Christmas Tree Cutting 2013

Dave's co-worker, Donatella, and her husband, Paolo, and daughter, Anna, came Christmas tree cutting with us.  They are Italian and wanted to experience cutting down their own Christmas tree.

We knew the roads would be bad, so we borrowed their other 4wd vehicle and left early in the morning for our cutting spot, west of Santa Fe.

We found trees fairly quickly, since we needed to head back to Santa Fe before the roads thawed.  We had a lot of rain this fall and the roads were torn up by people four wheeling on them. 

Our tree..

 

 

 Jack and Anna

 Nick took a little nap in the backpack while we walked around.

  The kids had fun playing with Anna

Ready to four wheel back to the paved roads.  We couldn't have made it in our van.  By 10:00 the roads were sloppy and muddy. 

Donatello and Paolo have been very sweet to us.  Last year right before Nick was born, they had us over for dinner at their home in Santa Fe.  They made homemade pasta and sauce, pork in a cream sauce, bread and salami (Jack's favorite) and Italian carrot cake.  It was delicious!  They gave us a really nice Bugaboo Bee stroller ($600 new) and after Thanksgiving we came home with a new car seat for Nick. 

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving was interesting this year and I didn't take any pictures.  It was our first Thanksgiving at our house without any visitors or guests.

The day before Thanksgiving I took the kids sledding at the roundabout.  When we got home at 5 pm, I all of a sudden felt really sick with the stomach flu.  I didn't throw up, but I felt horrible.  I spent the evening sitting at the bar telling Kate and Dave how to make pie crust and red hot jello.  I made some pies: banana cream, French silk, and lemon and prepped the turkey and got it in the brine to soak overnight.

Kate made some pie crust cookies that spelled JUDI and took a picture of it.

On Thanksgiving, I slept in and felt good enough to make the rest of our Thanksgiving dinner, rolls, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc.  I didn't eat hardly anything, but the rest of the family did. 

Ty had the stomach flu a week before thanksgiving.  Then between Thanksgiving and Christmas everyone in our family got it, even Nick.  We had a few days here and there with no one sick, but it didn't last long.  Kate had it three different times and Jack had it twice.  I was really glad when we were finally healthy.  I didn't cook much during that month.

Jack and Dave in Chicago

Jack and Dave went on a trip by themselves to Chicago to go to the BYU vs Notre Dame football game.  Grandpa Vaughn, Derek, and Mike and his boys met there and spent a few days together.

11/21/13

Jack was really excited about flying.  He hadn't flown since we went to Florida when he was three. 

They flew into Milwaukee and met Grandpa at the airport and then drove to their hotel in Chicago.

They swam in the pool at the Embassy Suites.

11/22/13
Jace & Jack slept in the pull-out bed.

 Then the guys spent the day exploring Chicago.

 

 

They went in the Sky Deck Tower.  103 Floors.  1,450 feet (443 meters) high – 1,730 feet (520 meters).  8th tallest building in the world.

 They went out on the LEDGE.  From there you can see 4 states.

 Chicago Style Pizza

 

 

11/24/13 Game Day! 

 

Dave's advisor from the University of Utah gave him tickets to the game.  They went early to the game and checked out the Notre Dame campus.

 

 The game was cold.  The announcer said it felt like 9 degrees.  Too bad BYU lost.

 The Goal Zero Monster!

 They got to go see the Notre Dame basketball stadium on their way home.

 Then they flew home on Sunday. 

Goodbye Chicago!

Kate's First Swim Meet

Kate joined a swim team, Aquatomics, in the end of July.  She has really enjoyed swimming at least three days a week.  Her practice time isn't very ideal since it's right during dinner (5:15-6:30), but she loves it and it's great exercise.

Kate swam in her first swim meet, the Rio Grande Meet.  It was in Santa Fe at the Chavez center pool.  We had to leave at 6:30 am to get her there for warmups at 7:45.

It was her friend, Sophi's first meet too.  They were quite independent, which was nice because Dave and Sophi's dad (our bishop) were at tithing settlement all day and couldn't come, so Juli and I were alone with our kids. It was a fun morning and a new experience.
 

During warmups

 

 Kate loved writing on her arm with a sharpie!

 Jack, Anna, Ty and Stewart kept busy on Juli's Ipad and my tablet. 

 Nick took two short naps in the stroller.

 

We learned a few things:
1.  To bring extra pants (for Kate).  She brought one pair of stretchy pants and her gatorade was spilled on them.  I tried rinsing them out in the sink and blowing them dry with the hand blower.  After a few minutes one of the ladies that works at the Chavez center offered to put them in the dryer for me.

2.  Buy Ty a smaller gatorade.  I bought all the kids gatorade.  Ty drank his within the first half hour of the meet.  He had to go to the bathroom four times while we were there.

3.  Kate learned that she had to touch the wall with both hands during her race.