Christmas 2009

Here is the quick summary of what happened in 2009 for the Smith family: Brent finished the Ironman triathlon, Anna gained 6 inches in height, Alycia once again had straight A’s, and Joseph has learned to speak Latin without an accent. What a year! If you are not confused right now you must be thinking of some other Smiths, because this year was fairly ordinary for us.

In March we went to LA and saw Universal Studios, the tar pits, and the beach. A surprise gem for the family was the Getty museum, which had many amazing works of art and was completely free. July was spent first in Utah at Brent’s family reunion, then up in Yellowstone. Anna was a good sport and put up with two night of camping, complete with bears, buffalos, and a thunderstorm that seemed determined to destroy our tent. We are ending the year here at home, but have Brent’s parents coming to escape the snow.

Joseph, 10, began this year cutting the cheese. His pine wood derby race car was shaped as a triangle block of cheese, complete with holes and mice. Both he and Brent were surprised to see it take 4^th place out of 30 or more boys. He earned his Bear in Cub Scouts and is now working on his Weblos. Besides Scouts, Joseph continues to keep busy with piano, and various therapies. He is in 4^th grade now and misses his big sister who has moved on to Junior High.

This was a big year for Alycia. She left Elementary School and Primary and has moved on to 7^th grade and the Young Women organization at church. This is her third year in the CATS (smartypants) program, but the first year that she has really been challenged. It has been a painful adjustment for everyone. She was able to get her ears pierced when she turned 12 in August, but it took a couple months for her to build up her courage and get poked. She has gained several inches in height and has now passed Anna as the tallest girl in the house.

Anna began the year with two of her favorites: Chemistry and Algebra classes. There is nothing better that she likes than having those beasts out of the way. She did well, but put her schooling on hold in the fall to focus on helping the kids with their schooling. Some need more help focusing, doing work, and meeting deadlines than their brother does. (I’m not going to say who.) Anna also started the year as a Cub Scout Den Leader, where she spends an hour each week teaching up to 10 boys various skills. She really enjoys doing this, although there are usually one or two boys that challenge her.

Brent received a similar challenge in August when he was asked to be the Scoutmaster for the local troop of a dozen 12-13 year old boys. He worked with the youth once a decade ago and has dreaded having to do it again ever since. It was a struggle to get organized at first, but it has become enjoyable for Brent to go on campouts and hikes again. Before scouting, Brent had been teaching Sunday School for a couple years. Anna misses hearing his lessons, but has been very supportive of his new responsibility. He is still working at Global Crossing, where he designs the backbone of the Internet.

We miss all of our family and old friends and are glad we can keep in touch (or at least keep tabs) with many of you via Facebook and blogs. We are constantly surprised to see you and your kids getting older. That might happen to us one of these days if we aren’t careful, but not yet. We hope that you are all doing well and enjoying the Light of Christ this Christmas season.

Love,

Brent, Anna, Alycia, and Joseph Smith

Summer vacation in Utah...

Our vacation to Yellowstone....

After the Smith reunion, we went up to Yellowstone National Park. I never thought I'd survive all the camping involved. Our plan was to camp overnight for 3 nights. That in itself is almost an eternity for my pampered self. I am no pre-madonna...I know...I know...my siblings and stepdad call me "Mrs. Hollywood"....but I'm really not that difficult. Anywho, we ended up leaving a day earlier than anticipated. Here's why....

The first day went really well. We saw a bear 20 minutes after we entered the park, which was totally awesome! I've never seen a bear in the wild. We stopped to see an Elk or dear (are they the same?...just curious) and someone yelled that there was a bear across the river. I liked the fact that the river separated us from the brown beast. That night went very well. It wasn't freezing cold like we thought it would be, but it was quite chilly. I think it was cold to me, since I'm so used to really hot weather. We all slept peacefully....

The second day went well. We went and saw tons of Bison and wild animals throughout the park. It was absolutely amazing...Afterwards, we went to church at the outside amplitheatre of our campsite. It was interesting with everyone dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. I felt a bit strange wearing my sunglasses. After church we started to get our dinner ready and marshmellows roasted. By then I was feeling great...like I could totally do this camping thing. Boohoo...our campfire kept dying. So we ended up having to cook it with the stove. There goes my dutch oven experience. Oh well. The food smelled delicous. So delicous that I thought a bear would come to our campsite. Luckily, no bears paid us a visit for dinner. Then sprinkles started to make their presence. Oh no...great...they stopped. The family finally got to eat their marshmellows since our almost non existent fire turned to coal. Fun Fun Fun....grr...more sprinkles. We cleaned up everything, then the hail started. Yes...hail...I don't camp with hail! We all escaped to the van. Fun huh? Once it died down the temperature dropped. Like realy dropped! I could see my breath cold! We head for our tent and luckily we brought plenty of warm clothes and blankets. I married Mr. Outdoorsman/Perfect...he was smart to put a tarp above our tent. It kept us nice and dry. Thanks babe! By 2am...it started to rain, thunder and lightning. It felt like a bomb went off above us. That's it! We're leaving! Joseph and I start freaking out! Alycia just goes back to sleep. Brent calms us down and we go back to sleep. By morning I head up to the Ranger's station to get the weather update...and they predict the same weather as the night before. Early check-out please! Needless to say, we checkout and do a quick visit to rest of the sites we needed to see at the park. The kids got their Jr. Ranger patches and we took plenty of pictures.

We all had a wonderful time at Yellowstone. It's one of the most amazing National Parks I've ever been to. It's definantly a "must see" wonder. As for camping...I'm still not a fan. We did take showers every single day. They were worth the $3.50/each we ended up paying per day! I hope you enjoy the pictures I scrapbooked. We have tons more pictures, so I just did a condensed version...

Smith family reunion in Heber..

The month of July was super busy and fun filled. With the Smith family reunion and our trip to Yellowstone Park, let's just say...we are finally decompressing....

The reunion was fantastic. We spent 5 days together in a 7 bedroom cabin up in Heber, Utah. It was great! The cousins had a great time getting reacquainted and hanging out. Alycia had a great time hanging out with her cousin Dariya. They're just a few months apart. With 20 cousins and only 5 being girls...the girls tend to stick together. Our 5 days were filled with planned activities. One of them being boating/tubing/wakeboarding...My fave was wakeboarding. It was just my second time attempting it and I actually got up several times. I'm trying to convince Brent that we need to get a boat or jet skis...haha...we'll see about that...One of the days, we went hiking (which I'm not a fan of) and fishing. Alycia actually caught a fish. I'm not sure what kind it was, but she liked eating it. Her cousins Alan and Jakob also caught fish...Joseph was a trooper, he wanted to stick it out and catch one but didn't. I give him an "A" for effort.

Our brother-in-law Paul got a fabulous deal on reunion t-shirts and Brent got his slogan printed. "Heber City invasion 2009" "Keepin' it real"...

On Sunday, our nephew Jakob was baptized in the Provo river. It was an awesome experience. After the confirmation, we went to church in Heber. The time slot we went to was for the Single's ward. I was a bit nervous. Single's wards usually have a reputation, especially on Fast Sunday's. I'm happy to say no one bore weird alien testimonies. About half of Brent's siblings went to the same meeting time as us...so there were weird looks when we walked into Sacrament meeting.

There was one person that said.."you know...ummm...this is a Single's ward meeting..."

"uh, yeah...we know..." I said.

One of the girl's in our row, kept eyeing us and was freaking out that we were there. It was quite funny seeing her expressions. They were priceless...(big grin)...

In all, the weather was fabulous and everyone got along. My kids can't wait until the next reunion.