Christmas 2008

We had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went to Terri's parents house to visit with Grandma and Gramps and Grandma Hatch. We got some great pictures. Heather spent Christmas Eve with us. We all slept in as there really weren't any presents for the 3 of us to open (we had given Heather early gifts to help furnish her new condo and Steve and I gave each other our cruise). Isaac and Bethany and Nathan, Jessica, and Macy came over later and the kids opened their gifts to each other and our gifts to them. We had so much fun watching Macy with her new little activity center. She stood by it for a half hour just laughing at the little dancing bear. After playing a game with us, Nathan and his family were off to Jessica's family's home. After Isaac and Bethany visited with his family they came back to our house where we played some more games. Heather, Bethany, and Terri got in the hot tub. It was snowing lightly and our heads got a dusting of snow. We were out there for an hour. We had so much fun. Isaac had to work the next day and Bethany didn't so Bethany decided to stay the night. She had gotten a Cricket vinyl letter cutting machine and we made a saying for our wall. You can see it on her blog. It turned out great. Then the 3 of us stayed up late watching movies. What fun. What would I do without my girls. I love you two!!!!!

5 Generations

This is a 5-generation picture of Macy Soelberg, Nathan Soelberg, Terri Soelberg, Lorraine Smith, and Irene Hatch, Macy's Great-Great Grandma who is 102-1/2 years old.

Steve and Terri go on a cruise, January 12-16

So before I went back to work after my 6-week recovery from elbow surgery, Steve and I went on a cruise with our dear friends, Steve and Debbie Jester. It was a 4-day cruise to Catalina Island and down to Ensenada. What fun. We took a little tour around the island. What an interesting place. Later that afternoon we took a little boat, big raft more like it, out into the ocean where we saw a whale diving into the water and dolphins which swam right along our boat with us. It was so cool. It was like they were escorting us around. Steve and Steve stuck their hand over the boat and the dolphins came up and touched them. Awesome stuff. We then went down to Ensenada where we tried to get a look at a blow hole that is there but the tide was out and it didn't blow too much. We went from shop to shop in the city and then back to the boat. What a relaxing vacation. I'm now back to work, yuck. Oh, well, back to real life.

Our Ship, the Paradise

The Dolphins

Hi all. I know it's been awhile but I promise I'll have pix of Christmas and our cruise soon. I got back to work this week after 6 weeks recovering from my elbow surgery. Not fun. I didn't get as much done around the house that I wanted to, but I was able to redo my office. It looks great and so much more functional. Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year

Merry Christmas

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. This is a picture of the best thing that happened to us this year, our little granddaughter, Macy.

December in Arizona

Well, I have decided that Arizona is not the place to spend any time in December for me to have the Christmas Spirit. It's great for my sister and her husband, but it just wasn't the same as the cold, snowy weather of Utah (of which we are having at this moment). After having surgery on my elbow on December 8th, I flew out the next day to Arizona to spend time with my sister and her husband in Tonapah (middle of the desert 100 miles from California). What a vacation. They took excellent care of me, what a pampered life I had (although I found eating with my left hand very difficult). Steve joined us on Wednesday and my other two sisters (one with her husband, the other with her daughter) joined us on Friday. What fun just visiting and playing games and having a little "sisters" Christmas party. I had so much fun, although I had to be icing my elbow all week and it did hurt pretty much the whole time. Steve and I flew home on Sunday. I'm now off of work until January 21 recovering. Steve and I are taking a 4-day cruise with some friends from Long Beach to Encinada my last week of recovery. Steve and I in front of cactus. Looks like summer, although it actually was chilly that morning.Front row: Sisters; Sheryl, Maureen, Karen, and Terri

Back Row: Husbands (on their wife's right hand side); Layne, Jeff, and Steve

Same as before but with my niece, Susan, on the left-hand side of her mother.
Steve helping Jeff with their roof.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun! I had all my kids at my house this year and I loved it!Every thanksgiving we go bowling with the family and then we go to a movie that night. This is one of my favorite traditions.

Another real fun thing I did was at the last minute at like 11:30 pm. Bethany and I decided to go to Walmart at 1:30 am. We were looking through all the sales in the newspaper and Bethany really wanted a Cricut for Christmas and there was a killer deal for one at Walmart, so we couldn't pass it up. We were at Walmart from about 1:30am and got out at 5:25 am and then hit Shopko, Michaels and Khols. This is another tradition that me and my girls are totally going to do every year. We couldn't believe how much we saved. then off to bed at 7:30 am.

Here we are in the check out line, which we sat in for about 3 hours.