2011 in a Nutshell

Having just received friends and families Christmas cards and loving the ones that tell about their year and their kids- I thought I'd like to journal this year before I forget all the little and Big things that have happened.  Especially for my kids.  Little Logan (now 6) has already forgotten a big vacation we took only 6 months ago.
I realize people are sending less cards now and I believe it is because we have facebook.  We already post our pictures and vacations so no reason to resend a photo already seen or stories already posted. 
I for one have never been consistant on sending cards.
For my birthday last February, Larry gave me an ipad.  I'm so knaive because I had no idea until now how much those things cost.  It's ridiculous! !  Technology is not my friend.  Sure we play some fun games on it, but I haven't used it for anything worth while.  The kids hogged it playing games most of the time until their birthdays when they each got an ipod touch, (referbished ones...no, we aren't that crazy to fork out that kind of money on our kids) so now you would think I'd have my ipad to myself but Larry has become addicted this last month to Crime City. ha!

Hudson and Parks both made the top 3 in their classes in the Spelling Bee and competing against the school, Hudson took 7th in his age group and Parks took 8th in his--out of around 36 kids in each Bee.  Hudson has been in the Spelling Bee every year starting in 2nd grade.  He just found out he made the top 3 again this week in 6th grade and will be competing after the new year.  Parks will be having his class Bee soon.  They both love it and look forward to it. 
Logan started Kindergarten and I wish he could compete in the Spelling Bee! lol  He sometimes whispers to Parks how to spell a word which makes Parks mad. :) I taught Logan to read when he was 4 from a book I borrowed from a neighbor.  It is awesome and I wish I'd had it with all my kids.  He is now reading on a 3rd grade level.
Tierra went to the senior prom with Aaron and other friend couples. They rode in a limo to SLC for dinner. We had another awesome year of Redhawk baseball.  Don't count on me to know the stats or what tournaments we competed in. I'm horrible at remembering or I get the seasons mixed up. I do know we won the Summer Slam tournament, took second in the Layton City League and because of our winning stats were invited to play in the Tournament of Champions with the best of the best where we went 2-2. With the help of Hudson's pitching, We beat a Las Vegas team that was really good. He shut them down! :) Hudson had to have oral surgery last year to remove a second set of adult front teeth and had braces put on because his front teeth never came in. This year he had another painful oral surgery to open his gums to have brackets and chains attached to help pull those teeth down. After 18 months without front choppers to bite into an apple or devour corn-on-cob his two front teeth finally came in! He commented how awesome they looked even when they were just nubs coming through his gums. Lol Parks played up in rec baseball with fourth graders. They made it to the playoffs and Parks was an awesome pitcher and first baseman. He was photographed and interviewed by the Ogden Standard Examiner and featured on the front page and also on the front page of the sports section. We started working in the garden around April. Pop announced that if we all help in the garden this summer, he would take us to Hawaii with the money we get from selling the produce. In June we went on the most fun vacation of our lives...a Mt Rushmore trip! If you're looking for a great vacation I cound not guarantee you'd have as much fun as we did. It was so great for us only because we went with great friends, 6 families in our ward. 14 adults and 29 kids, it couldn't get better than that! A 5 day trip and everyone got along wonderfully. It was non-stop fun! On the way there we stopped at Martin's Cove to pull handcarts. We arrived after an 8 hr road trip in Fort Robinson Nebraska where we stayed in a huge house that used to be a bunker. We went horseback riding, swam, played card games, tennis, and made crafts. During our stay Fort Robinson hosted a two day Indian pow-wow. All day long we could hear the drums playing and walk across the park to shop or watch them dance. On the way home we stopped at Independence Rock and the kids climbed to the top. We bought a family pass to Seven Peaks in SLC. Logan cut his chin open on a kiddie ride and had to get 5 stitches. Cynthia and Mariah came to visit. Mariah went to girls camp wiHth Tierra and I. It was the last year for both of us! We stayed in the mountains near Lava Hotsprings and had a swim day. Tierra and I also went on an all day hike with our ward for Youth Conference and ended up at the Bountiful Temple. The kids and I went to the Park City market a couple of times over the summer to sell our produce from Bigfoot Farms. Hudson and Parks played tackle football. It was Parks' first year. He was their quarterback and in the first game he threw 3 completed passes. Two of which were touchdown passes. Hudson's team won Region champs for the second year in a row. October 29th we left for a week long Hawaii vacation on the island of Oahu! On the way there Parks won (with Larry's help) a Hawaiian CD from the pilot for guessing the correct time that we would pass the half way mark. 28 of us stayed at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach. It was an awesome hotel and we had a balcony view of the pool and ocean. We visited the flea market at Aloha Stadium where we bought our souvenirs. We hiked to the top of Diamond Head. We visited Pearl Harbor and saw the sunken USS Arizona Memorial. We trick-or-treated on the streets of Waikiki. We spent the day at the Polynesian Culture Center. We rented a van and Cory, Paige and Cam rented a car and we took a road trip around the island, eating breakfast at Boots and Kimo for their famous macadamian nut sauce pancakes, stopped at the Macadamian Tropical Nut Farm, saw 3 huge beached sea turtles and body surfed at Waimea Beach, the kids favorite thing of the vacation. We swam at the pool every night til it closed at 9pm listening to their live band playing Hawaiian music and drinking lime margaritas and piña coladas! The day before we went home we snorkeled at Hanauma Bay. Two weeks later we took a trip to Mesquite for Hudson's football tournament. We stayed at Highland Estates. Most of the team stayed there and the boys and their friends swam, played shuffleboard, tennis, ate at buffets and went to a movie. It was warm and a lot of fun! And that brings us full circle to December, only nine more days til Christmas! I hope 2012 is just as wonderful and full of treasured memories!