Happy New Year!

This week was another action packed week. With Tyler and Minde still in town, we had a lot of activities planned, and we finished off the new year with some family pictures and fun.

On Monday, we spent the morning at Greenfield Village. They had a special train area set up, and the kids were in heaven! Soren really enjoyed the small trains, but was quite afraid of the big trains up front. He did go inside one. He especially liked Rosa Park's city bus, and wondered why it wouldn't move. Keira had a blast with her cousins. She enjoyed the trains and becoming a hot dog at the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile.

On Tuesday, we took a day trip to Kirtland, OH, to see the church history sites. We started at the Johnson Farm, where Joseph Smith lived with his family at the time when he was tarred and feathered by the mob. After visiting the farm, which is south of Kirtland, we quickly stopped at the quarry where the stones were taken to build the Kirtland Temple. We were disappointed when we arrived at the temple to learn that it was not open on Mondays or Tuesdays in December, so we were unable to go inside. It is not owned or operated by our church, but the LDS Kirtland Visitor's Center was open. We were able to take a guided tour of Historic Kirtland, including the Newel K Whitney Store with the school of the Prophets. It was a wonderful experience. I wished we had come out here when we lived in Westlake, as it was very close.

On Wednesday, we started the morning with family pictures for the kids. It was not the easiest to get all 8 children in the photo, but eventually we got some shots that we could use. I don't have any images yet, but will post them once I have them. After the pictures, Kris and Linda took the older children to see Yogi Bear while the rest of the adults and young children headed to Ann Arbor to walk around and get some ice cream. Soren got a quick nap at home, before it was time to bring him to Kris and Linda's, where he and Keira would be having a sleepover. They had gotten a babysitter so that we could go to the Great Lakes Invitational Hockey game between UM and Michigan Tech at Joe Lewis Arena. It was fun to go downtown for a game. I even made it on the jumbo tron with Ryan and Linda. UM won that game, as well as the tournament the next day.

On Thursday, we had a low key day. We started the morning with a "Get Your Wiggles Out" class at the library. It was a bit more crazy than the regular storytimes, and I was glad that Ryan went so that we each had one child to watch through the stations, as we got separated a bit.









That evening, we went over to Greg and Ellyn's for some take out dinner with everyone.

On Friday, we had a long day for New Year's Eve. With the temperatures warming, we decided to do a family photo shoot outdoors in Ann Arbor. We took some in Nickel's Arcade as it was decorated nicely and slightly indoors, as well as the Law Quad on UM Campus. I always feel like I should see guys running around it like on Chariots of Fire, especially when the kids broke out into a run as an attempt to get warm. We should have brought our new camera with us, as Keira and Soren were pretty cute. We did take a few pics with our old camera, and Greg set up his camera to shoot everyone with the tripod.











Keira also wore one of her new dresses with matching doll outfit for the afternoon.

While Soren napped, I went to Meijer. It was an absolute zoo. I found out that the power had gone out just south of the area so that Kroger's was closed, and so that had a lot to do with it. Had I been aware of that, I totally would have gone to Busch's just to save time (but not money). I was in line for at least 20 minutes and was thinking about how glad I was that I didn't have anything that needed to be refrigerated to spoil while in line. Then I remembered I didn't have the cream I needed for the fondue! ARGH! I decided it would be faster to just stay put and stop at Busch's on the way home, and I am sure it was, as there was NO line for the express lane. We went over to Kent and Valerie's for an early NYE. We had cheese fondue, pizza, and chocolate fondue. Keira and Soren made it until about 10 until Kent made the suggestion to Soren that he was ready to go home. It was like Soren had no clue that it was an option prior to that, as he burst into tears, and then asked to put his shoes on. We headed home to put the kids to bed before celebrating the new year at home.

On New Year's Day, the kids woke us up at 8am. They don't seem capable of sleeping in much. Ryan started the morning by doing an indoor trainer ride with Kent and some friends. I hung out with the kids at home.


Once Ryan got back, he took the kids over to Kris and Linda's to watch the bowl game. I went to run with Valerie at Kensington. It was surprisingly warm, a high of 47, and it was at the high when I left the house. I opted for a running skirt to show off my pink CEP compression socks. had the whole run been in 47 degree weather, I would have been in good shape. The sun was shining, and it felt really warm. however, towards the end, especially running by the beaches, it was SO cold. I was freezing. My whole bottom half was super cold, and my feet ached from being cold. I just wanted to be in the car so much that I really pushed the pace those last few miles to get done. When we got in the car and checked the temp, it said 36 degrees. A bit cold for a skirt, even with tall socks. It was a great day to be running, though, and it was great to push through. My calves felt great during the run, though, so I feel like the socks did their job. I am curious to run in them again when I am dressed better, as my feet were uncomfortable. I am hoping it was just that they were cold and I overdid the dress shoes this week.


That night, Ryan saw Tron and I worked on getting the Christmas decorations down. I did light the pyramid one last time before taking it down. I hate that in-between stage, but did go to bed without finishing.

On Sunday, we had our first afternoon church in a year. We spent the morning relaxing and finished up the un-decorating process. Church went surprisingly well considering that it is now completely during Soren's naptime. Keira entertained herself with Paige and Lizzie during sacrament meeting, and Soren was so tired he was content to just be held for the most part, and was relatively quiet. We opted to just keep him up and not let him nap today. Hopefully that doesn't backfire too much tomorrow. My dress that I got from my mom with the giftcard came in time for church.

Now that the tree is down, there is room now for all the train tracks. The kids played fairly well with all the trains, and we also watched Toy Story 3 tonight with them.