January and Half of February 2016

I have been a slacker and the time has come to get caught up. There have been no travels so life has been rather pedestrian with few unusual day-to-day activities. This post highlights that and a couple of exciting bits including some outings with Rod and Vic, some bachelor time while Kris helped her mom in Arizona, and a visit from Debra Sue who came to town for her great nephew's wedding. (Thanks to Debby for a couple of these photos.)

 Wonderful fish and chips in American Fork

 Midwinter view of the sacred mountain

 A gift from Kim Despain so I won't be killed walking in the 

street on my morning walks

 A moody, foggy morning walk

 Tuesdays with Evelyn Alta

 A winter excursion to the Wasatch Back with Rod and Vic

 Kamas for good burgers and shakes

 Good food and good company

 Terracotta art from the early 1900s on the bar at High Mountain

 Shopping for antiques in Park City

Saturday matinee at Hale Center: The Nerd

 Ollie speaking in church

 Evy sucking Grammy's thumb

 A misty early-morning walk

 Fog frosted trees

 Downtown Provo just at dawn

 Cousins paying close attention to my FHE lesson (photo credit: Katy)

 The snow just doesn't stop

 Daddy-daughter night out while Kris was in Arizona

 Evy scrapping with Katy and me

 A very successful first attempt at a pan-seared steak while

I was alone on a Sunday

 

 Good times with Debra Sue

 Who doesn't love cookies?

 The winter inversion creates its own beauty

 

 The Colver girls

 La Capizza with Debra Sue

 Valentine's dinner with Debby at Bombay House

A third visit to the PCCT, this time with Debby

Fantastic stained-glass panel from a Presbyterian Church in New York

We are in Arizona and I will be posting again from here. This is all for now.

OXO

D.

New Year's Greek Dinner 2016

The tradition lives on, even if the crowd has grown too large for our house: 30 people without the Hastings. So we reserved the church for a fun evening. The food was excellent: the best ever.

 Anika looks excited for the food

 We added a Greek flag to the decorations

 And Kris added some table decorations

 It's fun to be together

 Good food

 Good company

 The food disappeared

 Mabel is very fond of Harry

 And Finn is very fond of Evey

Too cute

The next day the Youngs headed south and the house was empty

Thanks to Maren for some of the photos. That's all for now.

OXO

D.

New Years Eve 2015

On New Years Eve, the gang gathered for snacky food and games. Gavin and the boys actually managed to stay up until the New Year.

 The Taylor Brothers' Building on my morning walk...

 

 ...Early on a wintery day

 All the kids in the neighborhood enjoyed our snow piles

 Katy and Daniel tucking in

 Rock Band: Phillip on vocals

 More Rock Band

 Plenty of good junk to eat and bubbly to drink

 Lizzy on vocals

 Evelyn getting ready for bed

 The beat goes on

 That baby just couldn't keep her eyes open

 Apples to Apples

 Lots of fun

Pictionary

This was a fun and spontaneous evening. Spontaneous means it just kind of happened as it does every year. One more New Year's post to go, but that's all for now.

OXO

D.

Christmas 2015

We awoke Christmas morning to almost a foot of fresh new snow. After opening presents and a leisurely morning of play and shoveling, we joined the extended family at Jeff and Amy's for Christmas brunch. We made the rounds to see everyone's loot displays and then met up for a Christmas screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was brilliant! The remainder of the week coming up on New Year was spent in various activities including snow forts, ice skating, bowling and eating, of course. Harry elected to celebrate his birthday early with his cousins. Thanks to Maren and Gavin for some of these photos.

 The Christmas-ghost tree in the back yard early Christmas morning

Santa has been and the hoards will soon descend

 Good stuff!

 Two old guys trying to keep up with the shoveling

 A Christmas nap for Evey in the only quiet place in the house

 Headed back home after visiting Phil, Meags, et al.

 Hurrah for reserved seats

 Everyone loved the awakening Force

 The Youngs

 The Taylors

 A beautiful winter evening

 Pho and bun with the kiddos

 Bowling at the BY

 Cath Kidston came too

 Skating with the cousins at Peaks

 Harry 

 Gavin and Beckham on ice

 An Indian nosh

 My enormous piles of snow made wonderful forts

Harry celebrated #9 in the bosom of the family

It was a very COLD week but we felt warm with family gathered around. There will be more from New Years, but that's all for now.

OXO

D.