Year in review

*Liz thought all the pictures were a bit small and so she went in and blew them up, but that pixelated(sp?) them a little bit. Sorry.(But on a side note, doesn't the blog look wonderful!)

This month (December) Ryan gave us a real scare, he had major abdominal surgery and spent 5 days in the hospital. I am hoping this is the last of his medical woes and he can focus on getting out on his mission now. I also cannot find some of the pictures I took that I know are somewhere on the computer, so when I find them I will post again. I didn't put any Christmas pictures on yet, that is a whole nother post too.

Here is the rest of our year going backwards from here. It was a great year with some fun events. I forgot to put pics from Becka getting her Master's degree in here, and if I add them now they will be out of order, so congrats Becka! We are proud of you. So without further ado, and starting in November (drum roll please)
We took Scott and Ryan to the new Brick Oven restaurant in Layton. I couldn't get them to NOT make their poo faces.
Ryan had knee surgery in November, had both knees scoped.
I love it when we get together to carve pumpkins.

Alex started her first year in High School at Clearfield High. Part of Homecoming week activities (September) was some sort of activity where they got covered in colorful glop. Not sure what it was, but she had fun.
We weren't able to pull off a full on family vacation, people's schedules were just too busy. We did all get together for a day at Bear Lake in August. Lots of fun!






The summer was full of lots of fun in the pool. Aaliyah turned out to be a real pro at jumping in and swimming across the pool (aided by lots of floaties)

We got Lagoon season passes and had lots of fun going there. LonaMae and Bri were able to come with us during one of our visits.
We like to go on the moonlight bike ride out on Antelope Island. The ride starts at the Marina at 10:00 p.m. The ride is out to the Garr ranch (11 miles) where you are fed a snack and then ride back. The picture below was taken at the ranch, before a storm blew in that was so windy it made the ride back very difficult. Fun anyway...
At our yearly pit spitting get together we discovered that Aaliyah really loves cherries. I'm glad I am not the one left to change her diapers the next day.
In June, Courtney graduated from the sixth grade. She really raked in the awards, the highlight being the president's excellence in education award.
In May, Alex and Courtney (with cousin Bri) performed in their spring dance recital. Alex really had a blast with her Zombie dance.
Courtney was in her school's performance of the Aristocats. She really enjoyed being a part of this fantastic production!
Brian turned 50 and I was able to pull off a surprise party for him...meaning he was actually surprised!
We took Alex and Courtney on a Spring Break trip to Zion's in April. It was fun to just pile in the car and be spontaneous.
Conference weekend in April we went to a mission reunion for Brian's mission to the Phillipines (Davao). I didn't know anyone, but it was fun to go with him and meet some of his companions and his Mission President.
In March Audrey, Stephanie, Liz and I took our annual trip to the scrapbook expo. Here I am with my stash. I really don't need anymore stuff, but I keep buying it anyway. Killer deals though.

There is a chance I wasn't all that good at taking pictures during January and February, or if I was, maybe I used Brian's camera...or maybe I'm just lame. So I had an odd collection of pictures of Alpine and cross country skiing trips that I didn't actually go on but someone used my camera for. Here is Becka and Scotty.