Easter and cousins!

Marley, Mason, Judy (Hannah's aunt), Donald (Hannah's dad), Hannah (the artist), Miley, and Mandy

Marley and her Easter basket

Miley with her Easter surprises

We had a wonderful Easter weekend this year. Mason's mother immigrated to the states when she was a little girl. So Mason still has relatives in England. Easter weekend one of them came to St. George to show her art at a show in Utah. Her name is Hannah and she is very talented. She brought her Father Donald, and her aunt Judy with her. It was Mandy and the girls first time meeting any of the "English Cousins", and they loved them!! We got to spend Easter with family and had a lot of fun!

Viva Mexico!

For Christmas this year Mason's parents decided to take the whole family on a Mexican Riviera cruise. We set sail out of San Diego on a ship named "Carnival Elation". We made our way down to Cabo San Lucas where we spent 2 days, and then we headed back north to Ensenada. We all had a great time. Mason got to go fishing and para-sailing. Miley and Mandy got to play with the dolphins. Marley got to run around crazy and eat. We loved spending time with all the cousins seeing the beautiful Mexican coast. It was a wonderful trip. After we got back Mason had a conference in Vegas, so we got to hang out with the family for a few more days.

Mandy and Miley swimming with the dolphins.

Miley and Marley with their cousin Jada on their bunk bed in our cruise cabin.

Our niece Kassara, Mason, and our nephew Ethan all went para sailing.



The family.

Miley, Manda, and Marley with a baby lion.

Birthday Time!!

Miley and Marley both had fun birthdays this year. Marley's was in December and she insisted on a "Scooby-Doo" birthday. We had friends over for cake and ice cream. Marley's birthday was in February and it is very close to her friend Brielle's birthday. So the girls had a bit of a joint party, complete with animal cakes (Marley is OBSESSED with dogs!) and a clown. We love our two daughters so much! They have beautiful personalities and make our family perfectly crazy!

Miley and Marley on Marley's new slide (so they will stop using Mandy as a playground toy)!

Bubble the clown making Mason a sword and holder. (That's Brielle watching).

Marley's puupy dog cake (Mandy's mom was a big help with the cakes!)

The whole party. Miley made sure all her friends had Scooby masks to wear!

Miley's cake. We love that our girls are so enthusiastic about Scooby Doo!

Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas in Las Vegas this year with the Simons family. We had a great Christmas Eve dinner this year that Mason helped prepare, and we gave the girls there Christmas Eve pajamas (a tradition Mandy decided we needed to start). Christmas day our friend Anthony came over and we had a great time. We went to Hurricane Utah that day and spent time with Mason's sister Michelle and her family. They are so fun! The girls received a basketball hoop and little matching recliners. We are also including a picture of January in Elko. There is a big cowboy poetry festival each year and we took the girls to see "Riders in the Sky". It is so fun each year!

Marley opening her stocking.

Miley showing off some new videos she received.

Miley and Anthony.

Cowboy Slim, his "cac-tie", and Miley with her new horse.

Miley with Santa at our ward party.

Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we went to Rupert to spend time with the Hunter family. We had fun visiting and shopping. I have included a picture with us at the "day after Thanksgiving" festivites as well as a picture from a few weeks earlier. The picture from a couple weeks earlier is of our church youth group at the Twin Falls Temple. My Grandpa Hunter had past away and I had to rush from the funeral in Pocatello to Twin Falls to be with them. They are wonderful young men and women.

Elko 3rd Ward Youth Temple Trip

Grandpa Hunter, Mandy, Miley, and Marley waiting to see Santa turn on the Christmas Lights at Rupert Square.

Mandy's cousin Lance performing at The Festival of Trees.

Trip to Lamoille Canyon

This weekend Burke and April Madsen asked if we could accompany them to take a family picture. We headed up to Lamoille canyon to see if we could find a good spot. We had no idea that Lamoille already had a decent amount of snow...and we found ourselves in a minivan and a truck without four wheel drive about half way up the canyon with several inches of snow across the road. We decided to head back down the canyon to a safer area. We found a nice spot at the base of the canyon to take a picture. We weren't dressed for picture taking...but we snapped a photo anyway. Here it is below...

Veteran's Day Parade 2009

Elko has more parades than any town that I have ever lived in. They have a parade for pretty much every holiday every year. I can't complain because the kids always seem to have a very good time. We sat on the curb by the Maverick Country Store on Idaho Street. Marley was thrilled when another fellow came up and stood by us with his large pit bull terrier. She LOVES dogs...and immediately was trying to give the dog her loves.