Christmas in Palm Springs

Technically, we were in Indio, but no one knows where that is. Indio has lots of golf courses and is very much a resort community (the newer part, anyway).

 View from our balcony.

 Lots of fun watching the ducks that roam the property.

 As soon as we got to the resort, Anthony, Andrew and Aubrey set out to find stuff to do.  Ping pong won.  And they enjoyed playing it so much for the week we were there that we decided to use our Christmas gift certificates from Grandpa and Grandma Hoggan to buy our own table.  It should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Basketball was another fun activity.  They found a few new friends to shoot around with, too, but we didn't get photos of them.  You'll notice Aubrey's back foot is always up when she shoots.  It's probably not technically correct, but she makes a lot more baskets when she does it than when she doesn't. 

And Austin did homework.  He's probably got the heaviest course load in the history of high school seniors (at least it seems that way).  His dedication is admirable.

After being there a couple of days, we were able to get on the tennis courts (they were being refinished).  None of us are pros at tennis (although James is pretty good and Anthony's not far behind), but we had fun pretending.  Actually, Aubrey and Andrew learned really quickly and I was impressed by their improvement.

And Austin still did homework...

We got a little pool time in, too (while Austin did more homework).

Our last stop, on the way out of town, was Shields Date Farm.  We heard that their date shakes are worth the trip.  I thought they were pretty good.  We couldn't even get Anthony to try one.  Everyone else was somewhere in the middle.  I think we're all in agreement that Christmas in the sun is the way to go!

New This Week

Austin is the Sterling Scholar in Science candidate from Bountiful High School.  We are blown away by all the accomplishments he's made this year.  Now we're racking our brains trying to recall any science-related cool stuff that he's done in the past three years.  I know there's something...


Anthony received his plastic driver's license in the mail this week.  It's official.  And unnerving.  Two kids driving already.  In other news, Anthony's indoor soccer team has made it to the finals for this session of indoor soccer.  Despite being the second-youngest team, they managed to convincingly win all but one game.  Anthony is the keeper with the fewest total goals allowed (by 9).  He even managed a shut-out for last Thursday's playoff game.

 He's fast,

 fiesty,

and fearless!

Moving the Trailer

It only took 3 tries and about 30 minutes for the crane gang to move our trailer.  They used a 6-inch steel beam to support the bottom of the trailer at the back, then had a chain hooked to a truck in front to pull so the trailer wouldn't hit the house as the back end swung around.  They only had an inch or two to work with between the trailer and the house, so overall it was pretty impressive work.

We haven't had an assessor call or show up yet, so we don't know what the damages are to the house or the trailer.  I'm just thankful that we're no longer a danger to the school kids.

Wind Storm, December 1st

 As our trailer was blown off the back of the driveway and into

the playground fence,

 it knocked off the entire porch light outside the door

(we later found pieces in the back yard)

and broke the front of the phone box off.

 The wind ripped a light fixture out of the soffet

and pulled the soffet and two more lights out of the deck ceiling.

Amazing what 90-100 mph wind gusts can do!

We were without electricity for less than a day,

believe it or not.  Yea for the hard-working power company!

This tree used to stand by the bowery behind our house.
We put Andrew in front of it for perspective.

Academic Olympian

This school year Austin was finally invited to join the Bountiful High School Academic Olympiad team.  They participate in one competition every year at Utah State University.  Yesterday, Nov. 16th, was the day.  Austin said there were around 20 different high schools that brought teams to compete.  The contestants test in each of the four core subjects, math, english, science, and social studies.  We always expect Austin to do well in stuff like this, but last night he came home with trophies for winning the math section as well as for being the student with the most points overall.  He won the whole thing!  We're all extremely proud of him.

You'll notice he also has four medals around his neck; two he gets to keep instead of the trophies (those go back to the school) and the other two are for his school finishing first in the math section and second overall.

Andrew's Broken Arm

 

Three weeks ago, on a Thursday night, Andrew was playing goal keeper for his soccer team.  The other team's forward got through our defense and took a powerful shot, about 4 feet in front of him.  Making one of his most spectacular dives ever, Andrew dove right and got his left hand up to stop the ball.  Unfortunately, the ball was moving so fast, that it bent the top of his hand back, giving him a buckle fracture in his wrist, and then smacked him in the face.  He came out of the game for awhile saying it hurt, but I figured he just wanted attention, so when he was ready to go back in and finish the game, I let him.

 After the game, we put ice on his arm and he took some Motrin.  I figured it was a sprain (I'm used to taking my kids to the doctor when they just know something is broken, only to have the doctor say everything's fine--use ice and ibuprofen).  He went to school Friday, piano lessons Friday afternoon, and a birthday party that night. 

Saturday morning he played the first half of a soccer game (in the goal again), and then took himself out at half-time, saying that his arm hurt too bad to keep playing.  I watched how he was holding it during the rest of the game and decided to take him in that afternoon. The doctor told me, before they even took x-rays, that he either had a buckle fracture or had broken his growth plate (which would be worse).  They put on a splint for a week, then we went in and got a cast (BYU blue, baby!).  It comes off this Friday.

Andrew's been a trooper.  If I can ever figure out how to post the video I took of the piano recital, you'll notice he had to turn his arm funny to be able to play his song.  He's also tried one-handed golf, tennis, basketball and racquetball.

Halloween Piano Recital

 Our piano teacher likes to host a Halloween piano recital every year so the kids get to learn pieces in minor keys (Halloween music tends to have lots of sharps or flats). 

Austin and Anthony chose to be the Blues Brothers this year because Anthony played a blues song.  James was the only one of us familiar with the movie, but we still had fun coming up with the costumes.  Anthony is wearing James's suit coat.  Can't believe it doesn't completely drown him.

Aubrey ordered her ladybug costume online, 3 days before she needed it for the after-school Halloween dance yesterday.  It showed up on Thursday and thankfully fit perfectly.  She looks good in pretty much everything, though, so we weren't too worried.

Andrew went back and forth between being a skeleton ninja (conglomeration of several costumes he found in our storage room) and an old-time golfer.  Staying true to form, he went with golf.  His knickers and bowtie are made out of a pair of pajama pants I found at DI.  He played his song pretty well, considering he's got a cast on his left arm.

Mollie & Austin on their way to the Bountiful High School Halloween dance (lady's choice).  We didn't get to see the rest of their group, but heard they had a lot of fun.

Anthony's first date.  No, he's not yet 16, but he will be in a month (as he frequently reminds us).  He has been really responsible and hasn't given us much reason to worry, so we let him go.  His date, Shauna, just turned 16 and he was her first date.  So cute!