Herways in Town

A couple weeks ago my sister Melanie and her family came into town. It was a blast having them here. It had been fourteen months since we had seen them. That is way too long to go with out seeing them! On President's Day Melanie and Jake took Rachel skiing for her first time. She loved it. While they were gone I helped watch Tommy and baby Kate. I am so glad I finally got to meet her. She is adorable. We helped Tommy build this and it brought back lots of memories playing with it.

He loved getting up on the chair and making the marble go. He is such a fun kid and his personality cracks me up!

Tommy wanted to go skiing too :)

Baby Kate and Sophie finally meeting each other. They are about a week apart.

They are so adorable.

My niece Rachel. I can't believe how fast she is growing. She is a great reader and is super smart. I love her little personality. I have great nieces and nephews.

That night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We got to sit with this silly kid. He would give us some dirty looks then just start laughing. He was our entertainment for the night.

Trying to do a fish face.

He had lots of silly faces to pull.

They left for a few days up to Driggs to be with Jake's family. They got back on Friday and we had our traditional New Years Eve Dinner (a little later in the year). We brought our waffle cone maker and made some for the family. Melanie and Sophie watching.

Tommy and Jake enjoying their ice cream.

Jack Jack enjoying his. Love this kid!

Rachel was too busy to look up at the camera. Do you think she loves sprinkles?

On Saturday Rachel and Tommy were sick. So we just hung out and watched the BYU basketball game. Then that night we went to Cafe Rio for dinner then to Dan and Amy's to hang out. We played Wits and Wagers it was a fun game. Then we played Just Dance. That was a lot of fun and hilarious. It was fun to watch my brother compete against my sister. I went up against Jake and had a blast. He has got some good dance skills. It was a fun night to be able to all hang out.
Then Sunday we had a dinner and the best part of dinner was Jake's AMAZING mashed potatoes! :)
Monday was "Fun" Day according to Rachel. We went to Provo to see my Grandma Pett. She was excited to see the Herway clan. The kids loved playing up in her play room. Then we headed to Brick Oven. I love that place. Their pizza is the best. Everything about that place is great!
I love my nephews and it was so fun to see them play with each other!

After lunch we headed to see Carl Bloch's museum. It was great. He was an amazing artist. I wish I could paint like that. Then we headed to the BYU creamery. We had to stop there of course. You can't go down there and not get their ice cream.
Then we went to a place that use to be called incredible pizza, but is no longer called that and I can't remember what it was changed to. The kids played some miniature bowling, mini golf, and rode on the go-karts. They had a blast and it was fun to watch them.

It definitely was a "fun" day!

Tuesday before I had to go to work I went up to my parent's to hang out with them. It was a beautiful day so we decided to build a snowman. Tommy ended up just wanting to drive Lightning McQueen. He is great!

Here is the making of our snowman.

Rachel showing me the snowman's pepper nose.

The end result.

It has been a long time since I have built a snowman. It was fun to do it again. I think it turned out great, but he didn't last very long being it a nice day and all. He already lost a blueberry eye by the time we got a group photo with him.

That night we just sat around and chatted. Mel and I watched Jake and our mom play Jenga the wrong way. It was pretty funny. Then we played some Blokus. I love my family and wish my sister and her family could live closer, but it sure is fun when they come and visit. They are great and a lot of fun to be around.

This one is for Melanie. Love you sister!

We had a great time with them in town and I sure do miss them tons. Love you all!

Out with the old.....

Out with the old.......

And in with the new (well, kinda)

And let there be light

Richard has been helping me with the basement. We got some recessed lighting in recently. They
will be great and give plenty of light to the room.

Oquirrh Mtn Temple Cleaning

Last week I signed us up to clean the temple. I had totally forgot about until yesterday morning when Brit reminded me it was going to be that night. We had to be there at 9:45 and worked until Midnight. We went and we both had such a good time. We wore white scrubs that they provided to us and Brit looked so pretty. We go to vacuum the Celestial Room and Hallways, wipe down the chairs in the endowment rooms and a few other things. I really enjoyed it and I couldn't help but think that is what I hope life is like after death; working side by side with my beautiful wife in the Temple wearing white.

Brit

I snuck this one night. I love my wife.

Portland and 2011

WOW a lot has happened since our last post. Where do I start; My Birthday, Christmas, New Years, Portland.....

BASEMENT



We decided to finish our basement with Richards help, although is has been a slow process. We aren't in any hurry to finish it up quick so it suits us just fine.
Done: Tape and Mud in one room, frame around pipes in corner of Ping Pong room, frame around one side of beam.
Still to do: Frame, tape and mud, Sheetrock, paint, can lights, carpet, etc.


Sanding down the mud.






Dance

Brit has gotten back into dance which I think is great. I have been wanting her to get back into it for some time since she talks about it so much. She finally took the plunge and she has been having a good time with it. She has a performance sometime in the summer so I will keep you all posted so you can come watch her do her herky's (the only dance move I know) and whatnot.
I think it is good for everyo9ne to have something to do to have a release from normal mundane life.

CHOIR

Richard sand in the annual Oratorio Christmas concert, we went again this year and we had a great time. Check it out HERE.

Birthday

So sometime I will give Brit crap because I am always claiming she can't surprise me.......Boy did she get me this year. I thought she would maybe have something up her sleeve for my birthday but I was talking to a friend and he said he had plans with his family on my B-day. I thought if Brit was going to pull something she would have invited him.
She said we were just going to go out to eat with another couple (Jen and Jeff) and have a nice night out. We walked downstairs to leave and...."Surprise" shouted everyone hiding in the basement. She sure did get me, I didn't suspect anything. Thanks Sweetie, Love you. And thanks to all of my great friends that came and helped out.

Way too many candles.

Thanks for the cakey.

JAZZ

I got pretty good tickets from my work to the Jazz game. We played the Hawks and unfortunately we got smoked. It was fun non the less. Trav and Kylee were there too so we got to hang with them a little bit.

"Hey Bibby give me 5"

Big Al finding some to dish to.

CHRISTMAS

Cole and his Trophy Truck he got for Christmas.

For Christmas I got Brit a waffle cone maker (she had been wanting one for some time)

Cheers!

We went to Brits parents as well and celebrated Christmas with them with some good food and great gifts. I got a pair of really comfy PJ pants, Inception on Blue Ray and the Larry H. Miller Autobiography "Driven" (just to name a few). I actually only have about 10 pages left and it is a great book, Larry Miller did so much for the state of Utah it's amazing!

Brits Niece Sophie

Jack Jack

The Great North West

Next up was Portland! We flew up there on Thursday night. Jen and Jeff also joined us which was cool since they got on our same flights there and back.

We rode Mt. Hood on Monday. It was pretty fun and the snow was pretty good.

Jeff

Jen and her frosted hair.

(This is just a quick little insert of one Saturday when i went to the Uintas's here in Utah with some friends to session a pillow line. It was a beautiful day.

Drew gettin his. He's got his kit dialed in (for once) this year......

We took our waffle cone maker up there with us to surprise the boys and made some great ice cream cones with the boys.




Here Brit is enjoying hers.

The boys loving their cones.

TJ and his long tongue.

Rachy made chef's hats for the boys.

TJ

Loggan

We went out to a pretty good Mexican restaurant that had live music, it was pretty fun.

Parker Boy

Rachel had heard of a pretty famous doughnut shop downtown called Voodoo Doughnut shop so we went to check it out. I guess their big hit is a Bacon Maple Bar. Yes that's right I said bacon and maple bar in the same sentence.


Check out their menu HERE

Here are a few we purchased. Bubble gum, fruit loops, and M&M's.

While downtown we also went to a Chinese Garden that had free admission due to it being the 15 days of the Chinese new year. This year is the year of the Rabbit. It was right downtown and a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of the busy streets.

Here we are gettin all Zenny.

Parker Boy

The flight home went fairly well. Here the boys are and they couldn't be more content. Parker did pretty well for the most part and i would say it was successful plane ride.

Peter Pan, fruit snacks, pretzels and juice. It doesn't any better for these guys.

Finally we got a video of the boys dancing that is hilarious, It was too large to post on the Blog so here is a link to it HERE Gotta love dem boys!

December delight

Every year that Sister Christoffersen has time, she builds a very extravagant gingerbread house and donates it to The Festival of Trees. We swung by one Sunday evening and checked this years masterpiece out. She did a great job!













The other night we had a group date with some friends and we ended up making a ginger bread house with everyone. It was a good time and here are some photos.


Josh brought out his level to make sure she would pass inspection, Josh gives his approval that it would in fact be good to go and I imagine sit on this current house market for months on end....









My mom and I got to go skiing at Deer Valley with Richard, Brooke and Ethan. It was a fun time and I am glad I got to go with my mom since she is the one that taught me to ski many moons ago. Thanks a ton Richard for hookin it up. Deer Valley is a high roller place to ski.

Momma gettin her ski on.

Showin that i still got it on the two planks. Honestly guys it's not that hard.....

Mom and I getting some.