Christmas and Addie's Farewell

Christmas was perfect!  Bevan was home all day for the first time in about 4 years!  We were so grateful for that.  Dallin woke up at 1AM, and then at 5AM, and then at 6AM, when we threatened him with the loss of ALL his presents to stay in bed One. More. Hour!  We finally let them open presents at 7AM.  We made such a mess and everybody was happy with what they got.  We had visits from grandparents and then dinner of ham and cheesy potatoes

The next morning was cousin Addie's mission farewell.  We knew it would be snowing, so we left early to get to Centerville in time.  Good grief, that blizzard was knarly!  Bevan said it ranks in his top 3 of all time.  That's saying something!  I wish I had taken pictures, but at the time, it didn't seem like the thing to do.  Besides, there wouldn't have been much to see.  It was all just WHITE!  Cousins coming from Idaho didn't have a great experience either, but we all made it with our lives spared.  It was so great to spend the day with Addie.  None of us were anxious to get on the road again anyway.  I'm so happy for Addie and the experience that waits for her in England!  She's totally ready.

Ackerson Christmas Partaaaay

We had such a blast this year!  I had no idea that Bountiful had an outdoor ice "ribbon" for skating.  We just had to try it out!  We met up with cousins, got laced up, and skated our guts out.  Even Tommy got into it for a while.  Dallin was able to take over a walker from another kid that was leaving and that made it a lot easier for Tommy and Drew.  Then more cousins got more walkers and they had fun crashing them into eachother.  We then retreated to Nora's house for nachos/ tacos/ burritos/ quessadillas/ whatever-you-want.  Gotta love mexican food.  It's so versatile, everyone got what they wanted.  Drew just wanted tortilla chips.  There was even a selection of those!

Everyone got to open a "cousin present".  It's so fun that the kids can have an early christmas present they can play with for a week.  Hopefully they last a week!  The adults then played a gift card exchange and it's so fun to see what people come up with.  Bring on Christmas!

Thanksgiving

It's been so incredibly warm this November!  October was cooler with plenty of rain and snow, but it completely turned off recently.  That's fine for Thanksgiving at the cabin!  We'll take it.  The kids were able to play outside a lot.  We had a smaller group this year, only 20 people, but it was perfect.  Lots of turkey, potatoes, yams, and oodles and oodles of leftovers!  We built a few fires, worked on several Eric Dowdle puzzles, watched a lot of movies, and hiked the loop 3 times.  The next day, we went swimming in Kamas.  It's always a great way to top off a busy weekend.  We sure love Thanksgiving!

Birthday Week!

 We started off birthday week with all 4 kids participating in the primary program.  ALL 4 KIDS!  This will be the one and only time this happens.  Tommy is a sunbeam, Anna is turning 11.  Soak it up.  They did such a fantastic job.  Bevan and I sat on the bench, together, like newlyweds or something.  It felt so good and went by way too fast.

Bevan's birthday was on Wednesday.  He had to work that day, of course, but we still decorated the house during playgroup that morning.  All the extra kids were very entertained with all the streamers, balloons, and (most of all) the very tall ladder.  I gave them the bag of leftover ballons and it kept them busy for an hour.  I also started marinading steaks and baking a cake.  Bevan was very suprised when he got home to the house transformed.  We ate dinner, blew out candles, ate cake, opened his presents, and went to bed way too late!

It wasn't until the weekend that we celebrated Drew and Tommy's birthdays together.  We had pizza and rootbeer on Friday, and then cake and presents on Sunday.  How long can we pull off doing this together?  When will they start insisting they get their OWN parties?  I'm living it up right now!

Anna didn't get to have her friend party until the next weekend, so we just kept the house decorations for an extra week.  Her original plan was to go ice skating with her friends, but we found out at the last minute, the skating rink in Midway wasn't opening in time.  Yikes!  Plan B was bowling in Heber.  They had a blast anyway.  It's amazing how much older they get, the less you have to actually plan anything.  You just plan a destination and they entertain themselves.  Anna got a punch pass for the ice rink in Midway, even though she can't use it yet.  Will it ever get cold?  It was a great way to wrap up birthday week!

BYU vs. Idaho State

 It was such a great day for a football game.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  We had plenty of room for cousins to run around.  The cougars tails were so delicous and I never knew I could actually get sick of them!  The game flew by and I was so glad that Idaho State actually scored a bunch of points.  It definitely made it more interesting.  I hope this stays a tradition.  The absolute highlight is that we didn't lose Dallin this time.  Win win!

Halloween

 The kids had such a great time for Halloween! They were able to have a real party at school and the costume parade was a blast.

Tommy was a puppy (against his will)

Anna was a baby (against MY will)

Drew was Spiderman (for the third year in a row)

Dallin was a prisoner (he was really just in it for the handcuffs)

They march them around the neighborhood for about 5 blocks. They probably do this so that there’s enough room for all parents to watch… and also for the kids to burn a few calories before all the candy-binging. After the school parties on Friday, our friend, Margaret, had another party at her giant barn. It was such a blast with trailer-riding, games, crafts, and pizza. Margaret really goes above and beyond with her gatherings!

We dragged a little bit on Saturday and got our pumpkins carved in barely enough time. I hate carving pumpkins. It’s slimy, messy, and time-consuming. I always feel like they’re not creative enough, and the kids usually quit after a few minutes, so I’m left to finish them all. This year was slightly better, but I still secretly wished there was another pumpkin shortage so we could set out fake ones. We were a little late to our ward’s trunk-or-treat, put on by the youth. This was a first for us. My kids have never been “trunk-or-treating”.

How many times can we go around?

Why was it so easy?

Why didn’t we decorate OUR trunk?

They also had games and hot chocolate. It wasn’t meant to replace real trick-or-treating, it was just to get the kids primed. It was all over by 5:30. We went around the neighborhood after that and the boys got a little more candy. Anna went with Ryder and was going for distance (27,000 steps, according to her fitbit). They came home with a LOT of candy! The kids crashed and I started watching the 2^nd half of the BYU game. As exciting as THAT was… I still fell asleep within 15 minutes. Good thing they won.

Maui

 Oh, what a wonderful place!  We wanted to do something special for our 15th anniversary (taking time off in December is pretty tricky in the ski industry, so we had to go sooner).  October is a great time to travel anyway!  This amazing trip was made possible by Nora+ fam and Beverly+ Lloyd.  Our kids were totally spoiled, playing with cousins and grandparents for a whole week.  They hardly missed us.

The rest of the trip was made possible by our favorite acronyms of the 21st century: Vrbo, Turo, and Uber.  We stayed in lovely, DRY Kihei and loved our condo!  It was central location to everything fun!  My favorite meals were the teriyaki chicken salad in Kehei, fish-n-chips in Lahaina and coconut shrimp in Hana.  The most adventurous outing was driving around the ENTIRE island.  That road on the south-east side is super sketchy!  Our goal was to swim in a dozen waterfalls... but we only had time for 11.  Darn.  Our favorite waterfall was Waikamoi nature trail falls.  Our least favorite was Pua'a Ka'a "upper falls".  It was not worth the 30 minutes of bushwacking!  Our biggest mishap was the luggage getting run over on the tarmac.  Thankfully, our snacks were spared!  Next time we will cetainly book the earliest snorkel outing and bring warmer clothes to Mt. Haleakala.  Yeah, next time!  Honestly, you cannot go wrong on that island. Everything was so green and lush, the food was amazing, the locals were funny, and the beach sunsets were all perfect.  We can't wait to go back!

St. George Marathon

 Bevan was so excited to run the best marathon in Utah!  We were both dissapointed when they cancelled it last year (can't remember why...) but we made great plans for this year's race!  Bevan actually trained very hard for this one.  Seriously, he would leave us almost every night after dinner and most Saturday mornings.  We booked a cheap condo and drove down Friday afternoon.  We went straight to the expo, which was about ready to shut down for the night.  Why do we cut it so close?!  After 4+ hours in the car, the kids were bouncing off the walls of the condo, but crashed hard that night.  

Bevan left waaaaay to early on Saturday to catch the shuttle.  Luckily he met up with Aunt Vanessa so he had someone to talk to around the bonfire for 2 hours, waiting for the race to start.  The rest of us mosied out of bed at a decent hour and headed to the finish line.  It was already getting warm (for us, that means above 60 degrees).  Bevan made great time 3:04:37!  He technically qualified for Boston Maraton next year... but we'll have to wait and see how many runners they let in.  After the race, we ate a "quick" meal at In-n-Out and headed to Vanessa's condo for swimming!  Our condo had a pool, but we wanted a nicer pool with cousins to play with.  It was great.  I love swimming in October because it's still warm, but you don't get sunburned!  The kids were almost as wiped out as Bevan.

Our early checkout time on Sunday morning forced us to be on the road by the time conference started.  It was actually really nice listening while driving; I think I pay attention better.  We stopped at Cove Fort for lunch and a tour.  We remember when Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins served here many years ago.  Things have changed a little, but it was still a load of fun and good way to the kids to get their wiggles out.