the beck family: January 2010

Monday, January 25, 2010

Christmas Eve 2009

We had a fun time on Christmas Eve being up with the Becks. We started the evening with a delicious dinner of slushburgers. Then all of the children dressed up to read the nativity. Bradley was a donkey, Camille was Mary, Tanner & Johnathan were Wise Men, and Carter & Parker shepherds. They all looked great. Grandpa Beck read from the scriptures as the kids depicted the parts of the story.

All of the costumes were pretty easy to put together, but the part of the donkey baffled me. I had never had to dress up any of my kids as a donkey before and didn't know where to begin. I looked on the Internet for some ideas and one said to have them wear a head band with socks attached for the ears. Camille and & I got some old socks and stuffed them. Camille used toilet paper as the stuffing part. They looked pretty silly upon completion, but at least they were closer to what a donkey looked like. Bradley was wearing them when he decided to put them into the water in the bathroom sink. Toilet paper doesn't do so well in water, so the ears started shriveling up and then looked awful. We had to come up with a new plan. I sent Byron to Wal-Mart to try to find a grey hoodie. He found a perfect one that even was nice and soft. Camille made some awesome paper ears using grey chalk. He ended up looking great.

Camille was trying to teach him what a donkey says, but Bradley kept on replying back "honkey, honkey." This made me laugh because when I was in 5th grade my family lived on an Indian Reservation in Wyoming. The Indians would call me a "honkie" since I was a white person. I didn't especially think that was a very nice thing to say and still hate that name. So when Bradley says this as what a donkey says, I can't help but smile.

Tanner

My cute donkey.

Bradley, Camille, Timothy & Cooper

Tanner, Alyssa, Ashlyn, Carter, Parker, Camille, Timothy & Cooper

The whole gang minus a wondering sheep (Clara) and cow (Cadan).

We ended the evening with the kids opening their cousins gifts. They were so excited to have one gift to open. We got the Mexican Train Dominoes from Clara. We have had so much fun playing this game as a family - highly recommend!

Byron Europe Trip - December 11 - 21st

Byron had the awesome opportunity to travel to Europe (Copenhagen, Budapest & Brussels) back on Dec. 11-21st, 2009. He had been to Europe one time previous, but was especially excited for this trip because he was going to be going to Denmark. The Beck's came from Denmark and he was excited to be able to see somewhat where they lived. He wasn't able to go to the town they lived in, but spent a few days in Copenhagen instead. This trip was hard for two reasons, though. It is winter there and was FREEZING! This made it really hard to want to sight see. Then it was right before Christmas - not the best timing for a trip and also over my birthday :(

Byron did take some awesome pictures. I have way too many in this post, but am so intrigued with that part of the world. One day I will be able to go there with Byron to see it firsthand:).

The next few pictures are of the Copenhagen, Denmark Temple. It was originally a church meeting house, but turned into a Temple in 2004. It is so beautiful and has an original yet classy look.

These are some cool pictures of Copenhagen.

The Little Mermaid Statue is very famous in Denmark -The Little Mermaid symbolizes the fairy tale by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, the story of a young mermaid who fell in love with a prince who lived on land, and often came up to the edge of the water to look for her love.

A cool boat that Byron actually rode on while in Denmark.

Some yummy nachos at a very authentic Danish Cafe.

Some dried sausages - very weird!

View from Byron's hotel room in Budapest, Hungary.

Some beautiful building in Hungary.

The opera house

Heroes Square

Here is the Danube River in Budapest. A fun fact: Budapest is made up of two cities, Buda (on one side of the river) & Pest (the other side of the River).

Here is a beautiful view from the castle Byron toured - I absolutely LOVE this picture!

Taken from Statue of Liberty on a high hill in Hungary- over looking the Pest side while standing on the Buda side.

A manger scene.

A very yummy soup Byron enjoyed - a lot like chicken/potato soup.

This is a medieval city called Ghent which is 1 hour from Belgium.

This is a guillotine from the castle.

Inside the castle.

In Ghent.

From outside of the castle - such a beautiful blue sky!

Some cool buildings in Belgium.

Buildings in Medieval part of Belgium.

As Byron flew into Belgium, there was a snowstorm that made getting to his hotel a nightmare. The taxi driver told them it was his last time driving - he was going home after them. Then the next few days it was nice while they were there.

Then the day they were scheduled to leave (Dec. 20th) huge snowstorm came through. Byron was at the airport in Belgium ready to leave when his flight kept on getting delayed. Then around noon he found out that the whole airport would be closing. I guess it was quite the sight. I have never experienced an airport closing on me - pretty crazy! Luckily they were able to get their luggage and head back to the same hotel they were previously staying at.

In the distance you can see a little snowplow that they were trying to clear the runways with. This was pretty typical of how they removed snow - not prepared for it at all like here in Utah. Looking at these pictures, it doesn't even look like very much snow - especially to close the airport - crazy!

Byron had his friend, Steffan, join him in Budapest. This was Steffan's first time back in Europe in quite a few years - quite a memorable one:). Below check out the craziness of luggage. Imagine all of the luggage coming at once in the whole airport.

Really good Belgium food they ate that evening after making it back to their hotel.

Byron was able to get a flight out on the following day pretty much 24 hours after he should have left. Another storm was coming that evening, so he got lucky he was able to head home.

With this happening so close to Christmas (20th), I was starting to think that we could possibly not have a dad/husband home for Christmas. I don't think I will let Byron travel so close to Christmas again:). I was so excited to see him when he finally made it home. His luggage got lost somewhere in San Francisco, so he had to wait another day to receive it, but other than that we were glad to have him home.

Byron always tries to bring back candy from the countries he goes and different souvenirs. This particular trip he brought back some pretty strange candy we all enjoyed trying along with some yummy chocolates!

The kids love seeing what Byron brings back from his trips. Here they are intently watching to see what he pulls out next.

Johnathan with a cool Russian doll Byron brought back from Hungary.

Byron always brings back all of the free things he gets from his hotel rooms. The kids love getting the toothbrushes, brushes, slippers, and shower caps. Bradley is sporting one here - so cute!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Shoveling & Sledding with cousins

I truly have the best helpers when it comes to shoveling the walks. Thankfully Byron purchased 4 small shovels about 2 years ago and we have gotten so much great use out of them. They are the perfect size for my kids to shovel and they actually look forward to helping. Byron was gone during this particular snowstorm back in December. I was so grateful for 5 boys willingness to help when I just didn't see myself finding the time. It is cute to even see Bradley wanting to be a part of things just like his siblings.

Another weekend without Byron and trying to find something to do. We decided to spend a Saturday afternoon sledding with Cooper & Cameron - my nephews. We all had such a great time together. Bradley wasn't sure about the sledding part, but loved to be held by Camille or I. We stayed for about 1 hour and had plenty of sledding/snow time.