were littered all over the road and I saw at least a dozen accidents. There was no way to get to her -- the road conditions were awful and the wind was just howling. At 10PM a tow truck tried to get Jen back on the road but ended up getting stuck himself. So now Jen, Nathan, Anna and Jacob were stuck in the cab with a tow truck driver. At 11PM a "search and rescue" team arrived and took the fam to a nearby church that they converted to a shelter. I arrived at the church at 11:30 and we spent the night there.

All told, over 100 cars were stranded on the road and were towed out the next day. A school bus was also stuck with over 50 kids on it, and one elementary school kept kids at their school overnight instead of risking the bus trip. Several long-time Utahans commented it was the worst storm they've ever seen. When we arrived back at our home the next morning we had a 5 foot snow drift blocking our house. I eventually hiked through it and brought snowshoes back for the rest of the family and they hiked in.

So....quite the adventure. The kids thought it was exciting for the most part, and Jen was as tough as always (she just make the kids catch up on a week of reading while waiting in the car). Still, I'm pretty sure our next car will have four wheel drive.

The kids are famous

A photographer from the Deseret News drove by our house yesterday while Jacob and Anna were playing outside. It was our first "warm" day in a long time and they were riding their bikes, throwing snow, etc. The photographer asked is he could take some pictures, and the picture above appeared in the newspaper this morning. Jacob is throwing a snowball at Anna.

The article can be found at http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695252402,00.html?linkTrack=rotator:cvr.

Skiing at Brighton

Today I took the kids skiing at Brighton for their final lesson of the year. The video below documents the craziness. Additional video here (Jacob skis backwards).

Utah Roads

I snapped this picture on my cell phone -- this is what the roads look like around our house.  And this is one of the major roads.

Fun in the snow

We have had a tremendous amount of snow this year. This morning I shoveled 8 inches off our driveway, and then another 8 this evening. So...all that snow calls for some fun. The kids and I did a little snowshoeing in our backyard tonight, and they tried to slide their way into a creek bed. Jacob ended up on his head, and Anna was too buried to move. So naturally I did a "cannonball" on the hillside and sent an avalanche over both of them.

Two front teeth become one

Anna lost a big tooth this week. I can't decide if she looks like a grandma with no teeth, or just a kid that is much older than my baby Anna.

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.