October
*One last family picture before Brandon, Lori and their 4 boys moved to North Dakota. :( We miss them a lot!
*Ben's homemade Native American tool--the tomahawk
*Will's dream came true when we went to see Ghostbusters on the big screen. There were people dressed up as the Ghostbusters dudes...and Luis. :)
*for Ben's 5 weeks of strings at school, he chose the cello; but mostly he loves to hang out with his friends, who are the Three Amigos (Ben, Eliza and Reggie)
*I took a photography class this fall, and one of our assignments was to take pictures in tricky lighting. This was one of my favorites--pumpkins by refrigerator light.
*Will was a ghostbuster, AGAIN, and I'm pretty sure the costume will fit him again next year to make it three years in a row. :) He loves his 2nd grade class and his teacher this year.
*And the Holy Grail Halloween!
November
*more Lego stuff--this time re-creating one of the final scenes in Back to the Future III, hoverboard and all.
*Ben's painting of Jack Sparrow at the Fountain of Youth that took him F-O-R-E-V-E-R to finish, but it looks awesome and Jake is going to love it when Ben gives it to him for his b-day next week.
*Ben chose to be a ship builder for Colonial Day at school--the whole day was filled with fun colonial-times activities
*my cute niece, Chloe, was the star of Clytie Adams' Nutcracker this year!! She was a perfect "Clara," and I had a great time taking pictures of her.
*Thanksgiving dinner at Brenda's a few days early while Gpa and Gma Airplane were in town, followed by Thanksgiving dinner at Gpa and Gma Trains on the real day--both were so good!!
Even the 5th grade teachers got in on the act that day :)
Ben's silhouette, courtesy of Sara
Vivian making her own Johnnycakes
I couldn't leave out the crazy class picture!
Our nephew/cousin Brayden, is the newest member of the family--don't you love those cheeks?!
December
*At the SLC Fire Relief Association's Christmas party, Daren was honored for being the President of the Association this past year by his then Vice-President, and now current President, Amy. That bell is so cool!
*Ben and Jake quickly put together a Lego creation to send in for a Lego contest. Even though it didn't win, it was pretty creative.
*Jake's 2nd grade Christmas concert.
*This year the 3rd-5th graders performed Vivaldi's Gloria for their Christmas concert. It was truly amazing!
*Christmas with the cousins...a week early. We were so happy to see all our North Dakota cousins again, even though it had only been a couple months since they moved.
*And finally Christmas arrived! The boys were all ready for it in their new pajamas, with milk, cookies and a note to Santa that was left out.
*After all that build-up and excitement for Christmas day to arrive, after breakfast all the boys wanted to do was read. This was BEFORE any Legos were even built. I love that they love books...and I'm pretty sure I missed a book or two in this picture.
*Ben's piano recital was a couple days after Christmas.
*We rounded out the rest of the year with a pre-New Year's Eve party at First Night in Salt Lake with friends Matthew and Adam, and then a party at our house a couple days later on New Year's Eve with friends Thomas, Matthew (who went home earlier) and Adam partying it up with Ben, Will (who went to bed earlier), and Jake.
Ben's friend, River, played the part of Vivaldi, and he was amazing.
Ben was part of the chorus (below--top row, 5th from the right), all dressed as orphans.
The traditional die-cast sports cars. Even the girls love 'em!
The house that Adam and Jake built.
The room filled with 2,012 balls was the favorite room of the night.
Daren had to work at First Night the night we were there.
GOODBYE 2011!
HELLO 2012!!
*Since Daren had to work at the airport fire station on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, we figured we'd go out and see him. What a fun place to work, and they have the coolest fire engines!
*We all went out for a little ride in the engine, and the boy's favorite part was squirting the water from the engine. We also stopped by a hangar to see one of the airplanes just sitting there.
*It was a great way to start off 2012!!
Their view really is that close, with airplanes going by all the time.
