December and Holiday Fun

December started with a visit to the Smith’s in Arizona for Brayden’s baptism. We got to visit a communities’ Christmas carnival and eat dinner at another communities’ lake.

On our trip up to Laketown for Christmas, we visited Sam and Pam Wilson’s family in SLC and learned about the Wilson family tradition of creating wax castles. Colored melted wax rises in a sink of cold water and Marianne’s first try looks like a lettuce salad. That night we visited Temple Square to see the lights. Hunter helped us make one trip into the hotel from the parking garage, by pulling our food cooler.

At Laketown’s yearly Christmas Eve party Santa Claus really looked authentic, but Gwendolyn did not get to see him. On Christmas day, most of the Lillywhites went sledding and got to ride on Frank and Amy’s snowmobiles. Hunter’s parka was not thick enough to prevent him from being tickled. Hunter also learned about a game from Kathryn, to catch a plastic bug under a cup before it is jerked from the table.

Yesterday on New Year’s day, we took a short hike on the Anaheim Hills ridge above our home. Recent rain had washed away most of the smog, so that we could see the pretty snow covered San Gabriel mountains really well, which are north of us. From the ridge you can also see our home, downtown Los Angeles and off shore Catalina Island.

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Laketown Visit through Thanksgiving

During our October Laketown visit, Kathryn helped us take this year's family Christmas picture outside the Laketown ward building. We also bought 6 trees in Logan, recommended by Roy, to plant on our lot at Last Chance. Ken helped Steve to plant them and protect them from deer with fencing. Marianne always enjoys carving a pumpkin for Halloween.  This last week, Becky and Jim visited us in Orange and Marianne enjoyed going to Legoland with them for the first time. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Steven's sister Diane's house. We also got to see Phyllis' family and her youngest son Trenton, who just returned from the Tempe AZ mission.

Kids

Gwendolyn is 6.5 months. She has started rolling over and is just beginning to crawl.







Guess What! We went to our ward's beach party last week, and found Becky and Jim's camera in the cup holder of one of our folding camp chairs. We called Becky right away to give her the good news.

Summertastic

The Lillywhite reunion happened around Pioneer Day (24th July) so we enjoyed a chuck wagon breakfast followed by a small but impressive parade. The ranchers and farmers displayed large farm equipment and threw candy to the anxious children. Steven and I watched the parade as it came down the street by Grandpa Lillywhite’s House. Marianne’s sister Becky demonstrated how to make hair bows with ribbon Saturday afternoon we went to the lakeshore with family. There were a lot of cars and people and some of our group ended up at a different location. The kids had fun digging in the sand and making poop castles. When it got dark the younger children were excited to light sparklers, at the end they even roasted the last of Aunt Marianne’s Big marshmallows.


















Back in Orange County, we had a 60th wedding anniversary for Steven’s parents and a get together of all of Steven’s family. We also enjoyed a visit from the Arizona Smith’s and Charles’ family at our home. We played in the pool and spa everyday, I do not think we ever got tired of playing pig and horse. After Charles’ family left, we went to Eisenhower park one day. Becky helped Marianne arrange a photo sitting at Target and even though they said the camera was malfunctioning we had success. I even made homemade bread with Becky. The last night Becky was here we paid Ethan to baby-sit so we could make hair bows.