Aloha Hawaii!!!

For Spring Break we took the family to Hawaii. It's always been my dream to go there - so before I turn 40 I wanted to go. It was a wonderful trip! We started by flying to O'ahu and staying at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Hotel at Waikiki. We went shopping at a huge swap meet, we went to Pearl Harbor, and we drove up through the North shore, Waimea, Pupukea, Kawela.... it was a blast. Then we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Tuesday morning we flew over to Maui and saw as much of the island as possible. We did a lof of exploring and driving around the island. We watched the humpback whales, saw beautiful beaches, hidden waterfalls, pristine rain forests, spectacular coastlines, pristine beaches, natural lava pools and shafts (caves) and a super cool blowhole. There was so much we still wanted to do that we didn't have time to - so we're just going to have to go back!!! We snorkeled and saw the coolest reefs and fish, we hiked, we ziplined, we ate awesome food.... it was just the funnest vacation ever.

Christmas at the Cooks

This year we had a family vote to see if we would stay in Cortez for Christmas or go to SLC as usual to be with the Vreekens. After an hour of voting and re-voting, it was a 3 to 1 vote, with Terry wanting to go to SLC and the rest of us wanting to stay home this year. My reasoning was that first, I spent most of the month decorating and putting up Christmas and I wanted to enjoy it a little (this is our 14' tree - we also have five more trees throughout the house), and since the big Christmas gifts this year are the new bedrooms (Hayden's new bed and comforter, Kelli getting our old bedroom furniture set, and our new beautiful kingsize bedroom set) - I thought it would be fun to stay home and actually enjoy our new Christmas gifts on Christmas. It was a quiet Christmas Eve - with me sewing Kelli's PJs and Terry making cookies for the neighbors after he got home from working 1/2 day - yep, on Christmas Eve.... I tried to make the traditional Christmas Carol Roll (a giant pizza-sized cinnamon roll with walnuts -yuuuumy) - but my yeast never activated and my dough didn't rise... sad sad for us. Terry made the traditional potato-cheese soup and also clam chowder, (while I was still sewing) which we ate in fresh breadbowls (from good ol' City Market). We also had chilled shrimp and cocktail sauce. We read the Christmas story, had family prayer, and sent the kids off to bed. It was a very low-key Christmas Eve, and we were missing all the festivities surely going on in Salt Lake at the Vreeken's.

Christmas morning we got up, I think it was around 6 a.m. thanks to Kelli, and enjoyed watching the kids open their presents. Afterwards I made a big pancake breakfast (still in mourning over the Christmas Carol Roll not working out), and the kids seemed not to mind at all. Then we spent the day packing up all our stuff, plus the bed we were donating to Vicki and Derek Johnson, and the little kitchen Kelli was giving to Bella. We finally headed over to Blanding to be with Terry's parents for Christmas dinner. I felt nervous about driving over with a winter storm warning going on knowing the roads wouldn't be clear, and we'd be getting wind and snow the whole way there too. It was SOOO scary driving over - the roads and weather were terrible! It was very tense - and I just kept praying and praying that God would help us get there safely. When we did arrive in one piece I was so grateful. Infact, we said two prayers - one on the food then one to thank God for getting us there safely. We had a nice dinner with Terry's parents and sister Lou and husband Phil. It was low-key, and I appreciated their prayers in our behalf to get us there safely. Unfortunately we lost the desserts off the trailer on the way over and I was very sad not to be enjoying our traditional peppermint icecream and hotfudge. I had also purchased a Schwann's Andes Mint Icecream Pie.... lost somewhere between Cortez and Blanding - sigh.
The next day, Friday, Terry saw patients in the morning at the Blanding Clinic, and with the snow we decided to wait until Saturday to go to Salt Lake. I was grateful we did because Terry's dad fell, unbeknowest to us, outside in the snow and laid there for a half hour before he flagged a passer-by down to help him up. Terry and I were sick to find out that he had been out there and we had assumed he was laying down taking a nap that whole time. We had run errands and got home and saw the garage door was open, but didn't think much of it. We were just hanging out watching TV when the doorbell rang and it was a lady telling Kelli that grandpa was found laying in the snow by the sideyard near the garbage can. We all ran to help him, and once they carried him inside he was frozen from the knees down. He literally could not feel his legs. We got him warmed up - and we were all pretty scared and upset by the whole thing. Again, I thanked God that he was okay though. Nothing broken, nothing permanent....

Saturday we headed up to SLC, passed J.D. and MaryAnn on the road heading back home, and then arrived in time to get settled in at the Vreeken-hotel. Then Vicki and Derek Johnson and family arrived later that evening too. Sunday we went to church with mom and dad Vreeken, and afterwards had a nice big traditional Dutch dinner. This consists of boiled potatoes which have been peeled and shook (not mashed or diced), with shredded lettace and vinegar, hard-boiled eggs, fried porkchops, and butter over the top. It might sound disgusting but it is a Vreeken family favorite. Nathan Benally and his friend Mindy arrived just in time for dinner, and then so did Adam and Cheri Hansen. We had everyone there (except JD). After dinner we drove up to Terry's brother Tom's home for a Cook family get-together. It was great to see so many of the family - we missed Wendy and Loren though. Wendy's father-in-law passed away, and Loren's kids were sick so they didn't make it.

During our Utah visit we went to see Terry's sister Donna and husband Paul and kids and Paul treated us to a ride in their 100 year old horse drawn carriage. Their horse had jingle bells on him and everything! It was so much fun! Afterwards Donna made us the best turkey noodle soup too! It was such a fun visit!

For New Years Eve Terry went ice fishing with his brothers and had a snowmobile break down which took them 5 hours to pull off the ice. The only good thing was Terry caught 17 fish - poor Loren had a bad day though. We also got together with all my sisters and their families for New Year's Eve. This year I bought a pink pig pinata for the kids to beat on. It was a lot of fun. I also bought 4 giant pizzas from Costco which we all enjoyed, along with some shrimp too. The family did the annual "taste test" with this year being lemon-lime sodas and marinara speghetti sauces. I believe the winners were the WalMart brand lemon-lime soda and Classico tomato-basil sauce. Surprised?

We also played BUNCO and watched the count-down at NY Times Square. New Year's day we watched the Rose Parade (of coarse) and hung out with the family. Before we left town Terry and I found new snow (ski) pants for Hayden, Terry and I. We also bought a new Honda four-wheeler and had a snow plow mounted to the front. The little trailer we borrowed from our neighbor was barely big enough to fit it on there - but it did fit! We also got to go visit Loren and Sonia and went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with them Friday night (yum).

Saturday we had to head home - the time flew by so fast! We stopped at saw Ruby Bettey in her beautiful new home in Lehi. (We lived with Ruby when we first moved from San Fran to L.A.). She fell recently and isn't getting around too good right now. We hope she will make a full recovery soon and get to come down to visit us!

Annual Halloween Party Cancelled

It is with GREAT remorse (truely - I'm in mourning here) that we have cancelled our famous annual Halloween Party for 2008. When we tried to come up with a date for it, every available weekend (or FHE, or weekday) was taken with a band competition for Hayden. We can't have the party without both of my kids being there, so we'll just have to do without this year. I feel sorta like my one big shaa-doo has gone poo poo.... I really had some great surprises lined up too - and the invitations were SOOOO cute.... sigh.... I'm so sad that we won't be hosting the funnest night of the year this year... but, I'm hoping to have a ton of fun with my sisters and little nieces at "Witches Night Out" at Gardner Village on Friday, the 24th up in Salt Lake. Then on the 25th we will be having a Vreeken family Halloween party - so I get to use some of my many prizes, treats, crafts, and even the witch pinata for little cousins.... Hayden and Terry will be missing out, but Hayden will at least be having a great time in Denver with his marching band friends. Terry, well, I'm thinking he will find something to go hunt that weekend.... maybe he'll get his bear tag filled? That's gruesome enough....

Fall is here

We live in such a beautiful part of the world. Last week I took a drive with some ladies from church up to an area northeast of Cortez called "Hillside Drive" near the town of Rico. The leaves are in full color and it was just breathtaking!

Hayden has been so busy with MCHS marching band. On the 4th they went to CO West Marching Festival, in Grand Junction, next week they will go to CBA Marching Regionals, in Grand Junction, then on Saturday, the 25th, they leave for CBA State Marching Festival in Denver. They will be gone until the 28th. The 29th they will be performing a Community Appreciation Concert, and then they will leave again Friday, the 31st (yes on Halloween), to go down to Flagstaff, AZ for the Northern Arizona University competition. Whew. They are awesome though. Be sure to check out their website: http://www.mchsbandboosters.com/ and you can watch them in action with some home videos and links.

It's hard to believe Hayden is in highschool. He is growing up SOOO fast. He is constantly texting someone - usually of the female friend type.... ugh... He attended his first "boy/girl" birthday party - and ended up being the ONLY boy there. Needless to say, he had a great time. He also met a bunch of friends for the Homecoming Dance - I tried to explain to him that this is the kind of thing you take a date to - and therefore need to be at least 16 years old, but he went anyway and just hung out with a big group of friends.

He has been downloading all kinds of new music on his IPod - which I will make him pay for himself. His list includes: Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis, I Don't Care - Fall Out Boy, What Goes Around Comes Around - Justin Timberlake, Shut Up and Let Me Go - Ting Ting Things, Hot n Cold - Katy Perry, Gotta Be Somebody - Nickelback, In the Ayer - Flo Rida, All Summer Long - The Rock Heros, Bartender Song _ Rehah, Chain Hang Low - Jibbs, So What - Disturbia.

Kelli just made Mesa Howlers again this year. They are the only elementary school in our district to have a choir. She loves to perform. Kelli had a fun 10th birthday party on Friday, Sept. 19th, with a few friends. They had pizza at "Thatz'a'Pizza" and then came back to our house for games and cake and ice-cream. We were lucky that her older cousin Kylie was here to help and introduced us to a fun new game where you roll dice to try to get the number "10" (for her birthday) and when you do, you get to start carefully unwrapping a prize until someone else rolls a "10", then you have to hand the prize over to that person to start unwrapping. We wrapped this little prize in 20+ different wrapping papers. The girls were frantically rolling and unwrapping, laughing and having a great time.

I have been busy trying to re-decorate my kitchen by painting it a dark moss green. It may sound weird - but it actually looks very good behind the knotty alder cabinets and tropic tan granite. I like how it really sets the alder off, and gives the walls more depth and warmth. It also plays well against the deep red we have in our "nook" area where the table sits. The opposite side of the room, where the family area is, is painted a "spiced apple cider" color - which exactly matches the knotty alder. All-in-all I'm pretty psyched about my new color choice. I had to have Terry help with a couple of the hard-to-reach spots because I'm a chicken about heights.

The other big news for me is that my laundry room is FINALLY done! It looks gorgeous! The new granite counter top and sink look so perfect with the slate floors and alder cabinets. My Christmas present from 2006 is FINALLY a reality. My many thanks to Terry and Ron Cameron (Fine Finish, LLC) for installing the cabinets, Robert Reed for the granite counter, and Glen Elliott for the sink and faucet. Ho Ho Ho!

Also, another big project I'm grateful to see happening is the rock patio and firepit in the back yard. Troy Hick's guys have been working very hard to make the rocks flat and stable and it is going to be so awesome to roast marshmallows and hotdogs out there with the pond and waterfall.... ahhhh... it's our own little park in the backyard.

I'm also proud to say I've started cleaning the basement. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. It is a total overwhelming disaster down there - but we are going to get to the bottom of it no matter what. I sooo want to get some nice shelving up in our storage room so that we can move all the holiday decorations back in there. I worked for 8 hours last Friday on just the toy room area. Needless to say the little cousins are going to get a lot of surprises soon because my kids have definately outgrown 50% of the toys down there.

I'll get some more pics posted soon.... until then! If you are reading this, I'd love to hear from you.... Leave us a message.

Whiting Reunion 2008 - Passport to the Past

Sierra Trigo - beautiful mountain backdrop for the Whiting Homestead. This year's reunion had over 1050 family members signed up to attend. I'm not sure how many actually came - but the website: www.whitinghomestead.com is amazing - and has all kinds of trivia and info and pictures.

Hayden had a great time making new friends and hanging with the teen cousins. We even caught him in the 3 K race! Yea Hayden!

Entering the homestead:

Reuniting with mom's favorite cousins. The Sunday was an inspiring and incredible with mom's cousins speaking to the family during a special meeting, which included Elder Douglas Shumway of the Second Quorum of the Seventy.

This is us with mom's second cousin President Phil Brown, former mission president of Portugual. (Elda's son) He is currently battling cancer.

Here is Kelli and me after we won the auction for a doll made by a cousin.

New Lake Powell Houseboat for 2008: Summer Sanctuary

After going to Lake Powell the past couple of summers with our friends the Harrills we decided it was time to start looking into finding a houseboat for our family. Since Yellowstone is so far away and is hard for most of our siblings who don't own an RV for camping, we decided we needed to find something the Vreekens to do in the summer as a new tradition.

Growing up we always went on summer trips to Lake Powell, Fish Lake, Flaming Gorge, and of coarse Yellowstone. Since all of us love the water and many of us have watercrafts, we decided this was the summer to to start checking into houseboat ownership. It all happened pretty fast - we went on line and "Googled" Lake Powell houseboats, came across this company called "Sunrise Peak" out of Salt Lake that specializes in Lake Powell timeshares, contacted them, and before we knew it we'd found a houseboat with the size, layout, ammenities, color, marina, and week we wanted. We made an offer, it was accepted, and a month later we were on our way to Bullfrog to spend a week on our new houseboat. There were a few unexpected surprises unfortuneately - but overall it was a great new adventure and one we hope will become a loved tradition for the extended Vreeken family.

July 2008: Blanding, New baby, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole

4th of July - Blanding:

This year we spent the 4th of July in Blanding, UT with Terry's family. The kids decorated their bikes and scooters to be in the parade, then we went over to the fair, Terry and his brother Tom played horseshoes, we bumped into friends and cousins, and ate Navajo tacos and snowcones. Saturday (5th) Terry had planned to attend his 25th highschool class reunion, but we had the wrong time and location, so we missed it. Apparently we weren't the only ones since we heard that only 8 people showed up for the class reunion, and they are rescheduling for next year.

We also went to a Hunt Family reunion with Terry's mom's family, and got to visit with many of Terry's cousins that we haven't seen in a long time. Here are some of the "big" kids playing around. They were having a blast.

NEW BABY!!!!

Later that evening (Saturday) we headed for Salt Lake to spend the night camped out at Vicki and Derek's home in Herriman, UT to see a peek of their new beautiful baby daughter, Kiley.

Kiley is Vicki's 5th child, (Breilly, Whitney, Zazhary, Emily) and she was born with one club-foot and has to wear a cast to help straighten out her little foot. She will have to wear a brace soon until it straightens out (poor baby). She is soooo cute!

YELLOWSTONE:

Sunday morning, July 6th, we started for Yellowstone, and arrived in the park in the afternoon to see a new-born elk calf and mother right as we got inside the park. We also got there just in time for a major hail and rain storm while we were waiting for our church services to start at Canyon Village. Just as the meeting was about to start, mom and dad Vreeken drove up with Cheri, Adam, Cindy, Ruston and Bella, and the rain stopped. Wayne and Ann Sundberg were there setting things up and Wayne said, "Okay, that's enough now" and the rain stopped! Thank goodness Heavenly Father was listening! We had a wonderful testimony meeting, and then we didn't get rained on again the whole trip - we had beautiful weather the whole time. The park received so much snow last year that our favorite swimming spot (Firehole River) was closed this year because of high waters. The rivers, streams and lake were at full capacity. The whole park was a month behind it's regular season so we got to enjoy many of the beautiful Spring flowers that are usually gone by July.

Monday, Dad Vreeken motored everyone out on Lewis Lake on his boat, and in the process of moving the fishermen and us girls, the gears broke, the boat stopped, and we had to get towed back to the dock. It was kind of an ordeal. Poor boat! Cindy , Cheri and I thought it was hilarious watching dad walk in the water to load his boat on the trailer in his socks! Tender little tootsies...

We had fun doing other things in the park instead of fishing though - we saw more bears this year that we have in over 20 years. It was a lot of fun watching the animals and touring around the park. WE even went on a really neat hike in one of the geyser basins that took us up on this great trail to this neat waterfall with hotsprings coming out of the canyon sides. We even had everyone with us when we went up to the North entrance and Gardiner! It was weird not having all the siblings there this year - everyone who couldn't make it was greatly missed.

One of the downfalls of the trip was the expensive gas prices, and our generator had to be fixed - which Terry drove down to West Yellowstone to get the part he needed to try to repair it. We also had a hard time keeping our fridge going and are going to have to take it in to have a professional look at it $ $ $ (sigh)... Always something when it comes to all the toys....

JACKSON HOLE:

Cindy and Ruston and baby Bella rode home with us and stopped in Jackson Hole on the way (it's tradition) and had lunch at Mtn High Pizza Pie Co. yum....