Christmas Break Starts Early

Jake's wish came true, his Christmas Break is starting 2 days early. Five and a half inches of snow cancels school so let the sledding begin!

Joe & Simon even came out for some fun.




Happy Snow Day!

Jake & Madeline

Today Madeline came over to play. Jake and Madeline noticed it was trying very hard to snow so they bundled themselves up and went out to play.

I think if you dragged your finger down the car window you might have seen a trail like dust, but that was it. I think we will be waiting a little longer for our first "real" snowman. Mr. Plastic will have to do for now.

Simon's Stocking

Most of you know we are pretty spoiled by our neighbors Tina & Roger. Well, last night they delivered Christmas presents early to put under the tree.

First Simon stared at his stocking and whined.

Then he went over and casually sniffed.

Then he finally gave up and started pawing at it.

At that point we let him have a quail and put the rest of his stuff up in the office till Christmas morning. How does he know what is his? He hasn't touched Jake's stuff.

This whole process took around 2o minutes. Joe thought I was being mean and should just give him something. I guess it is the Godsey in me!

The BEST time of year!

I love Christmas time. It starts getting fun at Halloween actually. Maybe that is why I like to go to Disneyland in November. Anyways, since everyone is posting there "tree" experiences I will post mine. We don't have any tales of mud or cold or saws. Just a 50 lb. box in the attic. Actually, I am going to weigh it when we get ready to put it away this year. It might be 75. I don't have any pictures of Joe yelling down from the attic "It's coming do you have it? DO YOU HAVE IT???" Maybe next year I will video tape the fun experience. But it is all worth it in the end.


We don't have to worry about our tree catching fire, just melting. We also don't have to vacuum up pine needles every day. I do need to go out and buy a pine smelling candle though.


Well here is our Christmas tree. After I put the 3, pre-lighted sections together. I have to say I really had a hard time finally going to the "fake" route, but now I am OK with it :).

Also, another reason it was easier to go "fake". When your 10 year old son would rather play Lego Star Wars then decorate the tree you know it has lost some of the magic.

Oh, and one more thing. Can you believe this is the only Nativity we own. A plastic Playschool set. One of these days I will invest in a grown up one with out a cardboard backdrop.

Memories

I came across this picture today and it made me smile. What a blast this trip was! Does anyone else recall how this was one of 3 pictures that Ben's face was covered by someones arm (upper left in case you couldn't find him) ?

I can't wait till we can plan our next family reunion/vacation to Disneyland. I am so poor though we might be on a 3 year plan this time :)

p.s. Ben, you better sit in front from now on.

Trunk or Treat Anyone??

Well, I didn't get anywhere near the amount of pictures I wanted. Joe wanted to "trunk or treat" with Jake, so I was stuck manning the treats at our trunk. Combine that with Joe not trusting himself with my camera and you end up with very few pictures.

Jake, Tyler, and Curtis by our trunk.

Jake and Curtis heading back from hot chocolate after a long hour of "Trunk or Treating".

Just a cute little poodle and rat we ran into along the way. (a.k.a Sophie and Jaxson)

The Williams Family rarely captured on film.

Jake, Tyler, and Curtis. Once they finally got to get out and start knocking doors.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

We are half way into Fall soccer!

Well, I know I promised you a soccer rant. That promise was coming off the heels of a frustrating game with a pretty dirty team we have faced before and beat. Unfortunately this time there was no referee, and at this age level that means the home team (them) assigns a ref. So they won, and our team left with bruised backs from their elbows, bruised behinds from the other team kicking at our ankles instead of the ball, and our goalie had to be pulled out of the game before half time because he was charged, resulting in hurting his wrist.

Exhibit A- Jake seconds before elbow to back, whistle you say? Nope.

Now, don't get be wrong, I know soccer is a violent sport. BUT, there are rules for a reason, so blow the dang whistle when those rules are broken!!! Nicole, this is why we need to start this "C" level women's team. I need to let out some of this frustration.

Now on to some action shots of Jake, with some help of my photo editor since my lens is far from adequate for this size field.

So, we have 4 more games left. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can bring my camera and get some more pictures. By the way, that dirty team. We still only lost by 1 goal. So playing dirty doesn't really pay. Just playing dirty with no ref pays :). Oh, and Bets, no I am not the coach. I am the team mom. We were lucky enough to have a friend of one of the parents step up and Coach, another parent is Asst. Coaching. They are both doing really good too. So everything worked out in the end.

Summer Vacation 2008- Final Phase- Andy & Lindsay in Salt Lake City

Well looking back through my pictures, I am realizing Lindsay escaped my camera. I don't know how that is possible. I guess that is because we were talking most of the time at the park, and she was working the next day while Andy played tour guide at Temple Square. Sorry about that Lindsay!!

This was our last stop before heading back home. We did not plan enough time, so we had a few hours in the evening that we spent at the "dog park" visiting and playing catch......maybe catch is too loose a word.

ummm....I guess that means no more pictures of Joe???

The next morning we had a few hours before we had to start our long drive home. Andy was kind enough to show us around Temple Square.

On the roof of the Conference Center.

The Salt Lake City Temple

Inside one of the visitor's centers.

Andy also doubled as photographer :) Thank You!

Well that concludes the Summer Vacation series. My future blogs will continue with normal, everyday ramblings. I have been looking forward to the vacation series ending so I can vent about youth soccer actually so you are forewarned!!

Summer Vacation 2008- Phase 2- Mt. Zion National Park

In our humble opinions we liked Mt. Zion much better then the Grand Canyon, and we hardly saw it. We pretty much have a standing date to go back and meet Andy and Lindsay there for a week. There are tons of hiking and biking trails for all levels of expertise, not to mention the camping. We are going back, and we are going back for at least a week. Anyone interested is welcome to join us. You know how I like to get a group together!

We arrived at Mt. Zion by driving down into it by means of Mt. Carmel Hwy. What an experience that was!! My only regret was that I was in such awe that I totally spaced taking pictures till we were almost finished with the 25 mile drive. Here are a few of mine and a few I found on line to try and give you an idea of how cool this drive is.

These first two were taken by me as we were winding down into the canyon. By this time we are almost to the bottom. Mt. Carmel Hwy is mostly 2 lanes crammed in between these giant cliffs winding down the canyon. At some points they had to carve tunnels through the rock. Those pictures are coming up.

The following pics I found off the Internet at the National Parks website or just random pics when I did a search for Google images of Mt. Carmel Hwy.

Every so often they carved out just enough space along the side of the road to pull over and look out over the edge. Most of the time I could just look out my window and see over the edge just fine, thank you very much!

Inside one of the tunnels.

Outside one of the tunnels.

We loved our hotel here, Flanigans. There is a little town called Springdale just outside the park. You can catch a shuttle from any hotel to the park or trail head. This is the pool area that we had to ourselves most of the evening.

Since Joe had injured his back right before the vacation, and I wasn't feeling well, we couldn't participate in the hikes we wanted to. So we went on a mini hike right above our hotel room.

I borrowed Jake's hiking stick to make the picture look better :)

See ya next time with Andy & Lindsay in the final instalment, Salt Lake City!

Summer Vacation 2008- Phase 2- Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon at Sunset

After tearful goodbyes and promises to be back soon, we headed off on the second leg of our vacation. The Grand Canyon, Mt. Zion National Park, and Salt Lake City, Utah to visit Andy and Lindsay. I will post each destination separately as they are more pictures, less talk. Here we go...next stop Grand Canyon! Oh, by the way. Keep in mind the night before we leave, Jake gets a Wii. I know, I know, but they were sold out everywhere in WA and his Grandpa Brent has CONNECTIONS!!! So now the 6 hour drive to the Grand Canyon is filled with begging to just skip the remaining stops and drive 24 hours straight home to Port Orchard, WA. That added a fun layer to the "are we there yet?"

This was Jake's first attempt at the ledge. Let me admit, it took me longer.

We found a really good spot to catch the sun setting and as you can see by the following pictures, we took advantage of it. So did a tour bus of people right as we were leaving :)

Don't you hate it when you realize it "could have" been a great picture if you would have had the fore thought to not wear cut off sweats, not have a camera bag strapped across your chest, and maybe left your hair down????

Cool replica of a ancient watchtower in the background.

Inside the watchtower was covered with tons of cool markings. Jake thinks they look like "thinking" bubbles, I guess I should of scooted over.

Coming soon....Mount Zion National Park.