The Rose Family

Dude! Brian Head is awesome! The natural spring water? Awesome! That fresh, mountain air? Awesome! Bob was awesome! For those of you who were not there, Bob (our timeshare guide who at the awesome age of 73 and who continually referred to himself in the third person) informed us how awesome Brian Head Resort was... at least a dozen times over an hour. Thanks to our dear friends and best man, the Coombs, we got to spend a fun-filled 4-day trip in Brian Head with them and our other friends, the Bosleys. What more can we say about it? A 4-day trip with no kids, 8 inches of fresh powder the night before skiing and a hot jacuzzi to relax in, it was just awesome! And I must say to all the women out there, Rebekah was the only girl to take on the black diamond runs with the guys! During the trip, though... we decided it was time to allow others to win at Settlers of Catan... so yeah.

The drive up there was very nice. We got to spend a lot of time talking and listening to books on cd, which is something you just can't do with kids. Many thanks to the Coombs and Bosleys for a really fun trip. We look forward to Cabo Azul (which means Blue Water, according to Bob) in 2010. And we definitely are thankful to Grandma and Grandpa Rose for holding down the fort while we were gone!

Today was Josh's birthday. He has been counting down the days for months and it finally arrived. We had so much fun with everyone over to celebrate his day. He wanted a Mr. Incredible birthday, so Daddy fulfilled his wish with a custom cake. Daddy spent most of the day making four different colors of frosting with two eager, little helpers over his shoulder. It turned out to be a pretty good cake. All the kids loved it!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Rose! He now has matching Batman sheets to go with his Batman blanket and the tent has already been worn in!

Joshua is our energetic little angel, made of solid steel. There is never a dull moment in the house when he is around. He's always helpful with Jacob and fulfills his role of big brother even though he's in the middle. We love you, Joshy... Mr. Incredible!

Who wants to run a race by yourself? We recruited various family members to our cause and ran the 3K run for the Londyn's Run fundraiser. Of course, we went for the best and recruited marathon champions from out of state, Uncle Greg and Grandma Atkinson! The Rose family was well represented. We had a fun weekend eating at El Ricos and Barro's Pizza and having endless matches of Settlers of Catan. Aunt Kristin took the Settlers' crown with Derek following in second. Also, a big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for bringing the rest of our food storage and teaching the boys how to do the Bunny Hop! Jacob absolutely loves the quilt grandma made for him. He loves to turn in his crib to look over at it hanging on the wall. We hope to see everyone next year for the run!

We have had much talk about organizing our food storage to fit into one area of our house. Previously the food has been scattered about the house in various cupboards here and there. However, after careful thought and much hard work on Derek's part, I am very pleased to announce that we have new shelves in the hall closet that goes under the stairs. The picture does not do it justice. I am so excited to actually have a place to put all of our food. I am so greatful to a sweet husband for building such incredible shelves. Now my parents don't have to store our food storage food any more! If we can just get it from them now. HINT to parents please bring our food storage when you come and visit :)

P.S. Thanks Josh for sharing your nail gun.

Here's where the fun starts. We departed Utah and headed back home to warmer weather in Arizona on Friday evening. After being stuck in traffic in American Fork, we were finally on our way to our overnight stay in Page, AZ. We arrived in Page at about 12:30AM and sat in bed looking at all the cool pictures of Lake Powell and the beautiful surrounding area. On a whim and completely out of nowhere, we decided to go get lost in the direction of the Grand Canyon. Why not? It's Saturday now, we still have another day before work! So we woke up the next morning, took our time and headed out to the Grand Canyon.

On our way, we decided to call up the Dunns to explain that we were lost on the way home and that they needed to come find us... somewhere up in the Canyon by the South Rim Village. We stayed right on the South Rim at the Thunderbird Lodge with a breathtaking canyon view outside our window. The canyon itself was less than 50 feet from the room! Wow. The pictures just don't do it justice. We had so much fun that we are already planning a return trip. Takers?

We were fortunate enough to drive up to Utah and spend the New Year celebration in sub-30 degree weather. We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Atkinson. They were nice enough to host all of the Atkinson children and grandchildren (19 in total). We had so much fun sledding, playing Rock Band, staying up until 5AM playing a deadly game of Settlers of Catan (which Rebekah proudly declares winning three times). We also had fun visiting our aunts, uncles and cousins from the Rose family at Uncle Steve's place. We love our family so much, we had a little bit of homesickness when we got home to Arizona!

Oh wait, I can't forget to mention our drive up. Traffic at the Hoover Dam was at a complete standstill for about an hour due to an accident in Boulder City. So Rebekah had a fun idea to do Chinese fire drills in 40-degree weather much to the delight of our children. They wanted to know where the fire was.