Salt Lake City Trip

uhhh...Dad, ARE WE THERE YET?

I think we mentioned to most of our family that we took a spur of the moment trip to Salt Lake City the weekend before Christmas. Sometimes it's good not to think of something too long, because we talk ourselves out of doing it. Logically, taking 9 people to Salt Lake City, in bad, dreary weather, in a van built for 8 people, driving 10 hours one-way, and staying in a hotel with 7 kids sounds like a horrible experience...right? Let's just say that we had some ups and downs, (the few downs were mostly due to cramped spaces, hunger, tiredness, and snow...) but we had WAY more ups. And that's what blogs are for, right? The "Ups", so here they are:

Day 1: Driving to Salt Lake, Arrival at the hotel, live nativity at Liberty park.

The Little America hotel has quickly become our favorite place to stay in Salt Lake. We were introduced to it for John and Jessica's wedding, and then Carl and Clay stayed there to attend General Conference, and now we will probably always choose to stay there when we visit. The rooms were huge, affordable, clean and cozy. The beautiful indoor, heated pool was a big hit with the kids, and the opportunity to jump on "Trax" right out the front door to visit Temple Square was so convenient and completely fun for our city starved kids who thought it was the only way to travel. The live nativity got us happily in the mood for the real meaning of Christmas, as we traveled around from scene to scene, being reminded of the "Echoes of Christmas", as we are still in awe of this amazing story even 2000 years later. There was singing, and real animals (sheep, camel, donkey...very big plus with the little ones). All of us enjoyed it, except Luke. He muttered the whole time that it was "Boring", but in the end a kind older man, seeing his sulkiness let him hold his dogs leash, and in the magical way of children, he somehow thought that it was a perfect evening after that!

Day 2: Church in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, dinner at Sizzler, nap time, a trip across to the Grand America for a Teddy Bear and Gingerbread House Display, and a finale to Temple Square for the beautiful lights and to hear a choir in the Assembly Hall.

We began the day blissfully choosing a ward to attend that wasn't too early and not too late. We dressed the kids in cozy sweaters and sweater dresses, and took our first trip on "the train". We arrived to the "oohs" and "Ahhs" of the children as they admired the intricate beauty of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We found the chapel, and sat cozily on the back bench. Cora was already a mess with tiredness, but even that was not a damper on the day as we were constantly attended to by a "children starved" ward that offered compassionate smiles, and assistance. The meeting was pleasant and uplifting. We filled up on food at Sizzler to make it last the rest of the day, and went back to the hotel for even more delicious naps. Later in the evening, Clay, Lacey, Luke, Leia, and Lora went across to the Grand America hotel to see a Teddy bear Exhibit in the Presidential Suite, (collected for Charity) and a saw a breathtaking Gingerbread House display by the Grand America head Chefs to help support juvenile diabetes (I know, a bit ironic...but it was so cool) Probably the best part was the trip up to the 23rd floor via a high speed elevator.

Having children reminds you that everything is fun!

After some relaxation, we went back to Temple Square, and enjoy

ed the awesome display of lights and a lovely choir in the Assembly Hall to make the night feel so like Christmas time!

Under the 75 foot tall "Cedar of Lebanon", our favorite tree

Christian looking thrilled...

Day 3: The Church History Museum, Dinner with Santa, and Hogle Zoo Lights Spectacular.

One of the reasons we wanted to take the kids to Salt Lake was for them to experience the Museum. I have many fond memories of going there as a child and young adult. It quietly strengthened my testimony and we hope that it instilled a sense of the strength of the church into our children's souls. We took each of them to Joseph and Hyrum's death masks for that one on one connection that we hoped would make the history a reality to them. It was an enjoyable trip. All of the children loved it.

I think these "sermon" pictures are HILARIOUS!!!

In a total internet fluke, I stumbled across an opportunity to have a hot buffet dinner with "Santa" and a trip to the Hogle Zoo for not much more than dinner would have cost us, and it turned out to be such a fun evening. (By the way, this was the REAL Santa. We were lucky enough to actually meet him. )The dinner was delicious and the whole thing was wonderful. We really enjoyed the Zoo lights even though we were freezing, it was good winter fun, and an excellent way to end the trip. Cora was completely in love with all of the animals. We can't wait to take her to a zoo in better weather. She is too cute.

Can you guess which one is OUR child? (below)

This is so FUN! Cora's first Carousel ride


Clay found a snow "gun" and said "FREEZE!" get it????

Day 4: pack up, check out, visit Carl's brother Brian and his family and meet their new son, drive back to sunny Bullhead City.

This day started a bit rough as the snow began to fall heavily and we were silently concerned about the Beaver/Fillmore area. We stopped briefly near Lehi, in Eagle Mountain, and met Brian, Emily, their cute girls and their new, beautiful son, William Brian Westphal. He is precious and all is well with their family. The snow dissipated and we set off on the long ride home. We met Carl's parents briefly in Las Vegas to exchange gifts as they were on their way up to see their new grandson and spend Christmas up there. We arrived home to find all well, and welcomed the warm weather and coziness of familiarity. Sometimes the best part of a trip is coming home. We are sure glad we went and look forward to other unplanned trips in the future!

Happy New Year!

Here's a quick "catch-up" on the Wild-Westphal clan. We fell off blog mountain sometime back in August, and just found ourselves back at the top ready to try again. We realize that no one may really care about any of this, but we genuinely enjoy reading all of your blogs, so we hope this is somewhat interesting to you as well...or at least the pictures make you smile.

CLAY
Clay has had an interesting year. He turned 13 on July 20, a few days after the "Pioneer Trek". He also finished off well on the Barracuda Swim Team, placing high in breast stroke and improving in all other areas. He has a real love now for swimming and plans to do it again this spring. After a difficult 1st quarter back to Middle School, we decided to try home schooling for the remainder of the year. Many of you know he struggles with Asperger's Syndrome, which makes the already difficult adolescent years even that much more complicated. So far, he is enjoying the time with mom, learning math, reading, writing, and some enrichment in history and science. We have even taken up an elementary Latin course and Clay really enjoys it. He plans to repeat 8th grade next year at a charter school and then go to regular high school in 2011with his buddies from church. We are excited for his future which looks brighter with every passing day. He's a brilliant young man bursting with talent and creativity.

CATIE
Catie is 11 going on 13...she is bright, silly, and generally loves life. 6th grade has been fun for her. She has a large circle of friends, with a best friend named Aina Ahzer. They love to pour over "anime" cartoons, draw pictures, giggle and spend time together. Catie is doing well for a first time Middle Schooler, she has kept her grades high and continues to take honors math and english. Her teachers love her and she brings a lot of joy to our family as well. When she isn't home, things aren't quite as fun. Catie is currently talking guitar lessons from the best teacher in town (her dad...) She shows promise as a musician as it comes so easily to her. We hope she will continue to develop this talent in many areas as we know it will bring her much happiness in the future. Aside from these things, Catie loves to read, read, read. She still loves the "Warrior" series as cats continue to be her favorite animal, but she also likes Fablehaven, Peter and the Star Catchers, and many light "pre-teen" reads. We are so glad Catie is with us. We need her light hearted personality.

LACEY

Lacey has had a fun end to 2009. She is in 4th grade now, and doing well. She also began playing soccer again. She ended up on a really good team, with a fantastic coach (her dad) and they ended as the best team, placing first with the gold. They went to area play offs, and won their first 2 games and lost the last one. The last one was on Sunday, and Lacey opted not to play. She was sad when she heard they lost, but only for a few minutes, in her words "It's just a soccer game, it's not that important." The picture at the left is her with her "Aunt Carrie" her soccer inspiration. Carrie currently plays soccer and was able to make it to one of Lacey's games. Aside from all this, Lacey has taken up learning the flute and has come to love playing. She is very self motivated in practicing and plans to stick with it. Lacey is an entertaining child, very goofy and hardly ever serious. She teases us until we smile, and is good to lend a helping hand with little brothers ans sisters. She likes to do crafts and makes silly movies with her camcorder she got for Christmas.

LUKE
Luke is so much fun to have around. He loves kindergarten and his teacher and she is so good for him. He got an art award for a drawing he made and he couldn't have been more proud. It was a representation of people taking care of their pets and he was chosen as the best display of "Trust & Responsibility" by the art teacher. In addition to this, he also gets good grades and high marks for behavior. He is such a sweet, funny, bright person. He has also become good friends with Christian and they have a blast "being boys" rolling all over the floor, and laughing their heads off. It's so cute.

LEIA

What can you say about Leia? She is hilarious, and such an individual. I've never met a smaller person with a bigger sense of herself than Leia! She is doing equally well in kindergarten in a totally different way than her brother. She is in love with words and all day reads signs and all the words she can find with in the house and on the streets. She also spells things very well (better than her parents...) and is lighthearted, messy and wonderful. Her favorite things are riding her scooter, drawing, helping cook, playing with her brothers and sisters, and reading books. Her talent among many seems to be singing--she has this opera-like voice that is bigger than she is and continually amazes us as well as makes us laugh with her rendetions of popular tunes. We hope that it, along with dancing, are talents that can be shaped and fine tuned along the way. We can't wait to see how she turns out!

CHRISTIAN
Here is a great shot of Christian hugging the Han Solo christmas ornament--(yes, we have a Han Solo Christmas ornament and Luke and Leia too, of course...) Christian is mix of devil and angel all day long. He is usually the first one up and the last one to go to bed. He LOVES orange. He has to eat everything on orange dishes and drink our of an orange cup. He even likes to eat oranges, why? Because they're orange! He is rough and tumble, but can be found cuddling somewhere just before nap with his favorite "doggie" stuffed animal, and will tell you he "doesn't lub you anymore" to see your pained reaction, just before he tackles you with a big hug and says "I lub you" just to see out delighted smiles. He's in that "testing" age and starts his first day of Primary this Sunday at church. He is so proud to be a "big boy" and it's a good thing he's so darn cute or he'd be in more trouble each day than he could handle!

CORA

Aside from being able to double as a garden gnome, Cora spends most of her day flipping through books, coloring, hugging dollies, playing with her brothers and sisters, and making a mess. Cora dazzles us with her how well she understands things and is not afraid of many things. (just people...) We are so glad that we broke the symmetry and went ahead and had a seventh child. Now that she's here, we don't know what we'd do without her. She is in love with life and reminds all of us everyday to be thankful for the amazing world we live in. The name Cora comes from the latin root for "Heart" and that's what she is to us, "our heart".

Well, I know it reads like an annoying Christmas card, but there it is--a short update. We are alive and well, and hope are too! (especially the "alive" part)