Week After Christmas

Christmas was so much fun.  The week after Christmas was nice to spend more time together and play with some of the fun new toys.  The boys loved their remote control cars.  We built an obstacle course for them in the driveway and they would drive their cars around the obstacles. 

The Buxtons were still in town for another few days so we spent most everyday together with them. Each year we hire sitters for the kids and the adults go to dinner.  This year we tried Hires. The food was good and the ability Hires had to seat a group this big was such a benefit. 

One morning we all met at the Kangaroo Zoo by the Roundy's home in North Salt Lake. It's an indoor jumping haven for children.  Our boys were having so much fun until two boys ganged up on Landon, accusing him of pushing their sister.  Poor Landon cried he felt so bad.  We talked to all the boys about staying together and sure enough the two boys found him again and scared him.  This time we were right there with him and I told the boys to go away.  They tried to justify why they were looking for him because he pushed their sister.  I had to raise my voice to these little boys and told them to "go away and NEVER touch him again!" I was fully prepared for a parent to come up and want to rumble but it never happened.  Right now Logan is such a softy he gets just as scared, if not more so, than Landon.  In a few years, given his size, I'm sure kids won't be mean to Landon because Logan will be there to scare even the biggest 6th graders away.  This picture shows how Logan is even bigger than his 9-year-old cousin Hayden. 

Alyssa didn't want to leave our side, but after an hour of seeing all the children playing, she finally decided to play. This is the slide she must have climbed up and slid down at least 20 times. 

Logan's Jr. Jazz team all had their Jazz tickets to the season opener. Because of the lockout there will only be 66 games this year, and we got to go to the opening game.  Before the game we went to visit with Grandma and Grandpa.  At halftime Mom was so nice she brought the boys some kettle corn which they loved. 

After the game (which they won) most of the team met up at Arctic Circle for ice cream cones.  It was 11:00 p.m. before the boys got to sleep that night! 

Saturday morning, Jake and some of his neighbors invited us to go shooting with them.  Brian, Dad, and our neighbor Bruce all came and we had a fun time shooting. 

I'm shooting better with my AR-15.

 New Year's Eve was another celebration of a wonderful year. We invited some neighbors over again for an evening of food and playing games until the wee hours of roughly 10:00 p.m. The Chandlers and Moncurs both have little children like Alyssa and the kids didn't make it very easy for the adults to play games.  We ended up visiting and had a great time.  Everything was cleaned up and the kids were bathed again by 11:00 p.m.  In 2012 our ward moves to the 9:00 a.m. time which is harder to get everyone ready, but is great to come home and nap.

2011 was another fantastic year.  Looking back through previous entries it is nice to remember everything our family did. I said this last year too, but I just can't imagine 2012 being a bigger year than this, but somehow we keep topping ourselves. It's exciting to think about what adventures lie ahead for our family.