GEOCACHING

For any of you that don't know, one of the things we do for fun is to go geocaching. It's a great way to get outside and get a little exercise and fresh air. And our grandchildren love it. Geocaching is an outdoor game that you play with a hand held gps. Other cacher's hide things then put the coordinates on a web site. Then you take the coordinates and go see if you can find where it is hidden.
Sarah was up visiting for the weekend so we decided to do some caching and even hide one of our own. We also placed our first "travel bug". A travel bug is a dog tag type piece that has a tracking number that can also be entered in the web site and then you can track the item as it moves around the country or even the world.
We attached our tag to a little white bear with a "I love Utah" sweater on, we are hoping that he will travel across the country to visit our son David and his wife in Tennessee.
If you want to see where "Utah" has been on his travels you can visit him at geocaching.com. his tracking number is 3BK8N3

IF YOU JUST SMILE!

It should be spring but it is snowing. The economy is in the tanks, the stock market is diving, gas prices rising, and I'm still too fat......etc. etc. etc......SO SMILE ANYWAY!

Zane, Tessa, Aaron, Quinton, Sarah, Maddison, Matthew, Drake

SMILE

Smile though your heart is aching

Smile even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, youll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
Youll see the sun come shining through for you

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
Thats the time you must keep on trying
Smile, whats the use of crying?
Youll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

Charlie Chaplin

FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

Every year as part of our family Christmas party we do the annual exchange of "dweebie" gifts, there really just white elephants but years ago when Tracey was a kid he dubbed them "dweebies" and they have been that ever since.
This was my contribution this year the "joker baby", I had a vision about it on the way to work one day, stopped at DI and got a doll for $1.00, add a little paint and presto, Dweebie. It kind of creeped Drake out a bit when he saw it (Michelle was the recipient).
Of course we had the return of the fruit cake that has been back every year for about 4 years now.

DRAKE'S TURN ON THE FRONTRUNNER

Saturday was Drake's day with Grandma and Gramps. So he got his turn to go on the "big train" or 'Frontrunner" as some know it. We rode the train to Ogden and went to the train museum in the old Union station. Drake had a blast and talked about it all the way back home. Or at least that's what I think he was talking about, when he gets excited he has a rapid fire half sentence method of communication that is not entirely English.

PICTURE DAY AT THE GSL

We had Tracey and Kristy's 5 kids for the weekend, what a riot (literally) but we had fun with all of them. On Saturday Jana wanted me to take some pictures of her family so they could use them for a Christmas card. So while Karen stayed home with Aaron and Matthew I took the older kids and met Jana at the Great Salt Lake. It is almost a garbage dump out there but it has some cool places to take pictures and they look better in pictures than the place does in reality. Here are a few examples of what we got.

TRAIN RIDE FOR AARON

On Saturday it was Aaron's turn for a weekend with Gramps and Grandma. We got up early on Saturday and drove into Salt Lake, took the light rail to the train hub, were Aaron found some cool "Flintstone" luggage that was decorating the station plaza area. We then rode the Front Runner to Ogden. at the station in Ogden there is a Utah train museum that really made Aaron's day. Watching the trains run around the tracks and disapear into the wall gave him more than a few minutes of running time. Then it was back on the train for the one hour ride back to Salt Lake. We all had a good time and it was a long day.

DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING

I read an article today in a magazine about digital scrapbooking. So here is my first attempt.
I know I have a long way to go before it looks like a real scrapbook page, but it was fun and did not really take very long.

SUNSET ON THE GREAT SALT LAKE

All the girls and Maddi all entered scrapbook pages in the State Fair and got all kinds of ribbons and accolades galore. I am so proud of all of them.
I was going to enter some photos but of course never go around to it. This one I took of Sarah last summer.

LAUGHTER

"LAUGHTER IS GOD'S HAND ON A TROUBLED WORLD"

So go ahead and laugh!

GEOCACHING

A while back I got a small GPS device for the car, it made going on vacation a lot easier since my wife can not read a map to save her, so she makes a terrible navigator. I tried doing some geocaching with it but it would only work if the cache was close to a recognized road. So I splurged and bought a small handheld GPS. It has been kind of fun to go "caching". This past Saturday I took some of the grand kids out to introduce them to the world of geocaching. They had a blast and would get so excited each time we found one. And as you can see in the pictures, sometimes you discover things that you don't expect, like "there are actually cacti in the foothills above Stansbury Park". Next time the girls come up we are going to hide our own cache. Fun!

Grandsons

So, someone complained that I have not made an entry for a while. So life is crazy.
"Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old."
How true, how true. We started life as grandparents almost 13 years ago. First with 3 beautiful granddaughters. Then I guess all the girl genes got used up, because the last 5 have been grandsons. The last two here (above) Matthew and Zane. I think you can tell who is the oldest of the two, yes?

Last weekend we had them all here for dinner on Saturday. I have said before that there is nothing I love more then spending time with family. Even though it is crazy at times with a house full, after they are gone I always feel a little more empty. Just to be able to set and hold a new born or talk with a four year old about trains, brings a great deal of joy to my life.

So keep 'em coming, at least some of you.