Skiing with the Pugs

I've meaning to post these pictures for a couple of weeks now. I went skiing with Mark and Preston at Deer Valley while Kate, Lindsay and Nick were in their ski lessons. It was a great ski day and it was so fun to try and keep up with my bros. Gotta be fast with these pugs!!! Then we hooked up with the "little bombers" after their lessons and tried to keep up with them. HA!!!!

Why We Love Minnesota in the Winter

Here in Minnesota it is of supreme importance to find reasons to love where we live. Here are a few winter scenes that show this.

Jones Boys

These are a few pictures of what Cole and Brock have been up to lately.

Cole in his letter jacket that was a birthday present (Dec. 4) but arrived after Christmas.

Cole and Grandpa George.

Elaine & Dad.

Brock and his buddies playing basketball in a Bountiful rec. league.

Ski Day

McKenzie and I went skiing/snowboarding at Wolf Mountain (aka Nordic Valley). Great snow, no crowds and even better price!!! Snowbasin is my all time favorite but this was perfect for McKenzie as she is still not very experienced at snowboarding. We had a ton of fun mother/daughter time!!!!

Liberty and the valley sure has changed and as we rode up the chairlift I could pick out the farm, the ponderosa pines I helped dad plant so many, many years ago, the barn, the Shaw's place and the "loop". I think had there been Barney Boy, Trixie, Smokey, Hadji or even Melodie over there I'd have given up skiing that day to go for a ride. Those were certainly great times!!! What an awesome childhood we "Six Big Handy Kids" had!!!

Anne swooshing down the mtn.

McKenzie carving down the slope.

Jones December

We had a great Christmas and really loved spending time with family and friends. The kids had a long 2 week break and now are groaning about school starting.

McKenzie finished up her Associates degree at SLCC this past semester. She's taking a couple of classes there this semester to finish up the pre-requisites for nursing school. She will apply this month at Weber State. She's still deciding - the Ogden campus or the Utah State extension campus.

Cole is playing basketball at Viewmont High School. They haven't had a great pre-season and start region next week. Hopefully they can start playing a little more consistant. He took an elbow to the forehead right before Thanksgiving that required 13 stitches. He was pretty excited to find out he made the 2nd team all-state football team in Salt Lake Tribune and honorable mention in the Deseret News.

Brock is going to play in the 8th grade Jr. Jazz basketball league with a bunch of his friends. He has grown like crazy this year - about 5 inches. Raymond always measures the kids on January 1st and he is now 5'11 3/4 ". McKenzie is now the ''shortest" in the family and it won't be long until he passes me too! Brock has a ton of friends. He gets the most phone calls at our house and is constantly being invited to some activity or to someone's house.
We're looking forward to the new year and hope NOT to visit the doctor so much this year. Hope everyone has a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

December's Winter

If any of you remember when you were a child and loved the thrill of sledding on a bright, blue skyed day, with the weather nippy can really relate to the thrill Braden feels being bundled up and zipping down their own sledding hill. I think Braden "wins" the genuine sledding look. Check him out!
And who doesn't remember Christmas programs for preschoolers? Braden is the star...again!

Christmas Happenings

Here in Minneapolis it is our goal to thrive and not just survive the cold, brutal weather. I love that people just bundle up in layer upon layer to enjoy the out of doors in spite of the "nip in the air." Recently we had fun at the annual Holidazzle Parade in downtown Minneapolis.
Come and visit and be sure to bring your woolies!

First Time Blog!!! by Anne

Surprise!! I am truly "blogging"- thanks to McKenzie's help. I'm sure Sue will be the very most surprised. I have been meaning to do this for a long, long time. On the Jones side, we have a "Jones Journal" that comes out every other month. It really is a great way to stay in touch as our family grows and it seems to be harder and harder to get everyone together. I have enjoyed reading everyone's blogs as a way to stay in touch. So, this is my attempt to let you all know what is happening in our family.

McKenzie has been attending SLCC and living home this semester. She is working 2 jobs as well. She continues to work for the Faddis family who have a son that was severly injured about 20 years ago in an auto accident. She has now worked there about 2 1/2 years and loves it there. This has helped her decide to go into nursing and is currently working as a CNA at South Davis Hospital in Bountiful. She will have her associate degree after this semester and will apply to nursing school in January. It's hard to get accepted so we'll see.

Cole just wrapped up football season a couple of weeks ago and is now on the Viewmont basketball team - and has the blisters on his feet to prove it. The Viewmont team went 5-6 this year and had some real highs and lows. It came down to the last game in region to see if they would finish 2nd or 5th. The region was pretty evenly matched this year with everyone beating everyone. But unfortunatly for Viewmont they lost to Northridge that last game and so went into the state playoffs as a 5th seed. They ended up playing Alta High School, who have won State the last 2 years now and got beat up pretty bad. Cole was disappointed big time. He loves, loves, loves football and was disappointed to see it end. On a high note though, he found this week that he was named first team all-region. Pretty cool to do that as as junior and with so many good players in Region 1. So the goal now is to eat, eat, eat, lift, lift, lift and eat some more to try and put on about 30-40 pounds by next summer. And believe me, my grocery bill is proof of that!

Brock played his second year of lacrosse. I'm still trying to figure out all the rules and ask Brock after each game to explain some of the calls or strategy. It's a new game to me and is the fastest growing sport in Utah. He has had fun and has met some new friends.

Raymond has really gotten into mountain biking. This is a lot easier on his joints and he loves to see if he is "king of the mountain" by beating everyone up the mountain. He even drags me along sometimes. I think he likes to go with his buddies from work more because they can keep up with him. They like to go to Park City, Dear Valley, the Oquirrhs, Snowbasin, Mill Creek, and Mueller Park in Bountiful to name a few. He has a GPS system that he attaches to his bike that tracks each of his rides so he can then link onto a website of biking trails.

Me, I just try to make sure everyone is happy and gets to all the places they need to be and now a regular contributor to this blog.