Visitors

Lisa - Last fall we were sitting at the dinner table when there was a strange knock at the door. It was more of a tapping than a knock and was soft and low on the door. One of the kids opened the door and quickly whispered to us all to come see who was at the door. We peeked out and saw Mr. and Mrs. Duck had come to visit! They were actually drinking water out of my potted plants on the porch and the tapping sound we heard was their beaks on the cement, not on the door. But it had seemed like they had knocked on the door and were waiting there when we opened the door to come in and visit. We did try to lure them in with bread, but they would not step over the threshold.

Well, this Saturday morning Shane looked out the window into the backyard and guess who was back for a visit? This time they had decided to take a dip in our pool! Our pool has a retractable cover that is usually closed, but the heavy snows this winter had caused the cover to collapse, so the water in the pool is exposed for now until we get it fixed. The ducks probably thought we had put a pond in just for them. It will be interesting to see how often they come by for a swim!

Battle of the Bands

Bob - This is Shane at Battle of the Bands for Bingham High School in October. He is the keyboard player in the band This Way to the Exit. These first two pictures of them were taken during the competition at their school.


The band includes his friends Logan on guitar, Kevin on bass, Eric on drums and Colton on vocals. They placed third at this competition, but since the first and second place bands had too many members that were older than the regulation limit of 19, This way to the Exit got to go on to the regional competition. Their band has 4 sophomores and 1 junior. They had to perform 1 cover song and 1 original song of their own.

This is the regional competition that was held Feb. 6th at another local school. It was called a multi-regional competition because there were 10 bands from 10 high schools in the Salt Lake area and also a band from Provo. The top three bands from this competition won a trip to the state competition and also a chance to record their music at a local recording studio.


There were about five bands that were really good. The other five weren't so great. Being the pessimists that we are, Lisa and I tried to brace Shane for the possibility that they would not make it on to State. At the end of the night they read off the names of the three band that would advance to the state competition. The first two band called were the band from Riverton High and the band from Timpview High in Provo. The third band called was This Way to the Exit and we were so excited we all jumped up and started screaming. We couldn't believe that they had done it! Shane gave us a hard time for doubting. The State competition will be held on March 15th and we will let you know how they do.!

Winter

Lisa - Winter is usually a hard time for me. I love summer and spend my winters longing for it to be summer again. But this year has been different. There has been so much snow and so many storms that it has made an adventure out of winter. We have had snow days where school was delayed and one where even church was cancelled. We have had power outages, and bizzards that created a total whiteout in some areas. I happened to have pictures of the first snow of the year and some of Rachel and McKay playing during one of the big storms. It has been quite a few years since we have had a snow year like this one and it made the winter go by so much faster. I did see a robin in the yard a couple of days ago though, so spring is coming!

Our First Blog

Since mom and dad gave us a hard time on their blog, we decided we had better join the blogging revolution, so here is our first attempt. It was hard to decide where to start, so we are going back to our trip to Oregon this summer and make that our starting point. We had such a great time on that trip. The kids all said it was one of their favorite vacations ever. That's pretty good coming from a bunch of teenagers! We camped in the Shasta National Forest for a couple of nights and then went to a wild animal park in Roseburg, OR. We were up close and personal with lions, giraffes, bears, zebras and a lot more. The kids loved it so much we went through twice! Then we went to Neskowin, OR and stayed in a cottage near the beach for a few days. It was so relaxing and the weather actually cooperated and was fairly warm. Then we went on to Tom and Shauna's for Kelly's birthday celebration and baptism. We were so glad we could be there to share that day with her! I lumped these pictures all together because it was easier this time. I will try to make our blog a little more aesthetic as we figure out what we are doing!