Thanksgiving Break

 The kids made their request weeks in advance - "Dad, can we hike the volcano again this year on Thanksgiving?"  

 How could I say no to that perfectly reasonable request.  We had some visitors with us this go around: Mom and Randy, Johnathan and Kayla,  Ky and Jaden.  The Davis family also joined us

 I forgot to tell the first-timers what the dress code was, but when The Troy saw me in jeans and leather work gloves, he knew he was under-dressed.

 It's not the ascent that requires the added protection but rather the descent.

 We go down the steepest side of the volcano and with all the loose rocks, it can sometimes be hard to even come to a stop.  In my younger days, me and my brothers would "ski down the volcano," never actually using skis, but jumping and sliding our way all the down the slope.

 With a good run and jump down that steep of a slope you can cover quite a bit of ground.  There was some blood-letting as predicted, but nothing out of the ordinary.   From there, we walked over to the White Sands of Snow Canyon.

 This is where the "pools of living youth" are normally found, but not this year.  They were all dried up.

 Then it was off to the Rimer residence for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.  

 Weather once again was very deserving of an outside meal.

 Thank you to Nikki for hosting this gathering year after year and doing it so well.  I really appreciate her hard work.

 We then chased it down with Peanut Butter Balls with the Davis fam.

 Finally, it was off to ZNP.  I had promised Seth and Laynee that we would take them to Hidden Canyon, so we made it an early start and were on the trail by 8am Friday morning (because nobody blogs about sleeping). 

 The boys taking a break at the Hidden Canyon/Observation Point fork.

 Up the staircase.

 Up the trail.

Seth may be finding his stride.  He's not been much into hiking, but wants to be included more and more.  He did well and also said he wanted to do longer hikes in the future.

I'm thankful for family and time to spend with them.

The Things We Enjoy

 On Tuesday nights when Shana and Laynee are at young womens, the boys and I like to go visit Grandma Sullivan.  Seth's new-found hobby there is making a neighborhood out of her old wooden blocks.

 As alluded to in earlier posts - it's hiking season.  I love Zion in the off-season.  You can drive all the way into the park, the crowds are minimal, and hiking in a cool breeze much more enjoyable than the oppressive heat of summer.

 We came dressed for a crisp and chilly hike but hadn't walked 10 minutes before we were peeling off the layers, but once we made it to the top and stopped hiking for a minute we realized how cold it was and started throwing those layers back on.

Usually Laynee is with us, but as her ankle is still a little sensitive from her fracture back in August, we thought it best to have her sit this one out.  She'll get back into it soon enough.  Laynee was kind enough to watch the young-guns for us while we were off playing.  We came home to a clean house and happy kids - Laynee let them do "job-jar!"

The Camp

I went on a camp-out with Drew and his 11 year old scout troop this weekend down south of Warner Valley.  It was cold, but that's what fire is for. 

 I had signal and was able to text Shana while I was there and this is part of our conversation...

 Shana - How is it?

Me- Awesome. Just watching the fire burn.

Shana - Isn't it cold?

Me - Not around the fire.

Shana - When is bed time?

Me - When the fire burns out.

Shana - Have u done anything? Or do you just sit around the fire and talk?

Me - Yep, we melt stuff.

 That night we headed to the Dixie College basketball game for some entertainment and food.  Big Dee stopped by to say hey.

For the record, soccer season is over.  Drew's Fire club were undefeated (and they played up an age group).  I had a good time coaching Seth's team and they really came together as a team for the last two games of the season with a couple big wins.  Jack had a good time in his first soccer season with Wes Davis as coach. With soccer over, I have a few free weekends to go hiking with the kids!

PS - Congratulations on reading this blog's 100th entry (imagine bells, whistles, and streamers going off and thinking you've just won something...but you haven't).

What a Week

 We started off the week with our annual FHE pumpkin carving.  Drew and Seth got the short end of the stick finding out that their pumpkin was rancid, but we still gutted and carved it...yuck.

 Laynee hard at work and flying solo this year.

 Drew educating the 'young-guns'

 Then it was off to thriller.  Once again, I dragged Shana out to Tuacahn for another beautiful but twisted night.

 Party of the year around our house takes place on Halloween, and I just realized I don't even have a picture of the Guest of Honor and Birthday Girl - my Mom!  (rookie blogging mistake - sorry Mom) Kyle was the bouncer - apparently, recently let go from the Peppermill.

 ... a few of the guests (Seth and Drew)

 Mason and Mandy

 The brothers

 And finally the booty after a night of knocking doors

 Jack was focussed as he filled his bag - in fact when Sister Smith put a Snickers in his bag he said, "Snickers? But my mom doesn't like Snickers." 

 I will be glued to the TV Tuesday.

 It was the last tailgaiting party of the season for DSC football.

 Even Shana was feeling her oats and ringing the bell atop the wall.

 Seth Rockin' it.

 And finally, we were up early to make it up north for Harry's baby blessing, but we made a stop at the tabernacle for the 4338 consecutive broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word.

 Traci and her boys - Jake above and Harry below.  Scott was kind enough to show us his 

Tae Kwon Doe and Max has some mad skills on the ipad.

Congrats to Traci and family....4 boys!  I love it.