Feliz Navidad

Talk about a bad case of the Ebeneezers this year. I (Doug) for one, had an over-flowing ginormous bag of it. "If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!" Hardly listened to any Christmas music or watched any Christmas movies... well, of course I watched The Grinch- I was taking some lessons from him. "Blast those Whos!" But, things got much better when all the fam got together. Madison and Jake came up from AZ, Rory up from SLC, Sydney down from USU, and Emery up from SLC- then the games began and mass quantities of food was consumed. The only down side was that Emery, Syd, Brenda, and I all had some kind of cold or sickness- most likely we will pass it on to the rest of the family... why wouldn't we? We also visited with Gpa and Gma Little and Zaugg (trying to keep our distance cold-wise) and went to see Tangled , that new Disney flick. It was very good, but I got a bit of a hairball. Brenda also had a work party breakfast, to which all the fam was invited. She made the yummy syrup to immerse our pancakes in- dang! The rest of the holiday break we spent time watching movies, eating more, playing more games, and eating again... "...I ate too much, I drank too much... too much!" "Blast that water weight, goes straight to my hips!" Well, I tried to capture some the activities in pics below. Oh dang! There is one song that I haven't heard this year that I need to... Cheech and Chong's- Santa Claus and His Old Lady... The season won't be complete without it! And one more thing, I must end with my Christmas wish... I wish... whirled peas to all, and to all a good night :)

Antelope Island

All these years living so close and I've never really been out to see Antelope Island. Our inspiration to do so came when a visitor from our old neighborhood in Charlton Massachusetts called to pay us a visit- Rick Cayer. He is on a 2-3 week road trip which started back east and will take him from here in Utah, up to Seattle and down the coast to San Diego. He will then fly home to be with his family for Thanksgiving. We had a great visit with him, as he told us of his many adventures that he had had so far.


With anticipation of his arrival, we were a bit hard pressed to figure out what we were going to do with him or where to take him (as there is not much around here)- he wouldn't be here that long to make any big plans, as he was on a pretty tight schedule. Anyway, I thought perhaps Antelope Island or to the Airplane museum at Hill Air Force Base- he chose the prior as you can tell from the pics. So, on our way down to SLC for dinner, we bopped on out to the island.

As we drove around, trying to find the visitors center, wondering to ourselves, "Why would anyone want to come camping out here in this desolate, bug-infested, foul-smelling, parcel of God's chosen land?" Well, I don't think I would go camping, but I think it would be fun to bike to and around the island. There is quite a bit of wildlife; antelope (duh), bison, pronghorn (not an antelope at all :) ), big-horn sheep, etc. Check out Rick and his pet, Bobby the Buffalo.




For the short time that we were out there, I came to realize even a deserted desert isle has it's beauties. I really wish that we would have had more time to explore and do, but that will have to be an adventure for another time.




Thanks for coming Ricky Cayer, and reminding us that... "...if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard ..." Dorthy. I guess that goes for looking for beauties that we finally realize are right in our own backyards.

We also had Emery this weekend- always a joy to have, and she's even starting to say 'please'! She had turned TWO YEARS OLD! this past week... where has the time gone. One thing we didn't get any pics of or videos of (it would have been so fun to share)... you know how much fun it is to have a flashlight and shine it on the floor and walls and have the cat chase it? Welllll, this was even much more fun. We have a laser heat gun which checks food temps. We had that going on the floor and playing with the wee babe, just so much fun to watch- her facial expressions... priceless.

Halloween Weekend

Some pics over the Halloween weekend. All the kids were here! We were going to have an updated family pic taken, but Rory had to go back to attend his church... where are his priorities?! We'll try and get one next time we're all together. We were fortunate to see Madison and Jake, but sadly it was because Jake's grandma died, and they were up for the funeral. Sydney was down from school because she was going to get her wisdom teeth out... now she is as stupid as the rest of us adults that don't have wisdom teeth :) Emery was also here to do Trick-or-Treating, and of course Taylor and Carson round out the rest of the bunch. We also went to the duck pond, which was a lot of fun.

Emery

This little girl is just so much fun! Check out these pics. She grows so much between times that we get to see her. She is talking so much more, too, and starting to put words together, like- "hssus, eeting", and "'Nando, running" ('Nando is short for Fernando the cat), and "kees, bak". Taylor her papa, taught her something so funny- "Emery, what does a turtle say". She says "Duuuuude" (You Disney fans will recognize that to be the voice of Crush). So cute! But when we want her to say "please" when asking for something, she says- "crickets". I don't mean to say she says "crickets", but that we here nothing, that's right, silence. She just gives us a look like, "why should I say it, you'll give it to me anyway". We're still working on it... but just look at that face! How could we deny her anything? Yeah, we don't, but we're the grandparents and that's our job, dang it! :)











Two of the pics were when Emery and GpaZ were on their Sunday walk. There were these little Billy Goats Gruff and we stopped to visit. They just wanted to eat her right up... why wouldn't they? Oh, and the outfit she is wearing with the hat, her papa is responsible for that, the GpaZs deny all accountability....

Really Love Your Peaches Wanna Shake Your Tree...

Well, it's almost fall and with that, comes the harvest. Almost everyday, Mom and Dad Z have been saying stuff like; "You want to do peaches?" or "Would you like us to help you do peaches?" "I'd hate to see the peaches go to waste...", etc, etc,- I guess we better do peaches. We not only did peaches, but we also bottled tomatoes. It was a busy weekend.








There was a bright spot for the weekend though, we got Emery as well and it's always fun when she comes. Brenda and I like to go for a walk with her on Sunday mornings- she strolls, we walk. On our way around the block, we stop at the school and let her play at the playground. As she slides down the slide, she builds up a charge and then when she touches the metal poles she always gets a shock. Her poor little face- so sad! I had some really good video of it too, but the funny thing is, I guess I got a bit confused at how many times I pressed the record button... "I know what you're thinking. Did he fire five bullets or six? Well, in all the excitement I just plumb forgot! So, you have to ask yourself, do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" Anyway, I didn't get her best face, but, you get the idea. I did get some great footage of inside my short's pocket though...

West and Wewaxation at Wast...

Ahhhhh... and I'm not talking the Castle of Ahhhhh. The whole family has been looking forward to this the entire summer- Lake Powell, here we come! Luckily, we have wonderful friends like the Krebs that were kind enough to invite us to join them. Otherwise, our vacation would consist of going downtown to look for a job, then hanging out at the drug store. We spent our days eating, skiing, eating, skiing, tube-warring, playing games, then uh, eating some more. As we passed the Sabbath in one of God's wonders, we took time out of our hectic schedule and did some sight-seeing. One of the places was Hole-in-the-Rock. That's where the Mormon Pioneers dropped down there wagons and cattle. I always thought it was a hole in the rock, but it's not- but still, it's just crazy that they were able to do that. Most days, we had about 18 people on the houseboat- what fun! We got to know each other real well, real fast. The food was great; banana pancakes, bacon and eggs, cold cereal, yogurt, sandwiches, fajitas, fruit, etc, and stacks of snacks of course. At night, we slept on top, out under the stars "Under the Milky Way", it made me very pensive, at least, I thought a lot. Brenda would be reading in her sleeping bag with her book light, and bats would be flying just above our heads. I think we all had a lot of fun... too bad we had to come home. Oh well...Here are some highlights.

1 Year Older & Wiser 2 B Sure- Even @ 96

A harder working guy- I know of none. This guy runs circles around the Energizer Bunny. Still likes to shovel his walks in the winter, out in his garden everyday from spring to fall doing something. Digging a hole and filling it up again? Maybe. That's what he told my sibs and I to do growing up under his tutelage- at least, that's how it seemed. And when he's not in his garden, he's out in his shop making pens or mending something, perhaps amputating a finger of a worn out glove, only to attach it and give new life to another- nothing wasted. Here are a couple pics of his precious little playground, and a sample of his wares. Check out the "tamatas" hanging off of each arm. The guy is truly amazing- Happy Birthday Dad.