Utah in January!

Although we had clear but cold weather, there was lots of snow piled up.

That's our little rental car in the driveway!

We got to see Matthew play some basketball:

And we played some games.  

The girls were playing Sorry when we got home from basketball.

We played lots of Telestrations.

Here are some funny favorites:

 Josh's Sumo wrestler!

 This one started out as "potty mouth."

 Dan drew what he read and it got a lot of giggles!

 On Friday morning Katie particpated in the school Spelling Bee:

Here is Sophie bundled up for school that morning:

There were 24 particpants from 4th, 5th and 6th grades:

Katie did an awesome job and got 4th place! 

Here are a few hard words she spelled correctly:

gymnasium; dibolic; horticulture; microscopy; roil; affinity; sanguine

Great job by a great girl!

And We're Off!

This is where we are headed!

But at least we'll be able to see these great kids!

And watch this performance:

Julia posted this:

"I'm so excited to be in Macbeth! Everyone is so incredibly talented. We've been working so hard to make something amazing. It's going to be a great show!"

Christmas Gift Outing #1: BYU Basketball!

2014 was the last time we did outings every month and it was so fun!

I'm glad it was my Christmas present again this year of 2017.

For our first outing we went to a BYU bastketball game in Stockton!

Before the game we attended a lunch with other fans at Dave Wong's Chinese restaurant.

It was very yummy!

The speaker was Garrett Rose, Coach Dave Rose's son.

He talked about what is involved in coaching and answered some questions about individual players.  It was very interesting.  But the most interesting was when he ended with telling us about the BYU Cancer Research Center.

Who knew this existed?  

It is small unlike the Huntsman Cancer Institute so they are able to focus on some cutting-edge therapies including one that has proven very effective and has received national attention for it's remission rate.  Hooray for BYU!

Then it was on to the arena for the game.  We had pretty good seats on one end where BYU was shooting...

...but at half time we went down to some empty seats almost to court level behind the team for some better views.

I get a kick out of these time outs where they bring out all these chairs and everyone huddles around...

...the cheerleaders perform...

...and then back to the action--4 opposing players look like they are just watching Yoeli perform a stunt!

Near the end of the game the Lone Peak three are done:

And it's a win for BYU!

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Eric Mika scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his 13th double-double this season and BYU rolled to a 62-47 win over Pacific on Saturday.

Mika was 6 of 13 from the floor and 5 of 5 from the foul line for the Cougars (15-6, 6-2 West Coast Conference). TJ Haws added 16 points and five assists and Yoeli Childs pulled down a team-high 14 rebounds.

Nick Emery sank a pair of 3-pointers early in the second half and Mika dunked twice to help stretch the Cougars' seven-point intermission lead to 44-33 with 12:26 to play. A Haws 3-pointer with 8:46 remaining sparked a 9-0 run that pushed BYU's advantage to 58-39 with 4:57 left and the Cougars cruised to the win from there.

Ray Bowles scored 14 points for the Tigers (8-13, 2-6) who are on a three-game skid.

Random January!

 I loved the decorations the McClellans had for us.

It was a New Year's theme with photos of highlights of 2016:

And then this statement: 

"2016 Was Fun but 2017: New Adventures Start Here in Kansas!

Jeff's family has two sugar gliders as pets.

They are named Spin and Marty!

 "FYI: The sugar glider  is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum.  The common name refers to its preference for sugary nectarous foods and ability to glide through the air, much like a flying squirrel. The sugar glider is endemic to mainland Australia"

Eleanor made this board game for a class project from a book they read: 

City of Ember.  Here she is explaining it to us.

We learned of a fun and cooperative video game and here are the four older kids playing it.  It's called: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes!

One person sees the computer screen.  You find yourself trapped alone in a room with a ticking time bomb. Your friends who are not allowed to see the screen have the manual to defuse it, but they can't see the bomb, so you have to talk it out fast as a clock on the screen ticks away.  They had a lot of fun and it was a great game for working together!

We got to see what everyone got for Christmas but I only got this one picture: 

Elizabeth's bungee chair!

Sam with the Derby North Middle School Jazz Band:

(Front row, 4th from the left)

Sarah was selected from her class to compete in the school Spelling Bee!

Meanwhile it was snowing in Utah.
It took all 5 kids to clear the driveway with Josh supervising!

Penny Gets Baptized!

We were so happy to attend Penny's baptism!

She is our 15th grandchild to be baptized!

They had a very nice program.  

I especially liked the Children's Bible videos they showed.

Posing with the family afterwards:

Posing with some cousins afterwards:

Congratulations, Penny!

This Was Personal!

Our favorite camping spot, Calaveras Big Trees State Park, was affected by the atmospheric river storm we are having!

"For 2,000 years, the “Pioneer Cabin Tree” grew in peaceful grandeur in a land not yet California — reaching ever taller as the Miwoks hunted, the Aztecs mined gold, Chinese perfected silk, Romans expanded their empire and waves of new immigrants arrived in America.

The tree was hollowed out in the 1880s to allow tourists to pass through it, and even allowed cars, but more recently has hosted only hikers. It was part of the "Big Trees Trail" at the state park.

No one saw it fall because the trail was closed due to rising creek waters. But an astonished park docent discovered the shattered tree on an afternoon walk, then called authorities.

This week, the grove is cordoned off as tree pathologists arrive to conduct a detailed postmortem. There are no immediate plans for its fate, but it will most likely remain where it fell, providing habitat for many creatures and slowly decomposing to improve the soil for future sequoias.

Truth be told, the tree had been ailing. There was only one limb alive on it. With the hole cut into it, it was not able to fend off fires and could no longer support the growth at the top of the tree.”

We have walked through that tree dozens of times over the last 40 plus years!

R.I.P. Sequoiadendron giganteum