Christmas Vacation

What do you do on your Christmas break from school?  When the clouds decide to open up and dump lots of snow on you?

 

Well, Bump actually puts together a puzzle with me (between sessions of snow shoveling)

You get really good at making roaring fires to snuggle up to.

And you do a lot of snuggling in front of that fire.

 

Fin has his buddy Bokkie around while Lee and Trish took their kids to South Africa.

You get Jared's family to come over and enjoy your fire.

You can't have Christmas without Grandma Wright's famous cheese dip!  Yum!

 And then you ruin all of the cozy fireside snuggles with having to complete mandatory school Science Fair projects!!!!  What the heck is that all about?  They were due for both Corban and Gabby in January, right after the break.

Corban decided to do his on how you can keep onions from making you cry.

The goggles and freezing the onion before you cut it up worked the best.

Gabby's was all about smell and how it affects your taste.  She used different juices and had people cover their eyes and their noses for part of the test and then guess what they were drinking.

Jared's family came over to help her out.  It was all very interesting, but not exactly what you want to be doing on your break from school!  Gabby ended up going to the district science fair with her project, but not placing there.

Exciting happenings for the Collings

Tracy and Steve received their mission call to serve as the Mission President in the Uganda Kampala Mission in Eastern Africa.  They leave in July to serve for 3 years.

Also they had a wedding for their daughter Kaylea to Kirby Harris.

Their son Conner also left on his mission to Honolulu Hawaii in October.  Lots of changes happened this fall for the Colllings Family!

Fall and Halloween

Nothing like a big pile of leaves and a good book to read in the back yard on a lovely Fall day.

Fall means time for soccer.  Bump and Lee coached Corban and Peter's team again.

 Happy Halloween!  The kids had a costume parade at their elementary and Casi took pictures of the kids for me.  Sadly it's the only picture I have of Quincy in costume.

Gabby as zombie Cinderella

Quincy as a doll

Corban the zombie soccer player

Zombie Princesses

Parlee as Snow White, Gabby as Cinderella, Mallory as Tinkerbell

The boys ready to get some treats!

Corban, Peter, Ed, Lewis, and Brigham

BYU Football!

Dave got us tickets for the BYU vs UCLA football game, so we drove down with Jared and Casi in September.  Bump's Mazda gets great gas mileage and so it was a quick, cheap trip.

On the way down we stopped at a gas station and ran into Kaylea and her fiancé Kirby.  We had never met Kirby before so it was fun to get to meet him.  What a great surprise!

I finally got the chance to use my BYU nail stickers!  Gotta get in the right spirit!

 We had great tailgating food and watched other football games on tv while we waited for our game. Tracy and Steve, Steve and Sara, and Steve's brother John and his wife Molly joined us as well.

What a game!  BYU looked AMAZING and lead the game right up until the end and UCLA came back and beat us.  Dave was thrilled, but we were all very bummed!  Still super fun to be there!

Later in the season Jared was able to snag us some tickets for another game.  Bump took the kids and they had a great time!  Corban had more fun than the girls did (they just don't get it yet). After the game Corban got some of the players' signatures.

Ed and Jared needed to get in the picture!

Tanner Mangum had the best attitude with the kids.  He made each one feel so special.  He's a great quarterback and a really good kid.

Corban loves Nick Kurtz!

Showing Tanner Mangum's signature on his shirt.

 He added more signatures to both his shirt and his ball at later games.  We love BYU football!