Chase + Eagle=Yahoo!!

 Back in May, one of Chase's buddies got his eagle.  It was the 100th anniversary of the Eagle scout in 2012, so they got a special patch.  Chase decided he was going to get it this year.  He had a project in mind, he wanted to gather white shirts to send to Vanuatu, where Nanie and Pop are on a mission.  The people are very poor and need shirts.  The scout committee nixed the idea, not sure why, but something about it benefiting only one group, not a community. Whatever.  Chase lost most of his steam then, but on Dec. 15 we did the Eagle project, painting a bathroom at a community center.

 These fine young men, showed up to help.  It wasn't a glamorous project, but it did need to be done.  Chase did a great job of organizing it.  He applied for and got a Lowe's card to cover the cost of the supplies.

 This would never have happened it not for help from a lot of people along the way.  Mike is the one who really pushed at the end and helped Chase set the date for the project.

                                . He had his border review Dec. 29 to officially become an Eagle in 2012, barely

                           His court of honor was Jan. 29th.  Notice Connor's sweet swim hair.

 Chase gave one mentor pin to our neighbor and his scout leader, Garth Mikesell, for helping plan and fill out his packet.

 Presentation of the Mom and Dad pins.  Mike gave the life history or cool things about Chase talk.

 Chase gave another mentor pen to our neighbor and scouter extraordinaire, Jeff Barnes.  Jeff helped us with the project, the Lowe's card, and getting the paperwork done quickly.

                                                  Connor gave him the Eagle Charge

                   Here' s the cake the ward bought.  John was another kid who received his eagle that night.

Proud family.  I'm grateful for the scouting program and what it does for my boys, but honestly what this Eagle means to me is:  I'm done!!!!!  No more worrying about scouting.!  Seriously I'm very proud of Chase, he did most of this on his own, with just guidance from adult leader.  Way to go!

Snow shoeing

Since we didn't buy ski passes this year, Mike had a goal to try cross-country skiing and snow shoeing.  On the Monday of Human Rights Day, we tried snow shoeing.  An added incentive was  that in the valley the temps were around 5 degrees and the air is soooooo dirty.  We don't love Cache Valley inversions.  However, it's great incentive to get up in the mountains.

We drove up Logan Canyon to a place called Wood Camp.  This is a trail we haven't ever hiked before. I want to go again in the summer.  It was shady in the parking lot, but we are ready to go.

This is our grouchy teenager.  You wouldn't know it from this picture, but he DID not want to be here.  He doesn't see the point of hiking.  I guess no outing at our point in life would be complete without a grouchy teenager.

Kenna could run in hers, but I couldn't.  The snow wasn't great, but I thought snow shoeing was very fun.

We finally got up into some sun.  It was so pretty up there and we got in some great exercise.  Chase and the girls also thought it was fun.  Might be snow shoes next year for Christmas.

Christmas

   We had the best Christmas.  Mom and Dad came the Sunday before and we took of to see the lights on temple square.  We hadn't taken our kids before, even though it's right in our backyard.  Dad took tons of pictures.

 These are just two of my favorites.  After, my kiddos said it was one of their favorite things about Christmas.  It was even warm.  But that night, all they kept saying was how hungry they were.

                              We stopped at In and Out Burger on the way home.  Good stuff

                                               Great Christmas morning, even for the teenagers.

 The best part of the day was we got to go sledding and we had our own photographer with us!  Last year, Katelyn got a sled for Christmas and we didn't get enough snow for her to use it.

 The funny thing is, this storm is the only one so far that had enough snow.  We couldn't go sledding now.

                                                   Kenna didn't really like sledding.

                                              Con and Chase were trying to have the best jump

                 Kenna was so mad at Mike for making her go down, she was waiting with Grandma to get him with a snowball.

                                          There were a couple of crashes, but no one was hurt

And we end with my Dad's favorite picture.  At least I went down the hill.