Alexa helps open the gifts. Dawson shows off his new shirt and tie and the blanket that Grandma, Lindsey and Mom made for him from all of his old pajama material saved from over the years.
We were still in Logan and so we celebrated Dawson's 19th Birthday with family in Logan. We had a delicious roast beef dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Datwyler's home after attending the block Sunday meetings with them. Danielle, Steve and Alexa drove up from Orem that afternoon for dinner after flying in from Portland and spending a few days with the Jackson family. Later we celebrated with more family with several variety's of cake and opened Dawson's gifts. Since he leaves for his mission in just over a week, the presents were all for the mission. He got shoes, a shirt and several ties, a journal, money and a blanket to take with him. We enjoyed playing games with all of the family.
Grandpa and Grandma admire our new family Christmas photo. Pillow cases sewn with love for the Grandkids.
The Provo/BYU co-eds show off thier new aprons sewn by mom.
Claire, Mayla and Linus act out the Christmas Nativity.
The Flake family present our "talent."
Aw, the big feast!
We journeyed up to Logan to have our annual Christmas party with my family, the Datwylers. Mom had recent heart surgery and was still pretty week so my sister-in-law, Jessie, volunteered to have the party had their home near Smithfield canyon. There is always plenty of snow to get us in the mood for Christmas.
We all brought food to contribute to the magnificent feast; and anyone in Cache Valley will tell you that Datwyler's are great cooks! Tonight was no exception. After dinner we started our traditional Christmas program. Our children played a lovely Christmas carol on the bag pipes standing behind a blanket which was soon dropped to reveal that they were really just mimicking the bag pipes by hitting their larynx with their hand while humming. This is a trick that Lindsey had learned while on her mission. She had performed at a ward talent show.
Stories were recited, including Heather reading a nice story that my visiting teacher's had shared this week. Grandma and Grandpa told a story about Pres. Monson acting out the part of a wise man while a young boy and how he still has the cane that he had used. The highlight of the night was the Grand kids acting out the nativity story as Uncle Scott read from Luke. The younger set(Great grand kids) have taken over the duties from our kids who have been the Bible players for 30 years. Carols were sung, piano recital pieces played and then the big event! Family gifts were exchanged and Grandma presented her home made treasures to the family. Despite her recent health issues, she didn't disappoint. The older grand daughters were presented with very cute aprons made to match their personalities and favorite colors. (They all four live in Provo and plan to have a cooking party soon to show off their aprons) The younger group received a beautiful new pillow case to remind them of Grandma every night that they go to bed. The young marrieds were given a gift card to their favorite restaurant and a hand stitched kitchen towel made with love.
Once again, the Datwyler Christmas Party did not disappoint!
We went up to our usual spot between Pine Valley and Pinto to get our Christmas tree. The Saaralainen Family and Brandy joined us. The weather was cold and we found a little snow on the North side of the mountain. It took a little while to find just the right tree but we finally found a winner! It was decorated with beautiful pine cones that looked just like ornaments. Very lovely.
We enjoyed hot cocoa and munched on peanut butter bars and chips and dip. A great family traditon!
It is the prettiest tree we've ever gotten up there. It didn't even need any grafting of limbs. It was so nice to have Lindsey back home to help with the decorating. Dan did a great job with the outside, too. It is beginning to look like Christmas!
Now arriving in Gate 22, returning in all of her glory....Sister Lindsey Rose Flake!
Lindsey flew into St. George from Vancouver Canada after serving faithfully for 18 months. It was so great to get her back! She arrived at 12:00 pm on November 13, Friday. There to great her were Grandma Flake, our family, Brandy Iverson, cousin Angie Barr Breinholt and her girls, Rylee and Sadie, Linda Hatch, Laurie Steiner and her daughters Jayme and Shannon, and Roger and Sydne Davies. It was a wonderful reunion. We went right to the Stake Center and met Pres. Topham and he released her from full time missionary service. Then we went back to our home and ate lunch with some of our friends. Oh Happy Day!
Friday, November 6 we went and picked up Dawson's new suit that was being altered at Adrians. Then we went to Kiddie Kandids to get his picture taken. He only wore the top half of his suit with shorts and slippers so the photographer had little trouble coming up with shots of just his top half. We got some good ones and then proceeded to stop by Grandma Flake's house and put Dawsons missionary picture on her Missionary wall. She is so proud of all of her 7 sons and many grandchildren who have served missions. Dawson and I were just as excited to put his up and be the next in line.
Next stop was to get his four wisdom teeth pulled. It went pretty smoothly and Dawson watched "The Man from Snowy River", which is one of his favorite movies from his younger days. Later he watched another movie with the boys while I worked on the Flake Family Newsletter. He sletp well and was up and going the next day. He did go over to Grandma's and watch the BYU vs Wyoming game with her. We watched the first half and then went to buy Andrew some new shoes. It is such a beautiful fall day.
We hiked into Buckskin Gulch near the Paria on Saturday, Oct. 16-17. We had reserved these dates on line about 4 months ago. Dan turned 50 on Friday so we wanted to see if he was still young enough to make it throught he gulch, the longest slot canyon in the world.
We invited family on both sides but the only ones tough enough to make it were our neices, Heather and Jennifer Berger and their friends Chelsea, Shane and Tek from Provo. We had a permit for 10 people but only 9 came.
They drove down from Provo on Thursday night getting here about 11:00 pm. We were up the next morning by 6:00 am and got away at 7:30. We had to drive to Kanab and then 30 minutes beyond. The time we parked one car at the bottom at White house exit and then drove around to wire pass and went to the bathroom and got all of our packs loaded and on the trail it was 11:00 am.
The packs felt very heavy at first but then we got used to them as we kept hiking. The canyon is beautiful. We took lots of pictures and had fun along the way. It was very muddy in some areas but that kept it interesting.
We had a hard time walking in our shoes when they got so muddy so that slowed us down. It became 5:00 pm and we weren't even half way through to where we were supposed to camp and we were wet and it would be a cold night in the canyon. So Dan sent Dawson up one side of the canyon and Andrew up the other to see if there was a way to get out of the steep canyon. They both found a way out but Dan decided that Andrew's way out the right side would be easier for hiking out in the morning. So we very carefully made our way one by one up the side of the canyon wall. We had to be helped by the boys and then they had to use a rope to lift our 9 packs up the canyon behind us. It was very scary but I was glad that I had two Eagle Scout son's and an experienced scout master, Dan whom I trusted. Poor Shane had never even gone camping before and we took him on this major adventure. He was a trooper. We set up our tents, built a fire, and Dan cooked us yummy Chicken Alredo.
It got down to 35 degrees over night and it was pretty cold. We slept ok but were pretty tired from our long day of hiking. In the morning we made oatmeal and packed up and were on the trail by 10:00 am. The problem was that there was no trail. We had a GPS and could see our destination a long ways off. We had to hike across a huge desert of sand and cactus. We found a cow head skeleton that was very cool. Andrew packed it out. We had a nice lunch stop and even a short nap. We could see the gulch down to the right, but we had to hike clear to the end and then get around it.
It was in 90's as we hiked and were sunburnt as we neared what Dan knew was the trail to the Wave (Coyote Buttes). It ended up at the same trailhead as where we started, Wire Pass. Great day, great fun, Big Adventure!!
Alexa helps open the gifts.
Dawson shows off his new shirt and tie and the blanket that Grandma, Lindsey and Mom made for him from all of his old pajama material saved from over the years.
