10 January 2016 - New Year

On our last full day in southern Utah, we took the kids to Pioneer Park on the sandstone bluffs at the north end of St. George. When I was a teenager I used to love to go to this park (which is much nicer now than it was in those days) and squeeze through the St. George narrows, which is a crack that at points it no more than 18 inches wide. Nowadays, I don't fit. Here are the girls at the bottom of the narrows crack.

And here they are at the top, astride the top of the crack.

We hiked all around Pioneer Park. I liked this picture of the kiddos standing on top of one of the sandstone formations with the sun shining brightly and the city in the background.

Some of the girl cousins on our hike.

After our week of fun in St. George we came home and got ready to return to our routines. On Saturday of our first week of the new year, we went to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the BYU art museum.

3 January 2016 - Southern Utah New Year

The Tuesday after Christmas, we drove to St. George to spend New Year's with Angie's family and my Aunt Joey. Our Sundance season passes entitled us to some free passes at Brian Head Ski resort near Parowan (which is near Cedar City), so we spent two days skiing there.

When not skiing, we played lots and lots of games. Emily and Levi built some serious domino structures.

Here we are playing Mexican Train (dominos) with Joey, my cousin Konrad and by brother Mike.

Jessica playing a game with a bunch of her cousins. I can't remember what game they're playing here.

We rang in the New Year as a family, and then returned home Saturday afternoon. After several weeks of playing, it is time to begin the New Year and return to work, school, routine, and normal. And that's definitely a good thing. We were extremely blessed in 2015 and experienced so much. We look forward to a prosperous 2016, and hope the same for all of our family and friends.

27 December 2015 - Christmas Fun

Although our trip to Australia was most of our Christmas, Santa did visit us and brought a few things to our house for Christmas day.

Each of the girls got a digital picture frame to help them remember the special experiences in their lives.

We all got a few small gifts in our stockings as well. Mine was a movie theater gift card. We had a Star Wars marathon, watching episodes 1 - 6 in order, then on the day after Christmas, we all went to the theater to see the new Star Wars movie.

We also got season passes to Sundance Ski Resort this winter. We've enjoyed a few days skiing already. It's uncommon, but right now, Sundance has the deepest snow pack of all ski resorts in Utah.

We also got to spend time with family during Christmas. Emily knitted this hat for cousin Adrienne.

20 December 2015 - Christmas Preparations

Christmas was nearly upon us by the time we returned from our trip to PA. On Monday, we attended a production of The Nutcracker in Provo.

Tuesday was the annual North family Christmas party at my Aunt Maurine's house. We've been gone for many years and so we haven't been able to attend this party. It was good to get back together and see our extended family again.

We did have time to get a tree put up, and hang stockings by the chimney, with care.

On Friday we went to Temple Square to see the lights.

Here we are getting in the Christmas spirit. When we first got there, it wasn't too cold, as you can see in this picture, but we soon buttoned up coats and put on hats.

13 December 2015 - A Visit Back to PA

This week I had a conference at Harrisburg University in Pennsylvania. We took advantage of the trip to have Joanne join me for a weekend back in Washington, PA to see old friends. We visited our old ward there, and took a few drives to see some of the places we used to go. This is a view at dusk of Prosperity, PA, where several members of our ward live.

It wouldn't be Washington, PA if you don't occassionally see something like a whiskey flask on the floor at Wal-mart.

After our weekend visit, we drove three hours east to Harrisburg for my conference.

Here I am giving my presentation, which was very well received by the attendees.

 The evening after I gave my talk, Joanne and I went for a walk along the Susquehanna River, which runs through the middle of Harrisburg. They had several areas decorated for Christmas.

On Wednesday we drove back to Washington, PA for our flight out of Pittsburgh. We met old friends (Kitas and Stephens) for lunch at Los Chiludos, which was a favorite Mexican restaurant of ours.

It was good to be back with friends and see old familiar territory for a few days.

6 December 2015 - Settling In

Our arrival back at home brought us back to reality. There were still many boxes to unpack, and much work left to be done. One day, Joanne's sister Jennifer brought her baby over for us to watch. I put her in a box, but only long enough to take a photo.

The contractors messed up our kitchen counters more than I will discuss here, but I'll commemorate the mess ups with this photo of no kitchen counter top.

The finish-up projects are starting to subside now, thank goodness, and we're finally getting settled into the new house.

29 November 2015 - Australia Part II

Here are the girls on our last day on Heron Island.

After three days at Heron Island, we returned to Gladstone, drove about an hour south to 1770, then took a boat to Lady Musgrave Island, a more southerly island in the Great Barrier chain. Although we had never been scuba diving before, the girls and I decided to give it a try. Here's me with Madeline in our gear.

Jessica and Emily, geared up for their first scuba dive.

My ears couldn't take the scuba diving very much, but the girls did great. Even without scuba, the snorkeling at Lady Musgrave Island was amazing. We found clown fish, many different kinds of tangs, coral of many shapes and sizes, and sea turtles all around us.

On Friday, my parents took us to a wild animal preserve. There were many animals there, but the koalas were the biggest hit.

 Madeline was in heaven feeding the animals. She particularly loved feeding the wallabies.

And holding a snake.

Jessica preferred holding a bird.

 So did Emily.

But the hit of the day with all the girls was Capri the koala.

All the girls liked her.

This is us at the Captain Cook monument, commemorating the "discovery" of the eastern shore of Australia by European explorers.

In the US, we must watch for deer crossing the road.

We went swimming at this beach, called Tannum Sands near my parents' house. After we swam, we saw this sign, warning of dangerous currents, underwater hazards, jellyfish and saltwater crocodiles. We experienced none of these on our visit, fortunately.

Our trip to Australia was an experience we will never forget, and it was wonderful to share it with my parents.

22 November 2015 - Australia Part I

We had scarcely moved into our house when the date finally arrived for our trip to Australia to visit my parents for Thanksgiving. This trip had been in the works for many months. My parents are serving as missionaries in the Brisbane mission, and are currently assigned to Gladstone, which is an industrial city about 7 hours driving north of Brisbane, adjacent to great barrier reef. We arrive on Sunday (left on Friday) and my mom had a proper Thanksgiving feast ready for us. We shared it with the young sister missionaries. This is all of us at my mom and dad's flat.

Sunday evening we went to an area near the beach to see kangaroos.

I took this picture of a sunset looking out over the Great Barrier Reef.

Monday morning we took a boat ride 2 hours east of Gladstone to Heron Island. This is one of the highest rated snorkel and dive spots in the world. It is a small island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds and surrounded by gorgeous white sand beaches and aqua blue water teeming with marine life. Here is my mom with Jessica.

And with Madeline. Somehow we didn't get this picture with Emily.

Here's all the girls when we arrived on Heron Island.

Before we even got off the boat, I saw a ray, a turtle and a shark (small, non-dangerous reef shark). This photo of a ray turned out very nice.

As did this one of a turtle.

I didn't get very many good photos of fish, though we saw thousands of them while snorkeling the warm, calm waters on all sides of the island.

The girls got in a little sea turtle ride.

This is Jessica with the boat we rode on in the background.