Top 10 of 2008 - #1 Martin's Cove

Finally!! We got through the top ten. My very favorite memory of the year is a very special one. Unfortunately, only Dave and I could go - we had to leave the kids home. One day, though, we will all go. In July, we were lucky enough to be asked to go with our ward to Martin's Cove. Of course, because of Dave's expertise in the videography industry, we were asked to document the trek with pictures and video.


For those of you who don't know what Martin's Cove is, it is a very important and historical site for the church. It is located almost smack dab in the middle of Wyoming. It is where the Martin Handcart Company was stranded during the winter on their way crossing the plains to Salt Lake City 150 years ago. We also got to go to Sixth Crossing and Rocky Ridge, which are near by. Those are the locations that the Willie Handcart Company suffered through their very similar ordeal at the same time.


For the trek, the youth were put into families and had to pull their handcarts in good old fashioned pioneer clothing. Yes, that mean skirts for the women. We hiked MILES!! It was a lot of work....and I didn't have to pull a handcart. I was in charge of our tiny video camera. Poor Dave lugged around our big camera and tripod everywhere. He ran back and forth through the trek line and made and incredible video when it was all said and done. (I was tempted to upload it to blogger, but I think and hour long video would be a little much.)


These are incredible places. Really, there is nothing at either of these places but the monuments that were constructed. When I say nothing.....I literally mean NOTHING. No houses, no city, no cell phone reception, no stores (okay...I take that back, there is one tiny store in Muddy Gap, nearby Martin's Cove and I think the only reason it is even in existence is because of all the Mormon tourists who go through). But, it is one of the most spiritual places I have ever been to. Being able to walk in the same footsteps as these faithful pioneers is really a life changing, testimony building experience. I highly recommend everyone to go.


Here are a few pictures Dave took of our experience (literally FEW - he took hundreds!)

What an amazing group of kids! It was just our ward youth, but I think there were almost as many adults who came as youth. But, really, can you blame them?!?

Don't judge this picture too harshly. This is after 4 days of no showers. We were both SOOO exhausted by this point.

Top 10 of 2008 - #2 Visiting Family

We were lucky this year to get to see so much family. We live close to Dave's family, so we get to see them pretty often. But, my family lives in Albuquerque, so we only get to see them a couple of times a year. Me and the kids got to stay with them for a whole week while Dave was in Colorado working on his Master's program in June.

Grandpa & Grandma Martin, Bria, Max, Shatzi & Dave.

We also got to visit Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Frank in Oregon. We love it over in Oregon, but especially love visiting them!

Grandpa Frank, Grandma Sharon, Bria, Max, Dave & Shatzi.

Top 10 of 2008 - #3 The Oregon Coast Aquarium

After we visited the ocean, we headed down the the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It was awesome!!! Although, I do think the kids would have liked it better if they were older. They had about every fish you could imagine. The kids loved petting the starfish. Some of them were actually pretty soft - surprisingly!

There was a clear tunnel we walked through that had fish swimming all around us. It was cool. Some of the fish were very large! Look at the size of the fish Max is looking at!

Top 10 of 2008 - #4 The Ocean

We had to take the kids to see the ocean while we were in Oregon. I mean, who wouldn't want to go do that - we were already so close. So, we planned a day to go the Newport and on the way stopped at Lincoln City and went to the beach. It was May, and not very warm outside yet. I couldn't believe all the swimmers! We were way to chicken for that. I don't know if the kids enitrely knew what to think about all the water. But, they had fun and Bria got quite a collection of sea shells by the time we left.

Top 10 of 2008 - #5 Explora!

Explora! is a children's museum in Albuquerque. It is AWESOME!!! And, it is so inexpensive to visit. I think it's only a few dollars for kids and maybe $5 for grown ups. Our friends Emily and Camron took us while we were there visiting. This museum is seriously for the young and old. It has all kinds of interactive exibits that the kids can play with. Here are just a few:



Max is playing with a marble roller coaster.

Bria is building a maze for the ball to roll through.

Max and Bria are arranging water blocks to see how is affects the current.

Max is watching air blow the beach ball up in the air. It was fun to see how many balls could float at the same time.

Bria making HUGE bubbles.

Max making his bubbles. I couldn't believe he could figure it out!

They had an awesome playground outside. It was the perfect end to the day. Max was being a little cautious going down this interesting slide.

Bria wasn't afraid at all. She went down over and over again.

A Funny Mom Song

This is a good laugh for anyone who's a mom.

Webster Family Christmas Party

We had our annual Webster Family Christmas party yesterday. Dave and I were in charge this year. So, we packed all 29 people into our small house. It was way fun. We ate hawaiian haystacks, opened presents and had a great time!

I love Max's lunch innovation. I guess it would be easier to take small bites of a roll if it was already on the wrong end of your fork. He wasn't very happy about getting his picture taken. I think he was more interested in eating at the time.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Cookies for Santa

I am really big on traditions. But this year, it seems like time got away from us, so some of our traditions were saved until the last minute and done with a few shortcuts. Cookies for Santa was one. Every year we make these really yummy sugar cookies that my mom always makes. Usually we spend a lot of time decorating with homemade frosting. But, this year, we barely got them made Christmas eve afternoon. So, instead of homemade frosting, we got to use white frosting from a can. But, the kids still had a blast and got to give their cookies to Santa. Tradition preserved - albeit in a simpler way this year.

Christmas Eve Pajamas

We have a tradition of getting pajamas for Christmas eve every year. This year, we also got the kids robes and slipper. It was so cute! Max loved his robe and slippers so much, he slept with them on and didn't want to get out of them until late afternoon on Christmas day.

Top 10 of 2008 - #6 The Enchanted Forest

On our visit to Oregon in May, our friends took us to this really cool place called The Enchanted Forest. It is just south of Salem. Because it is so green and forest-y all over in Oregon, it is really a magical place. It is built around a fairy tale theme. So, you can go to the 3 Bear's house and see Goldilocks asleep in the bed. Or, see the witch and her gingerbread house.

The kids looking at Gretel and the witch in the gingerbread house.

Bria and Faith going down the shoe slide - from There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

Mom taking Max down the slide. We are sitting next to our friend Chris and his son Josh. It's a pretty fun slide if you can't tell from the joyful expression on the kids faces.

Josh, Faith and Bria getting their picture taken with Abraham Lincoln.

Bria and Max going on a small Ferris wheel ride. Max screamed pretty much the whole time. I think that was about his limit for the day.

Going into the witches mouth - ooooooo scarrrrry!! There is another slide coming out the back.

Top 10 of 2008 - #7 Rexburg Spray Park

Rexburg has this really awesome water park that is free to go to. We went a few times this summer. The kids love it!! It has water slides, fountains, water falls. Pretty much any way to get wet. It is so fun!!

Top 10 of 2008 - #8 The Trampoline

One of our favorite things of the summer was our trampoline. It provided hours of fun for both of our kids. They both learned how to do quite a few tricks. I wish we would have gotten Max doing his front flip on video, but we missed that one. Here are some of our favorite trampoline shots.

"What are you doing?"

Max says "What are you doing?" to everyone lately. He says it to the lady in line at the grocery store. He says it to dad when he gets home from work. The only time it seemed like we couldn't get him to say it was when we wanted to video it. Luckily, Bria came to our rescue and did a goofy little dance to get Max to ask his infamous question. I think he says it so funny!

Christmas Blizzard

We are having some bad weather today. The downside is we have some serious last minute Christmas shopping to do. I'm afraid to leave the house. Dave plowed our driveway 3 hours ago. This what our driveway looks like from our front window. I don't know that our car would even make it out without another plow.

And here is the lovely view from our back window:
The kids can hardly stand to wait a minute longer for Christmas. The anticipation just keeps growing! Bria walked in on me today wrapping presents - of course they weren't presents for her, but she didn't know that. She quickly said "Oops, sorry mom. Didn't mean to bug you while you are wrapping my presents." Then quickly turned around and left. I cleared up the confusion so she knows the cute doll was actually for her cousin. I would hate to have her disappointed to not see that under the tree.

The kids looked darling before Church yesterday. I told them to stand next to each other in front of the tree and Bria went straight for the hug pose. It was cute.

Max and the Green Sharpie

At least he picked a Christmas color!

A Visit with Santa

Last night was our ward Christmas party. It was fun! We were very lucky and were visited by both Santa and Mrs. Claus. The kids were so excited!!! I didn't think we could talk Max into going to sit on Santa's lap (and I guess technically he didn't.....he picked Mrs. Claus instead) but when he realized that he would be getting a treat, he ran to the front of the line and climbed right on Mrs. Claus's lap. It was cute. Bria asked Santa for a computer.......what am I supposed to do with that?!? Santa told her it was a pretty tall order and that he would have to check with her parents first. Thank you, Santa!

Move over Charlie Brown! We have our very own Linus.

Max loves his blanket. As I have been going through the photos of the year, I realized we have an abundance of Max either with or near his blanket. He really hates to be without it. Hopefully one day he will grow out of his obsession, but for now it's fun to have him be little.

Salt Lake City

We had a fun and awesome trip to Salt Lake over the weekend. This is my favorite time to go with all of the Christmas events going on. Poor Max got croup the first night we were there, so we didn't know how well he would do. But he was such a trooper. He was really happy most of the time. We were so busy on Saturday that by the time we got back to the hotel room it was after 11:00. Max said "Me so tired!" So we told him he could go right to bed. He immediately said "THANK YOU!" I never thought I would hear one of our kids say that! Here are a few of the highlights from our trip.

Tylynn's Drill Team Competition:
Our niece Tylynn was in Salt Lake for a drill team competition which was AWESOME! There were schools from all over the state competing. Those girls are amazing!! The competition went all day, but we could only stay for a few hours. Her team did great - winning multiple first prizes in their division. Seriously - after Bria saw those girls dancing, I don't think we are going to have much a chance of keeping her out of dance lessons for long. Her eyes were glued the whole 4 hours we were there.

Temple Square:
What would a trip to Salt Lake in December be without a visit to Temple Square? We almost didn't go, though. We drove around the temple for 45 minutes looking for a parking spot. I have NEVER seen it so hard to park - even during General Conference. Apparently there was a broadcast with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Just when we were about to give up, we found a spot - and it was so worth it. I could go every year and not get tired of all the lights. It is amazing! We were lucky because it snowed the whole day on Saturday, so by Saturday night, it was a winter wonderland. It made everything so magical! Max was so funny. He has been building castles with his blocks for weeks now. When he saw the temple, he started dancing around and saying "Castle! Castle!" All the passers-by thought he was saying "Temple! Temple!" It was quite funny.

Seeing Tyson:
The kids hardly ever get to see their Uncle Tyson. With his work and school schedule, we are lucky to see him once a year. On the drive to his house, Bria kept asking what Tyson looks like. His apartment is only about 2 blocks from Temple Square. It is awesome!! He doesn't even have a car because his job and everything are right downtown. How fun would that be - being a bachelor living the city life. We got to meet his beautiful girlfriend Jalim (which you say Jadim - she is Korean). I think Bria made a new best friend! She is so cute and nice. We really like her.

The Hotel and Visiting Cousins:
The hotel we stayed in was AWESOME! We pricelined it and so we really didn't know what we would get. We stayed at Little America right in downtown Salt Lake. They really worked with us - the reservation was accidentally made for the wrong weekend, and we didn't know until Friday evening. They gladly changed the dates for us. When we pulled in, we realized what a deal we got when they had valet parking and one of those great big outdoor chandeliers outside the front door. The rooms were HUGE. Normally, I wouldn't even write about this stuff, but we only paid $50 a night for our hotel. It was definitely the best priceline hotel we have ever gotten.

In the lobby they had this great big gingerbread house. It was adorable. We met my sister and her kids there to give them their Christmas gifts and got a picture of the kids in front of it.

All in all it was a way fun trip. We are all exhausted and glad to be home.