wild murdocks

2012-01-04T07:16:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve, 2011

2012-01-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS EVE and DAY

2011-12-23T21:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas, Haunukkah, Solstice,

Bodhi Day, Kwanzaa and New Year!

With Love!

XOXO

2011-12-22T16:47:00.001-08:00

Wrapping up the end of the year slide shows.

This was a trip we did down the daily this summer.

It truly was a beautiful day...

2011-12-10T09:11:00.001-08:00

Oh Christmas Tree!

2011-12-06T06:59:00.001-08:00

Thanks Giving 2011
“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.”
Albert Camus

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

It was a crazy, busy Halloween, with a dress-up day and dance at work on Friday, Pumpkin Chuckin on Saturday, then trick-or-treating on Monday. And, as many of you know, our neighborhood is the traditional trick-or-treating area for the town. We always keep a tally of how many trick-or-treaters come to our house. This year was a record year with 692 people!

Here are some highlights:

2011-10-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Lovely autumn evening trip to Oowah Lake.
Rowan catches his first fish on a small stick
that he's tied a string and hook to,
with his broken arm.

late summer, Warner Lake, 2011

2011-10-02T12:43:00.001-07:00

2011-09-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

Fiery Furnace, Fall 2010

evening swim

2011-09-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

One of the last hot nights of the summer, perfect for a swim in the river.

2011-06-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

Trip down the Moab Daily at high water (over 37,000 cfs)

2011-05-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day at the river 2011

2011-05-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Grand Canyon Spring Break 2011

2011-02-18T18:35:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day Poem

My yearly tradition of writing a Valentine's day poem

using the names of my four boys, River, Ridge, Rowan, and Ryder.

Lunar Phase

A lone rider stops at a river to rest

He carries a heaviness deep in his chest

Under a tree he bows low his head

Longing for peace in the journey ahead

Over a ridgeline the hot sunset burns

In love and pain, he lives and he learns

The wind and the water whisper, “Be still”

The silent moon moves through the sky at earth’s will

Sleep comes again, to give his mind rest

And with morning dew’s kiss he continues his quest

Alina N. Murdock

Past years:

2010-12-18T13:27:00.000-08:00

Fisher Towers Hike with the Murdock family.

2010-12-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

The famous Castle Valley Gourd Festival

2010

2010-12-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Slideshow from our trip down Westwater in August

2010-11-10T15:56:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2010

2010-11-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

Our yearly autumn trip to Warner Lake.

2010-11-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Summer trip to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado.

2010-09-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Sexy Tomato & Sweet Peaches

2010-09-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Ryder and his buddy Elijah share the same birthday, so it was perfect when they invited us to go camping for a birthday extravaganza filled with kids, dogs, food, and fun.

2010-09-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

At the end of last year, Ridge, Rowan and Ryder, were all winners in the Reading Rainbow Young Writers Competition. Their stories can be viewed on the website:

Rowan's story can be seen here.

You can see Ryder's story here.

2010-09-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

Warner Lake Cabin

We always love to go to the La Sal mountains and stay at the old forest ranger cabin at Warner's Lake. This trip was at the beginning of the summer when the irises and other wildflowers were in bloom.

Cabin slideshow:

Night time entertainment with glow sticks:

2010-08-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

BE LIGHT

July 4, 2010

We hiked up to Gold Basin during the day of the 4th of July and later that evening climbed up to our slick rock seats to view the fireworks in town.

2010-08-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

The boys loved cousin's camp this year.
Here are a few photo highlights:

and a little video

2010-08-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Nackos Family Reunion 2010

at Aunt Delaine's cabin

2010-06-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

San Juan Sketches

I made some sketches while on our last river trip,

then colored them when we returned.

Nothing fantastic, but fun to try and

quickly capture some of the scenery.

2010-06-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

San Juan River Trip

We had a great time with all of the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandpa! Four days of floating, sight-seeing, eating, talking, hiking, camping, and swimming.

Uncle Todd started the "Led Zepplin yell", which made everything seem much more extreme and exciting...even though there weren't any rapids that were very dangerous.

2010-06-13T21:42:00.001-07:00

Helping in grandma's garden

2010-06-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

Spring Break

Enjoying the lovely weather with some lovely ladies; grandma Murdock, aunt Kell, aunt Miranda, and aunt Ashli. The boys frolicking with cousins, Hatee, Maren and Micah.

Happy Birthday Dear Ridge! It also happened to be the pinewood derby that day too! Hurray!

Hilarious fun with helium.

2010-04-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

First Day of Spring!

Celebratory springy cartwheels on sandy beach--some more awkward than others.

Grandpa daringly dangling from the edge of a cliff.

Spring hike with grandma and grandpa Nackos.

Trip to Castle Valley Creamery, and holding the new baby goats.

Thanks to Erik for the tour of his farm.

2010-03-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

A red 16th wedding anniversary!

To celebrate, Brian bought me some lovely red flowers,
which has made me wild for red.

Read more about Red:

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared (below red), and cannot be seen by the naked human eye.

In human color psychology, red is associated with bravery, purity, happiness, good luck, heat/fire, energy, and blood, and emotions that "stir the blood", including anger, passion, love, pain, and sacrifice.

Both the Greeks and the Hebrews considered red a symbol of love, as well as sacrifice.

Psychological research has shown that men find women who are wearing red more attractive.

Red may represent fire and so may symbolize the presence of God. In Western Christianity, red is the liturgical color for Pentecost (though sometimes white is used). Also, in the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion red is the color of a martyr.

In Chinese cultural traditions, red is associated with weddings (where brides traditionally wear red dresses) and red paper is also frequently used to wrap gifts of money or other things.

Red is one of the most common colors used on national flags.

As early as the 9th century, the Khurramites successors to the Mazdak religion and proto-communists in in the Middle Ages of the Middle East used red as their symbol for revolution.

At the symphony,
Mozart,
and this red glass Chihuly sculpture
in Abravanel Hall.

2010-02-11T21:33:00.000-08:00

Riding into the RED
Valentines Day 2010

I started the tradition, 5 years ago, to write a Valentine's Day poem using the names of my four boys--River, Ridge, Rowan, and Ryder (or at least the meanings of their names--Rowan is a type of tree). So here's the latest addition to the over-the-top sugary sweet poetry that you can kind-of get away with during this sappy time of year.

Previous poems: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009.

We also have the tradition of making hand-made Valentines.

They're always crazy and a bit shabby,

but the boys love to make them.

The theme for this year was robots.

We always include a hilarious joke on the back too (below).

2010-02-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

Sledding on Christmas Eve
with dad and grandpa Nackos

2010-02-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

Solstice Fire

2009-12-26T10:18:00.000-08:00

delicate

A beautiful day,
an amazing arch,
a birthday girl,
crazy kids,
a fearful grandma,
a three hour tour,
lively conversation,
and every Murdock from age 60 to 2
completing the journey!

2009-12-18T19:16:00.000-08:00

We can only be said
to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious
of our treasures.
~Thornton Wilder

Thanksgiving dinner at the Murdock's house

Pumpkin Pie at the Nackos house

2009-12-18T19:05:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2009

Annual Halloween Party at the Hjorth's house

Halloween costumes;
River-hippie, the communist partay, pirates and a death-eater.

My Halloween costume for school,
a combination of some of the artists we've learned about
pictured below.

Creepy outfits Ashli and I wore to a "Very Hairy" party I hosted.

2009-11-18T21:51:00.000-08:00

Autumn hike

2009-11-16T17:41:00.000-08:00

Castle Valley Gourd Festival 2009

Mom and Dad humored me and made some
gourds to sell at the gourd festival.
Mom had the idea of the bird gourd houses.
They were a big hit.
And it was a beautiful day.

Gourd costumes

Some of mom and dad's gourds.

Thanks to Ashli, Kell, and Ty for helping with the gourd painting.
And to Mom and Dad for all their creative juiciness and hard work.

2009-11-15T19:41:00.000-08:00

House Elves

As many of you know, we have had some guests staying with us. Todd and Ashli have moved to Moab! While they've been searching for a home, they've stayed with us in our unfinished mud room. Sleeping in a closet and living with four wild boys, is making them crazy I'm sure, but they bare it well. It's been fun, and it's nice to have extra help. Ashli has become a little house elf, and Todd is really good at entertaining the boys and doing dishes. We'll be sad when they move out. Hopefully they'll come over often, and still want to have children of thier own after living with us!

Todd's first day of work at the BLM...isn't he cute?

Forest Service and BLM uniformed men...hot.

Todd and Ash

2009-09-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

Green River Melon Days

All the watermelon you can eat.

Hurray for Melon Day!
Watermelon and foam weapons!

2009-09-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Choke Cherries

We went to the mountains to pick choke cherries (and a few rose hips) last month. Todd and Ashli came with us, and are, by the way, going to be moving here soon! We are so excited! The berry picking went well, though we didn't harvest many. With our half a peck, Brian was able to bottle a few jars of some delicious choke cherry syrup for pancakes.

2009-09-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

All the boys are in school this year, and have been doing well so far. Other than when their crazy mom forgets things. Like the other day when Ridge hungrily bit into his sandwich at lunch to find two plain pieces of bread.

Ryder's first day of kindergarten

All three boys at the same elementary school

School boys by day

Pirates by night

2009-09-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

Mesa Verde

This is a trip we took to Mesa Verde last month. The ruins were amazing. I love to stand in buildings made over 1000 years ago and imagine life in them.

2009-08-06T21:58:00.001-07:00

Summer comes to an end,
and speaking of ends,
Uranus

The boys and I went on one last trip to the grandma and grandpa's houses before school starts. We did some school shopping, but mostly played. The boys watched a movie with the cousin's on grandma Murdock's trampoline, we all went swimming at the pool--where, by the way, there was another pool evacuation due to diaper bio hazard (if you remember our hot springs incident from the last post, this time it was pretty disturbing, we were actually dodging floaties). We also went to the dinosaur museum which was pretty amazing (even if we were there with a million other dinosaur lovers--two dollar Tuesday!). We had a great time, and love hanging out with our family.

Here are all the rugrats, or trampoline rats, watching Spongebob in the moonlight.

On a side note, this picture made me think of being under the stars, which made me think of our solar system, which made me think of Uranus. I've been wondering lately if Uranus is really pronounced "your anus". If it's not pronounced "your anus", it will ruin lots of funny planetary jokes, and it doesn't help that it's a large gassy planet. So I'm off to Wikipedia to enlighten us all, and to find out once and for all how to pronounce the name correctly.

Ura·nus
Pronunciation: \ˈyu̇r-ə-nəs, yu̇-ˈrā-\
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin, from Greek Ouranos
Date: 1655

1 : the sky personified as a god and father of the Titans in Greek mythology
2 : the planet seventh in order from the sun
(Merriam Webster online dictionary hear it's two pronunciations here)

So, there you have it, Merriam-Webster has BOTH pronunciations as being acceptable, YOUR ANUS, and URINE US. I was very excited to learn that it was named after the Greek god of the sky and father of the titans. And just to let you know, Uranus is actually referred to as an "ice giant". It's core is made up of rock and ice. Sure it's a little gassy, but not like Saturn and Jupiter.
It's quite a misunderstood planet,
and lovely in all of it's big blueness.

2009-07-29T23:21:00.000-07:00

Ouray, Colorado

One last weekend trip before school starts to the beautiful San Juan mountains. Although we camped and did a few hikes during the day, we made a nightly trip into town to get our ice cream fix and even took a late night swim in the mineral hot spring pools...or should I say "poos"? Watch the video, you'll see what I mean.

2009-07-19T21:37:00.001-07:00

ESCAPE

With temperatures over 100 degrees this weekend,
we ran for the mountians (and the river) to cool off.

Me and my fly-fishing luvah

A little video of our fishing expedition to Dark Canyon Lake

Sunday evening swim in the river

2009-07-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Dear Ryder!

2009-07-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

Sunset Swim at Cowboy Jacuzzi

2009-07-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

4th of July Light Show

2009-07-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

SUMMER SWIM

2009-06-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

Super Dooper Rowan

Rowan took fourth place in the Reading Rainbow writing contest.
See his book here (click on his name under kindergarten winners).

I love the towering chef hat and mustache.

2009-06-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

Tune In

As if Brian weren't famous enough for his elusive "wild bri" comment read on KUER's Radio West show, he's now hit the big time with an interview on the local KZMU radio station. It's a riveting 25 minutes of pure Forest Service excitement. I've just given you a little taste of it here, with a funny little ending. And for your viewing pleasure, I've added some photo's of the scenery from the Moab-Monticello district, where "wild bri" works.

2009-06-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

END of SCHOOL
hooray!

The boys drew pictures for their teachers.

Sweet little smarty pants, River, tested in the top 10% nationally in the areas of; Reading, Science, Social Studies, and Total Composite score. All of the boys had great reports from their teachers. A nice ending to the school year.

2009-06-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday Pictures

A few new additions to the Sunday Photo collection

2009-05-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

Creepy cool masks we made in art class at school:

GCMS class art site

2009-05-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me,
but I think she enjoyed it.
Mark Twain

KIDS and GRANDKIDS

GRANDMOTHERS and MOTHERS

My MOTHER

Grandma Nackos

Grandma Murdock

2009-05-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

If you actually watched the previous video's I posted, you'll know that this following clip was meant for me.

2009-05-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

The last of the coast pictures
I promise.

I know how tedious it is to watch other people's vacation photo's, but it was such a great adventure. Especially the last few days when we backpacked out to the coast and camped.
Rest assured, this is the last installment,
and I will bore you with different material from now on.

2009-05-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

Rabid Rabbits

2009-04-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

ya beard looks good

If you noticed, we had a homeless man traveling around with us on the coast. He was a cute little hairy thing. However, at the trips end, he decided that after a long winters growth, it was time to be sheared for the spring.

He loves getting his hair cut, especially in a salon with that sweet smell of chemicals filling the air. The experience was made even more enjoyable with me taking pictures of the process.

enjoy

Homeless Beard

Handsome Beard

2009-04-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

4th day on the coast

Bare with me, I'm almost done documenting our Pacific coast vacation.

On the fourth day of our trip we went to Point Reyes Lighthouse. Point Reyes is the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest place on the North American continent. Weeks of fog, especially during the summer months, frequently reduce visibility to hundreds of feet. The Point Reyes Headlands, which jut 10 miles out to sea, pose a threat to each ship entering or leaving San Francisco Bay. The historic Point Reyes Lighthouse warned mariners of danger for more than a hundred years. (lighthouse history)

The fog lifted a bit on our drive back from the lighthouse, so we stopped at the beach for a while.

2009-04-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Before God let us ever sing a new song

Hundreds of Passover hymns have since been composed and sung over the centuries—some biblical, others rabbinical, others written by modern psalmists. During this Passover season, millions of Jewish families will sing one such hymn:

Therefore, let us rejoice At the wonder of our deliverance
From bondage to freedom,
From agony to joy,
From mourning to festivity,
From darkness to light,
Before God let us ever sing a new song.

from an article by Terry W. Treseder

Happy Easter

2009-04-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

Pacific Coast
Day 3

On the third day of our trip to the coast, we hiked along Hearts Desire beach and found lots of little creatures, shells and other natural treasures. After spending the afternoon at the beach, we went on the famous Earthquake trail to see the fence line that was moved sixteen feet apart by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. On the hike the boys found a glorious old oak to climb in. We ended the day picking up Brian and hiking as the sun went down on a grassy field to some amazing trees overlooking Tomales bay.

2009-04-09T23:44:00.000-07:00

PACIFIC COAST

We've been on vacation for the last week. Brian went to a training on Point Reyes, so we had to tag along. While he was in classes during the day, the boys and I went out on our adventures. Later, we'd pick up Brian and go out and play some more. It was amazingly delightful. And you know how I love to take pictures, so I have millions of them. So I'm breaking the slide shows up in to days. This installment is the first 2 days.

The first day we drove to our old town of Winnemucca, Nevada and stayed with our friends Jim and Nancy. It was lovely to see them again, and they were very kind to let us stay over night at their home and even fixed us a big fancy breakfast. Thank you Blattmans! The next day we drove to California and finally arrived at our hotel, The Golden Hinde Inn, on Tomales Bay (see the map above). We spent the day exploring the bay, and later went to the open ocean.

Pacific Coast Slideshow--Day 1 & 2

Running from waves

Family on the beach

2009-03-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

Forget it!

So it's come to this. I have to write on myself with a sharpie so I don't forget things. It's sad, unattractive, and the permanent paint under my fingernails doesn't help either.

It's soccer season, which means there are more things to forget about--games, practices, and shin guards. The one great thing is that the weather has been beautiful.

We haven't really found the organized sport that fits us yet. I think Rowan will like any sport. He's drawn to the drama of it all. His games are the most entertaining to watch. You never know when a little player might just pick up the ball and throw it. And no one seems to care about the game being out of bounds--everyone just keeps kicking it into the next field until the coaches run and steer them back. The main coaching that goes on in Rowan's game is directing the kids to which way they're supposed to be going. Ridge seems to like soccer, but is not an aggressive kid, he gets in on the action, but at a relatively safe distance. River is a slow thinker and mover, which seems not to work out too well in a game where you have to quickly move and react. He's also getting to a stage where his body is growing faster than he can manage. There are so many long, gangly appendages--he's the tallest kid on his team. However, on a whole, I think everyone's had a good time.

Go Rhino's, Dragon's, and Gladiator's!

2009-03-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

15th wedding anniversary

I'm lucky to be married to my best friend

2009-03-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

2nd Trimester ART SHOW

My students at school just finished their work
for the end of the trimester art show,
which was based on the art work of five women artists.
See more of their artwork at the class website

2009-03-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Early spring bike ride along Mill Creek Parkway and BMX track

2009-03-02T15:58:00.000-08:00

Spring in the Air

Creed, Jen, Karen, Sedona, and Everett came down for the weekend to enjoy the weather and scenery. We hiked around a bit, ate lots, and gabbed. Brian and Creed were all giddy that they could ski in the mountains in the morning, then come home and change into shorts to hike in the slickrock in the afternoon. I think it's still a little early for shorts, but the weather was beautiful.

2009-02-24T08:37:00.000-08:00

Of All The Animals

Plato, ancient Greek philosopher,
knew what he was talking about when he said,
“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable”

Life with four of these animals, seems at times to be teetering on the brink of disaster. Take yesterday for example. The boys were home alone for an hour or so, and River was babysitting. (As a side note, Rowan says that as soon as I leave River says, "Come here babies and let me SIT on you!"). As I was in the middle of teaching yesterday, I hear the faint ring of my cell phone--which makes me nervous, because I know the little darlings are home alone. I get done teaching and look at my phone--seven missed calls from home. I call the boys and ask if they are all okay, Ridge says, "yeah, we're fine, River just wanted to know how to bid on some things on ebay and Rowan wanted to bake some muffins." If you know Rowan at all, you know that he probably shouldn't be allowed to use a mixer OR the oven for another 10 years, at least. And is there any scarier thought than to have your kids alone in your house bidding on items on ebay?

Luckily, they did get a hold of Brian to obtain permission before burning down the house and bidding our life savings away on action figures and lego's.

2009-02-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

HATS

boy hat

girl hat

happy hat

turtle hat

small hat

hair hat

cool cat in a hat

jump hats jump!

2009-02-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day Poem

I am not a poet, but I've started a tradition of writing a poem each February, to my four sons. The trick is to use their names (River, Ridge, Rowan--as in the tree, and Ryder) in some way, in the poem.

They are simple, foolish little poems, but perhaps over the years I'll get better.

Previous poems: 2006, 2007, and 2008.

The Day You Became Mine

The day you became mine,
the sky wept for joy.
Mountain ridges gathered
each
drop,
And sent the glad tidings
to the river
below.
Swelling with excitement,
the river sent the message
downstream.
Absorbed, the trees published
that you were mine,
on each leaf,
in red.
Riding the wind,
the news spread
far and wide.
The ground blushed,
and the wise earth
sighed
knowing that long before
you became mine,
I was yours.

Alina Nackos Murdock
February 2009
A poem to my boys, River, Ridge, Rowan and Ryder.

2009-02-09T19:37:00.001-08:00

VALENTINES

We usually try to make hand made valentines to hand out each year at school. But this year I did them on the computer. The boys will cut them out and tape a treat to the back. I know, lazy.

bugs and hisses

Guess who we just learned about in art class?

As you can see, our valentines are sticky sweet and sentimental.

2009-02-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

MUSTACHE / BAND AID

This weekend we headed to Utah Valley to the pediatric dentist. The timing was nice, because it coincided with birthday celebrations, but the main goal was to fill more of Rowan's poor teeth. I think every tooth is now capped or filled. It's not a pleasant site to see little kicking feet on the dentist's chair of torture, however, the pain is softened with prizes. This time Rowan really lucked out and got this manly mustache, which he wore happily numb. I don't know why they stop offering such prizes after a certain age. It seems fitting that everyone leaving the dentists office should be wearing one.

2009-01-27T17:24:00.000-08:00

Mohawk

Today was "crazy hair day" at the school where I teach. My new hair cut lent itself well to this mohawkish style, however, it was pretty tame compared to some of my students. It was more controversial with the boys. Rowan and Ryder thought my hair looked like a cool dude, but it worried River and Ridge, they made sure I brushed it out before I went to a church activity.

2009-01-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

Landscape Arch in Winter

Grandma and Grandpa Nackos spent last weekend with us, playing on the ice, and hiking in the snow. Arches and the slickrock are very pretty in winter. It was a delightful weekend.

2009-01-13T18:55:00.000-08:00

We didn't know that nearby Ken's Lake freezes over most winters.
So next year prepare to see some graceful skating video's!

2009-01-12T08:43:00.000-08:00

PERIGEAN MOON

We all hiked on a slickrock dome to see the moon as it came up in perigee. The moon was at its closest perigee—the nearest it gets to Earth during its egg-shaped orbit around our planet.

As I've talked to friends and visited a few blogs, it seems that many of us were looking up at the same big beautiful moon that evening--how romantic.

2009-01-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

Can't forget Christmas

Still behind on the blogging, will I ever catch up?

We ended up going to Utah Valley BEFORE Christmas for some emergency dentistry for Rowan. They pulled out the bad tooth, capped another and put in a metal spacer--Merry Christmas Rowan! The silver lining to the dental nightmare, was that we decided to spend Christmas there. The boys loved being with the grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins for the holidays.

We spent Christmas eve at grandma and grandpa Nackos' house. We ate, and performed the nativity, with baby Wren in the leading role and grandpa Nackos as the narrator.

We spent the night and grandma and grandpa Murdock's house. It was nice to have some aunt and uncle helper elves to get all of Santa's work done. Christmas morning was full of delights. Ryder was super excited to get some deodorant in his stocking, and while most kids River's age were asking for ipods, he wanted Lincoln Logs.

New Year's Eve was all about EAT EATING, and then DANCE DANCING off the calories.

The evening ended with fireworks!

and the sparks were really flying
(If you know what I mean,
wink, wink)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

joyful people

It's always a delight to frolic in the snow, and at Uncle Creed and Aunt Jen's house there was plenty of it to be had. So, of course all the uncles had to build a snow jump to see just how much fun they could have before someone got wounded. Luckily, Tyler and Creed were the only casualties (I say luckily, because it wasn't a child, and they pretty much deserved it). The blog title photo above, is of Ridge and uncle Todd, jumping River and Uncle Creed. It looks like a dangerous jump, however, it was not the run that ended up braking Creed's wrist. Go to Brian's blog for more radical picts.

Here are a few other shots from the snow day.

2009-01-06T18:05:00.000-08:00

I blog you! XOXO

To all my fellow bloggers, I have missed you. Tonight I've started to make a blog list again, and look forward to catching up on all of your exciting lives, on a more regular basis.

One of the delights of blogs, is to leave comments. I love to leave somewhat inappropriate comments, or comments that I find humorous. After leaving the immature comment, I like to worry about it for hours later, wondering if my sarcasm or joke was understood. Then, I like to make Brian read the inappropriate comment and get his opinion. After that, I like to disregard his opinion and rebuke him for it. Later, after feeling defensive, my heart softens, and I am ashamed of my inappropriate immatureness. However, by the next day, I have forgotten about it and am ready to offend blog friends and family once again!

FUN and LUCKY!

2009-01-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

HOLIDAYS

My computer finally died, taking with it many pictures and documents. I was quite sad and angry, and took a little break from blogging. But, I'm back!-- though feeling a bit sluggish. I'm on our other computer which is slower (adding to my computer annoyance) but I'm persevering and trying to catch up a bit.

First, was Thanksgiving.
We ate and ate and ate, at the Murdock's this year.

Janine making her famous orange rolls.

food glorious food!

sweet overindulgence!

CHEERS!

2008-12-04T16:55:00.001-08:00

Gift to Jesus Project

Each year at Christmas our family does a service project as our "gift to Jesus". We started this tradition a few years ago.

The boys earn money by doing extra jobs. They also donate the money they would usually spend at the school's "Santa Shops", and buying gifts for each other, to the project.

This year, my mom told us about these Solar Oven's, provided by the Jewish World Watch organization:

watch the video
refugee relief

OUR PROJECT:

Jewish World Watch is committed to protecting refugee women and girls from rape and other forms of violence, and helping them to rebuild their lives. Women and girls fleeing the genocide in Darfur, Sudan are placed in extreme jeopardy when undertaking the simple, but vital, task of collecting firewood for cooking fuel. We are reducing the vulnerability of these women by providing the Iridimi and Touloum refugee camps in Chad with solar cookers, and reducing their need to collect firewood. Our project protects these women and provides them with income opportunities that include: manufacturing solar cookers, training others to use the cookers and making carrying bags to increase the life span of the cookers. JWW is also developing other companion projects aimed to keep the women inside the relative safety of the camp.

THE REFUGEES:

200,000 women and children refugees live in camps in Chad across the border from Sudan.
Women must search for firewood far outside refugee camps where there is no protection.
While outside the camp, women are often beaten, raped and branded by bandits or the Sudanese supported Janjaweed militia.

IRIDIMI CAMP IN CHAD:

There are 17,159 women and children refugees in the camp.
The area is devoid of vegetation, yet there is abundant sun and between 3” and 5” of rainfall yearly.
Relief Agencies provide the refugees with monthly allotments of uncooked food and firewood, but the allotted amount of firewood only lasts for a couple of days. The refugee must then search for wood outside of the camps, thereby subjecting themselves to attack.

TOULOUM CAMP IN CHAD:

22,038 refugees, mainly women and children, live in the camp.
The environment is similar to that of the nearby Iridimi camp (see above).

BENEFITS OF SOLAR COOKING:

Solar cooking can reduce the need for frequent firewood collection reducing the risk of violence towards women and girls.
Two solar cookers can save one ton of wood each year.
There is no need to tend a fire so women are free to do other tasks.
Manufacturing solar cookers provides income opportunities for female refugees.

THE COOKIT SOLAR COOKERS:

The CooKit is a simple solar cooker that converts sunlight into heat to cook food.
It is easy to manufacture because it is made of just cardboard and aluminum foil and can be hand-assembled.
It is light and small when folded and very inexpensive.
It has been successfully used in several refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia and now in Chad.

$30 SOLAR COOKER Donation Provides:

2 Solar Cookers per family
2 Pots
2 Pot Holders
Year supply of plastic bags
Skills Training for refugee women and girls

2008-11-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

We took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and went for a hike to some ruins on Aztec Butte.

2008-11-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

Here is the article in the local paper about the

Pop Art Sculptures.

2008-11-10T20:57:00.000-08:00

Student Sculptures

An art teacher from Springville Jr. High gave me this tape sculpture idea. My art students wrapped themselves in saran wrap, then clear packing tape. They carefully cut the tape and plastic layers off with scissors and put all the body parts together. The inspiration for the project came from Pop Artist, George Segal. The school courtyard was a perfect place to display them (the students had this area in mind when they designed their sculptures).

It was a great project for the week of Halloween.

2008-11-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

Election Day

River's election night celebratory crackers.

2008-11-04T16:09:00.000-08:00

Halloween

TRICKS

TREATS

FREAKS

A BIG Happy Birthday to our sweet, smart, handsome,
11 year old River boy!

2008-10-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

Spooky

I was asked to paint this Halloween panel
for the Scout's pack meeting.

This year the boys are dressing up with a "Lord of the Rings" theme. The older boys are the kings before the rings turned them evil. The younger boys are the kings after they turned into ringwraiths. Everyone has a sword, and that's all that really matters. Even more frightning, will be the very scary, metal-head rock star outfit I'll be teaching in tomorrow. Look out.

2008-10-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we went to see the grandparents and cousins. Here are a few pictures of our trip to South Ridge Farms. We rode on a hay wagon out to the fields to pick out our pumpkins. Before we went, Aunt Miranda helped us make these cuter-than-the-dickens tie-dyed pumpkin shirts. The dad's made fun of all of our pumpkin glory, but we got many a compliment from fellow pumpkin lovers, and passers by. The kids had a great time!

thanks grandma Murdock and aunt Randa

2008-10-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we made our last trip to the cabin at Warner Lake before the winter. The fall colors were amazing. The next day it started to rain, and the wind started to blow
all
of
the
beautiful
leaves

away.

2008-09-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

Autumn in the La Sals

We took an evening drive to Oowah Lake in the La Sal mountains above Moab yesterday. It always amazes me to think that in 30 minutes, we can go from redrock desert to aspen and pine covered mountains.

Ridge and Brian caught a few fish,
the other boys played in the water,
and I took a few pictures.
It is such a lovely time of year.

2008-09-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Livin' off the Land

Sweeet, sweeeeet peach jam. I love you peaches.
(You want to lick the computer screen don't you?)

Brian and the boys picked these juicy,
red wild currants in the mountains.
Brian then made some delightful pancakes
with currant berry syrup.
Yes, it was all Brian's doing.
(I love my currant-syrup-pancake-making man.)

2008-09-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

The passing of an old friend

I got this cactus about 5 years ago, when it was just a little 2 inch stump. Cactus always seemed so happy and erect, but no one knew how sick she really was, until one day, she fell over. Limp as a noodle. A noodle with a million tiny spikes poking out of it.

We had some good times together. I remember when River was doing some crazy backwards dance in the living room in his underwear, and accidentally bumped into cactus. We had a good laugh together--cactus and I, that is--River didn't think it was very funny.

Cactus and I in happier times. Notice how lovely and tall she was.

Farewell dear cactus.

(see inside cactus here)

2008-09-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

NATURAL BRIDGES
NATIONAL MONUMENT

On labor day we decided to take a trip to Natural Bridges. We've never been before, and it just so happened that they were having their centennial celebration. In 1904, National Geographic Magazine publicized the bridges, and in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt established Natural Bridges National Monument, creating Utah's first National Park Service area.

So to party "natural-bridges-style", we made the goal to hike to all three of them--Sipapu Bridge, the second largest natural bridge in the world, Kachina Bridge, considered the "youngest" of the three because of the thickness of its span, and Owachomo Bridge, which means “rock mound” in Hopi, and is named after the rock formation on top of the southeast end of the bridge.

None of the hikes were very far and were fairly easy, just a little steep. And, if you've hiked in National Parks, you know that they take every precaution to make sure the trails are safe--putting in lots of rock steps, metal railings, ladders, and even metal stairs--a little bit of over-kill, but they boys thought all the ladders were cool. On the way out of one of the hikes, we counted 416 man made rock steps, and ladder rungs.

It was a beautiful cloudy day,
and we accomplished our goal!

Happy 100th anniversary Natural Bridges!

And thanks, Teddy.

2008-08-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Art Class!

Here is a few pictures on my art room door.

It's back to teaching for me. Back to:
"Can a go to the bathroom?"
"You know the rule, you're supposed to go in between classes,
is it an emergency?"
"Yeah, its 'girl' problems".

And, "I'm late because I couldn't open my locker".

And, "Someone paid 149 million dollars for THAT?
(Jackson Pollocks, No. 5, painting)
It looks like something my little brother would paint!"

It really is fun though.
I like to see kids work hard and see the fruits of their labor.
I love when they start to see and think and look at things more creatively.