Nearly New Year's Hike

We decided to go explore No Name Wash, which is about a 40-minute drive from our home. Zach thought he needed to come too, so we loaded up children and a dog and ventured off for the evening.

This wash had a lot of little mini "slots" to explore. 

Dallin thinks he is too big for riding in his backpack (sad...) and now insists on hiking all by himself. He did a pretty good job navigating and climbing over rocks, but his mom had many adrenaline rushes each time he slipped.

"I made it!!!"

 Group photo taken by Dad of everyone else at the top of the "slot canyon."

Zach is displaying his true nature.

Dad caught a side-blotched lizard (yes--in December--we know it seems crazy) and Dallin did not want to let it go. He held onto it for a very long time before we could convince him that it would be happier if it could stay living on the rocks.

Yuki the Wonder Dog had a blast.

Canoeing the Colorado River

Kevin took Megan and Ian canoeing one evening around sunset. The canoe is on loan from our Scout Master. Megan took all the photographs. Enjoy this photo journey down the Colorado River.

Gotta love the beard!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Day

We decided to cook our big holiday dinner on Saturday so that we could enjoy a less hectic Christmas Day on Sunday. While the turkey was roasting in the oven, Dallin helped his mother make fudge--someone has to have the job of licking off the beaters.

Ian wanted to start a tradition of going swimming on Christmas.

Here he and Zach make the initial plunge into the pool, which was around 50 F.

[Sorry, but the video won't upload--we'll try to work on fixing the problem.]

They survived!

And needed to build a fire to warm up and roast marshmallows.

We were hoping Grandpa Tsukamoto might be able to come join us from California, but he was unable to do so. Here we are with our dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, glazed carrots, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Dallin was not too excited about it, but the rest of us indulged in all the good food.

Not many places sell live Christmas trees in Yuma, and those that do charge a small fortune. Kevin had the idea to get a lemon tree as a family Christmas present and use it temporarily as a Christmas tree. The children weren't too pleased with the substitution, but at least we had something to decorate. 

Here are the presents at the base of the tree:

And here is a shot of the rest of the tree:

Christmas Day

 The children let us sleep in until around 7:00 a.m.

No one could wake up Dallin, however--he was out cold.

Erin had an owl-themed Christmas:

Grandparents gave her 2 stuffed animal owls.

Mom and Dad gave her an owl bag, animal puzzle with 

an owl picture on one side, 

owl crafts, and an owl notepad

 

Ian received a Rubik's ball puzzle from grandparents.

It took him a little while, but he was able to solve it, 

although not as quickly as he can solve a Rubik's cube.

 

Megan painted these amazing animal rocks for everyone:

Mom got the cheetah, Dad the fox, Ian the raccoon, Erin the owl, and Dallin the turtle.

 We finally dragged Dallin out of bed to get ready for Church.

We dressed him in his "new" suit (compliments of the Horrocks family

who's youngest son had grown out of it), and he looked so grown up.

Unfortunately, we could not coax a smile out of him.

Ian sang in the choir at Church and we enjoyed a nice Christmas program with music and narration.

Then we returned and ate leftovers and candy and Skyped cousins and played Scrabble and Dallin got sick from eating too much candy and threw up and then fell asleep.

We realized we should have taken more pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Present Preview

I found this gift idea from this site and had so much fun making these puzzles for Dallin and Erin. We got a 1.5 inch board and cut it into squares using a friend's saw. The sides were slightly rounded which lended to some imperfections, but the overall finished product turned out great. We're excited to give these to the children on Christmas!

Dallin's Puzzle

I thought basic animal shapes would be easier for him to make, so I searched for silhouette animal shapes, sized them, printed them out, used chalk to trace them onto the black blocks, painted, and glazed.

Erin's Puzzle

I used small calendar and magazine pictures as suggested in the tutorial.

In Memoriam

Mamu

May 1999 - November 2011

 

Twelve years ago Megan convinced us to bring home a small calico kitten from North Logan's Wal-Mart parking lot where a family was giving away a litter of kittens. Kevin named her MAMU: an acronym for Mass Adjusted Mouse Unit--a measure of how much tetrodotoxin should be injected into a snake of a given size to measure resistance (from Dr. Brodie's research of garter snake/newt coevolution). She was Tibby's companion (our Abyssinian cat) and later became Comet's friend (our orange tabby who joined us after Tibby's kidney failure).

Mamu's hobbies included hiding in boxes, drinking water from a dripping sink, stepping into the shower as soon as it was turned off, getting fur all over newly-washed clothes, and sitting on the lap of whomever was working on the computer. She did not care for people food and would rarely jump onto the table, but she did like to chew on flip flops and sandals. If April ever left her pincushion out on the sewing table, Mamu would pull out the pins with her teeth. At night Mamu preferred to sleep at the foot of the bed and would get upset if locked out of the bedroom. In Logan, Mamu frequently woke us up in the night by beating her paws against a wobbly closet door. She did not like to be picked up and held, but would purr quickly if given attention. Mamu was a polite conversationalist and would always meow back if meowed to.

Mamu was quite jealous when Ian was born, and she would not come onto the bed if he was with us. For subsequent children Mamu adjusted more easily. One time in Logan she went missing for several days. It turned out she had accidentally been shut into a neighbor's garage (one that they did not open too often). When she returned she would no longer leave the house, and this behavior persisted for years. 

When we moved to Yuma we were surprised at how quickly Mamu adjusted--she even started venturing outside again. She became more active and playful and was very happy here until a few months ago when she became violently ill. The veterinarian's diagnosis was pancreatitis, and supportive care was basically the only treatment. She got better, but not all the way better. She was still happy but had recurring bouts of digestive trauma (we'll spare you the details).  This week she took a turn for the worse, became unable to eat, and we made the difficult decision to say goodbye. 

Mamu, we will miss you and remember you with fondness.
Thank you for sharing your life with us.

Happy Halloween 2011 !

Per Grandparent request, here is our Halloween 2011 Post:

We enjoyed some fun Halloween festivities in Yuma this year. We had a close call getting the costumes made in time for the first party (the Ward Trunk-or-Treat), but were ready to go on Halloween night.

Megan carved this cat pumpkin at a YW activity.

Note for future years: Carved pumpkins do not last more than 2 days in Yuma

before shriveling and growing mold.

April made some more socially acceptable Halloween cupcakes for the Primary's Cupcake Walk, although she was tempted to take a few scorpion ones just to see people's reactions (see previous post which actually hasn't been published yet--or check out Kevin's FB page).

The Costumed Clan

 Dallin sporting his new Jedi youngling costume

 

Erin the Owl

(She has been in an owl phase for the past few months

and declined wearing the Jawa costume that would have fit in 

with the overall sibling ensemble.)

Ian as Boba Fett

(We have plans to improve the costume over the next year.

This was hastily put together, but turned out pretty good given

our time frame.)

Megan the Jedi

Cannibalism?

 Halloween night, the children went trick-or-treating around 

a couple of blocks in our neighborhood, 

and we relaxed and watched movies.