The trip to court was fairly uneventful, even the judge was kind of a stick in the mud. It was mildly amusing however when the judge had to ask our lawyer if all was in order as far as adoptions go. I guess he doesn't preside over too many of them, and this was kind of a treat. There were a few criminals in the room waiting for their turn.

Roseanne and Abigail flew up early (for the temple sealing) and were there to take pictures for us. Our good friends Christina and Cory came too, and we all went to breakfast after. Here's a few shots Roseanne took for us.

Anyway… here's what we've been doing since December.

Christmas, 2007 

We spent Christmas Eve at Brent and Larry's of course… because they throw the best darned Christmas party on the planet! It was great for the kids because we "cut back" on the presents this year due to the fact that we took a CRUISE and went to DISNEYLAND at the end of January… more on that below. Here's some pics of Christmas.

A few more shots of the annual "Graham Cracker House" building… I don't see any budding architects yet… and of course, half of my kids are always naked.

On Christmas morning, we decided to go to Flat Iron Mesa park for a little sledding. Avery took his snow board. Funny (but sad) story! Avery jumped on his board and expertly carved the hill. At the bottom, he took off his board and started walking up "the trail" behind a larger man to get back to the top. Out of nowhere, a kid about Avery's age decided to PLOW THE CROWD with his wooden sled on runners. Needless to say, the crowd jumped out of the way, but because Avery was behind the large man, he didn't get out of the way in time… I take that back, Avery got out of the way, but his snowboard was a little slow. The kid (who should have looked before he leaped) ended up EATING Avery's snowboard. Yup… split his face like a watermelon. Blood everywhere… teeth missing… Merry Christmas to him.

Avery felt bad, especially after the kids mom chewed him out for having the snowboard on the hill… What? It's a dang good thing I wasn't close enough to hear her. I would have had to give her a piece of my mind. She made Avery feel like it was his fault and he didn't even want to stay. I told Avery the kid should have looked down the hill BEFORE going down (standard snow hill etiquette) and I was backed up by the large man that was in front of Avery on the up hill trail. That made Avery feel better. 

A few photos of the fun:

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.

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:

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. 

They went on a hike up Bell Canyon to see the waterfall… Then, we all went to FRIGHTMARES at the the Lagoon… and then it snowed. Here's a few shots of the good times.

I was playing with my camera trying to take "artistic" shots, when I took these shots of the Colossus "Fire Dragon" ride at night. Not too shabby for not having a tripod. And yes, the train is SUPPOSED to be blurred… to show that it is in motion.

And then there is this shot. I'm not sure how I captured it exactly, but I think it has something to do with there being A) low light B) motion C) a lower ISO setting and D) The "Ghosts in the machine"… literally. Don't Avery and Isaac look "ghostly"? I love it.

When we left the Lagoon that night at 11:00pm it was 70 degrees… the next morning it was rainy and cold (of course, it was soccer Saturday). Saturday night it snowed… and today is Monday and heading toward 70 again. Go figure!