Ottley Family Christmas Party

It was so much fun to go and be a part of the Ottley Christmas Party this year. It was wonderful to see everyone. The kids are growing up so fast. We were able to get some family pictures of the ones that were there. We missed Leon and Jan. We are especially grateful to Don and Jana for hosting.

This is a video of the pictures we took throughout the evening. Some of the pictures are a little fuzzy but we got some fun pictures.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It seems that when we left on our little jaunt around the intermountain west we were just getting over Halloween - but when we returned, Christmas was upon us. So we are joyously moving forward to fill our home and time with the Spirit of the Season. We actually kicked off the season in Provo at the 35th Annual Adventsingen where I got to sing in German (while M giggled at my pronunciation).

Here is the first sign of the Holiday Spirit - a nice wreath on our front door.

Poinsettias are always a good sign in our home that Christmastime is here.

And then there is the creche display all over the house - so beautiful and a great reminder everywhere we look of the reason for the season.

Here is the tree we acquired the day of our return last Tuesday. So far only the lights are up, but we're working on it . . . . kinda.

And here, for all of you who may not be in a position to experience it first-hand, is a white Christmas . . . snow! Can you guess where this is? (Hint: it is actually to different locations.)

There and Back - Again

Yes folks, we have been off traveling around the country again in the most important thing I can think of to do these days - visiting family. We began on November 24 to allow a pretty good sized (and cold) storm to pass through in front of us. Although we were held up at the 20/80 junction for a few hours, the weather was great for our drive to Boise, and we had dry roads for the most part. They were wet with patches of snow over the summit, then there was some ice and snow pack around Jordan Valley, OR, but other than that it was smooth sailing and clear (i.e., cold) weather. The next day we were treated to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner by Andy & Saramarie, complete with all of the trimmings - including appetizers of bacon-wrapped lil smokies baked in bbq sauce. As you can see, we also had Italian soda - and more pie than we could eat in a week - how spoiled we were. Thanksgiving evening we went with Saramarie & Andy to his sister's and had fun with all of his family there. What nice people, and great pie. His grandparents Tibbets were there with one of his cousins who is attending BYU; which leads to an interesting story that I will leave for another posting.

Our gracious hosts:

While in Boise we did a lot of shopping, picking up some good buys on ties. We also went to see the latest installment of Harry Potter. It was pretty cold outside, and snowed once, but all in all was really a great time. Oh yes, we also went to a superb Mexican restaurant. I don't recall the name, but if you are ever in Boise, you need to go, it is wonderful.

Monday was the next break in the weather so we broke loose and went to Rexburg. Again we were blessed with great weather and dry roads, except around the Jerome/Twin Falls area. And we noticed that I-84 was closed from the junction with I-86 to the UT state line. Good thing we were heading north. When we got to Rexburg the roads were still snowpacked in town (not on the freeway), and the cold and additional snow while we were there kept them in that state during our visit. It was a veritable winter wonderland. I got exercise shoveling snow as well as a lot of experience driving in the snow.We had a great time hanging out with Peter & Leigh-Ann in their really nice apartment. As you can see they have it well-decorated for the holidays, and we felt the warmth of their holiday cheer there. We also played a lot of games (see their blog for pictures), which were all a lot of fun. And of course we had yummy hot dogs.

The rose between the thorns:

Thursday, between storms again, we were off to Utah to visit with the Ottley clan and with M. What a whirlwind! We finally dropped off the load of stuff we had been hauling around for M at her apt. on Friday, then grabbed a bite to eat, spent a little time in Barnes & Nobles, and went to "Christmas Around the World" with the BYU Folk Dancers. Pretty exciting. That night, and most all of the weekend was pretty much a double-date with M & Nathan. We had a lot of fun with them as they are great company and very nice people all around.

Saturday we all went to the annual Ottley Family Party at Don & Jana's house. We are so grateful that they host this annual family reunion and provide such a delightful setting.

As usual, everybody brought lots of food. Soups with bread and lots of other things was the menu for the night.
And of course, the best part of the evening was the company. Look at this company of characters, for example. We got more pictures of all the participants that we'll put up on a separate post.

Oh yes, here are a couple of Deutsche kinder that we were priviledged to hang around with for a few days.

More characters:

Sunday we began early with music and ended late with music. Early we went to the MTC broadcast of Music & the Spoken Word.

Including a photo op of our traveling companions in front of the Conference Center. This photo taken by someone who obviously knows what he is doing. It was pretty cold that morning, but over all it was pretty warm, relatively, in Utah.

After going to Church with Don & Jana, and dinner with Paul & Sharon (who were our gracious hosts while we were there), we headed to the Provo Tabernacle for the annual Adventsingen. Great music to end the day. Here is a photo of the alpenhorn after it was all over.
Monday we went to the Costco in American Fork with Sharon & I became a believer - it is much better than Sam's Club. We then attended the dress rehersal of M's singing group that performed on Wednesday, and got ready for the trip home. But the fun wasn't over as we went to Harry Potter again, just for good measure and with good company. (By the way, we saw many of the trailers for upcoming films and about died laughing at "Cowboys & Aliens", a film by Spielburg with Harrison Ford. Definitely one to miss.

The trip home seemed short as we had much to discuss, and it was thankfully quite uneventful.

Now we are scrambling to put the house together for the holidays, and get all in readiness. Lots of work, but the fun kind. We look forward with anxious anticipation for family to gather.

One Happy Fellow

Our last night in AZ we had a really great party to celebrate a couple of birthdays. The entertainment was provided impromptu by TVH as we all joined him in a game of catch with one of my presents - a plastic "furry" caterpiggle with a ball inside that lights up when hit. It is a great present, mostly for the memorable evening of fun it provided us. The video is a bit long, but the best it at the end, so endure. Two things that really impressed me about the subject of the video are: (1) Although he keeps tripping over the paving stones, he never once went down - and incredible sense of balance. & (2) Although he never caught on to the concept of catching the worm, that kid has an arm that just wouldn't quit. You can't see it in the video, but he was incredibly accurate with his throws, always hitting his mark. The video ends when he finally decided to throw to his CA Papa. His laughter is contagious.

Some People Just Don't Know When To Quit

My dad used to say this a lot. For some reason it came to mind when we examined our garden this afternoon and found some strawberries on plants we planted just a few months ago. It is November after all.

The offending plant in context.
But elsewhere in the neighborhood Fall is in full swing, as evidenced by these trees.

Visiting the Pumpkin Farm

James and Sabrina invited us to go to the Bishop's Pumpkin Farm. Dad wasn't able to go but I went out with them and had a great time. I haven't been out there for a long time.

James, Sabrina and Vuna in front of the waterfall.

Nothing like singing chickens

I love the big fields of pumpkins

It's not a trip to the Pumkin Farm without a ride on the train

James, Sabrina and Vuna went and did the corn maze and I walked through the flower beds. It was such a fun afternoon.

Old Tucson Stagecoach

Okay, we really have been remiss in posting about all of our travels over the past couple of months, but we have an excuse . . . . our ISP is acting up, making it difficult to download pictures and especially videos, which we try to make because we have so many pictures. Anyway, here are some pictures of our recent trip to Arizona. the last day we were there we all loaded up and went to the Old Tucson Studios. What a great adventure! TVH was in his element, loving pretty much everything about the place - particularly the trains. I have broken up the day into smaller blogs in an attempt to bribe myself to get it done by breaking it up into smaller pieces.

Obviously the greatest thing for the MT grandparents & us was to see the delight in our grandson's face as we did various things. He loved everything, but really got excited when we went on the stagecoach ride: "bumpy bumpy bumpy". Here's the evidence of our joy.

Petting the horses.
Pre-boarding photo op.

All aboard!

The gang's all here.
Another stagecoach, not attached to horses. Who is that man in the straw hat?

Inside. Don't be fooled by those padded seats, it wasn't all that comfortable. But surely better than buckboards, as you can see by the smiles on the passenger's faces.

Here is a video of TVH on the stagecoach ride. I don't think it downloaded correctly, so I may have to redo it later. But better to have 1/2 a blog than nothing . . . since I have been working on this for days already.

Blessing ME

This past week we made the journey to the Sonoran Desert to witness the blessing of our 3rd grand-daughter, and to hang out with some really fun folks. Here is the beautiful ME, showing off her stunning dress, with a really cute matching bracelet from her aunt. It went beautifully with the outfit.

Before things got started that morning, she took the opportunity to relax with her Montana Papa.

Did I mention that her mom made her some special slippers for the occasion? To show them off, she pointed her toes right on cue.

And here are the stars of the day - the pretty little ME and her gorgeous mother.

And one with the dad, of course. With all of the paparazzi hanging out that day, ME appeared to get a bit bored with the whole thing.

Three generations of smiles.

The Crew.

The softer side of the Crew.

And TVH held still a couple of times and was caught on film; here with the CA grandparents.

I had to include this one to prove that she is already learning the fine art of rolling her eyes (particularly when listening to CA papa tell his stories).

At the end of the day, when it was time to change into her nighty, she howled like a banshee. I think she really got used to being all dressed up and liked it pretty good. She did look great. But the next day as we prepared to go to the Old Tucson Studios she was stylin' again with the blue hat.