Saturday, July 28, 2007

Daughter of Ace of Cakes

Not to be outdone by her mother, Abby came up with a wonderful cake on her own. Abby did all of the preparation, baking and decorating of this "Breakfast Cake" all by herself. We may want to think about starting a family business in case the lawyer thing starts getting tiresome. Well, here are a couple of pictures for your inspection...

Happy Birthday Mikey!

Well yesterday was Mikey's birthday party (his birthday is actually July 26). We had some folks over for a barbeque, ate some of Kristen's magnificent Star Wars cake and had an all around good time. Mikey got plenty of loot (much of it in the Star Wars vein) and seems to be happy that he is a 6-year-old. Here are some pictures of all of the wholesome family goodness...

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Ace of Cakes

It looks like we have discovered yet another talent of our dear Kristen... cake decoration!


Mikey's birthday is today and he wanted a Star Wars theme for his birthday party on Friday. So Kristen came up with a battle scene from her imagination (not any of the movies) and cranked out this great big cake to bring it to life. Needless to say, Mikey is stoked...


Fortunately, Mikey is too young to realize that Mace Windu died before Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and thus the two could not be fighting (you are correct, I am a knob). What Kristen lacks in Star Wars accuracy, she more than makes up for in artistry.


All of the other kids seem pretty excited about the cake too.

Monday, July 23, 2007

The Downhill Ordeal

So on Friday, July 20, Kristen and I went with our neighbor Matt Stockwell, his son Nate and his friend Parker, on a Snowbird Tram bicycle trip for Nate's birthday (Happy Birthday Nate). We all took our bikes up on the Tram and rode down. Kristen decided to go at the last minute. It was a lot steeper and more difficult than either of us anticipated. The trail was full of loose rocks and scree and we seemed to have a number of near misses.

Kristen's front tire popped about 1/8 the way down as we were descending into Mineral Basin. Fortunately, Matt had a spare and we got back on the trail fairly quickly. We kept descending and it kept getting steeper and more difficult (Kris and I really ground our brake pads down). About 1/3 of the way down, Kristen's front tire popped again and we didn't have a spare, so Kris and I started walking the bikes down, which was an enormous pain because of how steep the trail was. Fortunately, after walking about 1/4 mile, we met a Snowbird employee driving up the trail in a Suburban. We loaded Kristen and her bike in the Suburban and Kristen was able to catch a ride back to the summit and take the Tram back down. On their way back up the mountain, the Snowbird employee told Kristen that if the Suburban started to roll backwards, she should jump out of the truck because there was no way to stop it once it started a backwards descent. I think he was just trying to scare Krissy.

Meanwhile, I continued down with Matt and the kids. We made it down to the entrance to Bass Highway and turned off on the new trail. This about doubled the difficulty. It was mostly narrow single-track that was really rocky and technical. I nearly lost it several times. In retrospect, it was a total blessing that Kristen popped both those tires because I doubt she could have made it through this lower part of the trail uninjured.

In any event, we all made it down one way or another and, other than some scrapes and bruises on your's truly, we are none the worse for wear. Here are some pre-ride pictures, before our innocence was lost...

Friday, July 20, 2007

Primary Pioneer Parade

Our ward Primary had a children's parade in celebratin of Pioneer Day this morning. The kids (and the Dog) got dressed up as Pioneers. Here are the pictures.

Annie dressed up as a cow... Notice the makeshift udders... Apologies to Doug Horton, look what our beautiful Shorthair has been reduced to!


Eliza as a German Pioneer... I am not sure Germans were allowed to join the Church back in the old days.


Here is one of our kids and the neighbor kids ready to go... Dan and Mike are in T-Shirts, but the hats get across the idea...

Ellie in the back of the wagon bossing everyone around (as Germans are known to do)...
Here are the boys posing in front of the covered wagon... a lot of work went into this...

Sunday, July 15, 2007

American Fork Steel Days

Missy and Ryan got a bunch of us together to go to Steel Days in American Fork. Basically it was a Ryan Shupe, Peter Breinholt, John Schmidt concert and it was a great time. Thanks to the Osborn's for spearheading the summer fun. Can I get a "Whoo Hooo"?


Michael was rockin' out like a mad man...


Eventually, everyone got in on the act...

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Saturday at Snowbird

Well, it was too freakin' hot to do much yard work today so we decided to get ourselves out of the heat and up into the mountains. We went to Snowbird and took the Tram to the top, did some hiking and took the Peruvian lift down. As you can see from the pictures below, it was a beautiful day. What you can't see from the pictures below is that it was 70 degrees up top while the Salt Lake Valley baked in 100 degree heat. Elevation baby.


Ellie and Dad embarking on our Tram journey to the top...





The view from above...



Mom and the Bean taking it all in...









The two Bulls, wondering if there is a way to start a rockslide and get away with it...



Fantastic view of Mineral Basin...









Abby enjoying the cool breezes on the descent down the mountain...







Ellie quietly enjoying the lift ride down... this must have been the quietest she has been while awake in over a month.

Daredevils!

Kristen took the three big kids to the skate park early Saturday morning in the hopes of avoiding the smokers, hooligans, and other misfits known to frequent the facility. Here are some of the pics...


Mikey... layin' the smack down...




Danny... grabin' some air...


Abby... ready to drop in... scooter style.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Bob, today Chris will be playing for.... A NEW CAR!!

We just bought an almost new car for me to drive to and from work. It is a 2006 Nissan Maxima with just under 15,000 miles on it. This one even has air conditioning. Needless to say, I am pleased. We will miss the old Chrysler though... it really was an amazingly trouble-free car (other than the broken air-conditioning).

Abby Just Woke Up

Abby is cute, but is still a little tired this morning.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Eliza's Fashion Shoot

Abby wanted to play fashion photographer and Ellie was more than happy to provide modelling services on the condition that she got to wear entirely too much make-up...


The many faces... the many moods of.... the Bean.

Catching Up - February Trip to Cancun, Mexico

Kris and I took a trip to Mexico in February. It was easily the most relaxing trip ever, and we saw some fantastic sights. Here is a view of the sunrise from our hotel room... pleasing.


Kristen got a little dolphin action on the trip. Mmmmmm.... dolphin... that's good eatin'.






Here we are at Chichen Itza. This place was amazing.... and huge! Seeing this alone was worth the trip....





This is a gorgeous beach down near Tulum (about 90 minutes south of Cancun). The beach was "European" style, so there was plenty of skin. I normally don't approve of exposing oneself publicly but, as you can see, I had to give the people (and by "people" I mean "the ladies") what they wanted.


Needless to say, we did get some shopping done. Here is Kristen in a little shop in Puerto Morelos. Our friends Jim and Kerry are in the background. I think Kristen was shopping for a purse.


Here we are on our last day. That resort made plenty of money off our "dry" vacation... but we tried to make up for it by drinking our weight in virgin margaritas and daiquiris.

The Flip-Flop Debate

I think this is a shot across the bow in the ongoing cold war between Kristen and I regarding the wisdom in letting our children wear flip-flops year round. They are no good.

Hello and Welcome

So this is the new Chris and Kristen Jones Family Blog. Look for news, pictures, etc. in the coming days.