Ancestors

Over the years, Christi has helped all of our kids (except Elli) do a homework project on their ancestors.  A favorite subject of this project is Christoffer Larsen, our kids' great great grandfather on Christi's side.  Born in Norway in 1875, Christoffer picked berries to help earn money for his family to immigrate to America.  I find it really quite wonderful to watch our kids learn about their heritage.  I find it especially great that our adopted kids have both their biological heritage in China and an adoptive heritage from many countries in Europe.

Sophi did a great job presenting her project at school!  Here is our proud little girl:

This is Christoffer Larsen and his wife Lily:

Throwback Thursday

Taylor has loved basketball from a young age:)

Elli never was one for looking at the camera...

Best friends!

Parker and his sweet friend, Daisy

Superheroes

Marvel Universe Live came to Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago and I won two tickets!  Xander and I went on an awesome daddy date:).  They were VIP tickets that included a meet and greet, snacks and a gift bag with some swag.  The two of us took TRAX into Salt Lake and had great evening.  Such fun memories with such a great kid!

 The guy playing Spider-man was absolutely awesome!!!

Caveat Emptor!

You have to assume that anytime you see a disclaimer it's because someone actually suffered the fate that said disclaimer warns you against.  When I saw this sign, I had to chuckle as I thought of the poor Mormon mother who came sobbing into the grocery store, distraught that 10-year-old Johnny was drunk...

Jer

Christmas Eve Sledding:)

I had Christmas Eve off this year.  I love long holiday weekends with the family.  We drove down to the local sledding hill and had some fun!  It was Conner's first time sledding:)

Hiking in 2015

I love to hike!  This past summer I went on several hikes, covering around 50 miles and over 12000 feet of elevation gain.  Some by myself, some with others, including Xander, Taylor, Parker, my brother Tyler, and Molly.  I will miss Molly this year.  She was a great hiking companion.  Here are some pics:)

First hike of the season, Xander, Molly and visited a waterfall in Salt Lake county.  Beautiful spot!

Molly and I took on the most difficult hike I think I've ever done.  It's up American Fork Canyon.  We started at around 7,200 feet at Silver Lake Flat Reservoir, hiked up to two mountain lakes, Silver Lake and Silver Glance Lake and then made it to the top of Red Baldy, about at 11,200 feet .  Nine miles round trip and 4000 feet elevation gain.  Awesome!!!

Tyler, Molly, and I made it to the top of Squaw Peak, about 3000 feet above Provo and BYU below:

Taylor and Parker joined a mission friend of mine, Mike Dorius, and his daughter Allison on a hike up Angel's Landing.  My phone was almost dead, so I just got one picture:

Taylor, Parker, Tyler, Molly and I went on a big hike with a couple of the young men leaders from our church.  We got to the top of a 10,000 foot peak in Pleasant Grove, Big Baldy.  On the way down we cooled off in Battle Creek Falls:

I did a couple more by myself.  Kanarra Creek Falls near Cedar City, UT is a gorgeous slot canyon.  I had to do some creek walking and climb some rather tenuous ladders along the way:)

Lake Blanche is up Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake.  It was the last weekend before snow, so the trees are rather bare.  I saw three moose on this hike.  Fun!

Looking forward to revisiting some of these spots and finding some new ones in 2016!  Of course we also visited Lone Peak and did our Fall Break southern Utah trip with my dad.  I'll blog those in separate posts:)

Jeremy