Camelback Mountain Hike

Chris, Keaton and Andrew hiked Camelback Mountain the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was a much harder hike than they anticipated. After parking about a mile outside the park they figured it was about a 5-mile hike and it felt like it was straight up. The hike starts with a long section of railroad tie stairs, then has 2 sections where you have to hold onto a handrail to get up and then the rest of the trail is basically large boulders that you have to hike through, over, and around. Keaton and Andrew did fine on the way up while their dad struggled but Keaton and Andrew had a harder time coming back down.

Andrew & Keaton ready to hike Camelback Mountain in the background.

Taking a quick break to let Dad catch up!

The first section requiring a handrail to climb up. Hold to the rod!!!!!


The second handrail section.

At the top...finally.

They made it!

Coming back down at sunset.

The Closest Thing We Have to a Tree House

Andrew and Keaton are going to miss sitting in the Palo Verde tree in our front yard. They really are little monkeys. They love to climb everything - trees, walls, whatever they can find. They even did homework while sitting in the tree once. It's funny because it is such a small tree but they love it.

Thanksgiving and "Bolt" in 3D

We spent Thanksgiving day at Chris' cousin Katie's home in Chandler, AZ. We had Thanksgiving with Katie and Randy 2 years ago and hadn't seen them since then. Heather (Katie's sister and Chris' cousin) and her husband Nate and their family came down from Utah for Thanksgiving as well. It was so much fun to see everybody again - it has been way too long. Wow, their kids are really growing up and are so cute. The boys weren't too sure if they would have fun with the younger kids but it turns out that they had such a fun time that they didn't want to leave after about seven hours of playing, eating and visiting. They played in the sandbox for hours, burying things (even some of the kids) and playing on the swingset.

The day after Thanksgiving we took the boys to see "Bolt" with their friend Nate. We had no idea it was going to be in 3D. We all wore these cool shades. This is a picture of Keaton, Nate, and Andrew after the movie. What a fun afternoon activity.

A Good Laugh!

This was the hardest we've heard Matt laugh. Keaton was jumping around and yelling Boo! It was the funniest thing. Matt just kept laughing and laughing. We caught Matt on tape after he'd been laughing for 5 minutes or more. We couldn't stop laughing along with him.

Fall Baseball League - The Copper Crushers

Keaton and Andrew have been playing their second season of kid-pitch baseball and have been lucky to get a great coach who has helped them learn the fundamentals pretty well. He holds the boys accountable but is very positive and has taught them a lot of good lessons about teamwork, attitude, and discipline.

Safe!!! Here are a couple of clips of Andrew stealing third base.

This is Keaton with a base hit...well, almost. We thought a tie goes to the runner but the ump called him out. Anyway, nice hit Keaton and nice RBI! He had two base hits tonight that we weren't able to catch on the camera but this was a good one too.

Here's our future slugger. Matt appears to be enjoying the game as he relaxes in Dad's chair.

Going to California

We're on our way to Murrieta, CA as Chris was given the opportunity to work on a larger, more challenging project for work and we felt like this was our next adventure in life. The boys seem pretty excited about being near the beach and theme parks. They are sad to leave behind so many friends, as are we. Arizona has been such a wonderful place to live aside from the hot summers. If you know anyone on their way to AZ who needs a house ours will be available for sale or rent. We are looking at moving at the end of December so the boys can finish the second quarter of school here. In the meantime Chris will be doing lots of traveling and we will be doing our best here at home. We hope we'll see lots more visitors. Feel free to stop by on your way to the beach or come and stay a while.

Here it is right above Temecula. It's a whole mile closer to Utah than our current home and an hour less on the road. Wow!

Andrew said he'll miss climbing the fence to Nate's yard (their friend next door) and going to Marley Park. Keaton said he'll also miss climbing the wall and our tree out front. He'll miss Arizona but is looking forward to being close to Disneyland.

From Google maps it looks like Disneyland is about 55 miles away, Legoland is about 44 miles away, and Sea World is about 65 miles away. We went house hunting last week and have talked to friends in the area and it seems like a nice place to live.

Happy Halloween!

Matt made such a cute little skeleton. He wasn't too sure about all of the pictures. We were trying to catch him smiling. No such luck!

Did you see a ghost?


Hey everybody. Just hangin' out waitin' for ghosts and goblins to come to the door.


Our three sons. Keaton and Andrew have chosen a costume and stuck with it for a couple of years at a time. They wanted to be Jedis for 2 years and now baseball players for 2 years. Maybe they'll want to do something entirely crazy and unique next year - or maybe not. The boys went to a fun Halloween party this year with a bunch of friends from the ward and then out with Dad for lots of treats.