Farewell Colorado

We had a very emotional and surreal last week in Colorado as our time wound down. The last Cub Scout meeting we had Thursday before Thanksgiving Joseph earned his arrow of light. Our last Sunday in Colorado, the Towner's hosted an ice cream farewell party where we said goodbye to many of our ward friends and then that night had dinner with some close friends the Meyers whom I home taught and Angie was visiting teaching companions with.

Monday we ate pizza with my good buddy David Zunich and his daughter Taylor. I home taught the Zunich's and we taught the Sunbeams together.

Tuesday was the kids' last day of school at Peakview. Lexi had her school program. Her teacher was Mrs. McDermott who did a wonderful job and whom Lexi really enjoyed.

This is the morning we left Colorado. We stayed the night with Spencer and Hannah Williams family. Probably Lexi's best friend in Colorado was Tommy at the far left. Lyzie loved Lizzie Williams shown in the front middle.

Hyrum's teacher, Mrs. Ekblade (above) had a surprise farewell party for Hyrum. The kids (and their families) pitched in and bought pizza, had desserts and wrote a journal with memories about Hyrum. Hyrum's best friend Tanner's mom made an unbelievable farewell cake starring Super Mouse, a fictional character Hyrum and Tanner made up a series of stories about. It got to be pretty famous and they had it displayed in the school for a while.

Here's the sign Hyrum's class made for him.

Here's Hyrum best friend Tanner Meeks and his favorite teacher (his 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Deutchman). We sure do miss Tanner! I don't know if Hyrum will ever find someone else as much like him as Tanner.

Joseph brought in donuts for his last day (5th grade male teachers aren't quite as sentimental as 3rd grade female ones!) and then went around taking pictures of his friends. This is a picture of his Gifted and Talented class where he did math, reading and writing. Joseph makes friends very easily and Colorado was no different but he is really going to miss Kaden Kluza and Jeffrey Jorgenson.

This is Joseph's GT teacher Mrs. Sauerbreit. Very nice, very intense, and a bit too much homework but it sure stretched Joseph's talents.

This is my orthodontic graduating class. I'll really miss the associations I made there and the fun times with Mladen Zekic, James Thomas, Rozheh Babaan, Brandon Price and others.

Angie and I with my brother Eric holding the piece of paper that proves that I did something for the last 34+ years of my life! Colorado was a wonderful 2 years of our lives and we'll always remember the people and things we did there.

BLANCHARD'S BRACES!!!

WOW, I can't believe that we are to this point in our lives already! Steve completed his Orthodontic residency on Nov. 24th!!! We then moved to Brigham City, UT on Nov. 25th. We are really enjoying our home, family and Brigham City, but can hardly believe that it is real!

Steve will be purchasing an established Orthodontic practice in January, which will be called "BLANCHARD'S BRACES"!! (the photo above is of us wearing our Blanchard's Braces shirts, that I had made for us as a surprise for Steve) I am so proud of him! He has never complained in the entire 10 years of school, Air Force, moving around, you name it, he has been positive and focused!

I am so impressed with his hard work and dedication to his goal and yet, even more impressed with his hard work, love and focus on his greater goals in life, namely us, his family!! To say that I am so grateful for him is an understatement!!!!!!!!!!!

You know, one good thing about the Air Force is that our boys never minded having short hair because all the other boys on base did! Sure miss those short hair days!:) But love my boys regaurdless!! Liza did NOT want to smile for any of the photos. After our session, she told us that the chair they asked her to sit on in her first photo, scared her. Oh well, these photos prove that she can be beautiful with or without a smile!

Here is our Christmas family photo!

Lexi's 6th Birthday

This is Lexi's 6th birthday. She's wearing the outfit Grandma sent her and carrying the puppy she got in the same package. She took these cupcakes to kindergarten to share with her class.

Lexi opening up the kangaroos stuffed animal she got for her birthday. She also got a Littlest Pet Shop collection and a Veterinarian Barbie. Needless to say she's an animal lover.

Lexi holding the Bee Pinata we made her. She wanted a Bug Party.

Lexi and her friends posing with the pinata (Julia and Abby, Angelina, Kaitlyn, Lexi, Sarah Anne, Megan, Lindsey and Kara)

Lexi taking a swing at the pinata.

Lexi and mom with the Lady Bug cake.

Beautiful October Sunrise and a Huge Snowstorm

This is the beauty of Colorado. Hyrum took some of these pictures of the sunrise in mid-October at about 6:30 in the morning.

We will definitely miss the beauty and the weather (most of the time) of Colorado!

Three days before Halloween it started snowing and kept snowing and kept snowing. The snowfall lasted about 36 hours and dumped 17 inches of snow on us. This is a picture of our patio table on our back deck.

Denver doesn't plow its side-streets so we were pretty much snowed in for a day. They cancelled all schools though and we enjoyed the time off together.

Hyrum and Joe playing King of Bunker Hill. We also were able to go sledding together the afternoon of Halloween.

Joe and Hyrum on top of the hill. We were worried about all the snow limiting Halloween (they did have to cancel our ward's Trunk-or-Treat but Colorado being Colorado the roads and sidewalks were almost completely melted 2 days later and temperature on Halloween night was a comfortable high 40s to low 50s. It's been great living in Colorado and we'll truly miss it.

Denver Mint

We took a tour of the US Mint in Denver here. Disregard the erroneous date. We went on Oct 26. Eliza had H1N1 and thus Angie stayed home with her and I took the other kids. This is a picture of the gate outside. The security is very heavy for obvious reasons and they did not allow any photos inside.

These are the main doors to the building. The Denver Mint makes about 12 coins a second or 750 a minute totaling some astronomical amount that escapes me for now, but it was pretty impressive.

The kids in front of the main doors again. The gift shop right next to the mint is pretty fun. If you ever want to tour the mint though the tickets fill up 2-3 months in advance so plan ahead. The kids really enjoyed this tour and we're definitely glad we made it before we move!

Halloween 2009

For the first time ever, our kids did not buy costumes this year. Joseph, Hyrum and Lexi are shown here the night of the school carnival. Joseph, unfortunately, was unable to go to the carnival, due to the swine flu. He made the best of it though, by drawing a pig nose on his mask and posed with Lex and Hy for the pictures! Hyrum used pieces from old costumes to be a knight and Lexi dressed up in her Tinker Bell costume she got for Christmas last year. Joseph had the swine flu and so he missed the school carnival but posed in this picture as a kid with swine flu.

Our neighborhood loop is awesome for trick-or-treating. 1-1 1/2 hours around the block and the kids get more candy than they'll ever eat. Lyzie spent more time opening than eating candy. It was like a mini-Christmas for her.

The kids' jack-o-lanterns. Josephs is a rich man, Hyrum's is Super Mouse (a fictional character created by him and his best friend Tanner--they're writing a series of short stories about him) and Lexi's is cotton candy.

Lexi (the lady bug) with her friend Abby (Snow White) and Abby's sisters Olivia and Julia. The ghost in the background I believe looks like Joseph but how he became transparent is a mystery to all of us.

Hyrum went trick-or-treating with his best friend Tanner.

Hyrum dressed like a football player, Joseph like a rich man (he gave every house a fake cash bill after they gave him candy) and Lexi wearing her ladybug costume she wore when she was 2 or 3.

Lexi, Joe and Eliza ready for Trick-or-Treating. The first house we went to no one was there and Lyzie wouldn't leave. I had to carry her away. She eventually got it though and we all had a blast!

Flag Football

The boys both played flag football this fall. Although the driving distances were a bit crazy the whole family enjoyed being involved and watching them play. Hyrum's team is the purple one and he has the blue superman hat on.

Hyrum was all over on defense and one of the best running backs his team had. Their team as a whole struggled but they won their last game on a touchdown scored with no time remaining so it was a great way to go out. I got to coach the defense on Hyrum's team.

Joseph's team is the black one. He's #12 executing a perfect block in the back, a technique no doubt inherited from his father:).

Here's Joseph lined up on the defensive line. Joseph was one of the biggest kids on his team, but also very fast and always played his assignments perfectly.

Joseph played full-time fullback and either line or linebacker on defense. Here he is with a nice lead block. Joseph's team dominated the second half of the season winning all their second half of the season games by 3-4 touchdowns. I got to be the assistant coach for Joe's team.

Family Home Evening Fun and Haircut time

Here's a couple of our fun family home evening pictures. Hyrum's lesson he dressed up like a prophet and then taught about some of the lessons the prophets teach us.

Angie's family home evening came during flag football season. She baked pizza pockets in the shape of footballs, glass bottles of root beer and other "tailgating food" and talked about being a team family.

Here are the kids holding up their pizza footballs.

Joseph (and Hyrum) hate getting haircuts. It's a major battle every time so we took some before and after pictures of Joe's haircut so that one day he can look back and understand our angst.

Quite the ham, but much sharper look, no?

Hike to Eagle Peak

Eagle Peak looks right over the Air Force Academy. Its elevation is about 9400 feet. We met some good friends of ours from our Academy days a few years back and took the kids up to the top.

The hike took roughly 2 hours or so to the top. Here's Grace, Emily, Elijah Van Wagoneer and Joseph and Hyrum up the top.

The descent was fairly steep with lots of loose rocks but the kids did well and had a great time.

Joseph, Steve and Hyrum on the peak.

Hyrum, Joe, Emily and Grace at the end of the climb.