Happy Birthday "Grandpa Idaho"!

Amber: "I love this picture! You are such a wonderful Grandpa and Father-in-Law. Thanks for all you do and have a great Birthday!"

Jason: "I love this picture of you recovering after a trip over the handlbars!!"

Jason: "Thanks for teaching me at a young age to work hard."

Ryan: "I love going fishing and riding the tractor with you. We have so much fun together! Have a happy birthday."

Brynn: "Happy Birthday, Grandpa. I love coming up to see you, it is so much fun!"

Emily: "I love going sledding. I love you"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! WE LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday Mom!

This post is a little late, but since this whole "Blog" thing is new, it took me a few days to think of doing this! It was so fun to gather up these pictures. I love the fun and special times we have shared. I love you so much and I am very grateful to the wonderful example you are to me. So here's to you, Mom...Happy Birthday!

Scout Hike

Ryan and I went on a hike with the scouts in our ward. We went on the same trail where the Mormon Battalion came through the Temecula Valley. It was a lot of fun to learn the history and feel a tiny bit what it was like to come through this area. The boys were given "rations" to eat along the way and fake muskets to carry. It was very hot and about 4-5 miles long, but the boys had a great time.

Dedicated to the Colorado Cousins

We love our cousins. We had so much fun over winter break playing with the Phillips cousins and some of the Milne cousins. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the Milne cousins in Colorado, so I thought I would post this slide show of the last time we saw them (since I never sent these pictures over for them to see!).

More fun times on Winter Break

Maga took us all bowling; always a favorite activity! Dallen, Maga, Dax and Ryan at the bowling alley.

More Sledding

Apparently we didn't get enough sledding in Idaho because the kids were anxious to go again. This hill had a pretty big jump in the middle of it, and it wasn't snow, it was ice. This probably wasn't so safe, but the kids sure had fun. We will count ourselves extremely lucky that there were no major injuries!

You have to look closely to see Ryan. That's some pretty sweet air!

Dallen

Even Darren tried the jump...YIKES!

IDAHO

After Christmas we went to Idaho. It was so fun because we had the whole Phillips family there. It has been a long time since we were all together. The cousins had such a good time together, we heard a lot of giggling going on! We went sledding in the 7 degree weather and it was a BLAST! Thanks so much to Jason's Mom and Dad for the fun time!

Part of the Phillips cousins all bundled up to go sledding.

Jason trying to snowboard on a toboggan.

Ryan snowboarding! He picked it up pretty quickly.

We were tired after two sessions of sledding!

Merry Christmas

I LOVE Christmas! We had so much fun in Utah and Idaho visiting family and friends. We also loved the SNOW! We have a sweet deal; enjoy the snow for Christmas and New Years, then come back to sunny Southern California!

Where's My Kid?

We live at the top of a hill on a cul-de-sac. There are no neighbors to one side of us, and no neighbors behind us. It's a nice quiet area of the neighborhood and great place for the kids to run around and play. Ryan has a nice friend who lives two houses away, and they get along really well. They both have active imaginations and come up with great things to do. A few days before the Christmas break, Ryan asked me and the kids and my friend Megan and her kids who were visiting to come see the tree fort he and his friend had been building. We took a hike back behind our house and down into a ravine. There they had been rebuilding a tree fort that some "teenagers" had built and taken down. I had no idea what they had been up to!