Happenings

I still have to write about Carson's birthday party, but I didn't want to get to far behind on the other happenings around here. Here is a condensed version of the past 10 days. Carson had his school talent show. He played the piano and chose the song In The Cotton Fields. He was nervous, but he did great!

It made it more fun to have his little friend Brooke there with him. They played one right after the other!
The next night we had the beloved Pine Wood Derby! Seriously folks it is intense at our house around derby time. Mark and I were scrambling to finish these babies. Mark phoned at 6:15 on the evening of the derby to let me know his meeting went over and I would have to finish assembly the cars. Yep, I was attaching wheels at 6:20 and weights at 6:30 praying the whole time that they would make it down the track without falling apart. Here are the two beauty's.
As you can see Parker wasn't very confident in my craftsmanship abilities either. He had to close his eyes during the first race!
Meanwhile Carson and Bay put out a cheer that their car made it to the end of the race.
Believe it or not we came out victorious in the end. Maybe there is something to be said for procrastination and last minute assembly, although I wouldn't recommend it!

With the derby over we could focus our energy on other fun pursuits. Mark took Parker and some friends to the Golden State Warriors game. I gave Parker a camera and instructed him to take a ton of photos, this is about all I got! At least is was more than I got from Carson who a few days later got to go to the Sacramento King's game with Mark for a special dad date.
This is the only picture I got from him. The inside of Mark's car on the way to the arena!
Luckily Mark came through for me by snatching a picture on his phone of Carson and Sampson together otherwise I would have thought they spent the whole night in his car.
Last Thursday the kids played hookie from school and went skiing with Mark. It was just the right medicine for Mark...too bad the doctor didn't order it sooner. He had a great day with the kids relaxing and soaking up the fresh mountain air. Here is Carson on the ski lift.
McCall and Carson making there way down the mountain. It got so windy, they actually had to close one of the chair lifts!
We used our bad influence to pressure our sweet little friend Devry into cutting school and joining the kids up on the slopes. The more the merrier!
Warming up inside the lodge.
A big component of a great ski day is yummy food, so naturally my kids look forward to lunchtime.
Thursday night they came home and I packed up and headed to Salt Lake City at 5 a.m. the next morning for my sister Jen's sealing to her husband Ron! It was a quick, but super fun trip. I got to have a whole afternoon with my parents all to myself. I don't know if that has ever happened in my entire life and I have to say it was pretty great! We went to lunch and then we went and hung out with my cute Grandma for several hours. Let's just say I hope I look and feel as good as she does at 95! It was so fun to hang out with her and her chocolate supply. The first part of the evening was spent with my sister Lisa and her family. We made homemade pizza's together and quickly caught up on each others lives. It was then back to my parents to meet up with Kyle, Haley and their cute little kids including their new little one, Emmy! We listened to the BYU game and cheered on my favorite player, Jimmer! He is amazing! How about those 52 points?

The next day we headed to the temple in Draper for the sealing. It was neat to go to a temple I've never been to before. We had a lovely day there. Here is Jen, Ron and my parents afterwards at the family luncheon.
Here is Roger, Lisa, Mindy and Mike. Just a few of the fun people I got to hang out with.
Matt and Collette were there too and it was great to sit with them at lunch and share funny stories about our kids.
Here I am with my sisters, minus Kim! She couldn't make it up this weekend and we sure missed her. Everyone got the memo about black except for Amber j/k. It was so fun to all be together.
And the real star of the weekend....beautiful little Emmy. I got to hold her and love on her all Friday night. It was great! She is so cute! After the luncheon I made a quick dash back to Mindy and Mike's house for some chocolate and a change and then Kyle transported me down to Mom and Dad's and then sweet Amber transported me to the airport. I had a layover in Las Vegas for a few hours where I cheered on Jimmer, but to no avail they lost terribly, so sad.

I made it home by 10:00 just in time to get church clothes laid out for Sunday. Sunday was a booked day with church meetings all day long, choir practice, and a fireside! Even though I was only gone a two days, I sure missed my little family a ton. It is good to be home. Well I must run we have swim and Parker's basketball party on the agenda for tonight!