December 2010

December has been a whirlwind of a month...it started off with Brenda being the decorating committee for the 2nd annual Colorado Springs Creche exhibit at our church building. It was a week full of lights hung across the ceiling, 27 tables covered with white tablecloths and then decorated with burgandy, forest green and gold cloths with boxes and books underneath to provide differents levels for the nativities to be displayed on them. We had 6 fake palm trees, 2 Journey to Bethlehem silhouettes, a 20 ft by 8 ft mural of the city of Bethlehem, 10 Lit Christmas trees, 6 sparkly winter trees. That was all done by Wednesday morning to get ready for the 400+ nativities that were brought for the next 2 days and set up. It was a glorious event and there was even a live nativity re-enactment done outside with live animals, script, singing etc. ( thank goodness i didn't have to plan that one)
Anyways, the event had close to 4000 visitors and we collected 300+ lbs of food for care and share at the door. There were some awesome stories of non members and members alike who truly were touched by the spirit that was present during the event!!! I was glad to be a part of it but also glad when it was over...then the rest of the month could commence.

A nice treat was that Maddie, Lilly and Chase flew in for the weekend to have an early celebration of Maddie's birthday. Mike had planned to come but ended up having a work meeting that he couldn't get out of. We went out to eat and Austin made an awesome chocolate cake with buttercream frosting...DELICIOUS...LADIES...HE'S A GOOD COOK!!! Lilly was so much fun to have around and to spoil. She is quite the little talker now, in full sentences and she does say the darndest things....for example...she was dancing to some music and wanted Poppy (Steve) to dance, she said, "dance Poppy" but Steve was sitting on the ground so he started to move his upper body to the beat. Lilly wasn't satisfied with that and she said "No Poppy, get off the carpet and dance" we laughed so hard! It was a very fun visit, with no big plans but lots of fun and rest for Maddie (I hope)
There were two of Austin's band concerts to attend in one week. And the our ward party on a Saturday night...Brenda only got to go to part of it as she has been putting in some extra hours at work to help pay for Christmas and the Cruise that is coming up in January.
And then there was all the shopping to get done, presents to wrap and goodies to be baked.
Chase drove home on Saturday the 18th from BYU, it took him 11 hours to drive the 8 1/2 hour trip because of snowy weather in the mountains...he did get home safe and mostly sound. It's been fun having him around...he cracks us all up!
Tonight for Christmas eve we had our traditional Seafood dinner but didn't have crab...we settled for Lobster tails this year...the shrimp was plentiful...boiled shrimp, popcorn shrimp, and large deep fried shrimp. We also had sweet potatoe fries to go with it all...YUMMY!
AFter dinner the boys opened their Christmas Eve gifts...it wasn't pajama's this year...to their disappointment. They did get home made Snuggie's and some boxer's with super hero's on them.
After all the frivolity, I had to go to work and here I am, working hard (teehee)No new Christmas Babies yet....
Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!!!

Catching Up!

In the last several months we've had Homecommings, Family Holidays together, Lilly's Birthday, Great News from promotion to scholarships, and a Graduation.

Steve returned from his deployment to Creech AFB in December after being away from the family for 4-months.

Then we had Christmas at our house. Maddie, Mike, and Lilly were able to come, and they brought Grandma Mert with them. We got to spend a great week spending time with each other, and doing a little skiing together.

Brenda went to Utah for Lilly's first birthday. Poppy had to stay home to work but he shared in the festivities via Skype while Lilly blew out her candles and ate her cake. It's hard to believe she's already a year old. She's started walking one day before she turned 10 months old.

Then February was a very eventful month. Spencer had his 21st birthday, we found out that Chase got a 4-year ROTC scholarship, and Steve will be promoted to Colonel in August 2011.

We expected in April to find out about our next move, but with the pending promotion, the Air Force decided to leave us in Colorado Springs for a while.

May was pretty eventful. Chase and Austin had been practicing for a dance festival for the entire year and in May they had the big event! It was fantastic. They really shined in every dance number they were in. Mike, Maddie, Lilly, Gigi and Gma Toddy came to visit for Graduation and to see the dance festival. We drove almost to the top of Pikes Peak (the Rangers would not let us drive all the way cause of the snow ) We took Lilly to a park in Manitou Springs and had a picnic. WE went to the Royal Gorge bridge and then to a hot spring pool and then On May 19th Chase graduated from Liberty High School.

This summer Chase will be working at Camp Firewalker as their Lifeguard fro the entire month of June, then begins our camping trips, family reunions, trip to Lake Powell, traveling to Dallas for a wedding, then who knows what else.

This catches us up, and I'm sure I missed a lot, but I've done my best. Hopefully we'll do better in the future.

Super Hero Birthday Party

Birthday boy takes a bite out of crime (cake)

A Super Hero cake for a super kid

Nice shirt from Courtney

Clark Kent eats Kryptonite (jello jigglers)

Super Hero Sandwich's

Awesome Super Hero Cake (sure glad we kept all the Super Hero toys)

Raphael (Austin) & Batgirl (Courtney): Best Friends

The Super Hero Clan...let's hope we don't need any saving the planet anytime soon!!!

Clark Kent...aka Chase

Austin is Raphael...TMNT...he wanted to have a Super hero party for his 15th birthday...so he made the invitations and I made him a turtle shell for his costume. Some of his friends couldn't come because of the flu, and other commitments but the 6 that were at the party had fun. We ate Hero sandwich's with chips and "kryptonite" (aka lime jello jigglers), watched "Xmen orignins, Wolverine", ate fun dips, m&ms and cake...then they went outside to the fire pit and sat around a fire for a while (nobody wanted smores after all the other sugar). Then they tested their agility by playing the paper sack game....If you don't know how to play it...it's pretty funny! The party was over at 11pm and Austin had to do the clean up! HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR SON! You are growing up into a fine young man...we just have to keep the ladies away for a few more years (wish us luck on that one).

Labor Day in Lake Powell

Mike enjoying the "glass-like" water!


Cool Lilly and beautiful Maddie!

Austin cliff jumping...it was so beautiful there!!!

Austin getting ready to "Hit It"

Chase gives a thumbs up for his great slalom skills!

Mike explores crack!

Lilly likes the speed boat...even if she has to wear that red life jacket...nothing gets her down!

Poppy, Lilly Maddie and Mike...enjoying a dip in the lake, near the house boat

There was even time for grooming in the lake!

Lilly after eating red licorice on the boat...she was so much fun!






The "Chubby Bunny" game with cheese balls...we really weren't bored...just doing weird things...like usual!!

Chase and Austin tubing behind the speed boat...Awww...such cute brothers!!!

Having so much fun together!!!

Sweethearts reunite at Lake Powell

There was no better place than Lake Powell to meet Steve for a fun weekend! He left Colorado on Aug 10th to go to Las Vegas for a 4 month deployment so we hadn't seen each other for almost a month (yeah, I know...boohoo...but we miss him at home!!!) Mike and Maddie invited us to join Mike's family at Lake Powell so we couldn't be rude and deny them the opportunity to spend time with us...lol! WE had so much fun on the house boat, jumping into the cool water anytime we wanted to cool off, eating good food, relaxing, playing games and watching Lilly (there was a lot of watching Lilly) It was a very relaxing weekend, but way too short!!! Thanks Mike and Lynnette for letting us spend some time together with our family and friends!!!

Our 25th Anniversary Cruise

Brenda and I were lucky enough to get out on a cruise for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. The really great thing was it was just us two. We flew from Colorado Springs to Miami. Unfortunately our plane was delayed getting into Miami, so our hotel shuttle didn't pick us up because we didn't land until 1:10 am. We boarded the boat bound for Half Moon Cay. It's a very small island in the Bahama's leased from the government by the cruise lines. We were able to just lay on the beach with 400 of our closest friends, and soak up the sun. At noon we took a quick trip to the other side of the island and took a tour of the lagoon in two man ocean kayaks. That part was really fun. there were only 10 people total who did this excursion including the guide so we were able to get away from the cruise ship crowd for a bit. Then lunch was a huge BBQ taken onto the island by the ship.



Our next stop was St. Thomas, USVI. It reminded us a lot of Jamaca. It's kind of a US third world with a Caribbean flavor. We did another cruise line excursion there. I'm a certified SCUBA diver and have always wanted Brenda to try it, but she has a problem with the concept of breathing under water. But she wanted me to have the opportunity to dive, so we compromised. We went on a SNUBA excursion. It was at the Coral World marine park. We took an open bus to the park and got all suited up with fins, masks and a SNUBA regulator. The air supply is a hose that is hooked to a raft that follows the group around. As soon as we were in the water, I went straight to the bottom, and stayed there the whole time exploring everything I could. Brenda was a little tentative at first, but once she got used to the equipment and stopped thinking so much about breathing under water she actually had fun. There is hope that one day I can convince her to certify. After we got out of the water, we toured the very small park for a while. At one point we turned around and found all these iguannas on the sidewalk. Pretty cool.
The next stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. Probably our least favorite place. We walked around the city for several hours looking at the forts there, but the best thing was finding a street vendor that sold 'ilado de coco'. It's a coconut flavored frozen desert that I haven't had since my mission. I absolutely loved it!

Our last stop was at Grand Turks & Caicos, a small island owned by the Brits. It had been hit by Hurricane Ike last year, and they were still rebuilding. We decided we didn't want to share our beach with 400-500 of our closest friends this time, so we got all our snorkle gear and grabbed a cab. He gave us a great tour of the island and dropped us on a little beach away from everyone else. There ended up being only about 10-25 people on the whole beach. We spent our time just relaxing, enjoying the white, powdery sand of the caribbean, and snorkeling around for several hours before we needed to be back on the boat for dinner.
As alway, the cruise food was great, and we both ended up gaining 5-7 lbs. Luckly, we both lost that much before we went. Even better, we're both about back down to our pre-cruise weight loss weight. We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and especially being able to spend 7 full days and nights together, to do what we wanted when we wanted to. No kids, no phones, no internet, just us! -- Highly recommended.

River dancing under hypnosis

Chase and Austin participated in a hypnosis at a comedy club on Saturday night...here's just a little bit of what they did! Too Funny!!!

Mother's day weekend

We drove to Utah for Mother's day weekend, leaving Friday afternoon and getting to Provo late Friday night. The drive was beautiful through the mountains and we were surprised to see so much snow still up in the mountains. As we got closer to Glenwood Springs, everything was greener and spring like...it's about time. On Saturday Steve and I went for a walk/run in the morning and then we went to American Fork to see the mobile home my mom is buying and then Steve took the boys to Mike and Maddies to deliver the washer and dryer that came out of our house and I went with Grandma Merta to the Anderson Mother's Day Luncheon. It was great to see all of my female relatives at Brick Oven restaurant. We had a tribute to my grandma Madeline Anderson's hands because she was always busy with her hands...either serving her family, neighbors or others.
After the luncheon, Maddie and I went shopping for a while...it was fun to try on clothes together and of course I had to buy Lilly an outfit too.
We all then went to the hospital to visit Steve's mom Claudia. She wasn't doing too well so the kids made it a fairly quick visit and then Steve and I stayed to visit longer with his siblings and mom.
One of the highlights of the day was going up to Salt Lake to get a Belgium waffle and Frites...sounds funny but ooohhhh they were sooooo good. Just like we remembered in Belgium. Hot, moist and sweet with crunchy sugar bits. After filling up on waffles and frites we headed back down to Orem and went to a comedy hypnotist show. It was so funny...the hypnotist got to Chase and Austin and they were hilarious playing out whatever they were told to do...they were back up dancers to "Brittany Spears", belly dancers, river dancers, race car drivers and one of the funniest was that Austin was a fashion coordinator (complete with a lisp) and Chase was a dandruff inspector and they went out to the audience and inspected people...too funny when Austin came back to the stage and crossed his legs!
We completed the weekend with a Mother's day brunch at my mom's house and had fun talking to Amanda (our niece) in Germany on the Skype internet...her boys are so cute!
So, spending time with Maddie, Lilly and Grandma's was a great way to spend our Mother's day weekend. Now Steve and I are looking forward to our cruise in a couple of weeks to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary!!!