The most dog pictures you will ever see on this blog

The boys really want a dog, so watching Twilight for a week was a good chance for them to live the dream.  I admit that I wasn't all that excited about dog-sitting. In spite of being raised on a farm, I am not really one for pets. But the kids did a surprisingly good job taking care of her.  I haven't changed my mind on the matter, but if I could be guaranteed that a dog would be as cute and well behaved as Twilight, I might give in.

Letterboxing

While we were in St. George we were introduced to a new activity.  This website is filled with different maps and clues to find different letterboxes hidden all over the country. Our first experience was at the Dixie Rock. It was really fun. 

The beginning:

 Thirty steps from this spot led to the next clue.

Trying to figure out where to go (we went left when we should have gone right).

 

On the "saddle."

 

This may or may not be the spot. Secrecy is imperative for proper letterbox hunting.

 

Inside the box is a stamp and a little book. The stamp is for you to use to stamp your own book as a record of finding the spot.  The little book is used to keep track of all the people who find the box. You need to have your own stamp and code name so that you can mark it in the book. It's fun to see how many people have found the box and where they are from.  When you are finished you re-hide the box exactly as you found it.  We are excited to find some of the boxes hidden in our area, Idaho and more in St. George.

After finding the box, we hiked around for a little bit. I don't think I've ever been to Dixie rock before. That's weird. It's great fun for energetic boys. There are lots of places to explore. 

 

  

Before a scout built this bridge for an Eagle project, climbing was the only way to get across. I was a little leery crossing the bridge.  I don't like heights. I am also a wimp.

 

 The reward for making it across is this great view. I still can't believe this was my first time coming here. I am sure we'll be coming back.

Valentine's Celebration

I didn't realize when we signed up for the soccer tournament that the games would start on Friday, February 12.  The Friday before Valentine's Day. The Friday of class parties, two of which I was supposed to help with. Unfortunately I realized it after Zack and I planned the craft project I was in charge of for his class party. Things were a little tense here when he learned that he would have to miss the party.  I tried to avoid the words party and Valentine as much as possible.  Planning our family Valentine's  party in St. George helped take his mind of the lameness of missing his party for "Noah's stupid soccer games."

We had fancy glasses,straws and drinks. 

We ate heart shaped pizza.

 We made a beautiful flower centerpiece complete with a fancy balloon. 

We ate cookies with heart designs on them.  

I am guaranteeing that our party was better than anything they did at the elementary school. 

The President's Cup

Noah played in his first outdoor soccer tournament over the weekend. They won, tied and lost which meant they didn't advance. Noah had one goal in the first game they won 4 to 3. The second was a 2-2 tie and then it was a 0-3 blowout. As great as it would have been for the team to go further, Ben and Zack were really tired of going to soccer games. And I have to admit that it was nice after the loss to not worry about getting to another game. Sometimes mediocrity is fantastic!


Let's all pretend this is a picture of Noah just before he scored. I was taking all sorts of pictures before his goal and had just put away the camera when it happened. I think that is the reason he scored, he's always complaining when I take pictures.  I am wondering though why he didn't score here.  I looks like a pretty easy shot. That's why it's best if we just pretend he did.

 Gray jerseys= lackluster play. Pretty blue sky though.  

 Win or lose, Noah absolutely loves soccer. 

This is pathetic!

January in summary: Fun times with David and Emily's family over New Years.  Ben starts basketball season. Noah starts second Futsal season. My camera is too crappy to take a decent picture of anything.

Christmas

Although it went way too fast, we had a busy and fun holiday break. Zack made sure our decorations were suitable for the season. He improved on our little nativity set by adding a star, palm tree & cart for the donkey. 

He also made this window festive. 

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed our usual traditions like eating,

drinking, 

opening pjs,

 & setting out cookies for Santa

We always watch The Polar Express before going to bed. This time the kids were all sleepy before it was over. They were tucked in bed and asleep by 10:00 and they didn't wake up until 6:15. 

 

Ben really wanted to go on a treasure hunt to find his presents. We had an arcade basketball hoop for the boys that was too big to move from its new home downstairs. I decided to surprise them using Ben's treasure hunt request. I made little clues and had a gift bag with the first clue hidden behind the tree.  It was a great plan until Zack, in his excitement to use the new markers Santa put in his stocking, went downstairs to get his marker board and saw the hoop. I didn't even think about it until I heard him yell, "Guys there is something awesome down here!" I made him swear to keep it a secret while we opened our presents. The surprise wasn't totally ruined, but didn't go exactly as I hoped. 

After the kids played with their new things for awhile, we loaded up and drove up to Idaho. This is the first year I can remember that the entire McGarry family was able to get together for a meal. It is definitely a houseful with my parents, all seven kids, 5 spouses, 1 fiance, 1 girlfriend, 10 grand kids, and an aunt, uncle and cousin. It's very loud, chaotic and super fun. 

On Saturday I realized that everyone in my family thinks that I am a wimp. They are probably right although I prefer to be considered cautious. We went snowmobiling and Matt asked Zack if he wanted to go for a ride with me. He was shocked and told him that "duh, Mom can't drive a snowmobile."  With my reputation on the line I had to prove him wrong. I'm glad I did. Riding a snowmobile fast is really fun.  I can now see the motivation to go out into the freezing cold. 

The kids also got to do some sledding. 

Before we left, we managed to get a picture of most of the grand kids. We are missing Wacy (on a mission in San Bernadino) and Shaylee. 

Random Pictures 2009

I take a lot of pictures of things that meant something at the time, but then after I have no idea what to do with them. I probably won't put them in the photo book and (up until now) they didn't make the blog, but all the same I can't bring myself to delete them.  To validate my photography, I am going to devote this post to all the random pictures I took this year.

This is Noah dunking on the basketball hoop he made while we were in Idaho. It was surprisingly durable and entertained him for a long time. Score!

 

Zack would have left for preschool in this outfit. The headband over the snow hat look never really took off. At least his eyes are protected from Nerf bullets. You can never be too safe. 

The day Zack used his birthday money to purchase this marble track was the best day of his life. Buy one of these if you want your kids to be entertained for an entire Sunday afternoon. It might be the best day of your life.  

 

This spring the neighborhood went Bakugan crazy. This was the scene in my basement almost every day, but usually with more kids. They were coming from all over the place to trade.

 

Come springtime, all Zack wants to do is picnic. I think he and Mckenna started outside, but the wind picked up so they moved it to the garage. 

 

Remember how much Zack likes picnics? I forget the reason, and I am sure it was a good one, but we decided to eat our pizza on a blanket on the kitchen floor.

 

 We ran out of the cement stuff with only this much left to go.  And that is the story of our lives when it comes to home improvement projects. 

 

This was my contribution to the kitchen tile job-taping around things. And I needed knee pads to do it. The next day, the boys and I went to St. George and left Matt & Mike to do all the hard work.

There is a park in St. George with cool and unusual playground equipment. I have whole bunch of really crappy pictures of the kids playing on them. Playground photography is beyond my skill level, at least in this picture you can see all their faces. 

Nana has fun cookie cutters and uses them to make sandwiches. 

 

A broken arm=cool presents. Grandma sent a Bakugan mat & the Dobsons made this fun sign.

 

I don't remember taking this picture, but I  think they are ants on my sidewalk. Yulk. 

 

We get a lot of praying mantises (or is it manti?) and the kids like to catch them for pets, which usually ends badly. This is the grave and headstone that Lance & Zack made for their pet, Rose.  It said: "Rose Now Dead."

We took the boys pictures on this really cool tree. The individual pictures turned out great, the group shot--eh.  Cool tree though.

 

I take pictures of almost every snowman they build. It's a weakness.

And that's all. It was oddly therapeutic and now I feel less wasteful.