Holiday Cheer

We were invited by this darling couple, Bill and Yvonne Nielson, to their cabin in Yellowstone for Thanksgiving. It was a WONDERFUL weekend spent snowmobiling, eating, and enjoying the company of a truly marvelous family. (That's their daughter Tally on the right).

While the rest of them got to sticking gum drops with tooth picks to make gum drop turkeys, I got my baby fix!

Everybody LOVES Brandon; the girls, the boys...he's just a cool guy.

Then on Saturday, we invited the Korean teachers to our home for a Thanksgiving dinner as well. Morgan got her fortune and future revealed to her. Let's see, it goes something like this, "You'll have a boyfriend, then you won't, then you will, then you won't, (blah, blah, blah) and you'll eventually get married at 25". Hey, who needs a patriarchal blessing after a revelation like that!

We will miss Sear! She has a beautiful spirit.

About 1/2 hour from Cody next to the Southeast Entrance to Yellowstone NP is the local ski resort Sleeping Giant. We decided to check it out one Saturday. It's about half the size of the Majestic Lift at Brighton. Good snow though. But still, makes me miss Alta and the quick 'hop, skip, and a jump' up Little Cottonwood.

And Brian got 'bagged' by Santa at our ward Christmas party

What we've been doing lately

For Brian's birthday, we spent the night in Billings, Montana and stayed at the Wingate Hotel that has an indoor water park. They spent most of the time on the "frog pads" and playing water basketball. If there's water involved, it's gotta be fun.

For Halloween, we drove to Salt Lake and invited the Peruvian Posee to Frightmares at Lagoon. It was an incredible night...so much fun...It was a weekend of parties and friends.

On a drive out to Yellowstone one Sunday afternoon, we passed a house that had a pile of buffallo skulls out in front. Don't see that every day!

At this activity, the boys prepared Halloween gift bags full of Halloween treats for the Korean teachers and at a BBQ they passed them out. The teachers LOVED them! Most of them have families back at home in Korea and so they miss being with them on holidays.

Back in Cody, we like to do fun activities with the Korean teachers. Here we are at the Rec. Center about to play walley ball. They didn't like it. They prefer volleyball.

And one last post that I forgot about that happened this last summer. The whole Baker family met at the Tahiti Village Resort in Las Vegas for a family reunion. ALL the BAKER cousins made it and here they are!

The girl cousins at the bowling alley

All About the Fabulous Baker Brothers

Brandon is in 8th grade at Cody Middle. He joined the football team. He LOVES it! (Wished I had put him in sooner.) But of course, if you know Brandon, he's got to do things on his own terms and timeline. #35 - Let me see if I remember correctly his position--tight end and safety. Have no idea what that means, but I know that he's not a lineman nor the quarterback. Geez, I've got to learn this game!

He's somewhere in that mess and it's about this point in the game when I've learned to look away and pretend I'm at the spa because he's about to get a poundin'!

Okay, whew! He came out of that alive

Bradley and Brian are playing soccer this fall, as always. They're on the same team this year, so Dave signed up to coach. They are the two most fascinating players to watch because they play as if they were twins-always together. Brian is like Stockton...he passes to Bradley (Malone) to score. (For those of you who are familiar with Jazz Basketball players)

So I can always get the two of them in the same picture.

Bradley is in 4th grade and he ran for Student Body Vice President. I made these little 'tickle monsters' that he passed out for everyone to stick on their shoulders. He also wore a t-shirt for 4 days and I taped a different picture of him on the back of it each day. One of the pictures was of him picking his nose and his t-shirt said, "Pick a Winner" The kids LOVED to look for different pictures each day the campaign was going. (You know, posters just don't work--you've got to be creative!) He won hands down!

He also entered a region soccer shoot off. He took first place so they're sending us to Casper in November for the State Championship. He's SOOOOO excited. Got a trophy and all...I'll post a picture as soon as Dave sends it to me.

Our Little Quirky Town

You know you're in Wyoming when...

This horse is waiting while his owner is gassing up. Ha, ha, ha, just kidding! Dave took this picture in one of the cities in Wyoming he was passing through. See Dave's car in the background?

We were kicked out of Big Horn Lake one Saturday by this huge storm. When we drove out of it on the way home, we looked back and this is what was saying good bye to us...never seen a rainbow as colorful.

When you come to visit us, we will take you to the BEST steak house in the world!!!! These cattle are smiling...can you see how happy they are? And when you eat them, it puts a huge smile on your face too because the taste is a euphoric experience. OH MY...and I don't eat meat..well, until now! A 9oz filet with King Crab legs...mm, mm, mm!

So I had been wondering why my allergies had come back after years of absence and on one of my drives I saw this happening which answered my question.

BAD ALLERGIES! BAD, BAD, BAD ALLERGIES

So I followed the truck. It headed for the silos at the granery train station. And tada...this is how food is made and brought to your grocery store! (Barley, by the way) Had no idea...I'm such a city girl!

Wha-la! And there you have a tid bit of what goes on in Cody...fascination when you're a city gal!