All The Christmas Things

 Trying to get caught up here.  December was busy but also really good.  We started the month off with the annual food drive the whole valley does here.  Each ward in our stake was in charge of collecting 160 boxes of cereal.  We needed someplace for everyone to drop their cereal off, and our barn became that place.  Which means that Jake and I became the people to take the cereal over.  Our ward came through big time.  We ended up with over 200 boxes of cereal!  They were so excited when we pulled up.  A great way to start the Christmas season.

Sage got to go to Disneyland with the cross country team.  I know there are other reasons she signed up for cross country, and she's ended up loving it, but going to Disney with the team was a big incentive for the season.  She had great fun, managed to do really well in the race, and then had to suffer the whole ride home because she was so sick and had a toothache on top of being sick.  Poor girl.

We did our annual rest home performance for Grandpa Spjute.  Jake and I were the only ones representing our family.  Sadly this has become normal.  Most of the time we end up performing for like 3 people.  Apparently this year we found the magic time because the room was full of people.  So great!

I love to take the family to some kind of concert every Christmas.  This year we went to Kurt Bestor in Park City.  It was amazing.  A small venue, so up close and personal.  I really loved it.  Hopefully this is our new Christmas tradition.

We had a Spjute Christmas Eve which is always an adventure.  Greg led off smoking brisket for everyone (hopefully we keep this tradition going), then caroling, talents, and testimonies.  This year we attempted to perform "Un Poco Loco" from the Disney movie "Coco".  We didn't quite know what we were signing up for when we picked this song.  It's hard!  We killed it, as in actually butchered it, but the family still loves us.  

Christmas Day was nice because we just opened presents and then relaxed/played new games the rest of the day.  We had to wake the kids up at 9 to finally open presents.  The magic of little kids being excited has disappeared around here.  I still love my big kids, it just makes for a different Christmas.

We headed to St George for the rest of Christmas break.  We did a good amount of jeeping, with no injuries or wrecks so that's a plus.  We tried to go bowling but struck out (ha ha) and ended up playing mini golf.  We're not very good at mini golf.  And of course a bike ride.  Kate usually hangs out with us, but not this time.  She has a new boyfriend and she was with him far more than she was with us.  I'm trying not to have hurt feelings over this.  Circle of life and all that.

We have a new tradition of going to the Sakura Steakhouse in St George around New Years.  Its so much fun to have them cook for us right at the table.  And the food is so good.  Hopefully next year we'll have reservations dialed in so we don't have to wait so long.

We (minus Kate for above reasons) did a crazy hike one day.  We hiked to the top of Mollie's Nipple (horrible name I know).  This hike is 2 miles long but in one mile I think we gained like 1700 feet of elevation.  It was intense.  The views at the top were amazing.  And now I can look at it from far away and think 'holy cow we climbed all the way to the top of that.'  An adventure for sure.

The view from the top of Mollie's Nipple

Beautiful decorations for our RS Christmas dinner

Truck full of cereal!

November/Thanksgiving

 November was full of family time, which we love!  We started the month off with family dinner at our house.  I think we had everyone here except for Ethan and the Dittos.  We even got to see Season and her family.  It was wonderful.

We started and ended the month in St George.  Kate thought she moved away from us, but we fooled her.  We happened to be down there at the same time that Marcus had a lacrosse game for BYU, so we finally got to see him play.  That was a lot of fun.  Made it to the temple with my girls, and of course did some jeeping.

Thanksgiving was a little different this year.  Tracy had Thanksgiving dinner at her house on Sunday before actual Thanksgiving.  Our whole family was able to go, so we decided we didn't need to do a whole other Thanksgiving meal for the big day.  So we kept up some of our traditions, like starting the day with a turkey trot (the kids love this tradition so much) followed by a polar plunge.  At least as much of a polar plunge as you can do in St George.  This year there was a bit of an algae bloom, so Sage and I were the only ones who got in.  In the afternoon, instead of slaving away in the kitchen we all went and played pickle ball.  It was kind of perfect because everyone else was eating so we had the courts all to ourselves.  And then we had a feast of enchiladas and chips and guac.  My kind of Thanksgiving dinner.  

The rest of the weekend was full of biking, hiking and jeeping.  All in all a good trip.

We had our annual neighborhood food drive and I forgot to take pictures.  But we had a great turnout and collected the most food ever!

September and October

 Oh I'm barely keeping this little blog going.  Must not quit as it's the only place our family events are documented.  Even though it's poorly done, at least it's something.

September and October were mostly full of mountain biking, with some cross country thrown in for fun.  Holy cow.  Sage had a lot going on.  Between school, mountain bike practices, mtb races, cross country practices, cross country meets, and a little bit of work when she could squeeze it in she was one busy girl.  Which means her parents were also busy.  We spent the weekends at either a mtb race or a cross country meet.  It was fun, and exhausting.  Then we also threw a trip to Maine in the mix.  Yep, busy.

Sage went to homecoming while we were in Maine.  I was super sad to miss it, but also couldn't pass up a trip to Maine.  Kate came to the rescue as usual and drove home for the weekend.  She and Sage got to hang out and she helped Sage make it to the dance.  Sage looked beautiful and had a great time.  Hooray!

We headed to St George for fall break, and Sage's state mountain bike race.  I decided for my birthday I want to climb Angel's Landing in Zions.  It's one of my favorite hikes, but it's been years since I did it.  I got on right when permits were available and scored some over fall break.  The weather was great all week, except the day of our hike.  It rained a ton and was not warm.  We of course still had to do it because those permits are hard to get.  Scrambling up the very top when it was wet and slippery added a whole new level of fun.  But it was still beautiful and the plus of the weather is that there were way less people there.  It was a great birthday present.  We missed Zack and Kate, but Zack got to hike it earlier in the year, and my gift to Kate was not making her hike it with us.  That girl does not like heights, so Angel's Landing is not the hike for her.

We ended up in Boise to close out October.  My Grandma Spjute passed away at 95.  Still kind of crazy that she's gone.  She was a great lady and it was fun to celebrate her life.  I really enjoyed seeing so much family that I never get to see.  In true Spjute fashion I didn't get any pictures with the family.  But we did actually see each other, even though there's nothing to document it.

Phew.  Those were busy months.  But we made it and even managed to have a little fun!

Also, there are people in our family besides Jake and Sage, but since she's the only one home it doesn't look like it.  We miss you Zack and Kate!

Jake scored free tickets to an Eric Church concert.  The tickets were in a suite.  These pictures always post in crazy order, but there was yummy food and treats.

Passing the time in Boise

Eric Church

Because of the rain there were cool waterfalls everywhere.  

Sage is a hard worker.  We started the spec in St George.

The day after we got back to Maine we came up to the top of Guardsman for a mtb ride.  The trail was closing the next day.  The light and leaves were amazing.  These pics don't do it justice.

A relief society activity I was in charge of.  I could never do it without my amazing committee.

Homecoming

Andrew and Sage

The beautiful light at the Beaver race

Sage got to go to the salt mines for her agriculture class.

Manti race

Sage's first cross country meet.  I don't think she knew at all what to expect, but she did a great job!

We went on a last second overnight trip to Bear Lake with Greg and Tracy and some of Greg's kids.  It was fun to have everyone on the boat.  That lake is beautiful!  Also, poor Zack couldn't get in the water due to the cast on his arm.

I had to include this even thought it's blurry (covered in grease from the scones).  It's been years since Jake came to Swiss Days, but he came back this year and I think he even liked it!

This was actually the first race of the season at Snowbasin.  Sage was showing off the bracelet Henry made for her.