Claire's 11th Birthday

We had Claire's 11th birthday party last Friday. I picked her and her friends up from school. I don't have a photo, but I decorated the car with streamers and helium balloons. And tied cans to the bumper to make noise. She loved the attention the car attracted at school.

We played a game called "cheese-head". We put whipping cream on a hat, and a partner had to throw cheese puffs at it. The winning team was the head with the most cheese puffs on it. Claire and her partner won.

Claire didn't want a cake and ice cream. She wanted Jello. So I bought Jello cups and added whipped cream and sprinkles to them. She is blowing out her candles here.

Claire and her friend Amy have made up nick names for each other. Claire calls Amy "cream puff" and Amy calls Claire " cheese puff". When it came time to open presents, this friend's card was as big as the gift. Claire opened it up and found a sign that read," to" taped to a bag of cheese puffs, and "from" taped to a box of cream puffs. That was as much fun as the gift itself.

At the party we decorated cork boards. The girls really took this assignment to heart, and did a terrific job on their boards. We clued buttons to push pins as well.

A Fun Day Skiing?

Stone and Claire both had a desire to learn to snowboard. So we took a day off from school and work and headed to the mountains. We purchased special equipment and lesson packages for them. They were totally excited as you can see. Aiden was also totally excited, he just giggles on the inside.
This is a photo of Claire up on her snowboard. She is the tiny one in yellow.

This is Stone snowboarding. He loved it. He fell a lot, but didn't let that stop him from getting back up time and time again. He was determined to master the skill.

Aiden took snowboarding lessons when he was younger. So he already knew what to do. He took off on his own. Big Richard and Aiden had fun taking the "scary" ski lift together.

UH-OH! It wouldn't be a Hoopes family outing if someone didn't break a bone. And Claire was the first to oblige. She got in two runs, and then fell on her wrist suffering a buckle fracture. I am really grateful we purchased our lesson package on a week day special, because they don't give refunds for injuries. So most of Claire's fun day of skiing lasted about 30 minutes. Then it was 3 1/2 hours in the lodge with Mom.

At one point Stone and Richard came in to rest and check up on Claire. Claire's body language speaks for itself. She was bored and in pain. The First Aid station wasn't allowed to give us any pain medication. But they did say we could buy some ibuprofen in the store. Unfortunately the store was all sold out. So Claire just dealt with it. After I took the photo I decided it wasn't very attractive of anyone. So I told them to try again, and this time to look good.

So this was the result. I think they all look much nicer in this photo. Stone and Claire tease me because they say I stage every picture. I think they will thank me when they are older, and all our family pictures make them look good.

This was the end result of our family outing. But wait! What happened to Stone?! Well, we were ready to go because I had made a 2 o clock doctor's appointment for Claire. Richard went to call Stone in to the lodge. Stone had just completed a run and was at the bottom of the hill, when Richard called out his name. Stone turned to look at Richard and lost his balance and fell. We thought maybe he had sprained his wrist or something. Certainly he couldn't have broken anything with something so slight as falling from a standing position. But at the doctor's office, x-rays revealed that he had fractured his ulna and median distal bone? of the thumb. Let see, that means Stone has broken his right arm once and his left arm three times. Not to mention his three foot bones he has broken. The doctor didn't seem too worried about it. He said his own son has broken as many bones.

Aiden's 17th Birthday

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One of my friends was telling me how nice it has been to have Aiden hanging around her house lately. I explained to her how Aiden refuses to have friends come to his house. He never wants to invite them over to our house to hang out. She suggested that I have a surprise party for him, and force him to have friends over. I liked the idea, and with his birthday just 7 days away, I went into full swing putting together a last minute surprise birthday party for Aiden. On Friday evening around 6:45 I asked Aiden to run to the gas station to get me a soda. Anyone who knows me, will know this a common occurrence and not suspicious in the least. His friends had all parked up at Grandma Hoopes' house waiting for the all clear signal to come down. We were waiting for Claire to tell us he was coming as she was put on look out upstairs. She some how missed the headlights driving up. Aiden walked into the kitchen holding my soda wondering why so many of his friends were just hanging out around the couch. In a rather staccato method people starting yelling "Surprise!" He was surprised.

The party was held in the basement. In the front room was air hockey, fuzeball, and videos. In the bedroom was the food and band hero.


After about 2 hours everyone left. I was afraid everyone got bored, and as soon as the first movie was over, they all wanted to go home. I was feeling really bad thinking it was another disastrous party by Mena. But then about an hour later they all came back in and went down to the basement again. Apparently they had just taken the party outside, and were walking up and down Cole rd. The party ended about midnight because that is most of the kids' curfews. All in all I would have to call it a success. Fewf!

The Budding Equestrian

Lately Claire has expressed an interest in horses. Luckily for her, we have some friends who happen to own four horses. Their daughter, Laura, said that she would love to have Claire come over and ride horses with her, and help her take care of the horses. Here they are combing out the tail. It was apparently very knotted. Claire had to use some de-tangler on it.

Here Claire is brushing one of the horses. They were very dusty. This horse's mane and tail were not nearly as tangled.

Claire helped to clean 3 of the 4 horses. I told her that her arms are going to be very sore tomorrow. She worked for 3 1/2 hours brush one end or the other of these horses. Laura offered to let her ride today. But Claire said that she wanted to get to know the horses first. Now she feels as if she knows them, and she is anxious to go riding next time. We will see. These friends live very near to Grandma and Grandpa Wright's house. They live off of Van Geisen.

BYU-I or Bust

Saturday, January 2, 2010, 7 o'clock in the morning. Richard is preparing to embark on a 12 hour journey to Idaho. He has to drive the whole way by himself. He packed his car full, front and back.

Mom gives him a kiss good-bye, and wishes him luck. Is he scared? Is he excited? Well, it depends on when you spoke to him. At 7 am, Richard was very nervous. Almost down-right-scared. He was driving off into the unknown. He said the only other time he was this scared was the day he entered the MTC. Big Richard gave him a father's blessing before he left, and I said a family prayer with him as he was leaving. I believe Richard showed true courage in both these instances. Courage is not the absence of fear. True courage is the ability to move forward in spite of your fears. As the drive progressed, and he got closer to BYU-I Richard's fears turned into excitement. And by time he called us from his new apartment, he was certain he was where he wanted to be.

Christmas Day

Christmas day we spent up at Grandma and Grandpa Hoopes' house. We fixed a wonderful dinner with ham and Dad's famous smoked turkey.

After dinner most everyone took a nap. The kids had been up since 3 am that morning. Here Claire and Dad are enjoying the new Snuggies that they received from G-ma and G-pa. Claire sleeps best when she is being squished by someone.

Stone fixed the pillows just right and fell asleep as well. Once all of our naps were finished, we gathered in the family room. I read a story by Pres. Faust about the true meaning of Christmas. And I introduce the pickle jar. This year our family is going to collect coins throughout the year and put them in a large pickle jar. Next Christmas we will cash in the coins and use the money to give service to a needy family. Little Richard started us off right by pouring in a container of coins he had been storing in a footlocker during his mission. Then we played a game of Apple 2 Apples.

Richard shared a Canadian Christmas tradition with our family this year. Have you heard of Christmas Crackers? Dad thought the brightly colored packages contained crackers that one would eat with cheese, and wondered why I paid so much money for them. Imagine his surprise when he pulled on the ends and a loud snapping noise occurred and out fell some toys. Inside each cracker is a party hat, and a small toy. We are wearing our party hats. The unfortunate part was that we forgot to do this on Christmas around the dinner table. Which is the usual tradition. So we did it the next day in the kitchen.

Christmas Morning

Ahh, bright and early on Christmas morning. Claire opening her first present. Of course it was the one that Lindsey gave her. She sure worships her older sister.
This was Dad's Myspace photo of Stone and himself. Stone looks thrilled.
This is the quilt I made for Little Richard to take back to school with him. I put Richard's symbol in the center, along with the inscription,"RT3" That is how Little Richard refers to himself. Richard received many practical school gifts this year.
Well, I guess pigs do fly, Hell has frozen over, and Mom has lost all her marbles. Because I actually purchased a video game for my kids. I decided that this is not a regular video game. It is a fun interactive family game that everyone can enjoy. Not to mention the fact that Dad has always wanted a family band, but could never induce any of his kids to take up the guitar or drums. Now he can have his band. They have been on it for over 2 hours now.
Aiden received a super sonic Nerf gun from Little Richard. He enjoys shooting it at the person who is messing up the most in the Band Hero game. And he has to shoot while simultaneously making loud noises. Aiden just likes any excuse to make loud noises. He's a boy.
Here is a photo of the carnage that is left of our livingroom. I have even done a little cleaning up before this picture was taken. And now it has all moved into the familyroom.
Claire has put on as much of her new clothing as possible. She desperately wanted yellow jeans. and her sister got her the Hello Kitty shirt and necklace. And Santa got her the snazzy cowgirl boots. And she has on her new yellow watch. Although she struggles to tell time on an analog watch. Thanks to digital clocks everywhere. We need to teach her that.

I will post more tomorrow with pictures of our Christmas evening activities.
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!