2008 – A Review of a Year in Scouting
We had our annual parent planning meeting tonight for our scout troop. I put together this video of the year’s activities and we played it to kick the meeting off. A higher quality version is available here, on Facebook.
Merry Christmas!
I can’t believe it’s already the day after Christmas. The whole season was wonderful and I don’t have time right now to do a full account, but following is a list of the clues to a final Christmas Treasure Hunt I put together for the kids this year, in the tradition of my dad who always put together a hunt as the last hurrah on Christmas morning.
Sung to the tune of “Up On The Housetop”
Up on the housetop reindeer pause. Here comes dear old Santy Clause!
Down our chimney? There is no way. He must have come in another way.
Yohoho I wouldn’t go! Yohoho I’d rather stare below.
Out from a window quick quick quick.
In the room where kidlings often watch a flick.
Sung to the tune of “White Christmas”
I’m dreaming of a ski-nny kitty. Just like the one we used to knooooow.
His once lean belly, now jiggles like jelly. And drags, pitifully in the snooooow.
I’m dreaming of a tight bellied kitty. But that won’t happen very sooooon.
‘Cause we keep on feedin’ and he keeps eatin’ And that’s where you’ll find your very next cluuuuue.
Sung to the tune of “Jingle Bells”
Jingle bells! Jingle bells! Jingle all the way!
Daddy’s peep* has gone to sleep, just the other day, hey!
Jingle bells! Jingle bells! In the door Dad came.
One peep less, with little mess, but life’s just not the same!
Sung to the tune of “Away in a Manger”
Away with the manger no crib did we need.
For little babe Lizzy with parents did sleep!
Now slumbering well she retires with prayer.
A room with Katrina she now does share!
Sung to the tune of “Joy to the World”
Joy to the world! The peep is gone. Let earth receive the same!
Wait never mind I’d rather keep. That sweet and tender little peep.
If to all you it’s the same. In a little jar to remain.
For Lizzy, to kiss the peep would now bring fame!
Sung to the tune of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”
It came upon a midnight clear the bounteous snow we now have…
That we have kids who can shovel it, makes Daddy feel really glad!
That shovel, see, was a present dear, the best one we eh-eh-ver gave.
The purpose clear was that Mom & Dad’s back it would certainly save!
Read to the tune of “T’was the Night Before Christmas”
T’was the night before Christmas when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring. Not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And Dad in his Jammies and Mom in her cap… [Riiiiiip, sound of needle scratching a record]
Have you all seen Mom sleeping in her cap?! It’s the cutest thing ever! And that very cap is where you will find your next clue!
* “Peep” is the term of endearment given by my family to a large nasty mole that has been
growing on the back of my neck for the past several years. I had it removed this month and,
since it had become a part of the family, I brought it home in a little jar for the family to enjoy.
To say that the nurse was understanding would be a bit of an overstatement 
.
This afternoon we took the kids sledding much to their delight. On that subject, the following video is a compilation
of sledding fun and mishaps last Christmas (2007) which we spent with family in Cache Valley.
The video quality, FYI, is much better on Facebook (click here).
Has it already been six weeks since we last wrote?! Since that time we enjoyed a delightful Thanksgiving with family in Cache Valley, most of the family got sick (not related to Thanksgiving), we got 12+ inches of snow and our hot water pipes froze one morning, but happily did not burst! We just enjoyed a Sunday filled with a lovely Christmas program, carolers at our door and friends over for dinner. Life is good!
Saturday morning Joseph and I joined Russ Clarke and Brian & Brandon Bairett to cut wood up on the mountain. Kalen Langstrom and his son showed up a couple hours later. We ended up bringing four cords of wood down the mountain and today I am very sore. Good times, nevertheless!
We skipped out on the usual Trick or Treating this year. We took the kids to the “Hallelujah”, a carnival type event put on by the local Calvary Chapel congregation. It was all free and they did a great job! Lots of fun booths, most of them with scripture themes – some of them were really funny. Afterward, we went home and had the Bairetts over for a movie night. Good times!
Liesl and Lizzy
G and Tree get their faces painted
Lizzy tries her hand at one of the games. G and her friend Cari both dressed as unicorns
G tries the ring toss
Tree and her friend Lisa
Zorro Joseph and some guy with much bigger jowls than I’ve ever seen.
Snow Canyon Campout
October 24-25, 2008
Joseph’s troop went camping this weekend in Snow Canyon, located several miles northwest of St. George. He is now the Deacon’s Quorum President and Senior Patrol Leader. Adding his schooling, music and chores at home he stays pretty busy.
Joseph enjoys Mountain Man Breakfast consisting of hash browns, bacon, sausage, eggs and cheddar cheese. A dutch oven favorite!
Several of the boys climb up to see pioneer graffiti – a spot where several pioneer folks wrote their names in axle grease back in the late 1800s.
Then again, maybe some folks came by last week and wrote that stuff in axle grease… Pretty cool nonetheless.
We found this cool place to do some scrambling. Looking up…
Looking down. On the right you can see three of the boys poking their heads over the edge.
More scrambling.
Can you spot the climbers?
How about now? (find the red arrow)
Here’s a closeup. We watched these guys finish their climb then rapel down. Good stuff.
On the way home we visited the site of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. Pretty sobering.
All in all a great weekend!
It’s been a month and so much has happened! The world is still spinning and we’re all trying to stay on our feet. Here’s a quick update on the goings on of the past four weeks:
Joseph teaches family home evening the Monday after conference. We enjoyed having Mom & Dad Arnell and Julie and her daughters with us!
Katrina and I at the Activity Day’s Daddy Daughter Date
Me at the oral defense of my Master’s thesis. Liesl took covert pictures from her lap.
I graduated with my Master’s degree in Education on October 17th. It came on the heals of the last day of the accreditation week-long site team visit which came on the heals of months of prep for accreditation. Frankly the day came and went as a blur. I’ve been working on this degree for five years amidst many changes in our family and my career. What a ride!
My sweetheart without whom this journey would not have been possible. Me and Joseph.
Mom & Dad Arnell came down for the weekend. Thank you! I thought I had emailed or posted on xanga about my graduation some time back. I apologize if some folks didn’t know. I didn’t mean to exclude anyone. I hardly had time to even think about it the way the past four months or so have gone.
Lunch at Applebee’s afterwards. Yum!
The day before graduation we took our family along with our friends the Bairetts to do Angel’s Landing in Zion Nat’l Park. At the beginning of summer we asked the kids what the one thing they wanted to do. Jacob said he wanted to do Angel’s Landing with Dad. That’s me! And the summer was so crazy we never went so we squeezed this trip in just as the accreditation trip ended and right before graduation started. Quite the week! Jacob was gracious enough to invite everyone to go on his Dad & Son trip. Good times!
I’ve found that FaceBook allows for the uploading of longer videos and they render at a much higher quality than YouTube. Unfortunately, you can’t embed them in other sites. A small price to pay for the superior video quality however! Click the link above for a video of our Angel’s Landing trip set, of course, to music!
Quite the sheer drop – a shot from the top of The Landing.
Sunset on The Landing.
One Last Trip to Visit a Duck, a Mut & a Rodent
[Note: I started this entry last week and never finished it. I figure I better post it now and hope I get around to finishing it later. Enjoy! ~g]
Our Disneyland annual passes expired on September 12th, purchased last year during much better economic days. So we planned then and carried out this week one last hurrah to the land down under with our friends the Bairetts. Our hotel was free thanks to our good friends the Bairetts who have a vacation package thing and between credit card points and Liesl pulling out her old eBay and farmers market tricks to cover food and fuel, the trip actually cost us nothing! Here’s some fotos and footage from the week:
Three friends enjoying the trip together; Lisa Bairett, Emily Goddard, and Tree!
Splash Mountain is an all-time favorite with our crew.
Lizzy prefers merry-go-rounds.
Joseph and Jacob assist the Disneyland Band on the tamborine.
G enjoys the new parade at California Adventure.
Grizzly Rapids – always good wet fun…
…as soaking G can attest.
Katrina in her new hat.
G and Ashley enjoy a cold treat from Burrr-bank Ice Cream Parlor.
One night on the way back to the cars – still smiling!
Aunt Maren joined us for Wednesday and Thursday. Hooray!
Waiting in line for the new Toy Story Mania ride at California Adventure. A great ride, my personal favorite!
I’m not a huge cotton candy fan, but Lizzy’s sweet tooth definitely comes from me.
Lizzy huggled Mickey, Minnie, Eyeore and others like they were long lost friends.
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