We are SO resourceful!

We had a fun Thanksgiving Day. We put the turkey in the oven around 8:30 in the morning and then my parents drove to Cedar City to pick up my sister (it's so snowy that only 4 wheel drive vehicles can get up here). While they were gone Ethan and I were playing the Wii and the power went out a couple of times. When my parents got back with my sister, the electricity went out and didn't come back. We waited for a while to see if it would come back and it didn't. Mom called the owner, who called the electric company, who said a power generator was out but that they were working on it. It was getting cold in the cabin, so Bryan started a fire in the stove. My dad cleaned the foot of snow off the BBQ grill on the patio, took the turkey out of the oven and put the turken in the BBQ.





I had made the mashed potatoes early and were going to warm them in the crock pot, but without electricity we wouldn't be able to warm them up. So I put the potatoes in tin pan and put them on top of the wood stove to warm them. It worked pretty well.



When the turkey was finished, my dad and I got some juices from it and put the pot on the top of the wood burning stove and made gravy. It worked pretty well.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner of turkey baked in the BBQ, potatoes warmed on the wood stove and gravy made on the wood stove. I was pretty impressed at how resourceful we all were!

The electricity came back on right as we were cleaning up the dishes...figures!

The Drive to Duck Creek

We are going to a cabin with my family for Thanksgiving. Last year we went to a condo at Bryan Head but decided to try another place this year. Courtney had tap class and ballet this morning at 9:30-11:00 so I took her and her friend, McKaye, to dance with the car all loaded to leave. After dance, Courtney and I went to get Ethan out of school, pick up Bryan at work and get "Old McDonalds" for lunch. Then we were on the road.

It has been raining in St. George all day. We had decided to go through Zion (we have a year pass, so we try to use it whenever we can) and then check out a spot for Girls Camp at Bryce Canyon before going on to Duck Creek. Zion is so cool in the rain. There was water running off all the rocks and waterfalls all over the park. It was so neat to see and Ethan got really excited and wanted to take pictures out the car window with the digital camera. He went a bit wild and got a little frustrated that we were going too fast to take a clear photo, but it kept him busy for a while.

When we got close to Bryce Canyon it started to snow. The kids loved it. I had Bryan roll down the window and take pictures of the potential Girls Camp site and then we drive into Bryce Canyon to look around (our pass covers Bryce too). It was snowing really hard and our coats were buried in the back of the van so we didn't get out, but we saw the trail heads. ;)

Then we drove on to Duck Creek. We hadn't really check out the location of the cabin too much but we knew that it would probably have snow. When we pulled off the main road to start up to the cabin I had a feeling we were in trouble. The cabin was much higher up on the mountain than I had thought it would be. We tried to drive up the road but couldn't get up there in our van. So I backed down the road and we parked at the bottom of the hill. We were getting our warm weather gear on when my parents drove up. They have a 4 wheel drive so they went up to the cabin while we walked. The kids loved it and it wasn't too bad of a climb. Ethan threw snow balls and slid on the tire tracks and Courtney ate snow. The snow was coming down but it wasn't too cold. When my parents had unloaded their car they came down to meet us. Dad drove Bryan down to our van and loaded our stuff into their car. Then Bryan drove our car back to the main road so we wouldn't get snowed in. Then they came up to the cabin.

We unloaded the vans, got things in order and then Ethan started playing the Wii system (something he has been looking forward to for a long time!). It wasn't long before he got tired of it and started watching a movie. Now he's tired of that so I think we're going to play card games.

Here are some photos:

Ethan's self portrait:



Our stranded car at the bottom of the hille:



Courtney playing in the snow:



Courtney, Bryan and Ethan walking backward up the hill so I can get a photo:



Courtney eating snow (which didn't look very clean at all!):

Bryan's Birthday

Bryan slept in so Ethan and I were able to make his birthday breakfast for him. Bryan had ordered eggs, hashbrowns, orange juice and sausage. Ethan was really cute getting all the things on a cookie sheet and taking them in to Bryan. Courtney woke up when we were taking the food in to Bryan, so she joined along. Then the three of us got our food and joined Bryan in the bedroom for a family breakfast picnic in bed.

That night we had a birthday dinner for Bryan. He wanted grilled chicken, green beans, salad and peach pie (instead of cake). I put the chicken out on the grill and then I went inside to get the other things ready. I went out once to turn the chicken and it looked pretty good. When I went out the next time to check it there were flames coming out of the BBQ grill and smoke everywhere. Apparently, grease on a BBQ grill makes a really BIG FIRE! So the chicken was BLACK AS COAL! Everyone nicely scraped the burned off before eating it but I felt bad. Luckily, the peach pie worked out wonderfully so that made up for it.

Opening Presents...A Day Early

Bryan's birthday is today (November 24th). We have really confused the kids this week with birthdays. My Dad's birthday is November 23rd and we were going to my parents house yesterday to watch the BYU vs. Utah game. So my mom decided it would be easier to have my Dad's birthday dinner Saturday (a day early) instead of having us drive over two days in a row. After dinner, we had cake and ice cream and then my Dad opened some presents. But we were a day early and the kids had been told all last week that after Grandpa's birthday is Daddy's birthday.

Ethan worked really hard last week coming up with a present he could make for his dad. We put our heads together and thought of doing a coupon books. I gave Ethan some paper and told him to come up with coupons he would like to give Bryan and how many of each coupon he wanted to do. Then I found a site on the web that made coupon books. You put in the info and then print them out, cut them apart and put a cover on them. Ethan was thrilled! He came up with some fun coupons (breakfast in bed, clean your room, wash your car, take out the trash, make your bed, hugs and kisses, a game of catch, etc.). Ethan decorated a cover for it and then he hid it in his room so dad wouldn't find it.

Sunday afternoon we were talking about Bryan's birthday breakfast. We were going to make him eggs, sausage, hashbrowns and oj and give him a breakfast in bed. Ethan was really nervous about this because he hadn't given Bryan the coupon book so we couldn't give him breakfast in bed until Bryan had given Ethan the coupon for it. Ethan was really getting worked up about it. Finally, Bryan decided that the giver of the present is the person who gets to decide when the person receiving the gift should open it. So Ethan ran straight for him room to get the present.

Bryan loved it and Ethan was so happy. He had Bryan rip out the coupon for breakfast in bed and then Ethan wrote Bryan's "order" on the back of the coupon so he would know what to make ;)

Courtney, of course, had to go get her present for Bryan too, so he opened their presents last night. Courtney told Bryan that she would help him open his gifts because "I'm a really good present girl." It was cute.

Here are some photos:

Another Princess Birthday Party

Courtney's friend, Hayley, had a princess birthday party on Saturday. Courtney was asked to dress in her most "royal" clothing. Thanks to all these little girls in the neighborhood, Courtney has gotten a LOT of use out of her Snow White outfit she got for her birthday party last August.

Courtney was so antsy all week, waiting for the day to come. When we received the invitation on Tuesday, I asked Courtney what she wanted to get Hayley for her birthday. Courtney didn't hesitate, she said, "Mom, I think she really needs some princess pajamas." She had found some princess fabric in the basement that I had bought a while ago but never used and thought it would make nice pjs. So I made a nightgown out of the material and it turned out really cute. Then we went and bought some slippers to go with it. Courtney was so excited.

That morning we got her all dressed and ready. She happily carried the present down the street to Hayley's house and had so much fun. The played games, decorated crowns, played with some ribbon wands, decorate mini cupcakes and opened gifts (that's all Courtney could remember). It was cute to see all the moms pick up the little princess girls.

Here's a photo of Courtney when she was ready to go (she was dancing so they are kind of blurry, sorry):

Soccer Videos

Here are some videos of Ethan playing soccer today. The first one has him dribbling the soccer ball. He has really improved with his ball control.



Here is a video of Ethan guarding his "guy" on the other team. He was really nervous that his guy would get the ball so he was pretty protective.



In this video, another kid on the team scores a goal and you can see how excited Ethan gets. It's pretty cute!



This is a video of when he was playing full back (his favorite position).

The Last Game of the Season

Today was Ethan's last soccer game of this season. They played a rain-out make-up game last night and then we had a team pizza party afterward to celebrate. (It was cold and windy but the boys didn't mind, they played around with pizza in their hands for a long time while the parents froze!) This morning was the last scheduled game. It was pretty cold so Ethan wore a jacked during warm ups, but once the game started he wasn't cold any longer.

They did really well. They have focused on getting the basic skills down (passing, positions, etc.) this year so they can really build on them next year. All the boys want to come back and play with the same team next year so it should be a lot of fun. Ethan did great dribbling the ball and was really into the game. He loves it and when he sat down after his last rotation he said, "I can't wait for next time!" I reminded him that this was the last game of the season and he said, "I know. I'm talking about next season! I can't wait to start playing again." I was glad because it's something he is really good at and something he loves to do. And Bryan enjoyed helping coach. Their trophies this year look really cool so the boys were all excited to get them in the end.

Next year Courtney will be old enough to play and Bryan has already volunteered to be her coach and Ethan volunteered to be the assistant coach. We asked her what mascot she wanted for her team and she said she didn't care, "I just want to play soccer." She wants to follow her brother.

And he's a great brother to follow!

Here are photos of their last game and I'll post some video later today (Ethan's playing on the laptop on www.lego.com and I don't want to bother him.)