Decorating the Tree and Christkindle Market

 Once we got some decorations on the tree, it didn't look too bad!  I love our memories with this tree!

Grammy and I went to the Christkindle market in SLC today!  Love this tradition of ours!

Christmas Tree Adventure

 We were planning on cutting our Christmas tree down in Idaho but since we didn't go we needed plan B.  I started looking up permits for Utah and most of the places were already sold out of permits.  There was one place on the back side of the Oquirrh Mountains that still had permits.  Shawn and I mapped it out and decided to go for it.  After church on Sunday we took off for our destination.  We pulled up to the area (via finding it by coordinates) and it was pretty much all piñon junipers.  We hiked around for a while to try and find a Christmas tree.  Cruz finally spotted one, and although it is an interesting tree, it was a fun adventure!  People will have to have an open mind when they look at our tree!  

Alegra made some funny videos and these pictures when we were driving out.....

Christmas tree seekers!

Finally found one!

Christmas Decorations 2023 and Jazz Game

 These first 2 are from this morning, after getting our tree on Sunday afternoon

I started decorating the house last week (before Thanksgiving, which I never do) because I thought we were going to be in Idaho and I wanted to get a jump on it.  We ended up not going to Idaho (because of the well issue and no water in the house) but it was nice to have Christmas up. I like to take pictures in case I want to decorate the same or similar next year.  

Saturday late afternoon Bobbi texted me to see if I wanted to be her plus 1 at the Jazz game. The girls were feeling under the weather and we were just hanging out at home, so I took her up on the offer.  We had a lot of fun!

Elite 8 game for BYU women's soccer

 Russ and Grammy got tickets to last nights BYU women's soccer game vs. North Carolina.  The first half BYU got down 3-0 and looked slow.  I can't believe it though, they came back in the second half and with 1 minute left tied the 4th goal to put them ahead 3-4.  It was an insane game.  And it snowed the whole time which was pretty cool!

Thanksgiving 2023

 We had a nice Thanksgiving Day.  Our family started off with "forced family fun" on Olive's hike.  I wanted to hike before the storm came in.  In the afternoon we went over to grammy's for dinner.  Uncle Russ didn't have his kids so it was the 7 of us.  Grammy was without power most of the morning. We cooked the turkey at our house and surprisingly grammy was able to pull it off, even with being without power for most of the morning.  It was a nice, quiet Thanksgiving! 

Alegra stuffed fuzzy socks near her ankles to help keep her legs warm.  

Celebrating Alegra 11/22

 Alegra turned 14 yesterday!! Can't believe my girl is 14!  Since we couldn't go to Idaho (the line from the well to Grammy's place is broken so the cabin has no water) we tried to have a fun day at home celebrating Alegra.  We drove out to a new mall area in Riverton.  They had a new store to Utah that Alegra really wanted to go to.  We shopped a bit and then had lunch and fun rolled ice cream for lunch.  Later in the day I took Alegra to get her nails done and then we went to dinner as a family at Porcupine Grill. The kids love the artichoke dip they have as an appetizer.  We came home and watched a silly/funny movie together. It was a really nice day and I hope Alegra felt our love on her birthday!

Lexi decorated her door and hallway while I was at the gym in the morning!

Grammy went with us shopping and she took this picture for us!

Lexi made a cute gift of origami paper with cute notes for Alegra

Dinner at Porcupine!

Fun Birthday Celebration Weekend for Alegra

 Alegra was invited to the BYU football game on Saturday. It was an early game, start time 10 a.m., so she had to be at her friend Ava's house at 7:45.  

Alegra had a couple of hours downtime before her birthday party started!  She invited 16 girls to go bowling and then come back to our house to hang out.  I think the girls had fun!

A few of the girls couldn't make it so we told Cruz he could invite a few friends and have a lane.  The girls though Cruz and his friends were sooooo cute!  

On Sunday we had Sunday dinner at Grammy's house with Russ, Grant, Walt, Maddy, Elle, Walker and Grammy.  I made a Lemon Poppy Seed cake with a lemon buttercream frosting!