Happy 11th birthday, Ryan!

2 months old...

first time on knee board at Lake Powell; 2 1/2 years old...

4 years old...

first day of school at 5 years old...

My Ry guy at 11 yrs old. Happy birthday! Ryan is a very kind hearted, grounded, full of energy and love boy. He is very tender hearted and has a very strong spirit. Thank you for making my life more enjoyable, Ryan! I love you past the moon and back!

Thanksgiving weekend

We are thankful for family and friends this Thanksgiving season! Here are pictures of everyone right before we all started digging in to the feast!
Starting at 12 o'clock; Ethan Burgess, Tyler, Devon Burgess, Jenna, Braeden Burgess, Ryan, Meagan and Chase. The "kids" table.

Right to left; (Aunt) Hiedi Larsen, Grandma Larsen and Carolyn Boden (mom).

Starting at 12 o'clock; Jacqueline Burgess and Chuck Burgess (good friends), Bro. Adamson and Sis. Adamson (next door neighbors), (Aunt) Marge Boden, (dad) Rich Boden, me, Dave.

The day after Thanksgiving we rode the tram downtown to watch the Christmas lights come on on Temple square. Meagan entertained Grandma the whole way down with her singing (the same song over and over...LOL!)

Jenna can't get enough attention from Grandpa and Grandma. The kids (we) were all excited they could come from warm California to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Dave has a great view from his office onto temple square so we played some games, drank hot chocolate and waited in the warm office (teehee) for the lights to come on.

Almost time.....

TaDa! Beautiful!

Looking down onto the west side of Temple Square...the tabernacles.

The picture doesn't even do it justice. It was fun to take the kids. I think this is the beginning of a new Boden tradition:-).

Had to take a family picture before we got back on the tram to go home and feast again.

As most of you know, the BYU/Utah game was Saturday. We had 3 Ute fans in the house so we BYU fans made a bet. The losing team has to make pancakes for breakfast the next morning in the color of the winning team and in the shape of either a "Y" or "U".

Needless to say, here are 2 of our 3 Ute fans making blue pancakes in the shape of a "Y" for the rest of the family:-). GO COUGARS!

Our October fun

On the menu at the Boden home; Pumpkin Spice pancakes shaped like bats, ghosts and jack-o-laterns for breakfast.....

Mummy and jack-o-latern pizza....

Jenna...(she's for dessert),

Chase (he's the cherry on top).

YUM!

Ryan has got to be the whip cream:-).

For family night we all carved pumkins and for dessert we had salted pumpkin seeds.

Meagan decided she wanted everyone to know which one was hers:-)

Ryan did an awesome zombie ( lost the picture some how of all of them together and finished...dang it!)

Not sure what sweet little Chase's was....he is so dang cute.

Dave had a contest at work and won second place. He did a skeleton. The picture doesn't do any of them any justice.

Tyler did a bat.

Jenna did a ghost (gotta love the kool-aid mustache).

All dressed and ready to go to school...

Chase as that main dude from Star Wars. Should I even try to spell it...Obe wan kanobie...LOL!

Jenna chose to be a Cowgirl this year.

Ryan is a ninja,...

and Meagan is none other than Raggedy Ann. (Note to all: do NOT use "color-stay" lip gloss as halloween makeup unless you want it to be permanent for 2 or 3 days. Soap doesn't get it off. It has to fade...LOL).

We ended October by playing Hide-and-go-seek in the dark (great timing since it gets dark sooner with the time change...we fit it in before bedtime:-0).

Temple Square

From the roof of the Conference center. You can actually see the building Dave works in behind the temple here.

Inside the conference center that seats 21,000 people.

I love the expressions on their faces in this picture. It is like they are truely in awe.

The kids were "off track" for three week so one of the things we did was go downtown and tour Temple Square and go to lunch with Dad at the Lion House. Tyler, being in middle school, couldn't come and we missed him there with us but the kids had a great time. They kept saying, "Thank you so much for bringing us, Mom". I figured I'd better take them when one of them looked at me this last General Conference and asked' "Is that real, Mom?" (speaking of the conference center when they spanned the center).

Escalante

For UEA weekend we went camping for 3 days down to Southern Utah to a place called Escalante. It was so much fun to take the kids and the weather for hiking was perfect...67 to 70 degrees. I honestly had so much fun with the kids!

This is on our way down to some slot canyons called "Peek-a-boo canyon" and "Spooky canyon". It was about a 2 1/2 mile hike. The kids liked this one more than the hike we had done the day before. We stopped for lunch in a place called "Devils Garden" where we were surrounded by some "hoodoos". They are so cool looking.

Here is Ryan in one of the slot canyons.

I said it was perfect weather for hiking during the day but the nights got a little cold....32 degrees. Here we are warming our buns over the fire:-)

This was a yummy beef stew we made in our dutch oven. We made super yummy bisquits too!

And, of course, we had smores:-).

This was a 6 1/2 mile hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls. BEAUTIFUL! It was so cold at the waterfall though...at least 20 degree colder.

4 of the 5 kids (one fell down on the way up and was needing some love) at the top of some rocks on the hike in (which, btw, they all did AWESOME on!).

Mountain Man Breakfast; sausage, onion, hash browns, pepper, salt, cheese and eggs

They were even better than the picture looks like they are. So fluffy and warm....mmmm!

Roasting hot dogs!

Good food, great company and beautiful country. When's the next camping trip?!?!