Wrinkled Thoughts

You know… it must be love. She only does this when I'm working. She loves me.

So last December we had "the flood" when my sprinkler line broke (see December 2006)… and THIS December is almost JUST AS COOL as last December!

We had a fairly large snow storm early in the month followed by a week of "warmer" weather that ended up melting the snow. During the melt, we kept finding puddles of water in Avery's room… and each day kept getting worse! I thought I had a leaky pipe or something. After a few days of sleuthing to find the source of the water, the thought occurred to me: "My foundation doesn't have a crack in it, does it?". Turns out foundation cracks that leak water are fairly common this time of year in Utah. So common in fact, that I had to wait 10 days for the foundation gurus to come out and fix it! Well, actually, as of this post they haven't come yet - they are scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Anyway… All they have to do is inject some nifty epoxy of sorts into the crack that reacts to moisture and "fixes" the leak. We'll see what happens. Either way, I have another BIG MESS on my hands… as you can see from the photos.

Okay, so this post is just a couple of photos of our weird and cute children. During a snow storm, Avery decided it would be fun to go outside and run around the backyard in his skivvies. Then he came in and posed for us. Oh, he'll rue the day when I use this photo to blackmail him when he's a teen-ager. Love it!

Then there is Isaac and Owen. Since they are at the age where they lose teeth every other week, their smile changes regularly. Isaac is the adventurer… he usually loses them two at a time because he's not afraid to yank. Owen on the other hand, likes to wait until his teeth fall out in his soup. I caught this classic toothless grin of Isaac at their Kindergarten Christmas show. Too bad they didn't sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". 

And THEN there is the cutest baby on the planet… Miss Maya. While we here building our annual graham cracker candy houses, Sage caught a few shots of her laughing like it was going out of style. The photos speak for themselves:

I figured out how to take really neat pictures at night with my camera and a tripod. When it snows in Utah, it lights up the night like it is daytime and gives everything a peaceful glow. It is especially cool with Christmas lights! Here's some shots I took over the last few weeks… just for the heck of it. Enjoy!

This year we went a little crazy and took a gianormous road trip… with 5 kids… halfway across the country and back. We survived it.

Our first stop was Flagstaff Arizona where we met my bud Myke and his family for a grand tour of the famous Riordan Mansion in the shadow of NAU. Actually, the REAL reason we met Myke in Flagstaff was to drop off our "prince" dog, Toby. We didn't need a 6th child in the car for the next 5000 miles. Here's a shot of most of the kids at the mansion.

Our next destination (not stop) was Branson, Missouri. What the heck is in Branson, Missouri you ask? Well, the ONLY thing worth seeing there is SIX (otherwise known as the Knudsen Brothers). I have blogged about them before, but if you don't know who they are, then go find out here . Oh yeah… and my wife wanted to see her good friend Nichole Knudsen too.

On the way there, we had to travel on I-40 across New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. It took us two days, with stops in Gallup, NM and Tulsa OK. We learned the joys of a "decent" hotel the first night. Gallup isn't much for hotels, so we picked one that "looked" good. Well, there wasn't much floor space to throw down the blow-up mattress … and the twins suffered through it well … as you can see from the picture.

We finally made to Branson and spent 4 glorious days taking in the sites and watching as many free shows as we could. Since SIX is the hottest act in town, every other show trades tickets with them. We got to see everything from the Chinese Acrobats to a country/comedy show to the Hughes Brothers to one of Missouri's MANY caves. It was great. Oh yeah, and we got to see SIX twice! We planned the trip so we got to see the last "regular season" show one night and then their first "Christmas show" another night. We squeezed Halloween and Ethan's 9th birthday in between. Here's all the photos we took in Branson.

After our stay in Branson, we got brave and decided to trek on up to Nauvoo to see the temple - by way of St. Louis. And of course, if you go through St. Louis, you have to stop and ride to the top of the St. Louis Arch. Here are a few shot we took while there:

The drive up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo is beautiful in the fall. The kids weren't too keen on the visit to the historic city though, so we didn't get to see as much as we wanted. Sage and I decided we'd take another trip sans children one of these years. We did get to see the temple and the visitors center. We also got to go visit the "old town" and see the Browning gun shop, eat a gingerbread cookie… and the highlight of Nauvoo… making a rope. Here's the pictures of the Nauvoo segment of the trip.

So the next destination from Nauvoo is Carthage Jail. It's only about 25 miles away from the Nauvoo temple, and WELL WORTH the trip. Being in the "Martyr Room" was a very special experience. It is considered a holy place, so you can't take photos inside the room, but here are a few I took outside. For those of you who don't know what Carthage Jail is… it's where the beloved prophet Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob.

The next stop on our cross country trek took us PAST Far West Missouri into Kansas City. We accidentally past Far West by about 35 miles to spend the night in Kansas City. Little did we know the Green Bay Packers were playing in KC the following day, so rooms were scarce! We lucked out with "smoking room" that wasn't too stinky. Anyway, we went to church on Sunday morning in nearby Liberty. Then we back tracked the 35 miles to Far West and then BACK to Liberty to visit the Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum (and others) spent six grueling months for NOTHING. Anyway, here are the photos of Far West and the Liberty Jail.

Okay, so after the hotel crisis in Kansas City, Sage decided she didn't want to stay in a Hotel again. We thought about it for awhile and decided that Hannagan Meadow Arizona was only 18 hours away if we didn't stop. Sage was game, so we left KC Sunday night and traded off driving through the night to get to Hannagan by 9am the following day. It was a beautiful thing… since we got to stay with my parents an extra day and didn't have to PAY FOR IT! :) 

While at Hannagan, we made my dad take us on a famed buggy ride to see the fall colors. It was a bit nippy in the open air buggy, but we all enjoyed the views. Here's the photos of Hannagan.

After Hannagan, we spent the rest of the week in the Phoenix valley at Sage's mother's house. We had a good time seeing my brothers and little sis before heading back to Utah. What a trip! I can't say I want to do it all over again anytime soon… but at least we can say we did it.