Happy Thanksgiving

We've had a great week. It was our best Hill-Mulford Thanksgiving ever. We had Tammy's family here and she had everything planned perfectly (of course). It was fun for everyone! Those who came include Grandma and Grandpa Snell, Grandma and Grandpa Hill, Deb and Blair and family, Matt and Camille and family, Bev and her family (Ryan stayed home with Davis), Chris and Shauna and family, Steph and Reed and family. Altogether we had about 45 people. The menu included turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams, green bean casarole, Dixie salad, and Kneaders rolls. Amanda worked on Thanksgiving Eve at Kneaders and about 50 people didn't show up to pick up their pre-paid pies. The management gave them out to the employees so we ended up with 3 Kneaders pies to go with the 5 or 6 others. We had our Church reserved from 11 to 2 and played BB, fat Albert, prison, and flag football. Before eating we sang Thanksgiving hymns and Grandpa Snell read from the scriptures.

We sang enthusiastically while Chris played the piano.

Everyone had name plates made with cookie dough, that was fun. We had five tables set up on the main room, and we even ate in the dining room. Each table went one-by-one for food without a lot of chaos. The meal was the delicious. I sat by Mom and my parents. What joy! The couples played the newlywed game and the single teenagers were the judges. We laughed a lot. Then we ate the pies.

Even Maddy and Jacque ate their fill. A day always to remember.

Happy Birthday, Jeffrey, Ben, Hannah, Heidi

This has been a big few days for birthdays. Ben and Jeff's birthdays are on November 20 and Hannah and Heidi's birthdays are on November 21. The only one we got to see in person was Ben. He and Emily came over for his birthday dinner of chicken alfredo, spinach artichoke dip on baguettes, salad, squash, and peanut butter brownies with Reese's Pieces ice cream for dessert. We are so blessed Tammy is such a great cook. We are grateful that so many wonderful people were born this week. Jeff celebrated by going to Maryland for Thanksgiving. Hannah has patiently waited to open her birthday package for several weeks in the Czech Republic. And I am sure that Heidi is celebrating with Juanita and Mark and Grandpa Ray in the Spirit world.



Here Ben is struggling to blow out the three candles representing 3 to the 3rd power years of life. He eventually, with Emily's help, got them all out!

Seth has been practicing the Spanish immersion dance and singing program for the past several weeks. Here he is with his partner. He is grateful that the program is over.

Here is Seth's class singing Vive Espana!

Life is wonderful,

Dad

California Dreamin

Tammy and I had a "dreamy" weekend getaway at the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz, California. I had to go to NCFR and so afterwards we headed down to Monterey Bay and my old home town.

The day was absolutely beautiful, 65 degrees and sunny. We walked the whole length of the beach and had lots of good talks and pure joy!

After seeing this memorial bench we decided not to take surfing lessons!

We even got to attend Church at the old Santa Cruz ward where I went as a boy.

We really enjoyed doing a session in the Oakland, California temple. It is our fifth new temple of the year and our 24 temple since we got married.

Fall Break

For Fall Break (aka UEA) we decided to get out of the house and do something. We piled in the mini-van and drove to Salt Lake where Seth did baptisms for the dead for the first time. Amanda, Ryan, and Mom went with him. Dad had to stay with Cam and Maddy because he lost his temple recommend. After the baptisms we all went to a Tabernacle organ concert and then to the Gateway to do mostly window shopping. We finished out the day watching the Joseph Smith movie and then went to dinner at the Olde Spaghetti Factory. Delicious!

The colors were beautiful so we went for a good Fall hike on the Bonneville Shoreline trail. Everyone enjoyed themselves, especially Cam!

Here is handsome Dad with the family!

October 2009

The Hill-Mulford family is back! We took a little moratorium on blogging for a few months because we believed that we had lost our camera. However, the camera was preserved and we began taking pictures again. We'll bring you up to date ever so gently ...

Amanda went on her first big dance at Timpanogos High School with Sean.

Ryan completed his Eagle Scout project. He master-minded a brilliant community service endeavor where in 181 volunteer hours contributed by more than 40 people spruced up Cascade Elementary school. The parking lot was re-striped, the lines were re-painted on the basketball hoops, the curbs were re-painted, and the basketball standards got a fresh coat.

Cam was the star artist at the project. He single-handedly repainted the handicap parking stalls. Amazing!

Omaha

Our summer travels continued with a trip to Omaha last week to visit Abby and James and Andrew and Peter. Ryan is just getting his license and so needed the driving hours. He drove about 14 hours during the trip. Amanda, Ryan, Seth, Cam and I made the trip. Tammy and Maddy had a fun (and quiet) time at home and also visited in Kaysville. This picture is of Amanda, Ryan, and I after we went with James to do baptisms in the Winter Quarters temple.

We had a real fun time ice blocking for family home evening down the hill across from Abby and James house. This is an ice train with James, Ryan, Seth, and Cam, right before it fell apart. Abby won the contest for the longest ride.

We visited the children's museum and had loads of fun. Here Cam is making up Abby with fancy costume make up. He is very creative!

Peter REALLY enjoyed being in the museum with his grandpa, ME!

Believe it or not, this is Amanda posing as Hans Solo and promoting BYU!

A highlight of the trip was visiting the Henry Dorley zoo. We got a family membership so we went three times. The zoo is fantastic and sometimes its hard to tell whether the people are observing the animals or perhaps the animals are observing the people. Here Cam, Seth, Amanda, and Ryan traverse the rope bridge teeming with monkeys and other jungle animals.

We went to an all-you-can-eat pizza place for dinner and managed to down 107 pieces of pizze among all of us. Here Andrew is proud of his contribution! Actually he only ate three pieces. James was the champion with 22 pieces and everyone else managed to eat at least 10.

Since we were only 500 miles away from them, we figured out a way to see Aaron, Jenny, Spencer and Joshua. We each drove halfway and met in Iowa City, Iowa. We met at the Olive Garden and had a delicious lunch. Then we spent the afternoon together in a beautiful park.

Joshua and his beautiful blue eyes seemed happy to see grandpa.

Spencer was excited to pilot the space shuttle to a very wet landing in the park.

Maddy didn't go to Omaha, but she had a great time at home learning to sew with grandma and going to the Wizard of Oz with Tammy and Jackie. Here she is, all made up and beautiful. Check out those eye lashes!

I couldn't resist putting in this picture of Moroni (Jordan). Tammy had sharing time about the scriptures and he was very impressive as he enlightened the primary children. He is one handsome Nephite! Live is wonderful, Jeff

Backpacking and a Birthday

Ryan celebrated the BIG birthday! He turned 16 which means that he can date and get his license. He is currently taking drivers' ed and could have his license in just a few weeks. There are MANY girls hoping that he will ask them out!

Seth, Cam, Maddy, and I backpacked to a camping spot about a mile from our house, overlooking Orem. It was beautiful! On the way up a thunderstorm was blowing in and nearly blew us off the mountain. However, it calmed down enough for Cam and Seth to track down and catch exotic insects (like grasshoppers).

Maddy set up some sticks to hold her pot over the fire. We decided, however, to use the camp stove to make our macaroni and cheese, oatmeal, and hot chocolate.

Cam brought his football on the trip and we played catch.

A highlight of the trip was being able to build a fire, which we enjoyed late into the night, before the big rains came.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset (sailor's delight) right before a torrential thunderstorm pelted us through several hours during the night.