Christmas for the Hale's

We have had a great Christmas! It is all about family! We loved spending time with them. Grandad and I went to work with Mike on Monday, the 22nd, and spent the day in the mall, at a movie ("Four Christmases" - not great), and just sitting in the car reading our books. After Mike got off, we went to Salt Lake City to stay with Marc and Gretchen and the boys. Mike had to work on Tuesday in Murray so Grandad and I spent the morning delivering gifts to his brother and sisters. I had an appointment with the chiropractor in Provo at 1 pm so we spent the rest of the day down that way. It was Chris's birthday so we went out to Red Lobster that night to celebrate with them and the Dunfords. We stayed at Niccole and Chris's until Christmas morning. Christmas Eve was spent having the traditional snack and decorating sugar cookies. Chris's parents, Carlos and Judy, were there, too. It was great to all be together.

Grandma Dunford & Jake

How fun it is to be with grandkids on Christmas!! I only wish we could have spent the day with ALL of them!!

Grandpa in his Christmas "Jammies"

Brigham, Hiram and I got up about 5:30 on Christmas morning. We were so excited to see what Santa had brought. Brig and I stayed in his room visiting for a while before Hiram woke up. Brig wanted hoped Santa would bring him a Nintendo DS. He wanted one so badly. I explained to him that I wanted a new Apple Touch Ipod .... but that I didn't think I would get one because they were so expensive, just like the DS. When I finished trying to prepare him for disappointment, he turned to me and said, "Grandma, if you don't get an ipod you will just have to try to be a better girl next year"! I guess he had a point. He didn't get his DS and I didn't have the heart to tell him that I got my Touch ipod from Grandpa when I got home later Christmas Day. However, his grandpa and grandma in Draper gave him an MP3 player later in the day which he was really excited about so I felt it safe to share with him that I had one, too.

Waiting to see what Santa has brought!

Jacob checks out all the "loot"

We traveled home shortly afternoon. The rest of the day was spent together .... just Grandad, Mike and me. It was the first time that we had been alone to open gifts and it was a rather quiet event. We received a lot of great gifts (we thank all of you!) and we had time to enjoy them and put them away. It IS nice to have that much of the mess cleaned up. I think we will keep up the decorations until after New Year's Day, though.
Snow, Snow, Snow!! We have had a very white Christmas and the snow continues to come. We have had very few days that it hasn't given us some of the white stuff. It makes the holidays even better! But hopefully, it will give us some relief after the New Year begins. I still like warm weather better!!

This was just one snowfall! About 12 inches!

My car is repaired and ready to go again!

We picked up the Expedition from the collision repair shop this afternoon. I am so glad to have it back! After having a rental car for 3 days, I have learned to appreciate good tires, engine power and brakes that don't grate and grind!!! Even to get the rental out of the garage was a task ... especially with the heavy snow of today's storm. Thanks Mike S. for coming to my rescue, getting the snow cleared and driving me in to pick up the Expedition!

Oops! Saturday was not a great day!

The first big snowfall of the year was not kind to me! I was waiting Saturday morning for Mike to get ready to go down to Salt Lake and Pleasant Grove for the weekend. I decided to run into town while I waited to run a few errands. About 6 blocks from home I stopped at a stop light. However, the car behind me couldn't get stopped on the slick road. The driver was on his way to Logan to attend his sister's graduation at USU. I felt sorry for him. Not fun for him! But noone was hurt and that was the important thing. I had an estimate on the damages. It will cost about $1,000 +. I will take it into the collision repair shop tomorrow to have it fixed. Insurance is great when you need it!! At least, our insurance company will not have to take care of this one! So I will have a rental car for a few days.

Lunch with the Little Hale's

I enjoyed having lunch today with Caitlin, Carter and Christina. Caitlin called this morning to ask if I would like to join them. She sounded so big. (The grandkids are just growing too fast!) We went to Firehouse in Providence. It is a tradition for them to have pizza at Firehouse every Tuesday. I went over to their house before going to lunch and Cait wanted to have her picture taken in front of the Christmas tree. It's a really good looking tree and definitely ONE of the cutest grandaughters ever!

Thanks for the invitation and the fun lunch, Cait and Carter!

Christmas is Coming!!

Mike decided that this was the weekend to do the Christmas decorating if I was wanting it done. Kind of "now or never". When he first began he did so a little begrudgingly but as our Saturday progressed he really got into it! You have to know Mike to realize what a task Christmas is for him. He is one of the best friends to Mr. Scrooge that I know! But this year he really came through. We did much more decorating this year than we have done since he decided to decorate a few years ago after my insisting on stringing a "few" lights. But instead of putting the lights on the house he put them on the horse barn, the round pen and part of the pasture! Not exactly what I had in mind! However, he really put his heart into it this year! Thanks, Sweetheart! You have "lit up" my Christmas!

We had a fun night of playing the "Great Dalmuti" over Thanksgiving Weekend. We hadn't played it for a long time. It is a card game that Gretchen introduced to us. We all wear crazy hats. The winner, "Great Dalmuti", gets to wear the best hat and we switch or trade hats after every round according to our place of winning. Great fun!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Everyone seemed to find the food! Well, from the looks of the pictures, the little ones had nothing on their plates, but they really did have a feast. They loved having their own little table! 2 year olds are so fun! Tucker and Carter will be 3 in January and Juliana turns 3 in March.
As you can see in the pictures, we moved our dinner tables out to the garage for the meal. Our family has grown to the point that we can no longer find a place large enough in the house to have a family sit down dinner. It worked well with heaters to keep warm.

It was our year to have the family home for Thanksgiving. Niccole and Chris were not able to make it for dinner but came later in the afternoon. As always, we had plenty of good food to eat and had a fun time being together. Thanks to everyone for helping with the meal and bringing your yummy dishes. It was a great day!

Gone to Missouri ~~ Things are SO quiet!!

April and the kids headed for home Thursday. Their van was packed tight but they were able to take everything they had gathered, Christmas gifts and all. It was SO hard to see them leave knowing that it will be about a year before we will be able to see them again. They arrived home safely late Friday night. 1200 miles is a long way to travel with 4 kids! April said they were really good! Good job, kids!!

Things are sure quiet around here. We miss you all so much!! Come back as soon as you are able!

A Great Month with Family

This month I was able to spend time with family with April and kids. We traveled from Idaho to Pleasant Grove several times. One of the highlights was our "Girl's Weekend". We did a day of shopping at the outlet stores in Park City after spending the night at the Mill's cabin. It was the first time that all seven of us were able to get together for a weekend. It has been a tradition to get together, leaving kids at home with husbands, while we spend the time doing all the things girls do when they get together. It was really lots of fun this year. We ended the weekend by going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and, of course, cheesecake with lots of chocolate (Anniversary Cheesecake). MMMMM-m-m!! We increased our vocabulary there, too. We learned all about "gratituity"!! I am sure that is one for the dictionary!

We had several special family events during the month while April was with us. Kaden turned 8 years old on October 10th and was baptized the next day. We are so proud of him and the choices that he is making. Then Ivan had a birthday on October 24th and Brigham celebrated his birthday on November 1st. We made it to each of their parties. It was so great to be able to spend their special day with each one of them.

We also took the Worthington kids down to Pleasant Grove on Halloween to go "trick or treating" with the Dunford boys. It was so much fun to see all of the kids and their costumes. Caitlin, Carter, Josh, Jenicca, Jarom and Julianna were not with us but we were able to see some of them in their costumes before we left to go. Halloween has never been my "thing" but I have always loved to see the grandkids all dressed up and excited for the big night of getting
treats. They were all so cute!!!

Princess Cay

I challenge anyone to find a cuter bunch of trick or treaters!! Thanks to all for letting me share this time with you. It has been a great month! I LOVE being a grandma!!

Worthington Grandkids visit Great Grandma & Grandpa

April, Caleb, Cayanna, Isaac and Enoch arrived in Utah Saturday, October 4th. It has been fun to have them home. We drove up to Blackfoot to see Grandma and Grandpa Fackrell on the 7th. It was Grandpa's 83rd birthday and we celebrated by having dinner at Homestead. It was fun to see the kids get to know their great grandparents. Isaac had found a 5 dollar bill at our house and because there was noone to claim it, we gave it to him to spend while he is here. He spent the whole time in Blackfoot teasing with Great Grandma. She asked him to spend his money taking her to dinner. He wasn't about to part with his money. He would look at her smiling and say, "I have no money!"

We were able to visit with most of the family while in Idaho and by Thursday we were on our way back to Logan. We stayed overnight, did a bit of laundry and left Friday morning for Salt Lake City to spend a few weeks with the Hale's and Dunfords. Getting all of these boys together is a lot of fun!! Poor Cayanna! So few girl cousins! She has really enjoyed what time she has been able to spend with Jenicca, Juliana and Caitlin.

Kaden had a birthday on Friday and was baptized yesterday. It has been a great weekend!

Pictures from the cruise

Puerto Vallarta Sunset

Making adobe bricks

Yep! That is a LIVE iguana!

Mexican Riviera Cruise

We (Mike, Dad Hale, Brad and me) flew from Salt Lake City to Long Beach California on what was suppose to be an early flight. We arrived at the Salt Lake City airport in plenty of time (thank you Niccole for the night stay and ride to the airport). All went well and the flight was on time until we boarded. The crew gave their "in case of an emergency" speech, the plane was pressurized and we pulled away from the ramp. We were just a short distance away when the pilot returned us to the entrance. There was a man 10 rows back of us that had had a heart attack! The cabin was depressurized, the doors open and police, paramedics, and airport personnel rushed in. Meanwhile, another guy across the aisle from us stood up, talked to the stewardess and left the plane. He returned a few minutes later with a bottle of water and took his seat. They finally took the heart attack victim out in a wheelchair with oxygen and wires attached to transport him to the hospital. Things seemed to be returning to flight mode in the plane again. The doors were once again closed, the cabin was pressurized and the pilot prepared to begin the taxi procedure. About that time the second man stood up again and said that he had to get off, too. He was having an anxiety attack!! So once again the plane was depressurized, the doors reopened and he left! Brad said that if one more person requested to leave, he thought we should all get off and find another flight! However, that didn't happen and we finally were on our way an hour late, but nonetheless our vacation had begun!

We arrived in Long Beach and we had a shuttle waiting for us to take us to the pier where we were to board the ship. We knew we would be early getting there but there was a porter at the dock to take our baggage and we were told we could get the registration done and then get in a VIP line that would allow us to board early. We were to line up no later than 11 o'clock or we wouldn't be able to go on until the original designated time. He said we could leisurely have lunch on board and just relax for a while. Sounded great to us! We went through all of the preliminaries and then went to stand in line. We stood and stood and stood. People were still disembarking from the ship from the previous cruise. We ended up standing there for over 3 hours! VIP treatment?? Finally the gates were open and we were allowed to go aboard at 2:30 p.m. after a long and hot wait. We got more of a suntan there than on any other part of the cruise.

Although we had an eventful and slow beginning, we did have a great vacation! We spent the first 2 days at sea. It was cloudy and rainy but we were able to do a lot of things on board and just took that time to kind of wind down. We spent Wednesday in Puerto Vallarte where we went on a tour of the city and later went on a "Sunset Sail" The sunset was beautiful and we took some great pictures; however, as it turned out it was a 2 hour "happy hour" for the rest of the passengers. They had all the beer, taquila and margueritas that they could drink. We felt a little out of place with our water and Diet Coke. We were teased and labeled as the boat's "designated drivers". But we didn't mind the chiding. Thursday we were in Mazatlan. We took another city tour and went through the Sierra Madras. It was really hot and humid but we were glad to have an air conditioned bus. We got to see a lot of countryside and it was a lot of fun. Both days we were able to have authentic Mexican lunches. We are now definitely "hooked" on the real stuff!!
We visited old cathedrals, towns, businesses, an adobe factory, a furniture factory, and a bakery. None of them are like our big factories and businesses. We are talking almost a third world feeling. Friday we were in Cabo San Lucas. Mike went snorkeling and the three of us just stayed on ship, enjoyed a late breakfast, played cards and relaxed. When Mike returned we got off the ship and went to the marina by tender boat. We had made arrangements to meet my brother, David, who lives in Cabo. We looked and looked for him but after about an hour and a half we gave up and returned to ship. Apparently he had been searching for us as well but we just didn't make connections. I felt badly that we had both made the effort and didn't even get to visit for a few minutes. Saturday we were at sea again and we returned to Long Beach for debarkation Sunday morning and it was all too soon over. We spent the remainder of Sunday and Monday in Long Beach and then flew home on Monday night. (Thanks Marc for meeting us at the airport!)

It was a great vacation and we learned a lot about our neighbors south of the border. We only wish that some of the rest of the family could have come with us! Maybe next cruise! Let's set spring of 2010 as a goal! Who is up for it??

All New To Me

The kids tell me this is the "in" way to do a website. So even though I am totally computer illiterate, I'm going to give it a try. We'll have to see where it goes from here.