Spokane to Vernal to Pocatello..

My sister's family is about to finish up their medical residency in Spokane and they just accepted a position in Pocatello, Idaho! In early December Jenny's husband interviewed at the hospital in Vernal and we got to visit with them for the weekend while they were in Utah. (although they ended up choosing Pocatello instead)
Here we are at the Utah Fieldhouse of Natural History. We saw dinosaur bones and ran around with cousins!


This was a field trip I had been wanting to do, albeit without Jared.
It is pretty amazing that this corner of Utah really is Dinosaurland--a huge reservoir of prehistoric fossils.


We soaked in as much cousin time as possible before they left to go back to Spokane.
--even tub time.. Ella climbed in after I took this photo and then there were four.


Jenny's and Amy's birthdays are in December and our celebration for them was Saturday morning pre-airport departure. It was grrreaat to see the Spokane-ites around the holidays. Now we are counting down for them to move closer to this neighborhood in June!

Giving Thanks

The jar of blessings idea from the Friend Magazine helped us remember what we were grateful for during the weeks before the holiday. Some of the blessings the kids wrote down were temples, scriptures, apples, and seasons.

Turkeys at our Thanksgiving feast! potatoes, rolls, and homemade stuffing and gravy ... mmmm!



Here's a tradition I remember from when I was growing up in Tremonton-- the city coloring contest! In November a book is published with a coloring page from every business in town. They are pretty cute and original. We can turn in each page that is colored for a prize (like a cookie from McDonalds) and then they are judged in each age category.
At least one year when I participated I had my picture in the newspaper with the big group of winners.

Jordan especially loves to draw and color right now! Here is his hard work:


Back at home decorating for Christmas was fun! Cousins came over to play while my sister, brother-in-law, and Jared helped put up lights on the house. Good cold fun with hot cocoa afterward...