...A Thousand Words

About 12 years ago I was standing in a small room, in a small Mayan village, in the Highlands of Guatemala, looking at a beautiful painting. It was created by a local man, of the beautiful Lake Atitlan and volcanos that surround his village. As I stood there admiring the painting, wanting to buy it (but knowing I probably couldn't afford it because I was a poor college student), a man walked in the door behind me, walked up to the painting I was looking at, took it off the wall, and bought it. At first I was a little angry at the man, but then he stopped next to me and started to talk. He told me that he had travelled all over the world collecting beautiful pieces of local art. "When you see something that you really like, that moves you," he said, "You can't wait. You just have to buy it. Or you'll always regret it."

So a few days ago Kristen and I walked into Costco, and a local artist had a display of his paintings for sale. Many of you have probably heard of him--his name is Greg Olson. One look at one of his newer paintings and we were stricken. So we bought it. It is titled "Walk with Me." And as it takes its place on the wall of our entry way, we hope it will act as a reminder to us of where we should walk, and what path we should follow.

IT'S A SNAP

After great effort, and much determination, Katelyn has learned how to snap. I am truly amazed at my little girl's determination when she really wants to learn something. She has been asking me for months how I make that noise with my fingers, but this past week she decided she really wanted to learn how. She would ask me over and over to show her how. And finally after hours of practicing, she made her first audible "snap". She was so excited she ran upstairs and told me to "listen", as she proudly snapped her little fingers together. I love the excitement that comes with such little accomplishements. I guess I take them for granted. But my little girl has taught me a lot about determination, and that if we work hard enough on something, we can eventually say, "it's a snap!"

HAIRCUT

So the kids finally got their hair cut. Kristen and I have been arguing over this for the past little while. She likes their hair long, and I like it short. We let it go long enough that I almost didn't recognize my children any more because I could hardly see their faces. OK, it wasn't really that bad, but I thought it was getting a little out of control. So my sweet wife took them in to get a haircut--all to please dad. The boys, of course, hate their hair now, and mom hasn't quite got used to it yet. But dad is all smiles! I'll let you be the judges.

BEFORE

AFTER

St. Nicholas

We love December not just because of Christmas, but because earlier in the month we get to celebrate St. Nick also. For those of you who don't know, Kristen was born in Germany. Because of that, she always celebrated St. Nick (a popular holiday in Germany), which tradition has carried over into our family. However, the Reese version is a little different from the traditional one. Instead of leaving out wooden shoes that St. Nick fills with yummy German treats, we leave out anything from snow boots, to tennis shoes, to Crocs, which St. Nick fills with donuts and candy bars, strawberry milk and Sobe drinks. And he always leaves us pajamas. Although it might be a little different from the norm, we have fun, and we're glad St. Nick knows what we really like!

Giving Thanks

The day before Thanksgiving we had a great experience as a family. Grandma Anderson (Kristen's mom) thought it would be a great idea to go and feed some of the homeless in Salt Lake City, and she invited us to go with her. So with a basket full of homemade turkey sandwiches and cookies, we packed up the car, and headed to Liberty Park in downtown Salt Lake. We walked around the park and handed out sandwiches to anyone and everyone that wanted one. Although a little hesitant at first, the kids even got into handing out the sandwiches. And when we ran out of food, I was touched by their willingness to share with others that didn't get one, even though I'm sure they were hungry themselves. Their smiles, thank-you's, and "God blesses" made it a very rewarding experience for all of us. Thanks Grandma for helping us remember how very blessed we are, and that we have so much to be grateful for.

HALLOWEEN

Sorry, I know this is a little late, but I wanted to get some pics put on the blog. We love Halloween around our house. We host an annual family costume/pumpkin carving contest. However, it's gotten so big, that we've had to divide it between two different nights. We usually try to have some sort of theme with our costumes, and the kids are good to go along with what we want to do (even though they may not really like it). The only requirement to come to our party is that you have to have a costume. This year we were all Dr. Seuss characters. I was the Grinch, Kristen was the Cat in the Hat, Katelyn was Cindy Lou Who, Caleb was Yertle the Turtle, and Kaden was JoJo (from Horton hears a Who). Everyone else in the family was, well, you can see for yourself. We appreciate everyone humoring us and coming dressed up. We don't know if anyone else enjoys it as much as we do, but we sure have fun.

Cartwheels

Before Katelyn was 3 years old she taught herself to do cartwheels. She got so good at them that I tried to teach her how to do a handstand. Well, once she started doing handstands, for some strange reason, she couldn't do cartwheels anymore. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't do a cartwheel. We finally decided to put her in a little gymnastics class. The teacher told us that you're supposed to start with handstands and then cartwheels, or it messes them up. Now, how was I supposed to know that!?! Anyway, they got her straightened out so she could do both again. They decided to move her up to the older girl gymnastics class because the other girls in her class were just barely learning to do somersaults. It's fun to watch her because she gets so excited when she's doing her gymnastics. She really enjoys it. Everywhere we go, whether it's in a store, in a parking lot, or a restaurant, if you give her a few feet she'll start doing cartwheels. I can't get her to stop! :)

I didn't want to leave her out of the video action, so here's a clip of her practicing her cartwheels in her pajamas.

Touchdowns and Baskets

This is Caleb's second year playing flag football. He has done a great job, and he really enjoys playing. With all the great plays that he's done, we finally caught one on video. (Ignore the little boy that is laying right in front of the camera, and look in the background as the play begins. )

This is also Kaden's first time playing basketball. I am one of the coaches, and it has been fun to watch them improve with each game. After Caleb's football game, we ran to Kaden's basketball game, and got a little video footage as well.

CELEBRATE

The other night we had two reasons to celebrate. First, Caleb's and Kaden's soccer teams both played in the championship game of their soccer season. To make it a little crazy, they both happened to be playing at the same time. Fortunately, they were playing on fields right next to each other. So we just sat in between the two fields and tried to watch both. And wouldn't you know it, but they both went into overtime. It was getting way too intense trying to keep track of what was going on in each game. And as luck would have it, they were both still tied at the end of overtime, and both games went into a shootout. Now, would it be too much to ask for one game to wait while one shootout happened, and then do the second one after? Of course it would! So both shootouts started at the same time, but at opposite sides of the field. You should have seen us running back and forth between the two. Kaden got picked to be goalie, so his was a little more intense for us. Unfortunately, after all that craziness and excitement, they both ended up losing their shootout. But we were so proud of them, how hard they both played, and the very fact that they made it to the championship. That alone was worth celebrating.

The other thing we celebrated that night was Kristen's birthday. So after the game we stopped and got pizzas, rootbeer and icecream to make rootbeer freezes, and we went home to celebrate a fantastic day.

I just wanted to make a few comments about some of the things I love and appreciate in Kristen:

--Her selflessness

--Her soft voice as she sings lullabies to our children

--She lets me do the family blog

--Keeping me up at night as she tells me about her day

--She's older than me :)

--Her support of me and my activities

--She always lets me choose the radio station in the car (and she humors me when I want to play "name that tune")

--When she talks to me in Spanish

--She NEVER leaves a house without having helped them clean up

--Her amazing gift of making others feel loved

And the list could go on. I'll suffice to say that I'm a very lucky man!

Princess

Katelyn was invited to a birthday party by one of her friends in our neighborhood. It was a princess theme, and each of the girls had to go dressed up as a princess. Along with other princess-type activities, they rode on a carriage around the neighborhood. It was adorable.

LAKE POWELL

Ok, so I'm a little late on this one, but I just HAD to post some pics from our Labor Day trip to Lake Powell. We went with three other families from our neighborhood, and we had a fantastic weekend. The water was over 80 degrees. The weather, for the most part, was great. Our second night there we had the craziest wind storm come in that we thought was going to blow our tent, with us in it, into the lake. The wind was blowing so hard that the top of the tent was flat down on top of us. It seemed as if 10 people were surrounding our tent, shaking it as hard as they possible could. It was pretty crazy! Somehow, we survived. Between tubing, swimming out to a little island near our camp spot, searching for lizards and frogs, sand in everything, mud in Caleb's eye (that took us 20 minutes to dig out), and laying around eating lots of junk, we had a wonderful time. Those of you who have been to Powell can relate to what a great place it is. For those of you who haven't been, you better plan a trip.

The boys patiently waiting their turn on the tube

Kaden, James, & Caleb riding the waves

Us dads now waiting for our turn

Yes, that would be me, on the bottom, and the first to get a face full of H2O

Hangin' out at camp

Kristen enjoying the boat rides

Kaden had a great time playing in the mud

Kaden & Caleb


O Captain, my Captain

Caleb back at camp


Katelyn and her future prince

the kids had a great time searching the rocks for lizards

Kaden finally caught one

Our good friends, the Meilsoes, brought their sailboat. Does this look like a postcard or what? The backdrop at Lake Powell is breathtaking.

Pics of Alaska

Somewhere over Alaska

A small house where we slept and set up clinic in Manakotak

The hallway where I set up (see previous pic)

My first time on a bush plane--scary!

A gold-mining town established by Wyatt Earp

The local villagers parked outside our lodge--waiting to get their eyes checked



A fishing vessel docked (and stuck) in the river until the tide comes back in

A sunrise out my bedroom window in Togiak

ALASKA

I am just about ready to finish up a vision trip to Alaska. I have been here about 10 days, and will be returning home in 2 days. I have joined with a group that goes to small villages throughout the the Alaskan Bush to provide eye exams and glasses. Just myself and one other person (the optician) go out together. This is the second trip I have taken with them, and let me tell you, it is an adventure. I am currently in the village of Dillingham (fortunately, I have internet service). Other villages I have been to include Naknek, Togiak, Manakotak, Nome, Kotzebue, Shishmaref, and others. I could write for hours about the adventures I've had, but for now, I'll stick with some of the highlights:
--Staying at a "Bed & Breakfast" which was actually just a double-wide trailor with microwave breakfasts in the freezer.
--Giving Sarah Palin her cool glasses that everybody is talking about (OK, so I didn't really do that)
--11 plane rides in 12 days
--4-passenger, single-engine bush planes flying low over the Bering Sea (Yes, that's the same sea from the t.v show "The Deadliest Catch." Scary!)
--Not getting sick (see the previous 2 highlights)
--Seeing the mountains of Russia in the distance while flying out to the St. Lawrence Island (didn't realize that Alaska was so close to Russia)
--NOT having enough time to go Salmon fishing (OK, that's not a highlight--it's a discouragement).
--Arriving in a small village on Sunday. The local native trading store was closed, and so a local rounded up some supplies for us and charged us $50.00 for a loaf of bread, a gallon of water, and a six-pack of pop.
--Staying at a local search and rescue building for 3 days, with no running water, a "honey-bucket" for the toilet, and having to dump all water out the window because the pipes had all frozen and cracked. However, they did have the internet (go figure).
--ALMOST taking a bush flight with a local pilot until we heard he had crashed 4 times in the past 12 months (we decided to wait on that one).
--Never getting dark (and hearing kids outside playing until 1 am in the morning).
--The breathtaking rivers and valleys that abound throughout Alaska.
--and on and on....
I'm sure there will be more to tell about in the future, so I'll try my best to keep you updated. Unfortunately, I currently don't have a way to download my pictures, so after I get home I'll try to post some pictures.
The biggest highlight, of course, will be in 2 days when I step off that plane and see my family. Only 2 more days!

Back to School

As great as summer is, it's always good when school starts again. That probably holds true more for the parents than it does for the kids. Caleb is now in 4th grade, and Kaden is in 2nd grade. The big thing this year, however, is that Katelyn is now old enough to go to preschool. Kristen really debated about whether to put her in this year, or to wait one more year before starting preschool. But Katelyn has been dying to go. She somehow knew she would be going to the same preschool where her big brothers went--Bear Hollow--and she has been counting down the days. Her best friend would be going to the same preschool, and that made her even more excited to go. I've been afraid that Kristen was going to have separation anxiety or something. I've been trying to reassure her that it would actually be a good thing. That it would give her a couple hours a week where she wouldn't have to worry about kids, and have some time just for her. She finally agreed. Preschool started a week later than regular school did, and Katelyn was having a hard time with the fact that the boys started school but she couldn't go yet. For months Kristen has been saying that she will be sad when her baby goes off to school. After coming home from school her first day Katelyn asked her mom a very logical question--"Mommy, did you cry?" Although I wasn't there as a witness, I'm pretty sure that she did. Even if it was just a little!

Getting ready for school

Audrey & Katelyn

Kaden & Caleb ready for school

Trip to the Dentist

Katelyn had her first official trip to the dentist. She wasn't real excited about it either. She didn't mind the hygenist part, but when the doctor came in, that was a whole different story. The fact that the dentist was her best friend's dad didn't help make it any easier. But she finally warmed up and let him look in her mouth. The verdict: all is well. The boys had their teeth checked also. Unfortunately, the verdict wasn't quite as pleasing for them! Looks like they'll be coming back.

"See, this isn't so bad"

" Look Mom, no cavities!"

Kaden and Caleb anxiously awaiting their turn

Heber City, Utah

Last weekend we took our annual trip up to Heber to stay for the weekend. We've been doing it for several years now, and have made some great memories (like Kristen breaking her leg while roller-blading). Anyway, we stay in a cute little family owned hotel called the Swiss Alps Inn. It's homely, but we love it. This year brought some good memories as well, including, but definitely not limited to, the following: watching LifeFlight land right in front of our hotel to pick up a man who was hit on his motorcycle; seeing a man driving his half motorcycle/half volkswagon bug (seriously--and if you don't believe me, see the pic below); getting up and leaving from a restaurant because the kiddie meals (I repeat, kiddie meals) were like$15.00; me getting up early (like 4:30 am early, and having to wait in the car for an hour before the dang sun would even come up so I could see) to go fish in the beautiful Provo river; raspberry shakes every night; church on Sunday. It's always a great little trip for our family, to spend time together, and feel like we're a million miles away--even though we're just up the canyon.

Beautiful Mt. Timpanogos from where I was fishing

The park after church for a picnic

going to church

loving the hottub

"motor-bug"