Making Cookies with Martha

James and I got Heather a Martha Stewart Cookies book for Christmas and it is fantastic! Today we made some fancy schmancy cookies with Heather to take to the annual New Years party at Brenda and Jim's tonight.

Cookie #1: Homemade Fortune Cookies
These were almost more effort than they were worth, but they turned out pretty tasty. James and Heather made up the fortunes we put inside. James' favorite ones were 1. "Lucky Numbers: (then it listed the lucky (?) numbers from the LOST TV show)" and 2. "Squidward loves you." My favorite was the one that said "you'll be rich...if you don't work at Lagoon."
Cookie #2: Stained Glass Cookies
These cookies include taking a hard candy and breaking it into small pieces (we used Jolly Ranchers), and placing them into a cut out section of the cut out cookie. James was in charge of these cookies and enjoyed smashing the candies and placing them in the middle of each cookie to bake.
Now that I've had my official Martha Stewart moment(s), I can say the year is truly complete! (Ha, ha.)

Left Handed Bowling

The joke around the house lately has to do with one hand. "James, remember to wash your 'hand,'" "James, let me help you, you only have one 'hand,'" and so on.

While James is left handed (making a broken right arm kinda convenient), he plays all sports with his right hand (batting, golfing, shooting a hockey puck, and yes, bowling). So, what's more fun that to take a kid bowling when he has to do it with the other hand? Not much!

Our friends Bronwyn and Ethan are in town from Texas and went bowling with us.

For the first game the kids didn't use the bumpers, and James actually didn't do too bad.

For the second game the boys used bumpers and got a little silly (ricochet bowling anyone?). In the end we learned that Bronwyn is much better than she let on to be (she is the spare QUEEN!), and that it's a good idea I didn't try to take up bowling as a profession.

Christmas

We had a fantastic Christmas this year. My parents and Heather came over to open presents and spend the day.

James got a number of great gifts, his favorites being Mario Cart for the Wii (which we have already played, and played and played, and played...) and his new book of Beatles guitar music.

We hope all of our friends and family had a wonderful Christmas too!

All Purple

James got his cast on today and the color he chose? Purple (of course!).He has a follow up xray on January 20th, and if all goes well he will get it off then.

Shrinking Hockey Season?

First, the good news: James got in a real good check during the first part of the first period of the hockey game today.

Second, the so-so news: the game was a tie, 2 to 2.

Third, the BAD news: James attempted a check in the first period with very bad form (not anywhere near textbook checking), and it resulted in a broken bone.

These photos aren't the best (printouts from the clinic's digital system), but if you squint real hard you can see the slight break along the edge of the bone in the circled area.

James got a temproray splint today and will get a cast on Tuesday after the swelling has gone down. He'll have the cast for at least 4 weeks, possibly longer. So, now we will not be snowboarding during the Christmas Break (dang it!) and will not be going to the hockey tournaments in Boise and Salmon. James is a bit disappointed about it, but he's taking it pretty well considering.

Hmm. Maybe our house will finally get clean now that we'll be going to the ice rink less. Time will tell!

Christmas Recital

James had his second guitar recital tonight and did a fantastic job. He had memorized his song (O Tannenbaum) and played it just right (he has a tendency to play things too fast when practicing at home). Originally he was supposed to do a duet with his teacher, but his teacher asked him if he was good to go solo, and James said he was.

All the other students did an amazing job as well. These kids have so much talent! Performances were on guitar, piano, violin, and one student also sang. The entire recital was so enjoyable it was hard to belive it only lasted 45 minutes.

At the end of the recital James also officially graduated from level 3 to level 4 and received another medal for his hard work.

Let it Snow!

We had a fantastic storm come through this weekend (which will ultimately enable us to visit a few ski resorts next week! Yea, yea, yea!)

Here's James enjoying the snow with Scout:

And here's Sparta the Snowball:

Gingerbread Houses

Today we made gingerbread houses with our friends Boni, Abbi and Sarah. Boni spent all morning baking these real cool 3-D gingerbread houses out of cake mixes. It took a couple of tries to figure out how long to cook them at what temperature (the instructions she had did not cook them long enough), but in the end they turned out fantastic.

Here's the house we named "Hagrid's Hut" decorated by James:

Here's the house decorated by Abbi and me: Sarah and Heather had a bit of fun with this one:And finally, James and Abbi got down right silly (creative?) with this one:

GOAL!

At 9 minutes in the first period, James scored the first goal in today's game against the Jr. Aggies. How he got the puck past all those people I'll never know. (Final score, Jr. Aggies 0, Jr. Wildcats 9)

Which made this drive up Sardine Canyon all worth it.

Is Hockey Taking Over Your Life?

The President of our hockey association sent me this email this week and it made me laugh. Yes, about 99% of it is TRUE.

How to Know When Your Kid's Hockey is Taking Over Your Life

• You base the next purchase of your new vehicle on whether it will hold six kids, six sticks and six hockey bags.
• You know the location of every hockey store within a 400 mile radius.
• You relate directions to places by the nearest arena.
• You know every kid on every team your child has ever played on, but don't have a clue who his school mates are.
• You feel lost when you have a free weekend.
• Your spouse waits until you decide where to sit and then chooses a spot on the opposite side of the arena. (Or becomes head coach for the same reason.)
• You become a partner in a skate sharpening business to save money.
• You ground your kids for a week (except for hockey practice).
• You can rationalize spending $159 on a Synergy for a 9 year old but won't spend $5 on a birthday card for spouse.
• When someone asks how old your children are you respond, "I have a Squirt and a PeeWee."
• You've had to use a grandparent to take kid #1 to a tournament because Dad was in a different country with kid #2 at a tournament, and Mom had kid #3 two counties away in a 3rd tournament, all in one weekend.
• You have more miles on your '05 minivan than a '66 Chevy.
• Practices make up a very large part of your social life.
• You buy gloves according to how loud you can clap in them.
• You find yourself missing the parents of your child's team-mates during the off-season. (But your liver thanks you.)
• You refuse to make any plans with your friends until you check your kid's hockey schedule.
• You've had to take out a home loan to pay for all the equipment and expenses.
• You plan the birth of your next child so he has a good hockey birthday.
• Your new baby's first word is Zamboni.
• All your computer passwords begin with "hockey" or contain your child's number.
• You have purchased a new $135 stick because the old one "didn't have any goals left in it."
• You know a few 5 year olds that are good, but "lack focus."
• Your kids have asked if Christmas is "home" or "away."
• You drive around in the winter with the windows down after every practice, hoping you will get used to the smell.

Ice Rinks & Family Reunions?

Today James' recreation team played the Davis County Wind in Bountiful. The kids on the Davis team have their names on the back of their jerseys, so Heather and I started reading them to see if a kid who used to play with James was on the team. While we didn't see the name "Henderson" we were looking for, we did see the name "Gruendell." WHAT? A Gruendell playing hockey? Who? Another mystery cousin? (Yes, we tend to run into cousins we don't know frequently!)

With Gruendell being the very uncommon name it is (unless you are related to us), we started looking around the stands to see if we saw anyone we recognized. Nope. No one. Heather then said she thought the parent volunteering in the penalty box looked like he could be a Gruendell. She then guessed some more and decided it had to be our second cousin Jeff. How does she do this, figure this stuff out? I really don't know, but, she's good at it.

Here's a photo of James and the mystery cousin on the ice (James is #29, Mystery Gruendell is #47) with Jeff watching from the penalty box:

And here's a photo of the two of them after they, well, crashed:
After the game Heather went up to Jeff and introduced herself. And, when Jeff saw our dad he remembered that he had met him before. James got to officially meet his cousin Nick after the game. And for those of you with enquiring minds, James' great-grandma Bessie and Nick's great-grandpa Albert are brother and sister.

This is Nick's first year playing hockey and he's very good and seems to like it, so we'll probably be seeing each other at the rink again sometime soon. What a small world!

Sparta Thinks She's a Lap Dog

Sparta is now 7 months old and if she isn't 25 pounds yet, she's very close. She's now as tall as Scout, yet her legs are longer than Scout's (clearly she still has some growing to do!) and her body is longer than Scout's.

And, despite the fact she is still growing bigger and bigger, she still insists on being a lap dog. I wonder how long we can accommodate her?

Tournament Champions!

They did it! The Wildcats won their own tournament! This is the first time in the past three years James' team had even made it to the final game. The game was a definate nail biter with the final score being 2-1. I think Idaho Falls will be looking forward to the rematch when we head up to their tournament in January.

Standing: Chad, James, Coach Clay, Zan, Draven, Coach Paul,
Coach Frank, Treyten, Tristan
Kneeling: AJ, Troy, Anea, Patrick, Matt, Dakota, Austin, Ben, Skyler
Front: Kaden

James also earned his battle wounds in this last game. He was on the ice for less than a minute when he took a hard hit (a very illegal hit involving an elbow if you ask any of the Wildcat parents (one even has it on video!) or coaches, funny, the ref didn't seem to see it that way...oh, and I won't tell you what the players told James they would do to that kid when they stepped out on the ice next...) to the boards and was in a bit of pain. But, after a couple of hours he was all good.

Turkey Shoot Out Day 2

The Wildcats had two great games today, they won them both! The first game against the Rock Springs Miners started at 6:45 am (ugh!). Even though the parents don't like early morning games, the kids seem to do their best when dragged out of bed when it's still dark. The final score was Wildcats 13, Miners 0.

Check out the spiffy new jersey!

The second game this afternoon was against the Boise Jr Steelheads. The Wildcats led most of the game with a comfortable 3-0 lead, then things got a wee little bit scary, and (thankfully) the final score was 4-2.

Excuse me, I think I'll take this puck away from you now...

Now we're off to play in the championship game tomorrow. Maybe this will become our first Turkey Shoot Out win?

Turkey Shootout

Thanksgiving weekend means time for HOCKEY! The Golden Spike Amateur Hockey Association hosts the annual "Turkey Shootout" right here in Ogden. James has played in two previous Turkey Shootout Tournaments, but his team hasn't won one yet.

Today his team, the Junior Wildcats, played the Salt Lake County Lightning. James got an assist (yea!) and the final score was Wildcats 7, Lightning 0.

Tomorrow they have two games, one against the Rocks Springs Miners and one against the Boise Jr. Steelheads.

GO WILDCATS!

Joe Meets His Conscience?

Yesterday James threw an egg off the roof of the school.

The entire fifth grade had an assignment to build protection for an egg (no larger than a shoe box) to prevent the egg from turning into "matter" when thrown off the roof of the school.

Here is what James built:
Inside there were layers of bubble wrap, newspaper and cardboard. He decided to name is egg "Joe" and wrote on the gift tag "Joe Meets His Conscience."

The good news was that Joe lived! A little more than half of the students in his class successfully protected their eggs. The bad news is an aweful kid smashed James' egg later on that day in class. Oh well.

Award of Merit

James received an "Award of Merit" at his school in this year's reflections contest. This means he gets to go onto the district level competition.

I am so proud of his accomplishment! Good luck at the district level!!!

James Spends His Birthday Money

One perk of getting older is people give you cash for your birthday instead of presents (enter the "I didn't know what to get you" comment here).

This weekend James found an incredible deal (lousy economy + holiday season = excellent sale prices) on a fender electric guitar and purchased one for himself with his birthday money!

He's been playing it non stop and thankfully keeps the volume down low (so far), but I'm not sure how loud it gets before I get home from work.

New Photos

Some people have asked me where the new photos at the top of our blog were all taken. So, here you go!

Top row: at grandma's house in Centerville, Utah (November 1998); Disney's California Adventure (April 2004); Punalu'u Black Sand Beach in Hawaii (October 2007); Sea World, San Diego (October 2004)

Bottom row: down the trail at the top of Going to the Sun Road at Glacier National Park in Montana (July 2005); outdoor rink in Salmon, Idaho (February 2008); Appalachian Trail in Smokey Mountains National Park at the Tennessee/North Carolina border (July 2006); Moab, Utah (October 2008)

Reflecting on the Circus

This week James entered the reflections contest at his school. James loves to take pictures, so he always enters in the photography category. This year the contest theme was "WOW!" which proved a bit challenging to depict in a photograph without doing the obvious.

Below is the photo he entered. On his entry form he stated how he finds circuses of the past amazing. I find this photo amazing. He's becoming quite the artist!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!

Happy Birthday, James!

Today James is 11 years old. For his birthday party this year he invited a few friends to the last day of Frightmares at Lagoon (Saturday). Our good friend JD arranged for the Hackenslash Chainsaw guys to stop by for a photo op.

Clockwise from left to right:
starting with Samantha (blue shirt, sitting on ground), Chad,
Draven (the TALL one),Tristan, James, Mason, John, Zack,
Rachel, Chase, Josh, Kai

Today I took a bunch of photos to his classroom to share with everyone because James is the “soldier of the week” (the teacher has a military theme this year). I also took his new puppy, Sparta, lacrosse stick and hockey stick as a couple of his favorite things. His classmates asked him many questions about his favorite things, here were some of his responses.

Favorite sport? Hockey & Lacrosse
Favorite animal? Dogs (specifically Scout and Sparta)
Favorite movie? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Favorite cereal? Marshmallow Mateys
Favorite TV show? Bakugan

First Game of the Season

Today James had his first hockey game of the season. While his travel team has played a couple of games, this was the first game for his recreation “house” team in the Utah Recreation League.

James is in the white jersey on the right.

The house games are my favorite because it includes all kids, from the brand new skater (we have 2 of those on our team) to the most experienced skater. This year James is playing forward on the travel team (not his favorite position), so he is also playing forward in house games to improve his overall skill level. He had a couple of really good shots on goal, improved positioning (he is still trying to overcome his natural tendency to hang back towards the blue line), and got in a couple of really good checks (you should have heard the noise when he smashed that poor kid right into the wall!).

The final score was Wildcats 5, Greater Salt Lake Outlaws 2.

Jingle Bells & Rock-n-Roll

Here's a couple of short videos (not the best quality, sorry) of James practicing his guitar, in his messy room. A week ago he got a new book full of Christmas music and he absoltely loves it. He has a song he's practicing for his recital, but he likes to try all the other songs in the book too.

Ah...The Big Island

One year ago this week we went to the Big Island of Hawaii to visit our cousins. How we miss the place! I told James we should plan to go back this spring and he told me absolutely not, we had to wait until the fall. When I asked him why he very seriously told me because Rambutan season is in the fall (he LOVES those things). So, *sigh* I guess we'll be waiting another year before we go and visit again. Here's a few of our favorite photos from last year. =)

Keoki, Malu, James and Jacob at one of the craters in Volcanoes National Park
(check out that steam!)

What a sense of humor =)

Me and James

Doing the "Tourist Thing" just north of Kona

Malu, James and Keoki hangin' with the Honu at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach

Punalu'u Black Sand Beach

Keoki, Malu and James Decorating Halloween Cookies

Hangin' around at 'Akaka Falls

Will the real Harry Potter please stand up?

Volcano Skate Park

Back on the Ice! (FINALLY)

James had a follow up appointment with the doctor on Monday to take another xray of his foot. The doctor says still no fracutre, appears to be healing well and gave James the go ahead to stop using the boot on his foot and even try some ice skating. Yea! James has been going crazy attending games and practices and having to watch and learn from the bench instead of actively participating.

Tonight he went up to open skate to give skating a try for the first time in 4 weeks. So far, so good! (Which is a relief because now he gets to play in the game against the Grizzlies B team on Saturday instead of just sitting and watching.)

Here's some fun photos of him and a few of the Rink Rats.

Chad, James and Mark

Arches and Moab (day 3) and the Way Back Home

Saturday was our last day in Arches. Kai missed a couple of the sites the day before because he wasn't feeling too well, so we went back to the Windows Section and the Double Arch for him.

James and Kai up high in the windows section (they look so small!)

My friend Terrie told me highway 31 through the mountains was absolutely beautiful this time of year, so we decided to take the slightly longer trip home that way. We took 70 through the San Rafael Swell (gorgeous!) to highway 10, then followed Highway 10 up to Huntington. Highway 10. What can I say? I feel so sorry for the people in Emery, Ferron and Castledale. Highway 10 must be the most un-beautiful (is there such a word?) stretch of road in the entire state. How is it this part of the state can be surrounded by so much wonderful sites and not be wonderful itself? Giant mystery I'm thinking.

Thankfully, Highway 10 to where it meets Highway 31 is fairly short. Once we arrived in Huntinington we stopped for a few moments at the cemetery to look at the Crandal Canyon Mine Monument there. It had a beautiful inscription and the detail to the faces of each miner and rescuer were amazing. There is a bigger monument up the Crandal Canyon itself, but daylight was running short (and Isa and I didn't really know which canyon it was), so we didn't make a second stop.

Our last stop on our UEA vacation adventure was at the top of the mountain. In April ,James and his grandma went to the Dinosaur museum in Price while I attended a work meeting and he learned a well preserved Mammoth was found in Utah in 1988. Where in Utah? Right off of Highway 31! We took the quick walk down the short trail to read about this amazing discovery. Isa and I figured this must have been quite the media event when it happened and wondered why we didn't remember it.

5 Days? That's all? Wow.

Arches and Moab (day 2)

On Friday we started the day hiking to the Delicate Arch. Boni and Abbi tried to go up to the arch the day before, but they couldn't find a parking spot, it was that busy. It seems everyone in Utah who didn't go to Disneyland for the UEA weekend came to Arches.

Abbi, James and Kai on their way up the trail to the Delicate Arch

After we secured early morning parking spaces, we headed up the trail. The kids did a real good job on the hike. James is still wearing his boot from his injured foot, and he had several people make comments to him about what commitment he has to make the hike, if a kid in a boot can make this hike, so can they, and so on. Once up at the Delicate Arch Boni saw some of her neighbors and James saw a girl from his school, and Boni just happened to know the girl's mom. (See? Everyone DID go to Arches). Here's a photo me and James under the arch (really, it is us, even though you can't make us out in the photo...)

After the hike Boni and Abbi went down to Monticello to visit some friends and made a couple of stops in Canyonlands. We drove up to Devil's Garden, had some lunch, and took in some more of the sites in Arches.

The view James and I had while lying on our backs and looking up at the double arch.

Later that afternoon we walked around Main Street in Moab for awhile and then went back to the campsite to make dinner. Boni and Abbi joined us later, pitched their tent and then we all had Jiffy Pop! (I didn't even know you could still buy Jiffy Pop.)

NOTE TO CAMPERS: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER take an infant/toddler with you camping if you are going to be stuffed sardine-style into a campground. ESPECIALLY if that infant/toddler is sick. And, if said infant/toddler is sick, NEVER let them cry for 10+ minutes at 2:00 in the morning before doing something about it!!! (Whew. I feel better now.)

Arches and Moab (day 1)

On the first day of UEA we woke up ridiculously early for a vacation day and drove down to Arches National Park with our good friends Isa and Kainoa (you were right Marcie!). I had been to the park previously, but this was a new adventure for James, Kai and Isa. Here are a few photos from the first day in the park:

James and Kai taking a stroll down Park Avenue

James being goofy at Balanced Rock

Me and James at Sand Dune Arch

Kai and James being very silly at the Sand Dune Arch

Later that afternoon we pitched our tents in the sardine-packed campground. Moab was very busy this weekend with some events, including a half-marathon.

After dinner we met up with our friends Boni and Abbi at their hotel for some swimming.