I'm alive!!

So it has been awhile. Christmas break was great. It was so nice to just relax and do whatever I wanted. I had a fun time hanging out with mom. I think I got my fill of snow though. I has been nice to come back to Tucson and have the sun shining everyday. Believe it or not, I have had to scrape my windshield for the last two days!!
I have read up about gardening in arid climates and am going to grow a garden this year. The Fikes, that is who I live with, have a big planter box(8x4ft.) that they said I could use. They already had soil in it so on Saturday I went and bought some composte and steer manure. Can you believe the manure was only 99 cents. I came home and turned up the soil. The planter box is about three feet deep so I got a good workout. It took me all afternoon. I was a little sore the next day. I still need to work the manure in. I am sure looking forward to that:) I am going to try growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cilantro, basil and maybe zucchini. Tucson also has some community gardens. There is a nice long growing season here. My next project will be to prune the pomegranite bushes. They get fruit on them but not a lot and they are tiny and split open.
I went salsa dancing on Friday after going to the institute dance. The institute dance was pretty lame. They don't play very good music to dance to. The place we went salsa dancing is called El Paredor and it is a restaurant and the have dancing after hours. There was a live band and teeny little dance floor. I had a good time. My feet were killing me by the time we left. I got asked to dance once by some guy who had a little too much to drink. We were dancing the bachata, well at least I was dancing the bachata, I am not sure what he was doing, and he wanted to dance a little too close for my comfort! Don't worry. I set him straight. At least I got to dance. Next time I think we will have to take some guys with us. I would love to take a salsa class. The university teaches some night classes. I just need to find someone to take it with me.
I just finished my first class for the semester yesterday and started another one today. We learned about the crash cart and how to use the AED diffibulator. We will be learning our clinical skills for the next couple of weeks before going into the hospital. The semester we will be going to the ICU and a psyc rotation. Hopefully I will be able to do a rotation at the NICU(neonatal(baby) intensive care unit).
Sorry mom but I can't think of a spiritual experience at the moment. I will keep thinking though. Back to the books!

President Hinckley's Passing

It has been very nice to see the different tributes. I get all of Bryce's friends emails that are on missions from their moms so I can run them off and send them to Bryce. Everyone one of them has a story to tell of learning of Pres. Hinckley's passing and how it affected them. It would be neat to put them all in a book. Bryce was the only one that had nothing to say. Hmm. I had the Spanish Fork Press call me and ask if I had any experiences to relate about Pres. Hinckley. I thought of the time we were at Conference and I actually had a good seat straight across from the podium. Bryce was with us so it had to be about 1 1/2 years ago. After the conference, President Hinckley stood and turned to the other side of the center and waved his cane. It was very quiet and they all waved back. He continued doing that to the different sections of the center. I could see the General Authorities behind him and Relief Society board, etc. wiping their eyes as they watched him. It seemed he was biding us farewell, and I told Bryce that might be the last time he would see President Hinckley. He continued on and we have enjoyed several conferences since but I never saw him do that again.

Remember President Hinckley

With the news this morning of President Hinckley's passing I thought I would enjoy typing up a few of the things that I have learned from him, and what I will remember him by.
A prophet of optimism. The first thing that comes to mind when I think about President Hinckley is his overwhelming optimism. I've never seen him moping or a tone of despair in his talks. He's happy and thinks everyone else should be as well.
A deep thinker. When he was growing up he used to go back and sit on a stone wall in his backyard and just think. He would look up into the skies and ponder the important questions of life. Taking time to ponder is an attribute I wish I could cultivate more.
The Nature of God. I don't quite know why but President Hinckley has repeatedly talked about the nature of God and how the Nicean Creed has misled so many into an inaccurate view of God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I've decided this is something worth investigating (he's brought it up in nearly every single General Conference) so I will read the Creed from time to time and revisit various accounts of Joseph Smith's first vision (which clears up many of the misconceptions).
Hard worker. The statistics associated with President Hinckley (97 years, 100+ temples, 3 million more members, visited 60 countries) are staggering. I admire his life of service and how he just kept going. He's amazing.
Love for family. President Hinckley always spoke so affectionately about Marjorie. In my view, one of the greatest contributions during his 12 years as prophet was the document "The Family: A Proclamation to the world." It defines the roll of a man and a woman. There is no apology for the political incorrectness of it--it is a bold statement outlining the official church stance on family rolls.
Moving forward. President Hinckley truly was a progressive thinker. He was committed to being in touch with what was going on in the world and sensitive to the needs of individuals. His timely discourses on pornography, divorce, gambling, the Proclamation, and the Living Christ, all attest to how in-tune he was to the needs of the members of the church. He was divinely directed as he embraced technology and communication advances. He knew what was going on.
I loved President Hinckley and am so grateful for all that I was able to learn through and by him. I will truly miss him.

Sunday Goodness

Yay. Here I am posting. Mom; this should be the best day of your life.

This past week we had a very successful movie night. Every Tuesday night I invite people to go to the dollar theater to watch a movie with me. I have found that this is very fun and it is nice to have something to look forward to in the middle of the week. We watched August Rush and everyone who went enjoyed it very much. We completely filled up two rows in the theater and all enjoyed being with each other.

On Sunday I got out of the house which is something I should do more often. The neighbors downstairs were blasting music and my roommates were playing video games. Next week should be exciting as our downstairs neighbors are hosting a Super Bowl party (I know this because they handed around a sheet in Priesthood meeting; interesting). Anyhow; I went over to a girls apartment that was much more relaxing and enjoyable. We made a Chinese dinner. We made stir fry then made pork pastries that used a flaky pastry skin. It was pretty good but we all decided it was not worth the 3 hours it took to make.

Thanks to all that have responded to request from MUM

Here is my experience for the week. I was baking bread and thinking of who I could take some to. It is always a good way to get in to see people that you are wondering how they are doing because contrary to some in our family, people generally like whole wheat bread esp. homemade. So we have someone living near us that has recently separated from his wife and I was going to go there because it is sad to be alone you know but then I felt impressed to take the bread to someone else. This is someone I don't know very well and have tried to talk to on a casual basis but haven't made much headway. We had a very good visit and I felt it was the beginning of a friendship for someone that is struggling in our ward right now. This person does not like wheat bread just to let you know but her husband said it was the best bread he has EVER had. I believe him. I also believe that it was a very good thing that I listened to a prompting and followed it. I like Sunday. I don't even mind being alone all day because there are a lot of things to think about and it is a great plan your life day. I just want all my kids that read this to know that you are a hero in my eyes. I was thinking as I sat in church, I know what every one of my children are doing today. It was a good feeling.

TyandNat update January 27, 2008

Eli often will fall asleep with a toy or food item in his hand and wake up hours later still gripping it. Having the seal stuck between his teeth was a nice change of scenery--thought you'd like the pic.
Last week was a fun one. After class on MLK day... (yes, grrrr I still had a class, at the professors house since campus was closed for the holiday) we tried to go bowling, but it was too crowded so we went to an arcade and Pizza Hut. Then friends came over and we had our multi-racial oreo cake. It's been freezing cold this week but seems to be warming up.
Eli saved up his pennies and we went to "my Target" to buy Sallie (the girl car on Cars) but she was sold out. So we went to Wahmart, but she wasn't there either. So we ended up at K-Mart and hit gold. He has been thrilled to have her. Sharon is sleeping very well now (we think it is because she is napping better during the day) and Eli is as fun as ever. Here's another pic...

Hey, it's me!

I, Dallin, decided that I should finally write something on the blog. So, I'll do a quick catch-up for everyone as to what is going on in my life.

Winter semester has been amazing thus far. I really enjoy taking Book of Mormon, New Testament, Mission Prep, as well as my other classes (Mechanical Design, Civil engineering-statics, and Japanese). Homework is relatively easy for me in all of my classes, and Mechanical design is the only class where I have to spend a ton of time to finish homework. I was in the engineering computer lab till 2:15 AM Thursday night/Friday morning working on the project seen on the left.

I have enjoyed working in the computer labs and have found that Friday night really isn't that bad of a shift. Sure, I have no social life, but the lab is dead so I get a lot of homework done.
Colin and I have gone to all the BYU basketball home games so far this season. We have a really good, but slightly inconsistent team this year. But they're undefeated at home, so it is tons of fun to go cheer them on (knowing, no doubt, that they will win).
This week I got to do a few more fun things than normal. On Sunday night, some kids from my ward went up to Draper to the house of one of the girls. We had fun getting to know each other better, and got in a little bit of sleep. We woke up Monday morning to find a ton of snow outside. We had planned on going to Salt Lake and doing stuff around there (the girls wanted to shop), but we were stuck in Draper, so we just watched a cheesy Mormon movie (LDS modern Beauty and the Beast). We then found out that the family's 4-wheeler with the snowplow had broken, and their neighbor's snowblower was broken, so the 5 guys got to go outside and shovel snow for an hour and a half.
On Saturday, our ward charted some buses to take us up to Temple Square to watch the Joseph Smith movie. We all had a fun time and enjoyed the movie. When we got back, I promptly went over to the Marriott Center to meet Colin at the game. We played really well and it was a really fun game to watch.

Oh, so to appease Mom, I will include a spiritual experience. While at the Joseph Smith movie, obviously we could all feel the spirit. The movie was extra special to me because I realized that I will be teaching about Joseph Smith in less than a year. He was such an amazing man and prophet, and I am super excited to be able to let people know that because of him we have the restored gospel on the earth, the Book of Mormon to teach us, and modern revelation and prophets to guide us. One line in the movie is intended to cause everyone to reflect on their own testimonies of Joseph Smith: "I don't have to see him to know that he is a prophet." I really do know that Joseph Smith is a prophet, even though I have never met him, and that is why I am going on a mission. I'm so grateful to know the truth that this gospel teaches, and I can't wait to share the truth with others.

Responding

I'm going through some mild frustration due to the fact that I cannot log on as kbc or dad to post a blog. Why? Because I don't have a google account. So even though this looks like a wfc posting it is really from kbc.

Mom (wfc) asked us to follow President Eyring's admonition to look for and record an experience (at least one per week) of seeing the hand of God in our lives. I think that's a great idea and this is my first installment. Last Sunday was stake conference. When all was done I was anxious to get home and did not think to take my cell phone which was locked in the desk in the stake president's office. I remembered a short while later but thought it would be nice to do without the phone for the rest of the day. Monday was a holiday and I decided to go without the phone for another day. Tuesday morning I gave up and decided to retrieve the phone on the way to work. When I stepped into the office I discovered a flood. Water had leaked from the bathroom and the carpets were soaked in the stake president's office and water was seeping through the walls into the foyer and other offices. I shut off the water supply in the bathroom and called the facilities management group to alert them of the problem then left for work. They responded right away. They corrected the problem and brought in fans to dry out the carpets. It looked pretty good by our meetings Tuesday evening and was completely back to normal when I returned for more meetings on Thursday. A note from the FM group was left on the desk thanking me for responding to inspiration to come in early Tuesday morning and discovering the flood. I thought to myself, "it wasn't inspiration but just following up on absent mindedness from Sunday when I left my phone in the first place". As I look back now I believe it really was a tender mercy. There was no urgency for retrieving the phone when I did. In fact I didn't send or receive any calls with it for the next two days.

O What a Beautiful Saturday

It was a beautiful day today as we took to the mountains for an afternoon of x country skiing. I have got to remember and get ski wax however because we all began to stick about half way through the adventure and that makes the downhill slow going. McKay started the day by waking us up at 6:30 a.m. when he unlocked the front door and did his laundry. If you want to see more pictures, go to my picasa and McKay took a bunch whenever he gets them loaded. It sure makes winter fun...I can not believe the snow we have gotten. It is great. Life is great and I especially enjoyed hearing Eli ...it made my day when Tyler called and we got to hear him talking.

Shocking news

I was astounded to find from Dallin and McKay that they haven't been reading our blog...thus the lack of participation or knowledge that they were to be posting something each week along the lines of seeing God's hand in our lives. This past weekend has been like a dream to me in many ways. I have had so many times that the Spirit has touched me and reminded me of my blessings that it is a little overwhelming. I feel like part of the Knight family so being at Laura's wedding and celebration afterwards was a highlight. I have been to quite a few sealings but Pres. Bateman had to be a favorite. He opened my mind to many things I have seen but never thought about in the way he presented them and said...I can talk about these things because we are in the temple. Then we got to go back to the temple Saturday morning to be instructed by the temple presidency for two hours. President Daines emphasized that the temple is a model for our home: reverence, purpose, order, how we treat and speak to one another, having a devotional and preparation meeting each morning, having a home dedicated to the Lord and making sure no unclean thing enters our home. Stake Conference was filled with such well prepared and thought out talks and then to have Dallin ordained an Elder was a great way to finish Conference. Sundays seem to go in slow motion. They go fast but I don't seem to keep pace. We are looking seriously at May for a Christensen trip to the Sacred Grove. I know all things are doable so I am going to be believing and start working hard to see if we can pull it together. I also have started arrangements for an Ackroyd reunion the first weekend in August at CAmp Koholowo...that would be a Friday evening to Sat. afternoon. Grandma Fife and I are working on Waterton for July 2009 that would require passports and we have a Christensen get together this Memorial Day in Brigham City. I am blogged out. Happy Martin Luther King Day to you all...we love you.

Being a Mormon

I know mum wants spiritual experiences, but in response to Elder Ballard's request for discussion about the LDS community using "new media" I thought my first post would focus on my explanation of what it means to be a Mormon.

There has recently been a lot of interest in understanding the LDS or “Mormon” church by the media, critics, and people generally. This is largely due to Mitt Romney’s running for President. It has been fun for me to follow his campaign due to the heightened awareness of the church, even though I'm not yet sold on him as “the” candidate. Anyhow, I've had a few friends recently ask me about what Mormons believe and thought this would be an appropriate place to respond in some measure. For “official” information about the church please go to www.lds.org. Let me reiterate that this is what I think the church is.

Core Doctrines. The thing most people are interested in (apart from polygamy) is what makes Mormons different from other churches. There are, of course, several things… but I think there are a few biggies.

A restored church. Unlike so many other churches that broke away from the Catholic church, ours claims not to be a “protestant” church but a “restored” one. That is because it hasn’t broken away from anything but is organized much like the church in Christ’s time was organized. It is restored because it has a prophet at the head that receives revelation for the church (just like prophets anciently), as well as 12 apostles.

This is starting to get lengthy for a blog post. I’m going to create a full document (2-3 pgs) and put it on my website. If you want to read it click here.

TyandNat update, January 13-20th

Earning cars. Eli has been saving pennies to buy “Cars” cars (cars figurines from the movie “cars”). He accumulated quite a few and we told him if he was good for the doctor this week (he went to Indy to see a doctor at Rylie Hospital about his digestion problems) we’d get Sallie. He was great, things went well, and to put the cherry on top he pooped in the toilet. We didn’t expect this anytime soon but promised him a car for that as well so he now had two coming. We bought Sallie but by time we had left the mall Eli had lost it. We drove over to Wal-mart and got Chick Hicks and Fillmore and he was thrilled.
Taxes. This week I’ve enjoyed working on taxes. We’ve decided that the government really likes poor students, especially those that have families. We’ll take advantage of Earned Income Credits and get a decent return again this year.
Weather. It’s really cold in Indiana right now. It’s been in the teens and even down in to single digits the last few days. It hasn’t been very fun for running and we miss going out more, but hopefully this is the tail end of our winter. It’s definitely been colder this year than last.
LS Candidates. We had a couple of LS faculty candidates come interview this week. I enjoyed going to each of their talks and getting to know them a little better. It is great for me to be able to see so many potential candidates (we had several last year as well) to start to understand the hiring process and how I should prepare for this experience in a few years. It was also cool that both of our candidates this last week were actual LS grads. This shows that LS is a growing discipline.
Musical offices. I have had my share of office moves in the two years we have been here. I have a office/carrel space in the education building that has gone unchanged since we arrived. Unfortunately, however, this space is nearly useless to me as it is in a high traffic area that makes it very difficult to concentrate. I mostly use the space for phone and printing privileges, but study downstairs in the library. In Eigenmann, my work building, I have been in and out of four offices now. I think this is largely due to the fact that Eigenmann houses Quest Atlantis, a project that has grown and changed considerably in the last two years. Anyhow, long story short… I got into a new office on Friday and was surprised as I moved in to recognize a new face in the building in the office next to mine—my neighbor Ed. I guess he just got hired by QA as a game designer. Pretty fun, eh?
Oh, and I also recorded another song this weekend. Here’s an idea for the CD cover art.

Elder Eyring's admonition

I hope all you are trying to think of something to put on our family blog that answers the question: Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or family today? I hope everyone will try and respond to that question once a week on our blog. I know that a lot of what will happen is very personal but I think we can word it in a way that will still be uplifting and strengthening to our family without it revealing perhaps things you wish to keep personal. I have tried to keep going each night on this idea from Elder Eyring and have not been consistent so I am hoping we can encourage each other on. I will start with one. My mom asked me to call one of my siblings because they were not going to go to Brad's wedding because of some feelings that have been hurt because of something he said. She wanted me to talk to them and ask them to come. I thought about it and didn't feel comfortable then I had the thoughts that I could write and tell them how much our family meant to me and how blessed we are to have one another. I recalled times in my life when they ( my siblings) have been there for me and how much it helped me. I felt the Lord helping me to remind my sister that we really do love one another in spite of weaknesses. That is why a family is so great. I will see tonight if my note had any effect. Yes, today is Brad's wedding day.

fun family filled weekend

friday night kira, kimiko, and i all met at kari-lynn's house for our semi-annual cousins dinner. we got to hold baby ben and we ate pizza and had a good time hanging out together. little ben is so cute and good natured! he didn't cry once the whole time we were there. saturday mom, dad, kira and i took to the mountains for some adventures. we tried a new cc skiing trail that turned out to be more of a snowshoeing trail. i invented a new sport though, the one ski slide. i think it's going to be really big as soon as it catches on. with all the money i'll make for inventing it, i can take the whole family to switzerland for a skiing adventure. wouldn't that be fun? we eventually found the real skiing trail and it was super nice and very beautiful. i can't wait to go back. while we were there we filmed a video of me listening to the chris moyles show (that's the bbc show i listen to at work). unfortunately, i didn't think to get the headphones from dallin, so i'm not really listening to it, but you get the idea. i posted it on youtube and you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGU8UQO7XYM am i famous yet? have a good week everyone!

I do it "by myself"

This is Eli's latest tagline. "By myself." He is growing more and more independent and wants to do as much as he can without help. For the most part we love his attitude and determination--he keeps himself occupied and is a good, protective older brother. But the real reason I'm writing this post is because of the exciting development that came this week as a result of his newfound independence.
On Monday he asked if he could sit on the toilet. He's made this request before so we didn't think much of it. Well, this time it was different and he used the john. We were especially surprised because we have made zero effort up to this point to potty train him. He asked and went again yesterday so I guess potty training has official begun thanks to an overanxious two year old. Pretty exciting, eh?

Sleep anyone?

It has been a long week for the TyandNats. Sharon is a great sleeper... during the day. Unfortunately she isn't very keen at sleeping at night. This last week we had a few 2AMers and the rest were at least midnight. Now, going to sleep at midnight isn't necessarily a bad thing. But rocking your baby to sleep for five to ten hours to get to that sleep is no fun at all. We've tried various things to help her: varying her nap times, not eating sweets, bribing her with things we'll get her when she's a teenager... nothing seems to work. However, it may be coming to an end because last night she went to bed early and stayed asleep. She actually slept for 10 hours straight. We didn't dare wake her for her feedings because we're all sleep deprived so she went straight through the night. It was funny because both Natalie and I woke up at 2:00 anyways (out of habit) and stayed up talking for a while before going back to bed.
In other news, this holiday has been fun. This past week I went to work during the day, but for only 4-6 hours a day so it was still nice and relaxing. Eli got to take a few bus rides and we ordered pizza and partied Friday night with the Hibbings. For New Year's Eve we went to the Lees to watch the IU football game and stayed for the rest of the night and visited and pigged out. New Years day we played basketball at the church with the Lees and Andelins. Have I already written about this?... it seems so.
Anyhow, yesterday I spent the day recording and mixing a song that we (Natalie helped a bit with the lyrics) wrote over the holidays. I started it back a few months ago so it might sound familiar to a few of you. Any ideas/suggestions/improvements are very welcome. You can listen to it at www.tyandnat.com. Cheerio then,
Tyler

happy new year!

to ring in the new year i went snowshoeing with friends. we went on a road up millcreek canyon and we passed tons of cabins. one of them had my name on it, so of course i had to stop for a photo. it was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun. but it was cold! i forget that when you are in a canyon, the sun doesn't shine on you and your clothes freeze. i'll try to remember that next time. this morning i went to the gym for my usual workout and there was a camera crew there from the news doing a segment on new year's resolutions. i happened to be on the bike right behind the newscaster, so you can see me. go to this link http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/ and click on good day utah. then go to the January 2 show, and they have a list of videos with the heading "sidebar." if you click on the second video link from the top, that's the one i'm in. i'm wearing pink pants and a white shirt and i'm reading a book. kind of fun. thanks for posting the pictures of sharon tyler--she sure is a cutie! i hope she starts sleeping better, too bad she can't inherit my sleeping pattern, i seem to have no problem whatsoever sleeping--i can never get enough. hope everyone has a great week!

It was the best of nights, It was the worst of nights

The TyandNat Christensen's have really enjoyed the Christmas holiday break. I took all of last week off as well as New Year's day. It has been really nice being able to spend so much time as a family. We haven't done a lot of really exciting stuff but it's been nice to be together.
For New Year's Eve we went to the Lee's and played games. It was so fun that we through out the rulebook and let Eli stay up with us til nearly midnight. We thought that would totally wipe him out and he'd be intolerable for the next few days, but we were wrong. Yesterday (New Year's) Eli was in great spirits, although he did refuse to take a nap. We were really nervous about that... but as he was watching The Polar Express last night he fell asleep on the couch. While I changed him and got his pajamas on he didn't even stir he was so tired. We put him to bed at 7:00 (about two hours earlier than he has been retiring lately) and he slept for nearly 14 hours and woke up at 8:45 this morning. It was so wonderful, or it would have been...
If we only had one child. :) Sharon didn't do too well adjusting to the strange sleeping schedule, even though it didn't really affect her--she slept well at the Lees. Anyhow, yesterday she took a nap from 3-4 and then didn't fall asleep again until 3:00 this morning. Last night was possibly the longest night of my life. I normally wouldn't mind too much staying up so late--if I was doing something that I enjoyed, but rocking a baby for 4-5 hours just isn't my idea of fun. Starting at midnight I took her for 90 minutes while Natalie napped and then she did the same for me. Sharon finally did settle in and has slept well today to make up for not sleeping last night. We'll getting this sleeping thing figured out eventually.

In other news... let me tell you a little about our break. Christmas morning was a ton of fun. Eli "gets" presents now and had a ball unwrapping all of his, as well as all of ours (he was a little disappointed that our presents weren't cooler than they were). He has really loved his new "bus" bed (it's actually a car), and goes to it at all times of the day to take "a nap." That usually means he'll lie in it and pull the covers up over him and just take it easy for a while. He does this on his own but prefers one of us to be there to simply hang with him while he rests. It's kind of ironic that he spends so much time in the bed because he's actually taking significantly fewer real naps.
As mentioned earlier Sharon has had a very difficult time sleeping these last few weeks. If she keeps it up she will have to be content to not have any more siblings. Natalie and I both have been pushed to our limits with her. To keep from being thrown out she has started smiling, quite a bit actually. She will smile at you all day (and night) if you are giving her all your attention. She has a beautiful smile (just like Nat's but with a really cool side smile thing) and Eli continues to dote on her.
We've now taken down decorations and done some deep cleaning so things are pretty much back to normal. We didn't have a great turn out for New Year's basketball (too many friends are out of town) but did get some exercise and are happy to announce than neither Natalie or I gained too much holiday weight (maybe a pound or two).
We're starting a new "Biggest Loser" contest. After Eli she lost more than me so I'm determined to win this time. We have 25 weeks to lose 10% of our body weight--that's 15 lbs. for Nat and 20 lbs for me. We have become much more active these last couple years and are pleased that our lifestyle is improving. Just a little more and we should be in good shape.

New Year's Eve Day 2007

McKay has installed lots of new things on the computer he gave us for Christmas. Not being as brilliant as some I am having a hard time figuring out how to get pictures to post. It is quite amazing how new things take a long time to adjust to especially when you have to figure them out hit and miss. I am getting hungry too because I haven't fixed breakfast. It is now 2008. We began yesterday with taking Dallin and Kira to the show with the free tickets we got running the race a few months ago. We enjoyed Enchanted and especially the creative twist on Disney themes. We ate at Wendy's...we haven't eaten at a fast food place for long time! and got McKay something to eat as we picked him up after working to go bowl at BYU. We had some pretty good scores and on one line of turns, we all got strikes. How lucky was that? Then we went home and the kids started working on gingerbread houses ( after a run to KMart to see if they had any deals on Christmas candy). McKay, Keith, his brother Mike, Kari-Ann ( went on Stewart Falls pre-hike with us), Sarah that stuffed her face with marshmallows at McKay's b-day party and Natalie ...a friend of Kari-Ann's ) came and worked on gingerbread houses and then left to go to the club house. Dad and I went to bed at 11:00 because we were tired and then we got up this morning and ran 3 miles in very cold and windy weather.