Brooklyns Birthday 2010

On Monday 12/20/2010 our youngest, Brooklyn, turned 5. Both of us feel that she acts WAY older than her age, and we both notice how quick she is growing up! Brooklyn was so excited about her birthday and having all of her friends over. They decorated Christmas cookies, played hot potato, stomped on some balloons, and opened presents. Even though her birthday is so close to Christmas, we made sure that it didn't feel to her like we rolled in two celebrations into one! This is truly a wonderful time of the year. Here are a few photos.

Thanksgiving at Home!

We spent Thanksgiving at home in Las Vegas. We heard that there were some really bad snow storms that really made driving in Utah precarious. My parents came down to visit with us for a few days, and we took them with the kids to Circus Circus.

Halloween 2010

This Halloween was spent up in Utah with Naquel's parents. Here is a short video I put together.

Family Boating

It seems like this summer has just whizzed by faster than we could keep track. And it also seems like we have spent as much time on the water as we normally do each summer. What with all the vacations and traveling we have been doing, boating has been minimal. So we are trying to pack as much water sports in as we can in the next few months. The water temperatures are pretty nice this time of the year, and so we are able to enjoy being out on the lake thru the end of October. So here are a few photos of our family out on Lake Mead.

First Day of School 2010

Connor and Sydney started school this week. Although this summer was a lot of fun, boy did it sure seem to fly by. But you could tell that the kids were getting restless and were ready to get back to the books. Here are a few videos of the kids starting school.

Canada Vacation 2010

We took a fun vacation up to Calgary for 2 weeks this summer. Chris had is 20 year high school reunion, so we decided to make a fun trip out of it. It takes 18 hours to drive from Las Vegas to the Canadian border, so to make it easy on the kids we stayed with family along the way. We spent the night at Naquel's parents place in Spanish Fork, UT. By the next night we made it up to Naquel's aunts home in Helena, MT. During our drive up to Canada we stopped off in Great Falls, MT to check out Naquel's dad's home he grew up in.

We arrived in Lethbridge on the third day into the trip and checked into our hotel: The Econolodge. The reunion was 20 miles south of Lethbridge in a little farming town called Magrath. The kids got to splash around at the Ramada Inn, known for its indoor swimming park with a huge wave pool and scary tube slides. The next morning we had time to play around, so we took the kids to Magrath to play at the park at the elementary school that Chris went to when he was a child. The kids were pretty excited to play at the park.

Chris was able to show the kids where he went to school, places around Magrath, as well as his old house that he used to live in. Unfortunately, his old house caught on fire about 8 months ago and was about to be torn down to rebuild. Luckily he got some last shots of his childhood home. We had time to drive to Cardston and check out the Temple, as well as take a scenic drive out to Waterton Park.

The reunion, later that night, was a lot of fun. Although Chris graduated from high school near Orlando, Florida, he went to school in Magrath from elementary thru grade 9, and considers it his original school.

The following day we woke early and drove 3 hours to Calgary Alberta. We surprised the kids by taking them to Calaway Park- a fun little theme park with lots of fun rides. Chris met up with one of his friends, Anders Quist. They were able to chat and catch up on the years gone by while the kids went crazy on the rides.Later that night Chris was able to meet up with some more of his friends, and they all went out to dinner at Applebees in Calgary. After saying goodbye, we headed to downtown Calgary to check into the Hyatt Regency. It was a really nice hotel right next to the Calgary tower.

The later that day we drove to Banff Provincial Park and checked into our hotel, Lake Louise Inn. It was a small and expensive hotel with modest amenities, but we got by just fine. This is where Chris had a lot of fun taking photos.We also did a lot of hiking and sight seeing, and dad also got a lot of cool pics of the kids.

On the way home we stopped off at Chris's sisters place in Pocatello for a few days, and then we spent a little time back and Naquel's parents in Spanish fork. Connor had a lot of fun running circles on his little 4x4 in the back yard.

We sure had a lot of fun on this vacation to Canada. The kids keep talking about how much fun they had. We were blessed with safety and happiness. We cant wait for our big vacation next year!