At The Ranch for Christmas

 This year Grandpa and Grandma Walker moved to The Ranch in Wyoming, and this was the first time that we were able to go and visit them for several days! Although my parents now live further away, I love the memories that are made at The Ranch and I can't wait for more visits to come. 

For this visit, Grandpa had a meeting in Utah, and so we ran an errand for him to Rock Springs. It was a great adventure. We went to Home Depot, where Grandma bought everyone a giant sucker, and we picked up the new bathtub surround. Camille wanted to go to Petco while we were there, so Grandma dropped us off at Petco while she went to Walmart to buy cat food and a couple other things. 

Petco was exactly what Camille wanted it to be. We saw fish, ones that glow in the dark, and even a teeny tiny fish called a Molly Fish that the kids loved. After we were done with Petco, we walked through the mall and saw Santa, and walked through a few stores where the kids wanted to look at all the toys. I could hardly pull Molly away. She is such a confident little girl, I had to keep a really good eye on her so she didn't wander away. 

We got to watch the movie Leo, which Aunt Brooklyn worked on as a character designer. She is amazing! I actually really liked the movie and it made me laugh. 

When Grandpa got back home, he pulled the kids in the hood. He even pulled them out on the frozen pond and did doughnuts. I don't know if the kids were worried, but I was very very worried. The kids had a blast though. 

While we were visiting I was able to help my dad put up a bathroom surround. Grandma is most excited about that. We also painted some of the old doors to put back up. The one door that we did looked so good! 

Grandma made wassail and bought doughnuts to celebrate the Christmas Season. 

The kids rode the go-kart, which ended up losing a wheel by the end of riding it. Sorry Grandpa! 

We played on haystacks, and the funniest part was that Rugy and Ruby were both climbing the haystacks with the kids. They just jumped up and I was amazed that they could climb so well. 

Aunt Melissa, Grandpa, and I put together a new TV stand/fireplace. We did a great job. Grandpa had to walk away for a minute, and melissa and I put together and took apart the same piece like three times. So apparently we needed Grandpa there to oversee us as we put it together.

Molly was being so cute. She kept saying that Pippi was tired and sad so she would take her to a crate and then read to her, bring her food, she gave her all the cars. She did this multiple times and it was just darling. *I also want to document a couple things that Molly said on this trip that I thought were so funny. First, we were in the truck with Grandpa feeding cows in the morning, and Grandpa took his hat off and Molly said, "Grandpa, you look like a ragamuffin". ha ha ha...it just made me laugh that she used that word. Then later we were driving around in the Ranger, and Grandpa was showing me all the land that he owns. He was driving over a ditch and Molly said, "Hold onto your britches!" while she was bracing for impact. Ha ha, I love you Molly!*

Aunt Melissa brought the game Clank and she taught Camille and Jason how to play. They really picked up on it quickly and they had a lot of fun. I am so grateful for Melissa and for how she includes my kids and loves on them even though they aren't hers. She took them to the store and bought each of them a little toy. It was so nice of her, and I love her so much!

We had so much fun in Wyoming and can't wait to go back. I feel so grateful for the wonderful family I am surrounded by and where I get to go and have adventures and memories made for my kids. 

Jason's 9th Birthday

 Jason turned 9 years old this year! Where does the time go? He is turning into the best brother and I love him so much! He loves to pester his sisters, but if they need any help at all, he drops what he is doing and helps them and I love that. This past year I have seen him hop off his dirt bike to help Sadie get through a fence, or hop off his scooter to help Sadie who fell in the grass as they were racing back to the car. He has such a kind heart and I can't wait to see what he does with his life. He is amazing! 

For his birthday this year he wanted to celebrate by going to Skinny Dogs with Zaylee, Eisek and his siblings and go bowling. We had pizza and partied. Jason did pretty good bowling, and even got a couple spares and a strike! 

Everyone got to play one arcade game (which was a hit, we should have bought extra arcade tokens), and then got home late and dropped off his friends. 

On the day of his birthday, he went to school and went bowling at school for fieldwork as well! Then came home and we went to Maddox for his birthday dinner. He loves Maddox, and we had a blast. I love you Jason and I hope you know how special you are! Happy Birthday! I can't wait to celebrate many more with you! 

Breakfast with Santa and Sadie winning a Bike

 This year we participated in a few community events which ended up being so fun and we hope to participate in them next year as well. We first did a  scavenger hunt where we searched for Christmas decorations around town. Each of the kids got a coupon for a free cookie from Old Grist Mill, which we haven't used yet, but I am sure it will be so delicious. 

We also went to breakfast with Santa. The Gillis Mortuary sponsored the event. We came at 8 AM in our pajamas and ate a delicious breakfast of waffles, sausage, hashbrowns, and chocolate milk.

 Then Santa came in and we sang Christmas songs with him, then after the kids got to go sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. The kids really enjoyed it. 

While we were there a sweet mom gave us some tickets to a movie that the other mortuary in town (Myers Mortuary) was sponsoring. They rented out the Walker Theater and we went and watched Wonka. We have seen it before, but it is always fun to watch movies in a theater, and we don't do that very often because it is so expensive, but since it was free we decided to go. The movie was great and we had the songs stuck in our heads for days after "do you have a sweet tooth, I do". That song in particular was stuck in our heads and reminds me so very much of Molly. 

After the movie was finished they did a drawing for bikes. There was a boy bike and a girl bike. Sadie won the raffle for the girl's bike and she was so excited! She even had her picture put in the newspaper! Christmas came early for her, and there isn't a more deserving girl. She is the sweetest and I love her so very much! 

Merry Christmas Kids! I hope you know how much I love you, your dad loves you, and Jesus loves you! I hope you have good memories of your childhood and that you know that we did our best (even though we fell short! Love you all!)

Sledding with a Turkey

 Because Kevin and I are such fun parents (don't forget it kids), we decided to take the kids sledding one Saturday while Kevin was home. We drove up into the mountains because that is the only place there was snow. But when we got to our typical sledding spot, there wasn't great snow. We did make it work and it was a blast. It really is the perfect hill. You get some good speed, but the kids can hike up it by themselves because it isn't too terribly long. 

While we were in the middle of sledding all the cars driving past started to drive really slowly. We didn't know why they were driving so slowly and making traffic. I kept thinking, are they worried about hitting our truck? We were parked pretty far off of the road, but then one car honked and pointed out the window to the back tire of our truck. When I looked around there was a GIANT wild turkey just hanging out. The turkey started walking towards us, so I told all the kids to sled down the hill and maybe the turkey would just wander into the trees and go away. We all went down the hill, and the turkey followed us!!! Sadie lost her hat on the way down, and Molly was concerned that the turkey was going to get Sadie's hat. So Molly hiked back up a little ways, then grabbed Sadie's hat and told the turkey "You aren't going to get this hat now!". Then she came back down the hill. As she was coming down the turkey started running at her and I was feeling concerned. She got to Kevin and ended up being okay. So we decided to hike back up the hill and maybe the turkey would wander off down at the bottom of the hill. So we hiked up, and then the turkey followed us again! I didn't know what we were going to do. Kevin started throwing snowballs at it, and eventually, it crossed the road and wandered off on the other side of the road. For a while there I thought that we were going to be either eating a turkey dinner after it got hit by a car, or we were bringing home a new member of the family and having a turkey as a pet because it wouldn't leave us. 

Needless to say it was an interesting sledding experience and the kids thought it was so funny. It will make for good memories. Love you all kiddos! 

Walker Christmas Cup

 This year, because my parents are in the middle of renovating The Ranch House, we did a Christmas party at a church near Shantel's house. We did a Walker Cup Christmas Party and it was just the perfect way to kick off the Christmas Season. Just a quick shout out to Shantel, but she is amazing and I want my children to understand how awesome she is. She had so much on her plate, and that same day she had done a whole Christmas party for her ward. Then she also planned the whole Walker Cup pretty much by herself as well. I appreciate all that she does to keep our family together. 

She started it off by taking a page from a Hallmark Movie where before they started their family Christmas Olympics they have to search for the Christmas Star. We raced around the church looking for the Christmas star! I wasn't sure what we were searching for because I was helping Molly in the bathroom, so I started searching for a star. When I was in the primary room, I found a star taped inside the window. I was sure I had found the star. But when I showed David he said that wasn't the star we were looking for! I kept searching and found the Christmas star to start the party. It was very exciting! 

The game that Grandma and Grandpa brought was so funny to me. They brought a bunch of junk they were trying to get rid of around the house. Starting from youngest to oldest, each person got to go and pick on of the pieces of junk. Each piece was labeled with a number. They brought a bingo game, with each of those numbers in the cage. As they called numbers out, then that person would get out. The last person standing was the one who won the game. But everyone got to keep the junk that they didn't want anymore. We came home with a bacon press, cookie scoops, and pizza cutters. Adam won, but I came in second! 

We played Christmas Pictionary. We all participated, but my favorite person who did it was Molly. I was going to help her, but she looked me straight in the eyes and said, "don't worry mom, I got this." but since she can't draw even a circle yet, she just drew some lines, so no one was able to guess what she was drawing. It just made me laugh. She is such a funny little girl. 

We played a balloon-popping game, where balloons were tied to each person's foot, and then we tried to pop each other's balloons. We did an adult round and a kid round. At the end of the adult round, it was down to Adam and Brooklyn. They couldn't get each other, so then we sent the kiddos in to try and pop the balloons. 

Uncle Jacob brought a giant plastic wrapped ball filled with candy. The kids really loved this one. Some people got a ton of candy, I couldn't believe how much candy he fit into this one ball. Aunt Melissa won this game, she ended up with like 85 pieces of candy in the time that she had. 

By the very end, Kevin and I ended up being the Champions! I carried us this year. Kevin got like one point. I should be less competitive, but I just can't help it. We brought home the trophy and it is proudly displayed on my shelf! I am looking forward to next year already! 

St. George 2024

 This past summer I finished my 4th semester of Nursing School. I still can't believe I am doing that. But this semester I had clinicals every Saturday for 7 weeks. That took up all of our camping season. I feel so sad about it, but it also just had to be done. Kevin wanted to go camping and go dirt biking, but it actually is getting cold now, probably too cold to go to the mountains. We were going to go to Payson Lake, but they got snow this weekend, so instead we decided last minute to go to St. George and hang out as a family and go dirt bike riding. We rented a little Airbnb that the kids loved, and we tried to go dirt bike riding, but it wasn't very warm down there either. We did get one pretty good ride in where Jason was able to practice on his new 110 bike. 

The Airbnb had a hot tub, so we got in the hot tub every night. It also had a fire pit and the hosts left marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers so that we could roast some smores. Before we turned off the gas fire pit Jason tried to blow all of the flame out, and surprisingly got more blown out than I thought he would, but he wasn't able to get them all out. What a silly boy! 

It also had a couple "old school" type video games that the kids loved playing, even Molly. We ordered pizza one night and watched a movie, which was relaxing and just a good way to be together as a family.

 One day we went over to the dinosaur playground and the kids had so much fun playing at that park. We rode the train that goes around the park, and the kids pretended to be dinosaurs hatching out of their eggs. 

I know none of this is in order, but I just wanted to document that it happened and tell the kids that we love them so much! Kevin is such a good dad and is so good at letting us tag along on his adventures. He takes us dirt bike riding and teaches the kids so many good valuable lessons. We loved St. George and hope to go there a little more often, just for a quick break.