Daddy's bday

Lucky for him, Thunder's birthday fell on a Saturday this year.  The kids took advantage of the school-free time and made plans to "kidnap" Thunder and "make" him go on a clue hunt to find his presents.

The little bandits woke him up and demanded that he get out of bed and follow the clues they made all by themselves.

After several clues upstairs, he was finally led downstairs...

... to a royal spot to open presents!  We've talked forever about getting a giant beanbag, and this was finally the year that one came our home.  It is moved, jumped on and slept on constantly every day and the kids love it.  Oh, and Thunder gets to occasionally use it,too.

The kids and I also found a fun gourmet popcorn shop down in Orem.  Thunder enjoyed sampling our finds.

We made a fun cake together in the shape of a basketball, since we went to a BYU game all together as a family.  I did have a big fancy cake made and served at our company party this year.

Cake and ice cream from Arctic Circle, just Dad's style!

Here we are before the game started.  It was a great game. Happy birthday Thunder, you deserve it!

It's time...

...Christmas time, that is!  Our tree is up, the boxes are finally put away and only 8 ornaments have been smashed (we're on pace for one every two days or so).

And our dear elf, Alex, has returned.  The kids were informed that Alex would return on December 1, and Sunshine was up promptly at 5:30 AM to go find his hiding spot.  And then he woke everyone else up to tell them the happy news.  Ah, what a lovely time of day to wake up.  Alex goes to the North Pole each night, and returns each morning in a different spot.

Have a Super Halloween!

This year we had a superhero theme.  Well, actually it seems like we have that theme almost every year. Hmm.

We had Supergirl...

... Wolverine, and....

...Ironman.  With a headache, apparently.

Off to the rescue!

Or at least off to the trunk or treat!

The ward put on a killer spook alley that required crawling from the RS room to the primary room.  It was a fun night, which was good since the next night it rained for hours!

And oh yes! I almost forgot our little Robin.  Quite a group, eh?

Monkeying around

Somehow I now have a 7, 6, 4 and 1 year old.  If my kids are getting old, that doesn't mean that I am getting old, does it???

Tornado turned 4 at the end of the month. Since he turned an even year, we had a family party.  And what better way to celebrate with family, than by having extra family?

Nana and Papa came to visit!  It was so fun to have them.  The weather was not the best, but we all enjoyed the company.  Here is Sunrise doing something he does often- desperately wanting to follow his brothers.

But that night he got right down and snuggled with them.

Nana and Papa brought gifts for Sunshine's birthday too, since it was only the week before.  Our kids love Trio blocks.

And here is the birthday boy when he woke up from his nap that day!

He just loved being the center of attention.  Sometimes being the 3rd kid can be rough, but he really is a good sport.  He is our funniest and most entertaining child.

Dad and Sunrise had a good time on the couch together while Tornado was opening up presents.  Sunrise has been so snuggly lately.

Cloudburst and Sunshine were so excited to see what Tornado opened up.  He really liked the presents Grandma wrapped in newspaper with a giant "D" on the front.

Later that night we tried out a new place here in town called Monkey Island.  It has blow-ups, a small arcade and an ice cream shop.  The kids LOVED it!  It was so fun to let them run around and jump to their heart's content.  They all slept well that night.

After we got home, we had the fabulous monkey cake.  It is one of those cupcake-puzzle cakes and Sunshine, Nana and I had decorating it together.

Like the new jammies?

And like the snow we got?  I tell ya, we always get snow before Halloween here.

And one last fun tidbit.  A lot of people ask where Sunrise gets his sunshiny blond hair from.  Well, Nana found a darling old picture of herself.

See any resemblance??

And this is a picture of Papa.  I think Sunshine takes after him.

We had a great trip, and as always it went by much too quickly!

I'd like some mo' Moab please

Fall break conveniently fell on Sunshine's birthday this year.  Since we only do friend parties every other year,  we decided to take a trip.  But where to??  Which place would give some pretty awesome memories?

Why, Moab of course!  We went with some friends.  We loaded up the RVs, hitched up the rhinos, and we were off!  We found some great trails.  We started on Fins N Things, then went to Hell's Revenge.

There were some amazing trails, and some amazingly-scary precipices that we scaled.  It was stressful, but such a rush!  Sometimes I think we were willing the rhino up over the top by sheer will.  And a lot of screaming.

In Hell's Revenge, there is an infamous spot called the Devil's Gate.   You do not want this to happen to you on Devil's Gate.

Randall went up first, then Thunder did.  They each let out the rope on the winch just in case, but they both did great.

The kids had a grand old time hiking around and getting dirty.

On Friday morning, Sunshine opened a few presents, and then we were off to the trails again.

I drove for a while.  But after the kids kept screaming "let Dad drive!" I decided that I had had enough fun for one day.  It was pretty stressful driving, knowing that I could kill my entire family with one wrong turn.  But hey, we're still alive!

Little boys throwing rocks...

... and big boys throwing rocks.

The family picture!

For lunch time entertainment, we went back to Devil's Gate and watched other people attempt to make it up.

There was a whole group of cars.  One got stuck, but no one flipped.

Later that night we went to Zax Pizza for Sunshine's birthday dinner.  Good stuff, that Zax pizza.

We were able to meet up with some friends.  The Morrise's, who live in our neighborhood (and I somehow forgot to photograph) were camping in Arches, and also my old friend Lynette from high school, who happened to be in town.

This is the big bday cake I made before we went down.  Thank goodness it survived the trip.

Since all of our family lives far away, Sunshine got lots of phone calls.  Here he is talking to Nana and Papa.

We ended our trip by playing at the same park we played at 2 years ago, but they moved it!  All of the equipment was there, but it was totally rearranged and moved.  It was like playing in the twilight zone.  But a great end to a great trip!