Now that the year is almost over, I guess I should catch up a little on what we have been up to.  We finished up Fall Semester and have been LOVING Christmas Break.  Whoever decided that college kids should get a 3-4 week Christmas Break should get a prize.

We spent HANKSGIVING in Brigham City with about 50 family members from the Hanks side of the family.  We had enough food for a large army. Grandma and Grandpa Hanks were able to join us after returning home from Samoa at the beginning of November.  I hung out around the dessert table all afternoon. It was great to get together with family and to see how big all the kids are getting!

 We got a new nephew!  Little James Ethington was born early in December and we absolutely love him already!  Avree let me do a little photo shoot of him when he was about a week and a half old.  It was harder than I thought it would be, but he is SO handsome!  

 

 

 

Jaren injured his foot while playing church basketball and got a full set of foot and ankle X-rays, a CT scan and a consultation with an orthopedic surgeon just to determine that yes, Jaren injured his foot/ankle, no he did not break 2 bones in his foot, yes one bone was chipped, yes he tore some tendons/ligaments, and yes he is one of 10% of the population with a bone in his foot that does not fuse correctly which is why they thought he broke his foot in the first place.  Poor Jaren.  He had to turn in his Beaver Mountain Season Ski Pass so he can recover over 6-8 weeks. As of this morning he can finally walk around without his walking boot a bit so I think we might be able to turn in his crutches!

Christmas this year was awesome! Dalyn was part of a great choir concert put on by Box Elder High School.  I am so glad  he loves choir just as much as I did!  Jaren, Kennady, and I were able to visit my dad on Christmas Eve morning.  We hoped it would be a good Christmas surprise for him. We spent Christmas Eve at our house watching the kids play with Spencer's new criss-cross-crash toy.  It was definitely a crowd pleaser.  Even little Andrew was excited about it.  Jaren and I opened presents at our apartment Christmas morning and then went over to Cara and Mitch's house for an awesome Christmas Breakfast.  Marin and Kate showed us their awesome train set and Spencer told us about his tunnels that Santa brought him.  After breakfast, we went to Brigham City to open presents at my moms house.  She never fails to impress. :)  It is always fun to see everyone open presents!  After Brigham City, we headed back over to Avree's house for a delicious dinner and a Christmas Music Program led by Matt.  I showed off my awesome guitar skills on my brand new guitar.  We got to sing Christmas carols (which is secretly one of my favorite Christmas traditions).  Matt and Cara were able to play the guitar and piano, and Matt, Jay, and Matt's dad sang a beautiful trio.  It was a fun night to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

Jay and Jeri Dell treated us to dinner at Firehouse Pizza last night.  Spencer showed us how he could be a garbage truck to drink his water, and Kate enjoyed her crayon appetizer.  Marin learned about the rule of throwing salt over your shoulder if you spill it and we all enjoyed pizza!  We even got a free dessert because we had to wait a little longer than normal.  Afterwards we went to Cara's house to play games.  We played Just Dance on the Wii and got to see everyone's mad dancing skills.  I must agree with Jeri Dell that Cara is a very talented dancer. Avree and I will have to practice up to match her skills.  

We have such a great family and loved spending so much time with them over Christmas!  Hopefully this next year will be just as fun as this one has been.  Jaren has heard from 4 Law Schools so far (Tulsa, Albany NY, University of Idaho, and Northern Kentucky) so as much as we hope to stay in Utah, we could be headed just about anywhere next summer!

So to all we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Finally a day off. Avree and Cara both updated their blogs, so I thought I probably should too. Jaren and I have both been super busy with school. I had two tests this week, and Jaren had a couple big ones in the last week or so. I successfully talked myself out of a few correct answers, and Jaren aced one of his tests (meaning he got an A) which is AWESOME! He has been so studious this year. Watch out law school!! :)

Jaren and I took some more pictures with Avree, Matt, and Spencer and went out to dinner at Cafe Rio. Love that place and we had a lot of fun taking pictures. Green Canyon was gorgeous.

Matt took this last picture and I thought it was gorgeous. I loved the lighting and was trying to get a picture like this all night. Way to go Matt!!

We also took some pictures of ourselves up Sardine Canyon conference weekend here are some fun ones.



Jaren's flag football team is in the playoffs right now. Go team!

A dead squirrel... I mean chipmunk, a boat, and fathers

Believe in bad luck? I didn't much until this past weekend. It was a nice Friday evening, I just got home from work and was being told to "hustle my bustle" by my impatient husband. We both grabbed a pepperoni lean pocket, a yogurt, and a string cheese for dinner and cruised up the canyon to go backpacking. The drive was beautiful. We pulled off at the Tony Grove entrance and headed up towards the lake. We had almost made it, when a poor little something dashed out into the road. The little chipmunk ran right under the front tire and he was a goner. Poor little guy!

We started up the trail at a pretty fast pace. It was getting late and we had 3 ish miles to go to get to White Pine Lake. Fifteen minutes later, Jaren realized he had forgotten the tin foil for our dinner and a couple other things in the car, so he had me wait with the stuff while he ran back down the trail. He got about ten feet from the car and realized that the keys were in his pack. With me. Back up the trail he ran. Once he got back, he was out of breath, and so I grabbed the keys and took off. From early on, I felt this strange feeling that our trip might be plagued by the spirit of an evil dead chipmunk........

I think I was right. We lost the trail soon after and found ourselves scaling a mountain practically straight up trying to take a short cut over a hill. It wouldn't have been bad, but my legs were sore and my "25 pound pack" was actually 35 pounds (Jaren lied to me about the weight so I would think it was lighter... ), plus I am married to a little mountain goat so I was trying to catch up the whole time without falling to my death.

The sun went down, but luckily for us, Jaren had packed some handy dandy head lamps which helped us climb down the mountain, over another hill and finally find some other campers. We decided to camp for the night and went about finding a flat spot to pitch our tent. Jaren was great and built a fire with only ONE match!! ........ And about half a bottle of lighter fluid. We got our tent up and settled in for the night.



We will just say it was a long, cold, uncomfortable night. We have since bought ground pads and fleece blankets to take with us on our next adventure. Jaren packed up our stuff and started a fire while I gathered more wood, and warmed up our breakfast over the fire. We were back on the trail by six thirty am and home by nine. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to find the lake... and not run over any more chipmunks.








Luckily, we had plenty of time to take a nap the next day and get ready to go BOATING! Cara and Mitch just got a boat. They just became the favorite ;) The boys went wakeboarding and some of the girls went tubing. I went with Marin and yep, I was definitely more afraid than she was. Spencer didn't seem to know what to think of the boat and did not like putting his lifejacket on, and I don't know how many times little Kate fell over when the boat took off.











We spent most of fathers day at my Mom's new house in Brigham City. We had our usual breakfast for lunch feast and watched a couple of movies. My mom has a huge project on her hands, but good thing she is the Queen of projects!









That's all for now!!

We are now counting down the days till summer! Only 25 left. . . Dang it, that was more than I thought. We are both starting to think about finals and I say think because at least I have not done a single bit of studying in the past two days. Instead, Jaren and I have watched probably 5 episodes of Prison Break, made cookies, ate Cafe Rio, and basically just vegged out. It feels so great.

If you haven't watched Prison Break, I recommend it. Unless you have heart problems... It may give you a heart attack because it is so intense. I think it counts for my cardio workout today.

Last week, Jaren and I went out to take some pictures again. We found some awesome old bricks that look way cool in these pictures, but mostly we only got goofy pictures somehow... There was only one good, normal picture in the bunch, but here are some of the good ones.







Saturday, we went over to Cara and Mitch's house for Marin's fourth birthday party! She was right at home in her princess themed party. She is BEAUTIFUL! It is always fun to watch her open her presents. Don't worry everyone, this year she kept all her clothes on. ;) She got some fun movies, princess dolls, and even a scooter! What a lucky girl! We got a bunch of pictures, but these were some of the best. And PS Avree, you look gorgeous in the last picture.



This is Sarah and Reuben's little boy Scotty. He is so cute and this one turned out really cool.


Blowing out the candles was a whole family affair. Luckily, the princesses were all on their own "spit umbrella".




I think Marin had a great time! And we even caught a smile!!



We had dinner at my grandpa's house on Sunday and got to talk to my dad for a while. My aunt Catherine made funeral potatoes, rice consume, rolls, grilled chicken, salmon, and fruit pizza for dessert. Its a small miracle that we aren't all obese.