a week in review

on president's day, w and i went sledding at a nearby park. then all three of us took a drive to a part of utah we've never been to. it was an interesting drive-adventure. we saw a pronghorn antelope, desert scenes that when you covered the mountains flanking your view looked like summer, some very small towns, a neat small-town cemetary, a look at iosepa (that included some potshards and no l&l bbqs), a first-time visit to tooele, some interesting views of the great salt lake, a drive through a native-american reservation called skull valley, and a walk in thigh-deep snow (that part of the drive didn't seem very summer like).

on tuesday, we went to w's blue and gold banquet. w earned his wolf award, and i got pinned.

on friday and saturday we watched two more installments in the disney davy crockett movie archive. william likes the movies a lot, but i have to admit that b and i are both pretty big dc fans too. up to this point, i think davy goes to congress is my favorite episode. the guy who plays him is such a cool-hand...he doesn't play dc as a tough-guy, burly mountainman. at first that surprised me, but now it just seems right. also, he looks a lot like jimmy stewart. so davy going to congress seems a little like mr smith goes to washington.

on saturday, i took willy sledding again. this time is was a bit colder, but he had a good time. he also built a snowman. if it needs to snow in the valley in february (which, really, it does need to), then at least you can enjoy the snow. at times the snow on saturday was a bit crazy. i went for a run in the midst of the crazy-heavy snowfall, and i could hardly see. but, the run ended at the di, which made it all worth it.

davy crocket & neighborhood hiking

davy crocket is willy's new big thing. we've watched a few of the 1950s disney show/movies. it's obvious why he likes it (it seems to be made entirely for young boys to enjoy). one thing i like is imagining my parents as kids watching these episodes on the weekly disney show that used to air back then. i'm sure my parents watched some of these episodes, if not all of them. also, the previews shown along with the davy crocket episodes are great. we watched one last night of the 1953 disney christmas special, which was themed around a mexican christmas idea.

w is also in to walking around the neighborhood with his new boy scout pack on. he loads it up with things and then goes over to a friend's house or walks up to the mountainside. he loves that new pack. i wonder if he'll like it as much once it gets put to some real use...say going on long hikes in the high uintas!

in my opinion...

in-n-out burger is one of the most unimpressive dining experienes i've ever had. all you ever hear about in-n-out burger is how great it is (especially from californians) and all you see around here are the long lines of people waiting to get their not-so-fast fast food.

we went to the local in-n-out burger for william's birthday. i wouldn't say i had high, high hopes for the meal, but i did have expectations. but the experience was plenty lackluster.

1. it took awhile for our food to get to us. although i do have to admit that we didn't have to wait in line long, and the guy who took our order was nice.

2. there weren't any places to sit. we couldn't all three sit at a table together.

3. you had to order many of what i consider normal hamburger items separately (the pickles for instance). that's not a big deal, but if you don't know that you'd end up with a sad burger.

4. the hamburger was fine, but not great. i didn't think it tasted special at all.

5. and the fries! the fries were tiny and had very little flavor. of course, you always eat fries with ketchup, but they didn't taste good. i think just about every kind of fries i've had before in my life have tasted better than those fries.

so, as wyclef would say "don't believe the hype" about in-n-out. i really can't see why it's so popular. the only thing i can think of is that for those who grew up in california, it's a nostalgia thing (like how adults look back fondly on favorite childhood foods: mac n' cheese or something like that). and for those who didn't grow up in cali, i have no idea.

william's birthday

we celebrated william's 9th birthday recently. it's hard to believe he's 9 now! it was a weekend full of festivities. below is the run-down of events.

we had a friend party at the bowling alley. william likes to bowl, and it was a good time...although a little crazy with 7 boys. they were also ansey to play the arcade games right next to the lanes. i'm not a big fan of arcade games, but we gave each kid a little money to play. then we served pizza, pop, and cinnamon rolls. honestly, the cinnamon rolls were good (what beats homemade cinnamon rolls?). william also opened presents and cards. all-in-all, it was a good party.

we also had a family get-together. it was a nice low-key time. we ate dinner (lassagna) and dessert (brownies) and sat around and chatted. william and two of his cousins played. it was really nice.

then on the actual day, we went out to in-n-out burger and opened presents. some of william's biggest presents were a nice lego set (from grandma and grandpa roberts), money (from grandma leslie), an old-timey boy scout hiking backpack, and a 4' long stuffed tiger.

below are some pictures of the fun.

sundance

on monday, i got a call from a friend who invited me to go up to sundance to see the best documentary of the festival. i was so excited. i mean, how fun to go up to see a sundance movie at sundance, and to see one that's great. on top of that, it's one i had heard about and wanted to see.

the movie was called "how to die in oregon." it is a documentary about the physician-assisted suicide law in oregon. it showed up the lives of people who work to support this law and several individuals who decided to use the law to die. it was a sad, real, and moving movie. to say you enjoy a movie like this doesn't feel right. but it was a good movie, well done.

one of the most difficult parts for me was watching one of the main women in the movie get sick and progressively get worse from her liver cancer. the end result was going to be liver failure, which was what my dad dealt with. it was difficult to watch her go through many of the same issues my dad went through.

but, even despite my crying during the movie, i am very glad i got to go. watching the movie reminded me of how hard it is to deal with the death of a loved one. but it also made me aware of how strong people are who do. it made me so proud to think of my mom and how gracefully she's dealt with the loss of my dad.

it was cold up there when the movie was over, but the roads were clear, and it was nice to be in the mountains/canyon. we don't really go up into the mountains much in the winter. so it was very good to see them again, up-close. maybe winter won't last forever.

indonesian-french-spanish

last night we had fhe. for the lesson/activity we talked about missionary work. i drafted up some mission assignment letters, and then we each got to select (with eyes closed) a place to be called to. i came up with about 10 different locations that the three of us selected from.

william got called to chile, spanish speaking.
brian got called to the netherlands, indonesian speaking.
i got called to morocco, french speaking.

wouldn't those be exciting places to serve in! i chose english-, spanish-, french-, and indonesian-speaking locations since those are the languages we have the book of mormon in. we also each read 1 nephi 3:7 in each of these languages. reading it in french was the hardest. french pronunciation is not my forte.

christmastime

we've had a good, eventful christmas week. on the monday before christmas we got quite a bit of snow. and then on tuesday we got even more. i don't know how much but at least 1.5 feet. that meant a lot of snow shoveling and not a lot of running. but it also meant that we lost some of our trees!



i was out shoveling snow when i heard the crack. the cedar tree in front of our house broke in half. and before the heavy snow had melted, we had a major branch on our big plum tree break and a few cedar branches in our backyard break too.

we still need to get all of this taken care of (ie get rid of the broken tree in our front yard), but it doesn't seem very pressing yet.

on wednesday, we went as a family to go bowling. we did bumper bowling this time, and our scores were naturally a bit inflated. but it still felt good to get over 100. and i did get a non-bumper strike. then we went and saw secretariat, which was a fine movie. and, of course, we topped off the day with a little trip to the di.

on friday, christmas eve, we went up to my mom's house for dinner. we had an italian themed dinner. we made homemade pizza, which i was quite proud of actually, and there was other good food. after the meal, we each got a part and acted out the nativity. below are some pictures of that. brian and i were joseph and mary, and willy was the angel.







after the nativity, we opened some presents...








then we ended the evening by each talking to my oldest sister and her family via skype and a piece of carrot cake (left over from the sealing party in july!).

saturday morning, i kept thinking that willy would wake us up early, but b and i actually got up before william did. we started the presents festivities around 8 am.










willy's favorite presents were the big lego set from my mom, the air hockey table from b's parents, and the complete 2nd season of bonanza on dvd.

the other pictures show some of my and b's favorite presents.

later that day we went on a drive to explore good arrowhead fields. it was really foggy out, and william was dressed in his best bonanza outfit.




it's been a good christmas!