Happy Birthday Kelly! Have a SUPER day!

Mr Willowby's Christmas Tree

Here is the tree in its natural setting at 20 feet tall...

After we cut the tree in half...

Tying the tree parts to the top of the van...
(you must remove the entire tree)

The top 8 feet of the tree all decorated!

Happy Birthday Lisa!


Sorry I forgot yours Mom.

Do You Remember?

East End - not much different. New video screen and all the pennants.
West End - new "plexi-glass" panels, structure, and paint.

Seth driving the "Rhino" with Joe Vandal and the flag in the back.

Another week has come and gone. We had a great Thanksgiving. We were going up to Post Falls to pick up Kimbre because Matt had to work, but just before we were to leave, Matt called and they were one man long on his shift so he requested the day off and got it. He and Kimbre drove down Wednesday night, stayed over till Thursday, had dinner with everyone at Richards and drove home on Thursday night.

Bob and Ardis called last weekend and said that all their kids were headed to the "in-laws" places and could they come and visit with us. We invited them to Richards and I think they had a good time visiting and catching up on the latest news. We heard all the news from Warden.

Friday we got up late, worked around the house until we figured all the crazies had calmed down out at the mall and then went shopping for a few things. Saturday we went shopping again for a few things and then picked up Lacey and boys and went to the Vandal game. It was fun but the Vandals lost 49-52. They have had their first winning season in many years and are hoping for a bowl bid. They should know some time this week.

Back to the old grind until Christmas. Our ward party and my staff party at work are this week. I think Mom's is too. We'll get them all over with this week so we can enjoy they rest of the month.

Hope you all enjoy the week. Talk to you next Sunday.

remodel #2

Here's our library, before and after. Trav was a little nervous about the blue, but he actually likes it almost as much as the green in the dining room.



We still have a few things to do...like find a better place than the floor for our internet router. But we'll get there eventually.

Happy Birthday Lisa!

Tithing Settlement

Enough said.

Guess Where We Went Yesterday?

This guy looked fantastic yesterday on the ice!!!

This guy looked equally bad!!

Thursday Mom called me at work with another one of her "off the wall" ideas. She had been talking to one of the other teachers who was taking her kids to the Disney On Ice Show at the Spokane Coliseum and decided that we should go. I did my usual "support the idea" and said I had other things to do on Saturday. Well, as you might guess, we ended up taking Seth, Lacey, and family and went to the show. We arrived early, stood in line with all the parents and kids (including little girls in Princess dresses), got in, found that we had excellent seats, and thoroughly enjoyed the show. It was a typical Disney production. They didn't miss a thing. Actually I was quite impressed and it was fun watching Weston and Koper who were totally enthralled with it all. They did sketches from Cars, Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Tinkerbell, complete with flying fairies and Tinkerbell.
The cars from Cars were real cars and drove around on the ice and did a few "brodies". There was a little red car that Mickey and Minnie Mouse drove, Tow Mader, Lightening McQueen, a 59 Chevy and a highly modified "57ish" Chevy. They were real cars and were spotless. Afterwards we stopped by the Spokane Distribution center to buy some "unmentionables" and came home.

This morning it started snowing about 4:00 am and has snowed off and on all day. It is still snowing but is really wet and heavy. Mom and Seth are over shoveling Grandpa's drive way. I don't know why they didn't invite me.

Mom and I both have to work 2 1/2 days this week and then it is Thanksgiving. We are going up to Post Falls to pick up Kimbre Wednesday afternoon and bring her down for a visit and dinner. We will take her back up on Thursday and then go shopping or whatever. Matt has to work so he will just be home alone for the holiday.

Enjoy Thanksgiving and the snow if you have it.

remodel #1

Since we moved in to the little white house in Orem, our life has been filled with wallpaper, plaster, spackle, dust, (and more dust), popcorn ceilings and paint. We've basically been living in squalor. But the end is in sight! For now, at least.

Here's our dining room before:

And after:


Pictures of the study and living room are soon to come!

For the Kiddies: Those with weak consitutions (Brant), avert your eyes.

You forgot to mention this one, Travis.

Camping

Kevin has all of the pictures from our trip, so I'll just try to give a rundown of what we actually did.

Monday Kevin and Matt drove to my house and we made final preparations and a trip to Sportsmans Warehouse (I bought a mini salt and pepper shaker which Kevin was skeptical of but later enjoyed).

After a cold night's sleep in my house because of a furnace that has a habit of not working at night, we headed off about 7 am. About 30 miles east of Evanston, on I-80, we turned south (near the old Fort Bridger) and made a stop in Mountain View, WY. We left Kevin's truck at the Forest Service office, got some info and swapped some lies with the lady working there and headed south for about 1/2 hour into the Uinta Mtns.

Our chosen route was supposed to take us to Lake Hessie where we would camp for the night at about 10,500 ft elevation. The first bit of the hike was fun. We saw a dead moose and 3 or 4 live ones and hiked through snow for most of the time. As the afternoon wore on and we hiked uphill through 1-2 ft. of snow our enthusiasm waned and we eventually detirmined that we weren't going to make it to Lake Hessie for the night. We found a nice sheltered area and set up camp as the sun went behind the trees for the night. At this elevation all of the creeks/lakes were frozen so we melted snow to drink and cook and spent our time feeling exhausted and kind of unwell because of the day's hike/elevation/temperatures. Kevin turned in early and Matt and I made it until 7 pm before the dark, cold and lack of anything to do drove us to our tents.

12 hours later we were up and at em with a nice oatmeal breakfast and everyone feeling much better. We unanimously decided that we had no need to actually see a frozen Lake Hessie and departed for lower ground and hopefully some sunshine and less snow. After an hour or so hiking(during which we covered ground at 2-3 times the pace of the day before) we found a nice dry patch of grass and layed around in the sun for an hour or so. Another bit of hiking brought us to a nice grassy area where we set up camp at 1 or 2 in the afternoon. We spent the afternoon laying in the sun, eating Kung Pao chicken and other rehydratable delights, and laying in the sun. The evening brought wind, some clouds and chance of a storm.

After several hours of our tent being rocked by the wind, things quieted down and it began to snow. Around 5:30 am Kevin and I woke up (again) and looked outside. 2 inches of fresh snow and 10 hours in the tent helped us decide it was time to go. We packed up and hit the trail in the dark with a headlamp as our guide. This was actually some of the prettiest hiking as we watched the sun rise and enjoyed the fresh snow in the forest. It was just under 2 hours back to the car and we celebrated by enjoying some oatmeal and hot cocoa in the parking lot. From there, we drove back to Mtn. View, got Kevin's truck and headed our separate ways. Matt cam home with me and Kevin headed for Denver.

Overall, it was a fun trip. Of couse it would have been better a little earlier in the year, but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one. Matt stayed an extra day here in Provo and we went shooting with a friend of mine and made a stop for burgers at Burgers Supreme.

Kelly and I are finally home to rest after recent trips to Denver and Phoenix. We're still fixing up our house and Kelly is scheming about the food she plans to cook for Thanksgiving.

Our First Snow

Great Grandpa and Matt about to hyper-ventilate at the community birthday party

Grandma and Weston building a "bucket" snowman. Not quite enough snow.

The latest snow angel

Yes, we got our first snow Friday night. About 1 1/2 ", not quite enough to make a good fort or snowman and definitely not enough to fire up the new snow blower.

This week looks like rain all week so we'll just have to wait and see. It feels like winter is just around the corner.

Hey, how about a little more info on the camping trip. We came, we camped, we left, is not what I had in mind. Did you just sit around all day and stare at each other?

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. Not sure where we are going but I am anxious for a few days off.

Be good.

Dad

In Case You Think I Didn't Go on the Hike

Since I wasn't pictured in the previous photos.

We Survived!

You can stop worrying and praying now. Travis, Matt and I made it safely home from our hike today.
We decided to hike up to Hessie Lake in the Uintah Mountains. On the way we encountered this tough fellow. Why else do you think Matt packs a firearm? Truth be told, we never reached the lake. But we did set up this camp at 10,400'. I'll let Travis and Matt describe how they felt after the ascent. As for me, I drank some melted snow water and my stomach decided to put it back on the ground.

Wednesday, around noon. We felt "pretty good" after coming back down from Camp #1.

Camp #2, Wednesday. 9800'. Much less snow and lots more sun. This is how we spent the afternoon.

After "sleeping" through a strong wind storm we woke up to 1-2" inches of fresh powder at 5:30 this morning (Thursday). We decided to pack up and hike out before more snow fell and obscured our trail. This is a picture of us eating breakfast at the trailhead around 8:30.

In summary: the cold wasn't bad. We were well prepared for it. Next time though, we need to go to someplace with more accessible (i.e. not frozen) water and more of a scenic destination.

Travis and Matt, anything to add?

Hi Grandma and Grandpa

Not a lot going on, so here are a few recent pictures. It was nice to see Travis for a bit last night.

Cub Scout Collections and Lego Temples

Braxton and I took a walk today and collected leaves. We decided to mount them to fulfill one of his scouting requirements. Brant, do you remember your kneckerchief slide collection. I just remember that dad went through two or three pieces of glass trying to make the display box for that collection.

Kanyon made this temple with the babysitter's help last night. Notice the "Angel Moroni" on top and the water fountain to the right of the front door.

Leftovers

It was pretty slow around here this week as well. I looked through my old emails to see what happened and it was pretty mudane stuff. I decided that I would post a couple of old pictures from a few weeks ago that somehow never ended up on the blog.

Here is a shot of Ty's boat for the raingutter regatta. He didn't want a fancy paint job, just a few coats of polyurethane.

Aimee was a cabbage queen for the second grade play at school. Of course you can't just wrap your daughter in a green sheet and call it good. You have to sew her an entire costume. It turned out pretty nice.

We just had a nice visit with Travis. He and Kelly flew out for the weekend to visit Grandpa Hill. He wasn't doing so hot, but it appears that things are starting to look up. Thanks for making the rounds today Travis. I know that it was a lot of driving, but it was fun to catch up.

Brant

We're Still Here

Kind of a slow week in Moscow. I picked up Uncle Eugene at the Spokane Airport on Tuesday. Grandpa rode up with me and we had a nice visit up and back. He and Uncle Eugene have been enjoying just hanging around and doing odd jobs. They worked on the New Family Search program for a couple of days, cut out old flowers and bushes, put screen over the two gable vents where the yellow jackets had cut through the nylon screen we put up a couple of years ago.

We went out to eat at Applebees with them on Friday.

I will take Eugene back to the airport on Wednesday.

The weather has been great although it has started raining gain off and on.

Mom and I shopped in Lewiston Thursday night and then she, Lacey and boys went down yesterday and spent the whole day shopping.

Today after church we went over the Seth and Lacey's for lunch and to celebrate Koper's birthday. Then this evening we all went over to the Richards for dinner and to celebrate Matt Skinner, Grandpa, and Koper's birthdays.

Richards cleared out the bedroom over their garage for the missionaries. They were having a hard time finding a place to stay. They will use the upstairs bedroom and bathroom.

Mom had parent-teacher conferences Thursday and Friday. Next week we are all back to normal.

How was or is the camping trip? Where did they go? How about a picture or two.

Hope you are all well and happy.

Dad and Mom

Will Perform for Birdseed

I think these pictures speak for themselves (keep in mind that this little critter is hanging from his hind feet).
#1 #2

#3

It only took him one morning to finish off all seven bird feeders.

End 'o October

Happy baptism Braxton! Thanks to all who attended.

How many "orange" foods can you identify in this Halloween meal?

Unlike Lisa's family growing up, where all of the kids had to share one pumpkin and each one got to carve one facial feature, our kids each get their own pumpkin. The rising generation always has it better than their parents.

Happy Halloween!

Here is a group shot of the whole herd, including "Bob." Ty was a zombie, Aimee was a witch, Katie was the good witch Glinda and Kori was a pumpkin. Friday, we had a great time at our ward's Trunk or Treat. This year we split back into our ward (it was jointly with our sister ward during the past years.) We still had a great turn out and we had fun visiting with all the other families. The activities were fun and even included a YM spook alley complete with live snakes. Aimee was the only soul brave enough to enter.

Saturday was Braxton's baptism. It was great to see everyone and we got a chance to visit with Krista and Craig for awhile afterward. We hurried home after lunch, and Ty and Aimee went to a friend's birthday party. By the time we all got home it was time to hit the neighborhood. Les took the troops around while I handed out candy. I always like to visit with our neighbors as they come by.

The snow is going quickly and I can see a lot of green grass. This week, we are back to high 50's and low 60's. Crazy Colorado weather, you gotta love it!

Brant

Happy Halloween

We had a fun night trick or treating around the neighborhood. The three oldest kids went on their own with their friends and Korbin, Rett and mom followed slowly. We trick or treated for an hour and they were done. Then we came home and went through candy, and carved pumpkins. We had been waiting for Erik to be home to carve them-and this was the first time that he was home after all of the snow this week.

The best part of the day was going to Braxtons Baptism, and to Kevin and Lisa's for lunch. Thank you for the cards and stickers grandpa and grandma. We miss you and hope that you had a happy Halloween.

Halloween 2009

Our "door" in the stake center for trick-or-treaters

The Jones family that came trick-or-treating to our "door"

Our 5th annual Moscow University 6th Ward Halloween Party has come and gone and again it was a rousing success. Most of the ward was there and there were some interesting costumes. A new thing this year was "bowling". One of the guys made 20 coffin shaped blowing pins and them set them up in two lanes. You took one of the gourds (green pumpkins) and bowled, trying to knock the pins down. The kids loved it. Mom and I won the prize (a plate of cookies) for the best decorated door.

I got the backpack blower out yesterday and cleaned up all the leaves on the lawn. There are still of couple of trees holding on to their leaves so I'll probably have to do it one more time.

We got new tires on the Ranger and I put two sand bags in the back so we are ready for winter.

The Vandals are now 7-1 in the WAC football standings (7-2 overall). This puts them in a pretty good position for a Bowl bid. The attitude of the school, town, players, etc. has really changed and everyone is having a good time. Winning really helps.
Hope you all had a happy Halloween and no ghosts or goblins descended on your houses.

I pick up Uncle Eugene at the Spokane Airport on Tuesday. He is staying for about a week. I have lined up a company to replace the two "side yard" fences at Grandpa's. Hopefully they will come next week when Eugene is there and he can help supervise.

I took Grandpa to the skin doctor last week. He had some spots burned (liquid Nitrogen) and they biopsied two places. One came back negative and the other positive. He has an appointment the first part of December to have the bad one cut out. It is about the size of a quarter on this upper arm. The doctor says he can do it right there in the office.

I have to do a 5-10 minute presentation in Spokane on Wednesday for the new Director of Temporal Affairs for this area. I put together a power point presentation and think it turned out pretty good. We'll see on Wednesday. These things usually turn into an unofficial competition between the Facilities Managers on who can do the nicest power point.

That's if for now.

Dad