MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas

From the Simmons

Have you heard of?

It's possible that I live under a rock.  That's what one older lady made me feel like when I told her I had never heard of ThePiano Guys.  I guess they were on Leno and some morning talk shows.  ~Sorry, I don't watch those.~

So one night Hudson, Rylan, and I checked them out on their website.  

Okay they are AMAZING.  Truly talented.  There is one pianist, one cellist, and three who work with video and behind the scenes items.  They rearrange popular music mixed with classical themes.  Their videos are very entertaining and inspiring.  I LOVE his piano with a clear top!!  And I have never seen anything like these cello designs!!!

ThePianoguys.com

Have fun checking out their videos.  

My favorites are:  

O Come, Emmanuel

Code Name Vivaldi

Cello Wars

One direction (this was what they performed on tv)

Gingerbread houses

We did gingerbread houses again this year.  It has been our tradition for awhile.  Rylan & Hudson share a house and Gavin & Breck share a house.  Well.....this year Hudson bowed out.  Rylan gave it a good effort, but the dang house kept breaking and frustration got the best of him.  

Gavin and Breck did well and had fun along the way. 

I am not too sure if this tradition will survive another year.

Wrestling

Hudson decided to wrestle for the first time this year in 8th grade.  They got to choose nick names for their shirts.  He chose Rook.  Back in the day he was into chess.  He thought that was a good name to denote strategy and strength....and it sounded cool to him.

He wrestled in the 140 weight class.  Of course he learned a lot and enjoyed the experience.  He lost and won matches, and he got to wrestle 2 girls during the season.  I was surprised that at the end he even liked working out and building his endurance for two hours after school each day.  His goal is to keep it up by exercising and working out at home. 

Rylan's Birthday

Rylan turned 11 in November.  To be honest, Rylan already seemed like he was 11. During the year I kept forgetting he was only 10.  Does that ever happen to you?  Is it his personality? I keep thinking he should be turning 12.

Rylan needed a bike.  He outgrew his old one.  Craig got him a  Redline BMX for his birthday.   He thought a lighter bike would be fun for him to ride around on our jumps.

Rylan is NOT a cake person.  He wanted donuts again this year for his birthday treat.  

Happy Birthday Rylan.  We love you!!!!!

Fist Snow

We had our first little snow of the season in November.  Breck and I were able to make a small snowman....just barely.

Boise Trip

The first weekend of November we drove down to Boise.  I really wanted the boys to be able to see the Boise temple open house.  Here are some things we did during this quick weekend.

We arrived Friday afternoon to find Robert putting together a filing cabinet.  Hudson has put together many  things like this for us, so he was able to be Grandpa's assistant and finish the project quickly.

We had a great experience going through the beautiful new temple.  

After the temple tour Craig wanted us to get out and move around.  Sounds like a Simmons' thing to do right?  So he took us to table rock to hike up to the cross.  Robert met us there with his mule Jake.

I love this photo!  I mean, who takes a mule to the top of table rock....Robert.  We felt pretty cool to have   he and Jake in our photo.

Here is a photo to give you a scale of how big the cross is.

We drove by this cool castle house on the way to table rock.  We  just had to stop and take a photo and admire it.

I failed to take photos of Elzada and our visit at Lane's house.  Rest assured we played lost of games with Grandma and had a yummy dinner, chocolate chip cookies, and great visiting at Lane & LeAnn's.

HALLOWEN

Craig and I decided to be Danny and Sandy from Grease  this year.  I scored and found fake leather pants from Target....I guess they are in style??  You probably can't tell from the photo, but we colored Craig's hair black.  

Rylan made this Zombie Knights costume from clothes, material, and cardboard we had on hand. 

Gavin was into the zombie thing too.  All we had to do is rip up some old clothes that already had holes....easy!

Costumes can be a bit tricky when you are a teenager.   You still want to go trick-or-treating, but  you feel too old to wear a typical costume.  He just put on a sweatshirt and wore Gavin's old Power Ranger mask..

Breck was content to wear his costume from last year.  Wahoo!  we got our money's worth.

Mexico

By now you know we like to travel...right?!  So it shouldn't be a surprise that Craig and I went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for a few days back in October?  We asked Craig's niece Jaleese to come up from Boise to watch the boys.  She did a fabulous job.  In fact, Gavin said he wants her to come again next time we go out of town!

Craig and I have been to Cabo before, but that was for one day while on a Mexican Riviera cruise.  

This is the first time we stayed at an all inclusive hotel.  Expedia was having some deals so we  checked the reviews for various ones and chose the Santa Riu.  It was beautiful with a great staff and beach.  We were a few minutes from downtown.  One day we took a taxi and another day we took the city bus. {which is an OLD school bus with the seats lining the walls.  They crammed the people in.  It was only $1 per person and the experience was PRICELESS}.
We went to church Sunday and enjoyed talking to the missionaries.  One looked like Skyler Packard and the other looked like Jake Niska.  We learned that the Bishop was a former missionary to the area.  After returning home and getting married he felt he needed to live in Mexico and build the church there and share his church leadership skills.  They were about our age with 4 kids.  

This is a school we passed one of the days walking downtown.  

We bought one excursion.  We rode dune buggies along  riverbeds and  along the ocean.  Just our luck they had a previous storm and the riverbeds were not dry.  We got soaked to the bone!  It was a blast because there was only one other guy with us.  So we go to go fast and have a more tailored tour without 20 extra buggies.  It was very memorable when a wheel from our guide flew off while his buggie was in midair after going over a jump!  Not too surprising with our old 80s Mexican buggies.

After the tour they have everyone take a picture with the trained vulture.

various fall activities

We picked boxes and boxes of apples, plums, and pears from a family we know.  I had  fun making homemade caramel apples.

I saw this  idea for an art project online and had Breck make one.  He enjoyed painting with the q-tips.

Rylan has done a GREAT job finishing up his cub scout requirements.  He completed his Webelos rank and arrow of light.

I got to go help out with Breck's Halloween preschool party.  He has lots of fun with the teachers and other kids.

They had a field trip to a local orchard.  They got  see how apple cider is made, ride a tractor  through the orchard, and pick a pumpkin.  His best friend Carson is in his class.  They are so fun to watch.

Rylan played flag football again this year.  He plays defense tight end.  I have fun watching him play.  He is a great/fast runner.  He made a touch down almost every game!