Cedar Valley

Grandma Rainey's mother's parents were from Cedar Fort which is on the west side of Utah Lake. We've heard a lot of fun stories about Cedar Valley, so we packed up Grandma Rainey and went to see ourselves. We stopped for a quick look at Utah's veterans cemetery at Camp Williams which was pretty and peaceful. We drove around the snowy roads of the little town of Cedar Fort to see where Grandpa Cook's house was, but it's gone. We saw lots of uncles' houses and a cool old rock wall and the old school that is going to be remodeled soon. We saw the Hacking home where the kids' Great-Great-Grandmother grew up.
Past Cedar Fort is Fairfield and Camp Floyd Stagecoach Inn State Park. There was a big (the biggest at the time, just before the Civil War) camp of US soldiers at Camp Floyd to try to deal with
"The Mormon Problem" (it's complicated so you'll have to look it up). The state park has a little museum and a restored home/hotel. Mark Twain stayed here!

 
 
 
 
Grandma Rainey is a very friendly person, and she talked the ranger into showing us a restored school house in Fairfield. It was really cool!

 

We had lunch at the bar at Porter's Place on Lehi Main Street. The kids liked sitting on tractor seats.

We went to Hutchings Museum on Lehi Main Street. It's an old-fashioned museum full of minerals and rocks and gems, lots of arrowheads, and an old jail cell (Ikey liked that!).

It was a great day out in the cold with a wonderful tour guide, Grandma Rainey!

Round Valley Hike

The air in the valley has been so gunky since the inversion started at Christmas, we just couldn't take it anymore. It drove us so crazy in 2010, we sold our house and tried to move out of the valley, but only made it to Holladay. We decided to head up to Round Valley in Park City to get out of it for a few hours this time.

Ikey is usually a good hiker, but since there was a sled, he rode the whole time. Jovie hiked around a lot.

 

 

We saw a lot of skiers and dogs and the dad and the kids sledded down the hill to the car. It was a nice break out in cleaner air.

Practice Run

Ikey starts ski lessons next week, so we made a practice run to the Canyons to see how long it takes and how hard it will be to get there. It was stressful enough to get two kids safely through the parking lot and up the Cabriolet (even with no gear, two adults, good weather...) that I came right home to see if the Grandmas can watch Jovie during lessons for a while until I figure it out. We hiked on the "trail above Pete's house" after we left the resort.

Happy New Year!

We went to brunch at the Kanshepolsky/Gotshalk home with the Baskins. The kids had fun playing and we had good food. It's so nice to have fun friends!
I made "hoppin' john" and french bread and met Grandma and Grandpa Faucheux, Dallin, and the Wans in Lehi for a traditional New Year meal. We played Scrabble (Popa had a 45 point word- is that a record?) and unless I did the math wrong (totally possible), Dallin beat us all.  Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve

We had breakfast at Little America Coffeeshop with Grandma Rainey to finish out 2012 with a bang.

Grand America always has a cool scavenger hunt and a crazy gingerbread house.

 

Our New Year's Eve tradition since 2009 is to go to ZooLights. It's always cold (14 deg this year) and cheerful and fun.

 

 
 We usually eat at Cinegrill after the Zoo, but this year, the Taylors invited us to a pizza party at their house. There were a lot of kids and food so it was lots of fun. Alex's tradition is to stick his face in a cake, so we enjoyed that too.

We were home by ten, but we marked the new year with our neighbor's fireworks. 2012 was an awesome year, and we're excited for 2013!

Smith Family Party

Grandma Rainey grew up as a Smith and she has a big family and they have a big Christmas party every year that we just love. The kids don't get to run around a ward house very often, and they love it more each year. There are always a lot of new babies to meet and a rousing gift exchange.

 

 

 Isaac was friendly as usual, and he cuddled right up to cousin Brad (sitting by TB in the picture below). Brad told Ikey that he used to suck on his middle fingers and hold ears too. Ikey was very interested to see if cousin Brad likes trains like him too. Ikey really bonded with Brad and he gave him a kiss. Brad was telling someone how tight he and Isaac were and Ikey said, "I'll kiss anybody."

Jovie was the best gift of the year!

 Ross helped Jovie with her wind-up snowman toy and played a game of "stomp on toes" that he and Isaac invented. Ross always has a joke and a laugh and we just like to hang around with him.

Snowy yard

Our big Christmas Eve snow storm made for some good fun in the yard!
Todd and the kids can honestly spend two or three hours outside at a time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AsjvdhpyVg

Here's a sledding tour of our yard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tcJq0iBHLw