Christmas

Christmas Eve

We love the tradition of getting together on Christmas Eve for dinner, carols, the reinactment of the Christmas story, and the cousin gift exchange.  

It was fun to see Carie featured in the newspaper Christmas morning!

 We had our traditional Christmas breakfast.

  It was extra fun because Grandma & Grandpa stopped by!

Then we opened presents with Grandpa Joe & Grandpa Jeanne via skype.

We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas dinner at the Clarks that evening.

We are so grateful for our family!

Basketball

Basketball has begun!

 The boys played their first game against Red Mountain on November 26, 2013.

They won!

 Their first home game was December 2, 2013. They played Boulder Creek and won.

It is fun to watch Matthew (#14) play on the Freshman team, Bennett play on the JV team,and Brittany cheer!

Shooting his first free-throw of the season.

Thanksgiving

We loved having Katie home for Thanksgiving!

We missed Kimberly but it sounded like she had a great time in NYC with the Grobergs.

 We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and Grandpa who just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary!  We are so grateful for them!

 We love having the Glenns live so close to us - we are so thankful for each one of them!

 We love Grandma Geri and are grateful that she has made it a tradition to come to Mesa for Thanksgiving!

   We loved having the Allreds and Browns stop over later that night.  Everyone loves playing with Landon and we got to wish Uncle Curt "Happy Birthday" - 50 years!

Annie Jr. - November 21, 22, 2013

Courtney spent the months of October and November rehearsing for the school play, Annie Jr.

She played the part of Duffy, the orphan and did a fantastic job!

She loved singing and dancing to the songs of "It's a Hard Knock Life" 

and "You're Never Fully Dressed without a Smile."

 The whole cast!

We loved watching her perform - she is a cute little actress and great singer!

Kimberly and Chase - Engaged

Chase proposed to Kimberly on October 30, 2013 in Washington DC.

He completely surprised her!

We are excited for their wedding on May 9, 2014.

Utah

We had a fun trip to Utah over October Break.

It was fun to have Houston Jones come with us and so fun to see Katie and Cassidy working and studying hard!

We attended general conference Sunday morning and then visited the Odidas and the Estes Family.

 On Monday we hiked to Stewart Falls - the leaves were beautiful!

 We then had lunch at JDawgs - Cassidy took our order and grilled for us!

On Tuesday we attended the BYU homecoming opening ceremonies and then had lunch at the Hinckley Building with President Samuelson.

 (Actually it was a luncheon for all the descendants of President George H. Brimhall, but this is the only picture we took.  It was so fun to visit with family and friends!)

That evening we were able to attend Abbey's setting apart. WE LOVE HERMANA ESTES and are excited to hear about her adventures in Peru!

 

We returned to perfect weather in Mesa on Wednesday evening.

Homecoming - September 21, 2013

Carie and Travis Tanner

Cousins and Friends at the Dance

Ecuador

We spent a wonderful 10 days with Mom and Dad in Ecuador.

We attended church in Otavalo - the people are so friendly!

The meetings are held in Quichoa and Spanish so that was interesting!

 Later that day we hiked to a near by waterfall.

 We stayed in Porto Lago - a beautiful quaint little resort on the lake. 

 On Monday, we visited the Mitad del Mundo - the Center of the Earth.

There were lots of fun little experiments and interesting facts about the equator.

 

Later that day we walked through Quito - it is a beautiful city with lots of hills.

 

Before we left we drove to El Pancillo which overlooks the whole city of Quito.  It was here that Elder Kimball dedicated Ecuador to the preaching of the gospel.

  We flew to Guayaquil that evening and then to the Galapagos Islands the next day.  If you get sea-sick, think twice before you go to the Galapagos - you take boats all the time: Water taxis, ferries, small boats, big boats, any kind of boat!

 We visited the highlands first and saw lots of birds and many 500+ pound Galapagos Tortoises.

 The next day we took a tour to Bartolome - it was a beautiful day and we had so much fun!

 We saw sharks (they told us that they are friendly in the Galapagos!)...

 Penguins,

 Lots of marine iguanas,

 Sea Turtles and other fun fish and birds.

 The next day we hiked to Tortuga Bay - beautiful!  We wished we could have stayed the whole day!

 We then went snorkeling with little sea lions near the Loberia, cliff jumping at Los Grietos, and then out to see more sharks and iguanas.

 

We returned to Guayaquil the next morning after a yummy breakfast with a few little Darwinian finches!

 That evening ET and I went to the temple with Mom and Dad

 The children all did baptisms the next day.

 

We also hiked, played tennis, and visited the sights of Guayaquil.  

 Park of the Iguanas - and there are LOTS of them!

 Climbing the steps of Santa Ana

 Over-looking Guayaquil.

 

It was a great trip and so FUN to be with MOM and DAD!