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!!

LAKE PICTURES!!!! CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE FULL VERSIONS!

Oh say can you see, Callie and Cara wakeboarding!

Yep we both got up! You can see from my face that I was pretty ecstatic. We both got stuck outside of the wake and couldn't get back in. I ended up going pretty fast and we both had headaches from crashing pretty hard.



Regardless, we both are wakeboarders. And we are awesome.

Marin and Mitch had fun surfing together again.





Jaren and I went up to Bear Lake with my family on Saturday to swim and hang out on the beach. It was a little cold, but you gotta love Bear Lake!!







Also, we watched fireworks in Brigham City. Happy 4th of July!!!

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!!