Christmas Trip to Oregon and Arizona

Natasha and I had a lovely Christmas with Jenny and Tyler and their family.

Then on the day after Christmas, we left for Oregon.
Anna and William looked posh in their new Christmas clothes!

Kip and William got Lego Star Wars for Christmas!

We got to go to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (or OMSI). The kids really liked it—especially the water stuff! (Notice the LARGE purple boots on Anna! She insisted on wearing the purple ones, even though they were for much larger kids... She likes pink and purple!)

We tried our luck at making The Arch.

It lasted about a Nanosecond, and then...

We left the museum and had a great lunch at a Lebanese restaurant. People were standing outside (in the rain under an awning) just to get seated. Then we went back to the museum and finished out the day.

Kip and Natasha did some weird kind of dance (trying to get the rubber hoses off their wrists).

Then they ALL decided to play in the water.

The last night we were there we went to see the Zoo Lights at the Portand Zoo.

The lights were cool!



We had a great time in Oregon. Then we left for Arizona! The night we arrived in Phoenix, we went to Zoo Lights, Arizona style.

You can tell it's Arizona's Zoo Lights, because the trees the lights are on are actually cacti and palm trees!



The next day we all went to Church and had a nice dinner.
Monday we went to the movies and saw National Treasure, Book of Secrets. It was a fun movie. We decided to go to the Mesa Temple that night and see the lights.



Natasha had met some very nice girls at church, who invited her to go to a Stake Dance on New Year's Eve. So she went, and had a great time! Her first dance! Cory and Ang and I watched Harry Potter (the latest one). Cory and I fell asleep.

We had a great time with Cory and Ang and the boys!





Thanks, guys for opening your homes to us! We love you!

PartFamilyChristmasBash

We had our annual Family Christmas Party on Sunday, December 23.

We had soups, salads, and desserts, plus breadsticks, and wassail.
We had a good turn-out.
Some people thought it was boring.
We did family entertainment. (Notice how Eric and SaraJan are doing a duet on the keyboard. Upon closer inspection, you can see that their hands are crossed, and Eric is doing the base, while SaraJan is doing the treble.)

The little kids acted out a story.
Clayton played the recorder (very nicely, too!).

Then we did the gifts. The most unusual one was the glamour shot of Sam. Daphne's step-son got it.
So they decided to adopt him into their family and post his picture on the wall of family portraits.

We missed all of you who couldn't come!