Christmas Concert

Kate got to go to the David Archtuletta concert last Saturday.  It was at Layton High school and he sang a bunch of Christmas songs and some of his popular hits.  After she got to go backstage and meet him.  She was so excited! 

Merry Christmas!

I'm not sure how many more years I can keep making the older kids sit on Santa's lap.  Kate expressed displeasure at the thought of having to sit on his lap so I told her to just pose behind him and smile for the picture.  It's amazing because it seems like she was just Jence's age and could hardly wait to see Santa.   My how times have changed.  This year Jence is asking Santa for some Jurassic park Dinosaurs, and a submarine to play with in the bath tub.  Ben is asking for a lego set, Kirk wants a lego set and Kate is asking for a tether-ball.  I've realized how fast this year has gone and it blows my mind.  The Santa pictures seem to come faster and sooner each year!

The Loot!

Here is the Halloween haul!!!!

Halloween 2015

I can't believe it's Halloween again.  It feels like I just posted last years pictures.  Crazy how each year comes and goes.  The kids are one more year older and you can really begin to tell by the pictures. 

 Ben's Costume this year was Clark Kent who then turns into superman underneath.  I ordered it online and thought it was sooo cute.  Apparently he didn't think clark Kent was very cool.  I had to literally force him to wear the glasses.  But he liked the superman part of the costume so that was okay.

 Jence loved his fireman costume which he played in for weeks.  I'm glad it's still in one piece now that it's finally Halloween!

 Kate will get to wear her costume twice this year.  Sometime later in the school year the fifth grade has a fifties dance.  It will be nice to get a couple of wears out of this cute costume!!!!  She sure is growing up!

 Kirk is a Ghost Buster this year.  He was pretty excited about this costume this year.  It's nice that he is a good guy for once LOL!!!!

Lake Tahoe and Emerald Bay

 Emerald Bay California.  Two hundred acres was donated to California by a family.  The owner built a norweigan like house on the shore of this bay.  We felt like we had stepped back into time and visiting a European mansion.  It was like Disneyland with out the crowds I loved it!!!

 

Yosemite National park

The next night we stayed at Yosemite National park.  Right away I could tell this park was much more crowded than Sequoia.  The beauty was breath taking.  Really the view of all the granite mountains was on of the more spectacular things I've seen.  We stayed in a cabin like tent.  Boy were they packed into the camping sight.  We happened to be right in the middle of a huge group of school children.  There were about 100 kids running around our tent playing tag.  They finally quieted down.  Then the next day we drove out of Yosemite and headed up to Lake Tahoe.  

 Friendliest Deer ever.  Came right up to the kids I think he was hungry

 Kid's eating breakfast on a log in Yosemite

Sequoia National Park

We had a really nice evening at the Best Western.  The kids enjoyed getting into the pool and the hot tub.  We found a grocery store and stocked up on some food for the rest of our trip.  The next day we drove into sequoia park.  It was very lucky that the government was offering all fourth graders a special pass into the parks so because Kirk is in fourth grade we got in for free!  The trees there are pretty awesome to see and climb on.  We also saw two black bears.  Kirk has good eye sight because he spotted one up in a tree I would never have noticed it that easily.  He was up in his tree pretty high so I jumped of our car to take some pictures.  I didn't think the Bear would come down.  Really soon though he came right down and it didn't take him more than a minute or two to get to the ground.  I was high tailing it to the van.  Really glad that I didn't get mauled by a bear.  The kids have a great story though.  Next time I'm renting a telephoto zoom lens so I can get a pictures of the wild life with out risking my own life.  We got a small cabin inside the park.  It actually was available which I guess is the upside of visiting during the off season.  It wasn't crowded at all and it just felt really secluded and fun. 

The small black bear behind the kids.  This was the first bear we saw just outside of the park.  That is somebody's house there.  This bear was much smaller than the one we saw up close in the tree. 

Visiting Barstow over Fall Break

The kids had a few days off of school so we decided to head on down to visit Grandma and Grandpa Mower on their mission.  We did so many fun things with them.  We went on an alpine slide had a picnic, went to the zoo and drove go carts.  The next day was Sunday at we enjoyed going to their church with them, and also enjoyed meeting many investigators that Dan's parents are teaching.  Dan's parents are making a huge difference in their area. 

 

After church we had a really great sunday dinner and played games.  The next day we went to Calico silver mine Ghost town.  The kids panned for gold, and went on an old train ride.  We then walked through the silver min.  Then we headed to a hotel that was just outside of Sequoia National Park.