The Polar Express

Okay, so it wasn't the Polar Express - it was Trax and it was packed last night. No one danced in the aisles and served us hot chocolate. I haven't ridden Trax for a few years - I thought public transportation was supposed to be cheap ($4.50 each for a round trip ticket downtown - luckily we could buy the family pass for $16.50). Last time I rode it was like $1.50 for a round trip. Oh well, it was fun - the kids loved it (especially Nicky). We rode the train all the way to The Gateway and had dinner at Rumbi. Then we ventured over to Temple Square to see the lights.

There were a lot of people at Temple Square. The temperature was cold, but not bone-chilling. We saw the Nativity Program and then went up to see the Christus Statue and the Luke 2 movie. They were shuffling people through pretty quickly so they could accomodate everyone.

The tabernacle was open so we went in and sat down and listened to a guy playing Christmas music on the organ for a few minutes. I don't think the kids had ever been in there before. I remember going there for General Conference when I was a kid and getting packed in there like sardines. That place seemed huge back then, but last night it seemed pretty small compared to the new conference center. It was a pleasant Christmas Eve eve (or Christmas Adam as the kids call it). Beats doing last minute shopping!!

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Nicky gave his first talk in Primary a couple weeks ago - all dressed up in his suit and all. We wrote his talk down (so dad could remember), but he didn't really need any help. He was able to give the talk based on the pictures we would hold up. Before he gave the talk, Taylor asked him what his talk is on and he said "paper".

He got some "Hulk Hands" as a gift at the Davis Christmas party. We figured he wasn't hitting people nearly enough and needs some incentive to do some wallopping of his siblings and parents (at least it is softer now).

Jingle Bell ROCK

Becca had her Christmas tumbling program yesterday. Her group did their routine to the song "Jingle Bell Rock". It was a great performance. Becca had her moves very polished - any time we heard the song she would break into her routine. I understand the people waiting in the waiting room at the dentist's office got a little preview earlier this week.

Here are a couple of video clips. Thanks to my wing man, Matt, for running the video camera for me (I'm too much into the still camera these days). Nice shooting, Mattman.

Happy Holidays!!

I have been to New Orleans 4 times in the last 5 years, but I can't quite swing a trip down there for New Years to watch the Utes play in the Sugar Bowl. I regret not making the trip 4 years ago when the Utes went to the Fiesta Bowl, and vowed that I would go the next time they made it to a BCS Bowl. Well, I was hoping for Arizona again this year - maybe "once in a lifetime" will happen for the third time in the next few years. New Orleans is 2000 miles away and the flights are over $1,000 round trip (they were about $500 each time I went there on business - those airline price gougers!!) I guess I could always hop on one of the charter buses to the Big Easy and spend 50 hours on a bus with a bunch of drunk strangers (cue the drunk Ute fan jokes).

Well, I hope the Utes do well against the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide. It will be a huge challenge for them, but I think they are up for it. It will pretty much be a home game for Alabama, since it is about 300 miles from the Alabama campus (Tuscaloosa, AL) to New Orleans. That's about the equivilant of driving from SLC to St. George.

And good luck to the Cougars of BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl and TCU against Boise St. in the Poinsettia Bowl. Holiday cheer all around!

Turkey Bowl 2008

Another Thanksgiving tradition is the annual Turkey Bowl. Usually it is the Cougars vs. the Utes but we all know how one-sided that would be so this year we picked teams with Matt and Jake as Captains.

In order to avoid injury, we use flags instead of playing full-on tackle football. In the above scene JJ drops back to pass (with his Hannah Montana Jersey on). Jake is pretty open on the right side, but do you think he would throw that way?

Emotions can run high in this hard fought battle and sometimes we have to remind certain people to just pull out the flags and stop the body slamming. Oh, and by the way, if you have the ball and come anywhere near Raini, you can take it to the bank that she got your flag. She has perfected the two-handed flag grab.

The game ends when it is too dark to play anymore and we go in and eat pie. This year's game featured a fumbled kid, several pick-sixes, and even a hook and ladder for a TD. I'm sure Jake and Matt are already going over the films and scheming for next year.

Pie, Pies, Pies, Yeah

Making apple pies on Thanksgiving Eve is a tradition at the Anderson home. It started before Taylor was even born. One Thanksgiving I decided to see if I could make an apple pie. I peeled and cut up the apples by hand and made a pretty good pie that first year.

Over the years I have gotten better at it and even added a dutch apple pie a few years ago. These are this year's entry along with the cookie turkeys we made this year. We got the cookie turkey idea last Thanksgiving from Brandon and Camille (who just had baby Luke a few days ago - congrats).

These days I don't have to peal or slice the apples by hand. And I have plenty of helpers. All the kids enjoy taking turns using the apple peeler/slicer/corer thingy.

After an apple has gone through the machine, you end up with skinny apple peel about 4 feet long. Becca and Nicky like to play with and eat these long peelings.

Hard to Resist

It's just too easy to make fun of BYU in the wake of the game last weekend, I wasn't going to do it, but since most of these things were emailed to me by BYU fans I figure, why not!!

Someone got their hands on one of the "magic coins" Bronco Mendenhall had made for each of the team members at the beginning of the year. I guess "The Quest" was accomplished after all!

My cougar brother-in-law sent me the above image. The Ute defense enjoyed a full box of them Saturday and highly recommend them.

Last year BYU receiver Austin Collie caught a pass on 4th and 18 that basically won the game for BYU and later was quoted as saying "If you're living right, magic will happen." Well if that is the case, his QB has some big-time repenting to do this year.

Utes Rule...Coogers Drool

Yesterday was a great day for a football game. Temperature in the 50's. #7 Utah (11-0) vs. #14 BYU (10-1). Never a bigger game with so much on the line in the 112 year history of this rivalry.

You could tell it was going to be intense when the teams started brawling before the game even started. Shortly after the above picture was taken, BYU players started to do their pre-game "Haka Dance" and Utah players would have none of that on our field - so they ran over to stop it and the refs and coaches had to pull them apart. Maybe the Coogers should have saved some of that fire and emotion for the actual playing of the game...

When we took our seats of course we had a bunch of Zoobies behind us. Anytime BYU did something good the whole section behind us would get really loud. Luckily that didn't happen very often. Toward the end of the game they of course brought out the 1984 national championship smack. C'mon BYU fans - live in the now!! (and cut that mullet).

The game was close until the beginning of the 4th quarter when BYU QB Max Hall decided to start throwing the ball to the guys in red instead of the guys in white. 5 interceptions and 1 lost fumble doomed the kitty-cats. After the last 2 years being ahead only to have the game ripped away from us at the last minute, it was nice to have a big cushion at the end so we could relax and have fun the last few minutes and chant BCS! BCS! over and over again.

With the win, the 12-0 Utes are going to a BCS bowl for the 2nd time in 5 years! We are no longer BCS busters - we are regulars. Sorry BYU, maybe next year you can have "The Quest II" but for this year the quest belonged to the Utes.

It's ON!!!

I was going to wait until next week to do this, but when I get "GO COUGARS!" as a comment on my innocent little snowman post it's time to roll out the rivalry talk. I guess we can do this for two weeks instead of one. The Coogers have a tough game on Saturday vs. Air Force before they can even think about the storm that is coming their way on Nov. 22.

White Out

The other morning we woke up to this...
The kids were pretty excited to get out and shovel the snow. Hope that excitement is still there come January / February.

Luckily, we got JUST enough snow in the back yard to make this snowman. Becca and Nicky had to use every last flake to get it done.

BLACKOUT!!

Last night was a very unforgetable night if you are a Utah Football fan. The Utes had a "blackout" and asked all the fans to wear black to this game instead of red. The team was wearing black uniforms for the first time ever. There were a few fans who didn't get the memo, but for the most part everyone wore black - it looked pretty cool and everyone was pumped up for a big game with #11 ranked TCU (the Utes are #10).

For most of the game it looked like the blackout might turn into a funeral for the Utes hopes of getting into a BCS bowl game. TCU scored 10 points right off the bat and things seemed pretty bleak for the Utes as they struggled to move the ball on offense. But the Utah defense buckled down after the 1st quarter and shut down TCU the rest of the game.

Up 10-6 deep into the 4th quarter, TCU missed 2 short field goals. With under 3 minutes left in the game and after the second missed field goal, you could feel it in the air that Utah was going to go do something they hadn't done all game - score a touchdown. They drove 70 yards and scored the winning TD with 47 seconds to spare. The crowd went crazy. We were high-fiving and hugging people we didn't know. That was the loudest and craziest I have ever seen it in Rice-Eccles Stadium.

After games like these, they let fans go down onto the field (they have no choice because the student section storms the field as soon as the clock shows 0). So we went down on the field to take in the fun atmosphere and bask in the glow of being 10-0.

The U might want to find out who these two houligans are - because I believe they pulled down the goalpost. I hope they don't make their parents pay for that!!!

WHAT A FUN NIGHT!! Unbelievable win by Utah. Now we just have to take care of that pesky team down south.

Historic Day...

Yesterday the USA elected it's first African American President. As I walked up to the the voting machine I still wasn't sure who I was going to vote for. A very tough decision. I usually align myself with the Republican Party, but am pretty unhappy with the position our country is in right now with the wars and the economy in the toilet. I won't say who I voted for but I will say that I hope now that Obama has been elected that everyone can get behind him to pull our country out of this mess. I hope his leadership is as dymanic as his speeches are.
I think both he and McCain gave great speeches last night and both were aware of the historical significance of this election. McCain was gracious in defeat and vowed to be an American first and foremost and to support Obama. Obama praised McCain as a great American war hero and worthy opponent.

My only regret is that "Superdell" didn't get elected as Utah's governor. What a wild ride that would have been... Maybe instead of calling Jon Hunstman the anti-christ, he should have promised everyone a ride on his Ultralight or whatever you call it. That probably would have gotten him more votes.

Halloween Part 3

Friday, for the third day in a row, we were celebrating Halloween. This time it was actually Halloween. My work always likes to have employees' kids come in and trick-or-treat at the office - its' s a chance to take in a large amount of candy in a short time. The kids are always very eager to come.

Here is the Princess, Batman, the Hobo, and the Hip-Hop farmer after the first round of trick-or treating of the day.

Just as we were leaving this guy showed up at my work. I think we left just in time. He did look at Nicky in his Batman costume and say something like..."Why would I want to kill you? You...you complete me." Whatever that means...

Well after getting a good amount of candy at my work it was time to get down to the main event - MORE TRICK-OR-TREATING late into the evening. After all the candy-getting was done the haul was counted and we got... A LOT of candy. There goes my diet or (any resmblence of being on one) for the next couple weeks.

Halloween Part 2

On Thursday night, we had a little Halloween / October B-day party at our house. Grammy, Jake and Raini all celebrate their birthdays in October. The weather was incredible - the temperature reached almost 80 that day and it was pleasant in the backyard late into the evening.

What's Halloween without a rousing game of Halloween Bingo? Candy corn is perfect to play Bingo with - nobody wants to EAT those nasty things.

" Eat the donut off the String" is a challenging game we like to play at Halloween time. The mini donuts can be eaten in one bite if you line your mouth up just right. Maybe next year we will try bobbing for french fries.

Josh has grown his hair out a bit since we saw him last. Maybe he's waiting to cut it until his Dallas Cowboys win a playoff game. That may be a while - can you say Rapunzel?

Here are all the kiddies in their costumes. 1 hip-hop farmer, 1 lacross player, 2 princesses, 2 batmans (or is that batmen?), 1 Witch, 1 Tigger, 1 Dorothy, 1 Hobo, 1 Nerd, 1 Little Mermaid, 1 Peapod, 1 Ladybug, and 1 JJ.

Halloween Part 1

Wednesday night there was a primary Halloween party at the church hosted by the Youn Men and Young Women. There was a lot of different things to do at the party...

For example, Becca played super-sized game of "Whack a Mole" (or maybe it was whack a deacon with a painted face).

Nicky, I mean Batman, did some "pumpkin bowling". Those things don't roll very straight. After a few tries he was able to knock down some pins.

Taylor and a few of her fellow Mia Maids hosted a pumpkin patch for the little kids to find treats in. A hip-hop farmer, a bee, a lacrosse player and spider girl can be found in many pumpkin patches I guess.

Out with the Old...

Taylor spends a fair amount of time doing homework. Not much time playing with barbies. So a little trip to IKEA a week ago was a great time to get a desk to replace the barbie house that has been in her room forever. The only time the Barbie house got any action is when Becca and some of her friends play with them.

Here is Taylor doing homework at her new desk. Her room is quite large... she now has a desk, full size bed, dresser, fish tank and still enough room for ballroom dancing in the middle.

The barbie house has been relocated to the play area in the basement. Probably a better place so Becca and her friends don't have to hang out in Taylor's room anymore.

The Utes Good Luck Charm

We have season tickets to Utah Football games. Nicky goes with us a couple times a year when we know the weather is going to be good and the game won't be too late. Every time he has come, the Utes have taken their opponent to the woodshed. Last year he went when we beat UCLA 44-6 and when we beat San Diego State 23-7. Today we took him to the game and the Utes beat Colorado State 49-16!! I think we need to take him to the TCU and BYU games next month...

The only problem is about halfway through the 1st quarter he starts asking "Is the game almost over?" By halftime he is fit to be tied and really wants to go home. That is when we head to the ice cream stand. That gets him through the 3rd quarter and somehow cheers him up to stay to the end (we don't go home early - ever. Matt doesn't allow that).


Today was a great day for a football game. Mid-70's and sunny. We actually got a little sunburned.
Oh, and Cooger fans - this is what 8-0 looks like :) As we were driving home from the game we went past Deseret Industries and there was a big line-up of cars - they were in a lane that said "Drop off "The Quest" T-Shirts Here".

Pumpkins and Paint

Every October, our Ward has a "Chili Cook-off" which includes a pumkin decorating contest. This year, we entered three pumpkins and one pot of chili.

Nicky and Taylor made this Frankenstein pumkin and it won the prize for "Freakiest". Nicky was pretty excited and got a candy bar for his prize.

Matt and Jake had the great idea for this "Joker" pumpkin. This one one the prize for "Scariest". If you've seen the movie, the pencil holding the "Why so serious?" sign might tip you off as to why it won this particular prize.

Becca and Olivia made the Witch pumpkin. It didn't win a prize, but I think it is the cutest one of the bunch!

Is It Halloween Tommorrow??

That is the question we keep hearing from Nicholas. He has no concept of "in three weeks". If it's in the future it must be tomorrow. We bought him his Batman costume about a week ago and he is constantly putting it on and taking it back off ('cause it gets hot). It's gonna be worn out by Halloween - it's already made a trip to Grandma's house for repair work.



Becca is going to be a Princess. She's pretty excited, but she is able to refrain from putting her costume on all the time.