Mr. Max

So for weeks before Max's birthday, he informs us that he is getting a "Cookie Monster cake!"

A) He barely knows who cookie monster is, so where did this come from? and B) There is no way in heck I can make one! I can BARELY make a regular cake! But lo and behold, the day before when I was getting supplies at the store to attempt the dreaded cake, here was this beauty sitting there, just begging to be taken to Max. How perfect is that!
This boy had been watching his friends and relatives blow out candles for the past month for their birthdays and he had been practicing. He was so ready for this big moment!

One happy boy!
Look at that grin! He doesn't even care what's inside!

Another big event that happened in November was Ella's first swim meet! She started on the Silver team in September and has

been doing amazingly well. She is the youngest on the team (ages 9 and up and she is only 8). To have a meet was pretty scary and she was so nervous, but she did amazing. Grammy came up to watch her and her family was there! We're so proud of all the hard work she puts into it!


Trying to figure out what a "relay" is. Her dad was one of the time keepers so he got this awesome shot of the fear in her eyes!

Halloween 2011 (Best one yet!)

Go ahead and fill in the blank on what Andy is supposed to be: Gandolf, Moses, or, according to one neighbor girl, Jesus. His intent? Dumbledor. He does a perfect voice of Dumbly-dor that all the neighborhood kids loved!

Ella was adamant on wearing her costume from kindergarten. About three inches too small in all directions, but she couldn't care less. Look at that smile!

Zoe informed me that she wanted to be "Christine" from Phantom of the Opera. Wow. How does one dress up for that? Well, this worked. This dress is actually Grammy's from when she was Zoe's age!

Max's current obsession is Darth Vader. No other costume would do. He even wore the mask for about two minutes!

Ahhhh, what an awesome sight! The streets crawling with little trouble makers! I love it!
This just warms my heart!

SURVEY SAYS!

Sunshine?....... OR........ Bo?

SURVEY SAYS???????????

Wingin' It

We did something very out of the ordinary for Andy. We left for

vacation with absolutely NO plans! I can't believe he was able to do that! We knew we were going to Yellowstone, but that was it. NO reservations. NO agenda. NO clue. Just got in the car and left. On our way up, the reservation desk for campgrounds in Yellowstone actually laughed at me when I called. We ended up squeaking into a place in Teton N.P. and it was much better than the parks in Yellowstone. It was an amazing camping trip. The kids had endless things to do, and Andy and I hadn't been up there since we were first married. It was breathtaking, and even Max keeps telling us anytime he sees steam of any kind that it's "The hot water!" of a geyser. Although, surprisingily: Total number of buffalo seen=0. Total number of moose=0. Total number of bears=0. We saw two femal elk, but I see more than that just driving to work in the morning.

On a side note, my little man who almost never gets sick, was miserable with sore throat, fever and rash. We still don't know what he had, but he was a trooper and still hiked and tried his hardest to work past his misery. What an awesome kid.

Here we rented a motor boat and went out on Jackson Lake. A wonderful family experience except that we discovered that Zoe is deathly afraid of boats. Hu.

I just love Max's pose in this picture. And Ella's stance. And her outfit. My kids, ladies and gentlemen.

On our way home, we took a ferry across Jenny Lake and hiked to Hidden Falls, a really great hiking trail when you aren't trying to squeeze by 200 other people. But worth it, one of the most gorgeous waterfalls you'll see.

Nibbles, A Life Sketch

The whole purpose for this post is really the video at the end, because it's beauty still makes me cry. Ever since I was in kindergarten, every time I walk by a milkweed plant I look for caterpillars. I have NEVER seen one, but I still look. Well, we were hiking up at Wasatch State Park when we passed a patch, and I scanned for caterpillars quickly, and after not seeing any, I hear Zoe yell, "Mom! A caterpillar!" Sure enough, there he was. And that's how we met our newest pet, Nibbles.

That dang insect was so fun to watch, he grew huge so fast. And it was awesome teaching the kids things about him shedding his skin and the camouflage of his stripes. There was no lid on his bottle and one night he crawled around the rim, stretching up on his hind feet, putting on a show that made the kids laugh hysterically. They prayed for him every night, which was adorable and checked on him first thing in the morning.

One day, I set the jar on the back porch because I figured he needed more light. Well, I was babysitting a bunch of two year olds that day so I got a little distracted and suddenly noticed the jar upside down with all of the milk weed scattered across the porch and no caterpillar in sight. I can't tell you how nervous I was, thinking, "My kids are going to be so sad!" I searched for over an HOUR for that stupid insect, scratching the heck out of my arms going through raspberry bushes, and praying that a bird hadn't come by. I figured he was long gone when I finally found him climbing up a porch chair leg. I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine that he looked excited to see me too.
When we went for an overnight campout, Nibbles took advantage of the peace and quiet to build his little chrysalis. That thing is amazing, and I don't think I've ever even seen one since kindergarten.

There was a weekend when no one was going to be home due to work schedules and school, and those kids prayed so hard, "Please don't let Nibbles hatch till we're home !" Thankfully, he didn't. One morning, his cocoon was nice and black and we grew very excited! I figured we had a day or so left. We went to a park for lunch and once again, in the peace of a quiet house, Nibbles made his move. We came home to this.....

What a beautiful thing. I was just as amazed as all the kids.

My Foxy Good Time

I can't believe I have never ran the Ragnar Relay before. It seems like it has been apart of our lives in the Avery house for so long! So this year, Andy wasn't the only one gone for two days, running, sweating, laughing and definitely NOT sleeping. I did the race with an all girl group of friends, some from the neighborhood, some new friends we met just for this race. It really was as fun as you hear about! Here are the girls in Van 2: Laura, Chloe, Amy, Camille, Christie, and myself along with our every faithful driver, Jonny. In case you can't tell, we were the "Foxes in Soxes" with our little fox tails and ears, we truly were the cutest team out there!

Why, oh why, would I put such an unflattering picture of myself on here? Because this is the face of someone who can't believe how fast they just ran. I ran 4.2 miles in 31 minutes thank you very much. It was awesome.

The scenery and places we went for this race were absolutely gorgeous. I've never been to Liberty or Eden but I now want to live there. This pic is the road going up to Snow Basin Resort.

Being in Van 2, our second legs STARTED at about 1:30 a.m. Did we attempt to sleep before our nighttime runs? Yes. Did we succeed? No. Especially since I was waiting to see Andy coming in at this exchange.

So the teams are usually 12 man teams. Here is Andy, finished with his part of a 4 man team. 4 only. And they each ran their sections straight. That means, Andy just ran 49 miles straight. In that outfit. There are flashing Christmas lights on the vest to add to the effect. (P.S. He's Lloyd Christmas. P.S.S. From Dumb and Dumber.)

My night run was crazy. It was 10.1 miles at 3:00 a.m. and I ran it way too fast. I got so sick, I wasn't expecting that. Here I am, not straying too far from the HoneyBuckets, when Andy surprised us with a visit.

My only regret, not getting a photo of the entire team, this is the closest we got: Krystal, Jessica, Becky, Camille, Christie, Chloe, Sarah, Kandice, Lara, Trisha

With a sick runner, Camille volunteered to step up and run Guardsmans Pass last minute. Here's Jonny making sure she doesn't collapse after her ascent into the clouds.

Together we did it! We conquered Guardsmans'! Camille the first half, me the second. I can say now it wasn't as bad as I thought. I don't think I would've said it then.

The finish line!!! We had people right and left telling us throughout the race that they loved our team, can you blame them. Look how adorable we are. Go you Foxy Ladies. Now lets eat some pizza!

Birthdays and Baptisms

March is always such a busy month around here. I love that our girls birthdays are so close together, because that way noone can get jealous. We just say, "Don't worry, your birthday is next week." Or "You just had a birthday, remember."

Zoe turned 5 this year! Here she is at her birthday breakfast. I always had to wait until the evening for my presents, I don't know how we got into this "breakfast" tradition, but there it is.

Zoe had never had a "friend" birthday party before and she had only one thing on her mind for it....Kangaroo Zoo. There was no changing her mind, and believe me, I tried. She was in heaven when her friends started to arrive. Here we have Jakey, Caroline, Sydney, Emmy, Zoe, Chloe and Max.


Ella has one obsession this year, Harry Potter. Everything she talks about has to do with HP. Every thing she plays with her friends, her piano music, and it's the only thing she reads lately. She is on the 5th book, and I can't believe how well she reads them. I'll find her in her room after I've put her to bed, with her eyes wide open, gripping her covers, shaking with fear saying, "Harry and Ron are being chased by giant spiders!" Then 5 minutes later she'll come ask me if she can read in bed because she can't wait to find out what happens. She knew for months that she wanted a Harry Potter movie night for her party. I had no idea she had told her friends to dress up until a little Ginny, Harry, Trelawney, another Harry and another started to show up at the door. Ella, herself, was Hermione of course.

The sorting had put them all in Gryffindor, or course. Here they are in the Great Hall with the floating candle. Ella, Brooke, Sammie, Brielle, Rebekah, Karissa, Peyton, Liam and Zoe.

Baptisms

My beautiful girl turned eight this year. She has been so excited and so prepared for her baptism for a very long time. I tend to get a little stressed over planning big events, but this went perfectly. She got baptized the same time as one of her buddies and nex door neighbor, Liam.

Her cousin, Brandon, shared the day with Ella. He was baptized that morning in Lehi, then the whole Avery crew trucked over the Heber City for Ella's. Both baptisms were beautiful. They are so lucky to have such a big, loving family.

My wonderful girl and her dad. I've never seen her as happy as she was that day. Her whole body just glowed all day. I love you so much, Ella!

Ten Years, Baby!

Snorkel Faces are very photogenic!

May 11th, 2001! That was the beginning for Andy and I! And I think ever since then we have been dreaming of going to Hawaii together, and this year was the year. We headed out for Maui, just the two of us and had a truly perfect vacation. We stayed in a little sugar cane plantation town called Haiku. It was gorgeous but also very much off the beaten path, which is just our style.

I think we will both agree that one of our favorite things we did was this run in the Molowki Forest. It was a 6 mile loop, and after every sing turn the scenery would completely change, from fern covered grounds to dark shadowy pines blocking out the light, to these tall eucalyptis trees. It was unreal, and a perfect run.

A very cool snorkeling spot, even though there was no sand. We hiked through the jungle, swinging on vines and then came to this perfect little cove.

Snorkeling at Molokini was okay, but what was really great was the huge pod of dolphins we saw. No swimming with them though. Next time.

What is this plant? Somebody tell me! A botanical garden on the road to Hana.

Cliff diving at the Seven Sacred Pools at the end of the Road to Hana. Yes, he's wearing a speedo.

Our last night at Mama's Fish House. Although, I could never forget the red snapper in Haiku, probably the best food I've ever tasted. The whole trip was completely amazing. I love you, Andy, and can't wait for the next 10 years!