January Snow Trip and First Scripture Reward

On the Martin Luther King Jr. school holiday, our ward youth took a snow trip. The day before, during church, one of the leaders asked me to drive our van because they were still short on drivers. So we dug out all the snow gear and got ready to leave at 7:30 the next morning for the nearly two hour drive up to Loon Lake. It was a great day, and I am glad we went. Rich couldn't go because he was working, and Daniel had basketball pictures and practice. The rest of us had a great time!
Isn't the view fantastic? It was worth the long drive!
You can see a group of kids playing in the snow. This wasn't one of those trips where you go to a parking lot with manicured sledding hills. This place is a small resort in the summer, but has tons of snow in the winter. You park in the resort parking lot and then climb up the bank to the open area of snow. We were all sinking down to our hips as we tried to cross the snow.
Jeffrey, Anna and I spent the day together. The snow was too deep for them to walk comfortably, so after we hiked around for a while and then had lunch, we settled in the parking lot to play.
Before lunch, we used shovels to dig out a tunnel and some snow caves.

Beth, our Josh, and Josh Hodson digging out the snow tunnel.
The bigger kids had fun sledding down some of the slopes but they were too steep for the little kids. Here is Josh carrying a sled back.
Beth, Jeffrey and Anna in the snow tunnel. Notice how nobody is wearing jackets. That is because it was so warm that day. There was a heavy fog layer down in Folsom, but once we drove about 15 minutes up the mountain, we rose above the fog and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. In fact, it was so sunny that we needed sunscreen and sunglasses and the kids complained of being too hot! The other leaders and I kept wondering if we had gone to the snow or the beach. When we drove home, we came back down into the fog. It was like two different worlds.
Anna and her friend Adeline decided it was more fun to walk in the stream created by the melting snow.
I didn't get any pictures of Jacob and Katie because they went off with the older youth, and we didn't even catch a glimpse of them most of the day. Here are some pictures from Katie's friend's facebook page. (I wouldn't have put the word EVIL with an arrow on my picture.)
Savanah, Ashely, Katie and Kendall--3rd Ward Laurels
The teenagers hanging out in the snow. Adam Sevy is not really evil.
Katie, Ashley, and Kamree--more 3rd Ward girls.
Katie and Ashely--neighbors and great friends!
When we got home after the snow trip, we decided to cash in some of our scripture points. The older kids and parents decided to have In-N-Out for dinner, but the little kids didn't like that idea. So we made a compromise. They got personal boxes/bags of sugar cereal. Here are Jeffrey and Beth showing them off. Everyone was happy! On a side note, the scripture reading is going great. Last year, I kept track of the points and then we decided on a meal after we earned enough points. But this year, because we have a list of prizes and keep track of the points together, the children are very motivated to read each night. No complaining or moaning and groaning about reading so far!

Jacob and Katie's big date

Jacob and Katie went on their first date this weekend. In California, although you can drive at 16, you cannot drive anyone under the age of 25 for one year after you obtain your driver's license. That puts a big damper on dating at the age of 16 since everyone has to arrive separately or be driven by a parent. But Jacob's Priest's Quorum sponsored an ice-skating date this weekend. So Jacob took his good friend Ashley, and Katie was asked by Josh, another boy in the ward. They had a great time. Here are some pictures.
Jacob and his date Ashley
Here are three of the couples, including Katie and her date Josh, on the right. There were some other couples plus the Bishop and his daughter and some other leaders each came with a spouse or child.
good friends
They had a good time. Apparently Jacob and another member of the quorum did an ice skating performance in the middle of the rink for everyone. After the skating, most of the kids went over to the 16th birthday party for a friend in the Stake. I think they all had a good time. They're growing up!

December Activities

We did some fun things in December.
We attended the Ward Christmas party, which had a live nativity involving Beth and Adam (Adam is the shepherd on the left and Beth is the Lamanite kneeling and shooting the arrow.) Santa Claus was also there; only Beth, Jeffrey and Anna were willing to sit on Santa's lap for a picture.

Adam was willing to sit on Santa's lap at Rich's work party, though.



Beth was baptized on December 11.

Then we went to San Francisco for Daniel's basketball game. After the game, we climbed the Golden Gate Bridge and went to the Oakland Temple to see the Christmas lights.

Every year, by the end of the year, we are slacking off in our scripture reading. Maybe it's because December is so busy. So every year we are motivated to come up with a new plan for getting back on track.

In 2010, we rewarded every month of 25 days or more of scripture reading with a special dinner. Sometimes we went out and sometimes we made something special at home, complete with a dessert we don't normally have. That worked pretty well (up until the last while.) So we are sticking with a reward theme.

For 2011, we are going to earn points for reading every night. We decided to come up with a list of 'prizes' for the whole family that the points can be used toward. We are going to rig the point system so it works out that we can earn about one prizedfrom the list per month.

Last night, we sat around and thought up a list of prizes as a family. Here is what we came up with:

1. Costco chocolate cake
2. Mom's homemade cinnamon rolls
3. The Wii game Just Dance 1 or 2 (the boys highly protested this one, but it got a nomination and a second)
4. Family Holiday where Dad and all children take a day off school and work
5. 2 dozen doughnuts (so everyone can have 2)
6. Dinner at IHOP
7. Homemade candy bar shakes
8. Pizza and soda for dinner (we have pizza just about every Friday night, but not SODA)
9. Unlimited Root Beer floats
10. Everyone gets to pick their own box of sugar cereal
11. One pound of bulk candy of choice from Winco for each family member
12. Trip to the movies
13. Wristband and snack at snack bar at the public pool this summer (wrist band means you get to go on the extra climbing structures not included in the entrance fee)
14. Each person gets to pick out two things from the Dollar Tree
15. In n Out Dinner
16. Everyone gets a treat from Costco food court

Notice how most things revolved around food? I think that's the influence of teenage boys. Of course, some prizes will be worth more points than others (like the IHOP Dinner which costs about $100 vs. homemade cinnamon rolls which is under $5). We are putting in place a plan to randomly get extra points for reading every month so we can earn some of the bigger prizes if we are lucky and save up our points.

The kids were so excited they were ready to start right away. So we earned our first point for reading last night.

I like it and think we will have a pretty successful scripture experience this year, right up until December.

Last Sunday we asked a friend to take a picture of our family for our family Christmas letter. We lined everyone up. As expected, Anna and Jeffrey had a hard time staying still for the camera. But one other family member had a hard time. Look in the upper right corner to see Jacob's many changing faces.
As our friends' Christmas letters and pictures arrived, I noticed their teenage boys didn't cooperate much for the camera either. Several of them had straight, serious, almost angry-looking faces, and one had his Ipod earbud complete with cord hanging down in the ear that was showing. So I guess I should consider us lucking to have the goofy teenager rather than the sullen one. When I asked Jacob why he made so many weird faces, he pointed out that he smiled in at least a few pictures. Unfortunately, that was when Jeffrey was getting bored or Anna was taking off her sweater.

Here is the picture we chose. Jacob didn't love the goofy look on his face, but I told him it was natural consequences. Maybe he will stay still a little better next year...but probably not!