Christmas 2011

It's January 1st. It seems I just turned the calendar page to December a few days ago.  Yes, I still use a calendar with paper pages.  I also use my cell phone to keep track of everything, but it doesn't come with dreamy pictures of crystal blue water and white beaches, which is crucial during the winter months.  But that's beside the point.

December was a fun, fast and felicitous month!  I love Christmas time!  Even though it is highly commercialized, it's a designated month of focusing on giving and wondering what other people want/need, letting people know I love and appreciate them and considering my own blessings.  Here's a look at our month:

Decorating the tree and the house so, as Mark puts it: "It looks like Christmas threw up in here."

A favorite activity after all the Christmas stuff is out is to re-read all the Christmas books in some little cubby.

An actual nativity with the Wheeler Cousins, with actual hay and horses!

A hike in the Logandale sand hills before the Elf party begins.

Three Astling boys who profess disbelief in Santa. Yeah, right. (James even boo'd the Santa at a Christmas party this year - bad form, bad form.)

We were the Ute Elves, by the way.

Grandpa and Grandma Elfis with the Wheeler cousin brood.

Bikes for the boys for Christmas - thank you Santa!

He's officially a Utah fan now that he has his own parking space. Even if it is in our garage.

A Blustery Day

Thursday, December 1 was a blustery day, to say the least.  Winds in Centerville were recorded at 102 mph. We didn't sleep very well the night before because it was so noisy!  We woke up to crazy wind during most of the day.  We moved from window to window watching things fly by, trees topple, siding and shingles being ripped off of neighbor's homes.  We were particularly concerned about our tall aspen trees in the front yard.  With high bursts of winds, we could see the ground move as the roots tried to hang on.  In the end we only lost a bunch of shingles, which is far less damage than many people. Our neighborhood was one of the few who had power through the whole storm and days following, with a few exceptions of flickers.

Many business signs were blown out, semi-trucks were blown over on I-15 and a lot of very tall, old trees were blown over.

Saturday morning was busy with clean up efforts around our neighborhood.  Chainsaws were heard around town for four days straight.

The following Sunday another burst of high winds were expected, so even church was let out early so we could go help clean up any other debris that might cause damage.  Some of our neighbors felt we should cut down our aspen tree so it wouldn't fall on our Westerly neighbors.  We talked them into cutting only 20 feet off, so it is now level with our house.

North Centerville was hit the hardest, so the governor called in the National Guard to help organize the clean up effort.  Thank goodness we got most of it cleaned up, or at least against walls that prevented flying debris, because the winds were not bad at all Sunday night.

Looks like we'll need a new roof though:

 This is the east facing side of our house (above and below)

These pictures are the North facing side of our house, just above the master bathroom:

That hairline arch is where the wood of the roof is exposed.

And we got off easy!

Mark went into work that Thursday afternoon and said there was hardly wind in the Salt Lake Valley!

I'm Thankful for Nerds, Thanksgiving 2011

That includes me.  And that's a compliment to all who I will write about. Noticed I capitalized Nerds. That's important.

We had a great Thanksgiving!  All the Astlings came to our house to eat and play and play and eat.  And think.  We generally do some thinking during the day, but when David wore scientific riddle shirts every day like this . .

we had to start thinking before breakfast was served.  I think I stared at his chest for five minutes when he wore the periodic table called "The questionable table of elements."  Sorry if that made you uncomfortable Dave. Here's a sample:

The day he wore that shirt, we went to the new Utah Natural History Museum and wouldn't you know it, they had periodic table flash cards that David was determined to put in order.  The rest of us left after 12 elements in place. We went with Jenny, Stephen, Lieve and David.  It was great to have five adult brains and five set hands (and extra shoulders to cart James) for three boys.  We were all extremely impressed with the museum and learned more about Bonneville Lake, dinosaurs discovered in Utah and other places, Utah landscape, how to save water, the economy and reduce pollution, cell division, DNA, deer scat, ants, solar power, American Indians, erosion, wind force, viruses and much, much more!  The museum is beautiful and uses every bit of space for learning.  I highly recommend it!

That evening, we counted pennies.  Well, not really.  We weren't allowed to count them until we figured out how many were in the jar.  Over the course of an hour, the boys, David, Lieve and with a few interjections from me, the boys eventually figured out the if you weigh ten pennies, divide the weight in grams by that number (26), you get the weight of the average penny.  If you weigh all the pennies in the bottle (3023 kg) and divide by the weight of one penny you get the number of pennies in the jar without counting! Answer: 1,162.69 pennies.  That wasn't good enough for my practical brain, so I made everyone count pennies.  If our counting was correct, we counted 1,177 pennies, which means our math was only off by 14.31!  Pretty darn good if you ask me!  I am thankful for brainpower and patient people. And thanks for the jar Granna!

Brainstorming. . . 

Weighing the booty! (James approves)

We decided this year to fry a turkey. . . and bake one just in case the fry turkey ended up as charcoal.  Mark was very kind to show me some youtube videos on turkey frying safety controlled by firemen.  After reading statistics that there are 5 deaths every year from turkey fryers and multiple injuries and $15 gazillion in damages, I tried to convince Mark to fry it at a park away from our home.  But he assured me that he had it under control.  Plus he had "As Seen On TV Ove gloves" so all was well.  Some of us stayed inside while he verrrrrrrry sloooooowwwwly lowered the turkey into the fryer.  Not a problem.  The turkey was out in 50 minutes and was very tasty!

Before

After

Dinner was great, if I do say so myself, with welcome additions of salad, pumpkin cookies, drinks and veggie platter to cut the density of all the other dishes.  We laughed and ate and ate and laughed, though I don't think we did one math problem, except maybe to calculate which of the Astling boys has produced children. The evening was full of games, puzzles and science experiments accompanied by an ensemble of football games.

Mark, Spencer and D.J. went to the last Utah home game where we were hoping the math of wins and losses would equal a visit to the Rose Bowl, but sadly that problem was over thought.

We had to have one brainless event though.  It happened after I left my chair and I returned to find that James had put banana peels under the legs of my chair.  Duh. Guess who get mop duty.

Saturday was the Mark Astling nuclear family time, so we went to, not Boondocks, not Kangaroo Zoo, but. . . drumroll. . . .  the Clark Planetarium, where we watched an IMAX movie called Flying Monsters - the history of the Pterodactyl and other flying dinosaurs.

The evening ended with Grandma Wheeler coming to babysit while Mark and I had mind-stinulating conversation over dinner and a movie about time used as currency.

Perhaps I should go watch a fluffy chick flick to decompress.

Thanks for all the mind-stimulating fun!

A Few Words About D.J.

D.J. is very kind.  He's an easy kid to like because he's so easy-going and he cares about your feelings and he's fun to laugh with.  He is very strong and also a bit stubborn.  For these reasons, you don't want to be caught underneath him.  Like this. . . 

D.J. decided to try a sport that's new to us: wrestling.  It was a three week clinic with one practice and one meet each week.  He did pretty well for a first year.  He didn't give up and just kept trying.  We soon discovered though, that technique trumps strength and stubbornness. So a few of the wrestlers who had been to the clinic since kindergarten had a bit of an advantage.  But he had fun and it was quite entertaining to watch!

 Good job D.J.!!!

There is one other thing about D.J. that I would like to remember.  This school year he's had a hard time remembering to bring home his lunch box.  I have a few back ups, but then he forgets to bring the back ups home.  So I sent his lunch in a few other things: a tin can and a Ritz box (on which I wrote: consider this your howler - Harry Potter reference to a yelling letter).  I could just send his lunch in a disposable brown paper bag, but I can be stubborn environmentalist too.  So, I warned him that if he doesn't bring ALL of his lunch boxes home, I will go buy a pink lunch box for him to use.  Just to prove my point, I bought a pink lunch box that turned out to be a little purse (I just grabbed it off the shelf). When he saw the lunch box he was red-faced MAD.  He has not forgotten his lunch box since.  I'm such a mean Mom.

Family Pictures 2011

After five long years, we finally got family pictures again!  The last time we got pictures James was 1 1/2 years old!  Thankfully there were a few pictures that turned out alright amid the joking, laughing, blinking, smirking, fake smiles and poking.  Here are our favorites:

UEA Moab, October 2011

We are not deer hunters.  But we do take advantage of the Utah Education Association teacher's meetings that happen every fall, wherein the kids get two days off of school and we get a four day weekend.  Usually we go to Nevada for some relaxation, but we decided to do something new this year.  We have never been to Moab (except Mark who went when he was 7-8), and we've heard such great things about it, so we decided to try it.  In July, we went to Yellowstone with some friends and opted to camp in the park, which turned out to be very inexpensive and very fun.  So, we decided we would camp this time around too.  It was inexpensive and fun, but it was cold at night!  We were hoping Southern-ish Utah would be warmer in October.  The great 70 degree hiking days made up for the night time chills (mostly).

Arches National Park was beautiful!  To me the appeal is in the contrast of the blue skies and red rock and the amazing formation of rock that seems orderly and disorderly at the same time (kind of like life).  We had fun exploring, hiking and playing!

James didn't quite get the hang of making it look like he is pushing over Balanced Rock. . or maybe he's so strong he can push it over with his pinky?

Delcate Arch: check off bucket list.

Sand Dune Arch was a favorite! We had to visit it twice!

The boys had a great time hiking and hiding in Goblin Valley.  I'm glad we did this one in October.  We would have lasted only 30 minutes in July!

Dead Horse Point was beautiful! It's called the Grand Canyon of Utah.  It's just outside of Canyonlands National Park (which we will have to catch next time).

We consumed quite a bit of hot chocolate on this trip!

D.J. discovered that with his visor on, his shadow looked like Megamind.

Then Spencer discovered that with his hat, his shadow looked like Voldemort.

The Astling family at landscape bridge, our last hike for the trip.