Final fun of President's Week

We had a great week for our vacation. Besides the snow and painting, we watched Megamind and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the older kids went to several parties, we had too much ice cream, and I personally ate out at least once each day. Wow! Now that's a vacation! We also had the Pinewood Derby for Adam and celebrated my grandma's 99th birthday--the same night. Here are some pictures.The final car that Adam submitted. He came in 5th overall. We thought it looked more like a Hummer than our white van with big wheels. He also received the Most Realistic award. Huh? I have never seen a Hummer painted in rainbow colors. But Adam had fun!
Here is the group that helped my Grandma Beatty celebrate her 99th birthday. We all went out to dinner and stayed visiting for a long time. Left to right, Rich, me, Grandma, Art & Adrienne (half-sister and husband), Dad, Darren and Heather (half-sister and husband), and Joey (half-brother). What a great night!
Rich and I with Grandma. We are so lucky to live near her so that we can see her on fairly often. She still lives alone. Can you believe it?!
Lastly, we went to the temple to do family baptisms on Thursday. That was a wonderful experience. We had half of our children in the temple with us. We are half-way to our goal.

Here are the pictures from yesterday's snow trip. We had a great time! We went to a snow park called Adventure Mountain just before you go over the summit down into South Lake Tahoe on Hwy 50. We went with two other families with children ages similar to ours.

Here is a view of the mountain. It was gorgeous weather!
Anna and Daddy hanging out, watching the sledders go by
Jeffrey and Jacob Grimsman sledding down together

Katie, Jacob, Ashley Mork and Lexi Grimsman--Watch out, here they come!
Anna loved sledding down the hill!
Rich helped her get started at the top
Jacob landed at the bottom of the hill
Jacob, Ashley, Katie and Lexi
Running down the hill instead of sledding? Lexi in front, Ashley next, then Katie and Jacob with Jacob Grimsman and Jeffrey on sleds in the middle
Lunchtime--Anna, Adam, Jeffrey, Beth and Josh
Jeffrey, cutie
Kris Wells, Tricia Grimsman, and I
Someone gave us a propane heater so Rich lit it up to keep everyone warm. The weather was warm up by the sledding runs but down by the picnic tables, there was a wind that kept it chilly.
Ashley and Anna
Anna loves the snow!
Josh at the end of a run
Beth showing off the icicle she found
Beth and Anna made a snack of icicles hanging off the pine trees

More food!
Adam on the black, fast sled
Here Adam comes
Josh in front, with Daniel and David Mork close behind, racing down the hill
Crashed and laughing at the bottom
Daniel and David, just before the crash. Daniel was actually sick and had a fever when we got home, so he had his fun before lunch. After lunch, he hung out in the warm car.
Snowball fight! Katie and Ashley getting Jacob
Jeffrey and Jacob Grimsman, sledding buddies for the second year in a row
Here comes Jeffrey!
Here comes Beth!
Anna going up, Beth going down...
Almost the whole group of kids--starting from the left, David Mork, Daniel, Adam, Jacob Pettingill, Nicki Grimsman, Annie Wells, Cami Grimsman, Lexi, Josh, Beth, and Jeffrey and Jacob Grimsman in the front. Ashley and Katie, Anna, plus Nick and Lilly Wells were missing from the picture. What a fun group!

We have lots of fun things planned for this week off. Here is what we did the first day:

Last night we read scriptures, with Katie's good friend Ashley here too, and we chose our scripture reading reward to use some of the 50 points we have earned this month. After a vote, everyone chose 2 dozen donuts for breakfast today. Rich was up early to go to Winco and then scramble eggs to go with the donuts. The children wanted 2 dozen because that means everyone got two donuts. There were supposedly 4 leftover, but those have mysteriously disappeared.

Then we painted the family room together. Everyone got involved. I was very nervous and I did more watching little children anxiously as they waived around paint brushes full of paint than painting at first. But then the little children got bored and went upstairs to play. The 'big kids'--Daniel, Jacob, Katie-- and Rich and I finished the job. I could relax at that point. Funnily enough, Anna stayed painting with us most of the time. After all, how often does she get to paint the walls with real paint? We had covered all the furniture and carpet and there wasn't any paint on the carpet when it was over. I call that a success!







Then, the family had voted to use more scripture points to have pizza and soda for dinner. That was so nice because we had to go through snow gear to get ready for our snow trip tomorrow.
Also, since the Pinewood Derby is on Wednesday night, Rich and Adam had to work on Adam's car. Jacob helped Adam with the design. See any resemblance to our 'new' van? I think it's great! Tomorrow they will add some rainbow colors to liven it up. Maybe we should consider adding rainbow colors too? ; )

More tomorrow, I hope!