SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

Last Sunday was the Super Bowl and we had our annual party. Our friends Mike and Kathryn and their son Zach joined us. Welcome home Zach! He missed the last two years since he was in Tennessee. Too bad I neglected to take a picture of him. Unfortunately, all the pictures I did take are a tad blurry - SORRY! My niece and her husband also joined us as well as our kids. I cheered for the Cardinals but the Steelers won. Oh well, it was a good game anyway and we had a blast. Thanks everyone for coming. Dan, Angie, Travis and Baylee enjoying their food.
Kathryn, Tara and Baylee - Go Cards!

Baylee spent most of her time coloring.

JB, Liz and Travis

(wow, blurry!)

Shayla and Kelsey
(blurry again)

Kelsey Wins Again!

Just a quick news bulletin - Kelsey placed 3rd in the Drill Down at State Drill last week. She competed against all the 5A girls in the state (approximately 320 girls) We were so proud of her. I hope she doesn't consider a career in the military . . . Congrats Kels!

January News

WARNING - Some of the images below may cause some squeamishness. Please use caution when viewing!

January has been an interesting month. Val and I traveled to Vail with his partners for their annual CPE and ski conference. We enjoyed skiing and spending time with Sandy and Will, our dear friends from Louisiana. We only had one mishap, when a snowboarding instructor cut me off and I made a spectacular crash. Fortunately it was not recorded on film so there are no pictures.

After returning home, Val was scheduled for surgery to fuse the 4 cervical vertebrae in his neck. He had been experiencing numbness and pain in his arms for quite some time and it was determined by his neurologist that this was the answer. The surgery went well and he is feeling much better and recovering nicely. Here comes the squeamish part!



They go in through the front of the neck - not the back like you would think!


Val is now part robot - he has titanium rods and screws holding up his head! Fortunately, his doctor has assured him that he will not set off the airport metal detectors!

On the lighter side, Kelsey won the Region One Drill Down last week! She competed against every single drill team member in the Region (approximately 170 girls) and came out on top. If any of you have ever watched a drill down, you realize the level of concentration and discipline that this requires.

She won this awesome t-shirt and a certificate. She was also named to the all-region drill team and received a certificate for that. Kelsey, we are so proud of you!

Resolution

I have been incredibly lazy about blogging this past month. I must resolve to do better this coming year. Often I feel that no one could possibly be interested in the dull activities that I engage in on a day to day basis. Very few of my peers have blogs so I wonder if I should continue. I do enjoy checking the blogs of others so I guess I will (in the words of our new president) "pick myself up, dust myself off" and try to do better in 2009.

Family Christmas Party

Yesterday was my family Christmas party at my parents' house in Tremonton. Mom and Dad just built on a new room so we had lots of space to party and be together. We ate some delicious food . . .

Here is Travis making authentic Argentine empanadas. This may be a new Christmas tradition!


Shayla, Liz and Tara had fun making cute Christmas ornaments

We always have an awesome program. Baylee performed for the first time with a number on the recorder. She played Jingle Bells and we all sang along.

Shayla and Liz performed a cute dance routine. Wade and Travis helped out at the end.

Tara and Kelsey entertained us with their version of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

My parents surprised us with a wonderful skit performed by Santa and Rudolph. Doesn't my mom make a cute reindeer?

Baylee sat on Santa's lap for the first time, although she needed Elise, her new best friend, there for moral support!

It was such a fun party. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Just a footnote: Val and I were actually at the party, it's just that we were taking pictures and videotaping so there are no pictures of us!

Christmas Dance

Every year, the Vykelles go to the Christmas Dance together. This year Kelsey invited Brandon. The girls had a delicious catered dinner at the home of Amy's parents, then went on the the Capital for the dance. They had a great time, as usual. Kelsey looked beautiful.








This is my niece, Hayley before her Christmas Dance. She looks beautiful, too!

Thanksgiving in New York

Val, Kelsey and I just returned from the Advanced Dance trip to New York. What a wonderful vacation. We left two days before the rest of the group so that we could be there for Thanksgiving and see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. (It was our married kids year with their in-laws) We saw the parade from our hotel window. What a great view! We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at the buffet at the Marriott Marquis with Rachel and Kailey Johnson. Tara and the rest of the group joined us the day after Thanksgiving.

Val, Rachel and I at the Marriott Thanksgiving buffet. We had a great view of Broadway and the dinner was fabulous.







Val, Kelsey and I on top of the Empire State Building.
All of us before seeing the Lion King. What an amazing show. The costuming was absolutely incredible. My favorite animal was the giraffe. It moved exactly like a real giraffe. Timon and Pumba were great, too.

We toured Radio City Music Hall. After the tour we got to meet a Rockette. Aftaer we got home, we watched the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center and saw "our Rockette" dancing after they lit the tree. Val said Radio City was the highlight of his trip.


We also saw White Christmas. This is one of our all-time favorite Christmas movies so it was fun to see the play version. The tap dancing in this show was incredible. It was so fun to see during the holidays.




We had a really fun group dinner at Carmine's. Great Italian food! Here we are with Bon Pierce, the mastermind of the whole trip. Thanks, Bon for such a wonderful experience!



Rachel suggested we try to get into a taping of Live With Regis and Kelly. We got up at 5:30 a.m. to stand in line and we got in! It was so fun to see what goes on off camera. Regis and Kelly are great. Rachel, LeeAnn, Sharon and I before the show started.

















The Christmas Spectacular at Radio City truly was spectacular. It has been one of my "bucket list" items to see this show. Radio City is so beautiful and the Rockettes were absolutely perfect. I have to admit, I did tear up a little bit the first time I saw them on stage. Here are Val and I in front of the amazing stage. This picture doesn't do it justice. We had such a great time.