============NEWSLETTERS===========
Waddell's
November went by quickly for us... Caralee and Lucas spent 10 days on a trip to KY to witness Eric's younger brother's wedding and hang out with his family. It was extremely cold and even snowed one day. Needless to say, they spent all of their time indoors!
LUCAS loved seeing his cousins and Grandparents and they all of course, spoiled him rotten by spiking his sippy cups with juice or even soda when nobody wasn't looking. Shame on them! He hardly drinks water now... They barely survived the flights, but are trying to block them out before their next trip to KY in May, 2009 after Eric comes home.
CARALEE got to see the movie Twilight while she was in KY with her Sister In Law and had a fabulous time being "baby less" for a long evening. That made the trip worth it right there in fact. The movie wasn't nearly as good as the book, so she had to read it again in three days to remind herself why. Yes, she knows she is a big nerd.
ERIC spent his Thanksgiving on the base in Kuwait eating prime rib and abstaining from running the 5K that day due to a long run the previous night. His legs were too sore and he said the t-shirt from the race wasn't worth it. He is now traveling through Afghanistan to Uzbekistan to help do some training for their military forces on bomb disposal. Eric said that Afghanistan looks just like Utah valley and even has trees contrary to popular belief. The men there that perform the same job as he does took good care of him while he stopped by and even gave him a "warm room" to sleep in because they knew he wouldn't be prepared for the cold after coming from hot Kuwait. So nice of them. Eric has 4 1/2 months to go, YEAH!
Ken and Allyson's November:
Our very best friends from Australia came to visit. We had a great time having them over for dinner and going to parties and staying up way past our bedtime. I think we managed to convince them to live here 50 % of the year. Ken's two brothers and two cousins also came to town with their families. We had our very first overnight guests and wrapped up the long weekend with yummy indian food at our favorite restaurant. We had a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving with the Marshalls plus some. We went and visited an old friend of Ken's family's and to see his new bachelor pad. It has live trees planted inside and boulders and lots of steps and levels and weird spaces that you're not really sure what to do with.....very 70's cool. We've just about finished our Christmas shopping and that makes us oh so happy. See ya next month. Merry Christmas!!!!!!
WARD WIDE WEB
JEREMY took the fam to Disneyland the weekend before Thanksgiving. His favorite ride is Pirates of the Caribbean - I think we rode it 3 times. He also had the highest score on Buzz Light Year that we've ever seen - almost 600,000!
JENNIFER had a great time organizing our family t-shirts for the trip. It really is so much easier to keep track of everyone if we're all in the same color and we look totally cute all matchy matchy!
TREVOR loves Disneyland. Rollercoasters are not his thing, but these rides are just his speed. He rode whatever he wanted, because he is tall enough finally, and was happy as a clam. He even got to drive his own car in Autopia! (Sorry, no picture of that one. Bummer!)
LOGAN will promise that he loves Indiana Jones - he rode it about 3 times - but, in fact, it terrifies him. The last time we rode it he had his eyes shut tight and head down for the ENTIRE RIDE. (Notice the "I'm-excited-yet-terrified" look on his face just before we got on the first time.)
LIZZIE provided the great finale to our trip. We were about to watch the CA Adventure parade - the last event of our trip - and she PUKES all over. She let it go right in the middle of the walkway. It took those Disney sweeper guys about 30 seconds to come over to where it happened and they were all over that mess. About a minute later Lizzie tossed her cookies again, but behind a garbage can this time so the clean-up crew didn't see the mess. We got to enjoy the smell through the parade and left quickly when it was over.
JACKSON was finally able to let go and enjoy Disneyland. (Last year he had the throw-ups and did not enjoy it very much.) He totally dug the rides and especially the Lightning McQueen car in the parade. He is all about cars. He was literally laying in the street on his belly as the parade started and watched as Lightning slowly made his way towards us. That moment was what the whole trip was about - seeing the magic through our children's eyes.
La Familia Duran
Louie is off of light duty and back in patrol. He loves being in his car again. He is still seeing doctors about his shoulder and will finally have his MRI this next week to see if he qualifies for surgery. We think he qualifies because he is still gimpy and in pain.
Elizabeth has been shopping and putting up Christmas decorations. She put the lights up on the house by herself this year and really enjoyed being up on the roof for the very first time. Getting down was another story. Something about not trusting a ladder on the way down. After sitting up there for a while she had to call Jordan on her cell phone so he could talk her down.
Samuel has been out looking for a job. No fun. So in the mean time he says to tell you all he is sleeping.
Jordan is ENGAGED! He proposed to Stephanie on Thanksgiving and she said yes, but first he had to talk to her dad and ask for his permission to ask her. Jordan and Stephanie will be married in October of 2009 or in November of 2010. Make sure you look at Stephanie's ring. Very pretty!
Mica hates Christmas songs. She has been singing them since October and now is performing them several times a week with her college choirs. Right now she is getting ready for her finals 'cause her very first semester of college is over in two weeks. Well, she will have a final in music fundamentals, and then a final in choir and then another final in the other choir.
Marshall Noose
The Turkey bowl this year was AWSOME!!! The Marshalls pulled to an early lead and the 'graciously' let the Boggs win so that they could have the honor of keeping the trophy this year. We had a swell time visiting with everyone over cinnamon rolls and punch.
The rest of the day was spent with Allyson and Ken and Ryan's family. this year the Darnels also joined us for Turkey and trimmings. It took all day to find room for the scrumptious pies but we managed to fit them in somehow.
This week I am doing the lighting for the Stake Releif Society Christmas Choir. We had the dress rehearsal last night and they sound awsome. The light look great and my legs are sore form all the ladder workout.
Suzanne is gearing up for the Hollidays. She spent 12 hours decorating the tree and another two days doing the rest of the house. It's quite spectacular. Drop by if you can for a visit and a tour.
Have a great Christmas
John and Suzanne
The Garzette
We had a fun visit from my parents in the middle of November. The girls went shopping while the guys played golf. We went out to dinner, played spin the bottle (not like you think) and stayed up too late and ate too much junk food. It was a fun weekend but, as always, too short.
The next weekend, Javier’s parents came. The girls went shopping while the guys built a fence. We had a nice Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, ham, stuffing, yams, and pie. Everyone pitched in so I didn’t have to make everything myself.
A couple of days ago we found our hamster, Patty, (named after aunt Patti, but with a “y”) in her cage, not breathing. She was in her little ball where she sleeps and we took a pencil and poked her (with the eraser end) and she didn’t move. So we broke the news to the kids. Austin was sad, Marissa drew a picture of a dead hamster (with x’s for eyes) and Elise was oblivious (she probably killed her – she was always picking up and dropping the ball that she ran in). We planned the funeral for the next afternoon. The next day, we were getting ready to bury her and Marissa ran out of the office and said, “Patty’s alive!” and I said, “Marissa, don’t say things like that.” But we all ran in and she was moving and breathing and, sure enough, she’s alive.
