Christmas Greetings To All

Merry Christmas everyone! I think we might actually be ready for Christmas this year. We are grateful for this time of year as we reflect on the blessings we have enjoyed throughout the year. We have had some exciting moments that make us appreciate the boring life that we mostly lead. We are grateful for our health and that were still all together! We look forward to hearing from all of you that we love. We pray that you may find peace and happiness now and through the new year.

Making Gingerbread Houses At The Adamson's

What a fun night! We had our annual gingerbread house decorating and was able to have George and Carrie's kids with us. Brinley and Brielle are so excited to have Meagan and Emily live in Idaho Falls and go to school together. They love all of their cousins! Now sleepovers will be a bigger party. Victor, Brianna's cutie out did us all with his charleston chews as bricks. We watched the fun home movies Jon made for us. I think more candy went into our stomachs then on the houses. Each year the houses get better and better!

Gingerbread Night with Grandma and Grandpa

Getting into the holiday spirit Grandma invited us over for dinner and decorating gingerbread men and trees.

Brinley Wins 1st Place at EIMTA Competition

Brinley took 1st place in her division at the Eastern Idaho Music Teachers Contemporary Competition.

8 is Great! Brielle Gets Baptized

Brielle was baptized by her dad on October 11th. It was a wonderful day to celebrate with family and friends. It's pretty rewarding to see the last one get baptized. Are we really getting that old?

There's No Question Vote For Preston

Preston decided to run for 7th grade office. This picture depicts the way he felt the night before. It was a great experience and a lot of fun to make his posters. We made up a rap and he performed it for his speech. Spencer dressed him in gangsta clothes and a huge necklace it was pretty hilarious. He did a great job! We copied the Taco Bell rap from the drive in commercial. He didn't win but he had a lot of fun and is excited to try out again in the spring.

His posters were pretty hilarious thanks to Print Shop and a mom with too much time on her hands. Bethany his cousin ran as well so Kristin and Amy had a good time scheming and making posters together.

Whitney Gets Hit By Car

Whitney was running during X-country practice with a group of 10 girls. As they were crossing the street a lady came around the stopped traffic and hit Whitney sending her in the air. The lady rolled down her window and asked,"Are you okay?" Whitney in shock and surprised that she was still alive after being hit by a car answers yes. The lady then drove off! This freaked all the girls. Some good samaritan called the ambulance and police. They wrote it up as a hit and run. Whitney had a bruised seater-ender and deep scrapes on her hands and forearms. We are grateful she has no lasting problems from it. We have to laugh and tease her about it because I think we would cry knowing what could have been the outcome. She was pretty scared to cross the street the first day back. It was the big gossip for a few days and Spencer even had a kid come up to him and say "Did you hear some dumb sophomore got hit by a car during cross country practice?" Spencer's reply was "Yeah, that was my sister, but thanks for telling me." I think the guy felt pretty stupid after that.

Brielle Baptism Pictures

Labor Day Trip To Grand Targhee

Yes we procrastinated the very last day to pick up our family ski pass at the preseason discount price. With everyone's schedules busy with cross country, football, powder puff football, homecoming skit practice, you name it we couldn't find a moment to take a rode trip up to get our pictures taken. We were mad at Targhee for making us drive 80 miles just to purchase our pass at the discount price. They wouldn't let us purchase them on line or over the phone so we loaded up the family truckster and had a fun day. We have been snowboarding for five years now and still love it. Unfortunately our children are surpassing us with their skill and youthful vigor! After getting our passes we rode the chairlift to the top. They handed out hot blankets that we snuggled up in. How come they don't hand those out in January when it's freezing cold at the top! It was exciting because it snowed on us as we got to the top. On our way back we hit the Spud drive in and took some pictures in front of the famous spud.

Cross Country Mud Run

Whitney decided to run cross country since she wasn't cheering anymore. She had to fill her little bit of extra time up with something. This was the first meet of the season and it was mostly for conditioning with a twist of fun. The area wide meet was at Sandy Downs the course consisted of running up sand dunes, jumping over hay bales, running through the mud pit and swimming through the canal and start over again retracing their tracks three times to the finish line. I think she decide she would rather do cheer it's a little more glamorous. Hey, Whitney mud's good for the complexion?

Go Big Or Go Home

This was a great shot of Spencer with the shadow on the sand. This was taken during a week long motorcycling trip with Rick, Preston and Grandpa Cherney. They started at the dunes and worked there way north to other areas of Idaho.

His favorite place to ride is the St. Anthony Sand Dunes. The dunes are 40 miles northeast of Idaho Falls, and has 10,000 acres of dunes rising up to 600 feet high—a prime roosting area! He and his friends were riding one day and they tried to get some footage. Watch close you might miss it!

Spencer is a senior and excited to graduate. He has spent most of his year riding his motorcycle. Along with riding comes the endless hours of repairs. It's a good thing he enjoys it. He and Rick took on the project of modding and customizing their cycles this spring. Here's his Honda CR 250 upon completion.

Preston Breaks Arm Riding Motorcycle

This is quite the funny story. I am very glad Preston wasn't hurt more. Preston got a new motorcycle in the spring to take on their spring break motorcycle trip. The first day out his bike died so he had to ride behind grandpa on his four wheeler. This was not fun for Preston. They take the cycle in to get repaired and it takes a month. They get it out and the first test drive the bike is still broken. They take the cycle back in again and a week later they test drive it at the shop and the bike is still broken it is now June with no bike and prime riding season. Rick buys Preston a brand new Kawasaki and they take it to the dunes and he gets one day of riding. He is thrilled. The next morning Preston's first run is attempting to climb a steep hill they had been riding the day before but the wind changes the terrain overnight. Preston didn't wait for Rick to give him the OK at the top. Rick jumps off his bike because he knows it's too steep when he crests the hill and Preston comes up and jumps over Rick and the bike and flies 30 feet staying with the bike because he doesn't want to wreck his brand new bike. Spencer sees it all and thinks his dads gonna be creamed and his brother is an idiot/rockstar because of the flight! Because he stayed with the bike the impact broke his forearm. All of this happened while Kristin and Whitney were out of town for a couple of days. They thought Kristin would be mad so they didn't tell her that night on the phone. They thought there motorcycle days were over. They were miserable for two days! Kristin comes home and sees the medicine bottles on the kitchen counter and asks who's sick. Everyone looks sheepishly and then Preston turns his shoulder and shows his sling. All Kristin could do was laugh then she cried realizing it could of been worse. Thank you Heavenly Father for looking out for our boys.

Brinley's Baptism Pictures

Brinley turned 10 today she is growing up so fast. I had to put her baptism pictures on here. It was so fun to take her pictures.

Spencer Goes To Commencement

Spencer and Amanda.

Whitney 9th Grade Cheer Pictures

After two years of cheerleading and being 9th grade cheer captain Whitney hung up her pom poms. She will really miss it. She was exhausted with practice twice a week and games twice a week plus trying to stay up on piano and schoolwork. High school cheer is double the load and she wants to take AP classes in the fall. She had a lot of fun with these girls and made some great friends and will miss cheering on her friends who play sports. She would love to do it all if she had a time turner like Hermione!

Whitney wins $10,000 scholarship for 1st place at State History Competition

We were excited when Whitney was eligible to go to Boise for the state competition. We knew we had an excuse to go out of town for a couple of days. We were kind of lame and didn't even bring a camera. I guess that tells you the confidence we must of had in her or the attitude that Whitney had about her project she wasn't going to win she was just going for the party with her class mates. We were surprised when she took 1st place in her division for an individual exhibit. There were some amazing exhibits. First they announced her as the 1st place winner and she received $350 from Boise State.
Then they announced that her exhibit was the best project out of all the categories entered this included papers, documentaries, performances and websites. She was the recipient for the Thucydides scholarship for $10,000. Daddy is happy it will help his wallet.

Spring Break Cycle Trip To Moab Utah

Whitney Wins 1st Place at Regional History Competition

Whitney won 1st place at regionals for her exhibit on "Did We Have The Right To Test? Linus Pauling and The Petition For A Test Ban Treaty." The theme for this year was Conflict and Compromise. Her exhibit was based on Linus Pauling's research and the hazards of nuclear tests on the futures health and the environment. Linus was a double Nobel laureate. He encouraged a nuclear test ban treaty with demonstrations and speeches. The American government didn't appreciate his negative reactions. The government accused him of being a communist and took his passport away and made him testify at several senate committee hearings. It was an exciting topic. Whitney qualifies for the state competition in April in Boise. Road trip in April!

Whitney's 1st Place at EIMTA Sonata Competiton Performance

Whitney played Sonata in D Major Op. 40 No. 3 by Clementi and a Gershwin Prelude for the EIMTA scholarship auditions and took 4th place and won $200 for piano camp this summer.

20th Wedding Anniversary Cruise

We celebrated our 20th anniversary on a cruise to Cozumel. Oh what can I say. This was the most amazing time we have spent together. We flew to Houston and spent three days shopping and eating. It's been 10 years since we lived in Texas. Texans are so much fun. We then drove down to Galveston and boarded the Ecstasy. We were treated like royalty. For being first time cruisers our room, and the location was perfect.

One of our excursions was to Dolphin Discovery for a dolphin encounter. We really had an amazing experience with them. When we walked out to the water they swam right over to us to check us out. They reminded me of dogs. They are curious and love to play.

This is Romeo! I was kind of scared when I was out in the middle of the water and this huge fish starts swimming toward me with his fin showing. I had nightmares the whole summer when I was 8 after watching the movie Jaws. I was traumatized for years because of that stupid movie.

Our next excursion was snorkeling. I have always wanted to breath under water. The fish would swim right up into your hands and play with us. The buoyancy in the salt water was wonderful we swam forever with no life jacket.

Relaxing on the beach with the soft sand was calming and peaceful. While everyone was fighting crowds shopping for the holidays we were basking in the sun. Everyone needs to do this in December. Cruising was the ultimate experience for a vacation. I'm counting the days till we can go again.