Destination Imagination

A few weeks ago, I was able to fly to Knoxville TN to be with Kylie as she participated in the Global Finals of Destination Imagination. This is Kylie's sixth year participating in Destination Imagination. Her second time attending Global Finals. She has had the same coach and most of the same kids in her group. Below is the group that went to Tennessee.

Destination Imagination or DI as we all call it, is a combination of creativity, team work, and a little bit of Engineering.

Here is Kylie and I. Below is Kylie getting ready for the instant challenge part of their competition.

The whole week is filled with lots of fun activities for kids. One of the things that is super fun is pin trading. All the kids that attend, bring pins from their states and trade with other states. It is such a fun way to meet people from all over the United States and all over the world.
One of the events at Globals was a 3M Duct tape party. Here are some of the kids in their duct tape creations. I made these dresses for Kylie and Korine.

Everyone came in some amazing duct tape creations.

We had a day when the kids weren't competing and we decided to take a trip to Dollywood. This is a fun amusement park that was created by Dolly Partin. We had a great day riding on rides and trying not to get to wet.
I had such a fun week with cute Kylie and I was so proud of their team. They placed 11th and their structure held 1010 lbs. An amazing amount of weight. Great Job Cubs!

Aloha

We decided to have a family trip before Kara left on her mission. We went to Ohua and stayed at the Ko Olina resort. We had a busy and fun time. We always love being together. Some of the highlights of the trip were the swap meet, church, pearl harbor, the polynesian Cultures center, a session at the temple, a snorkeling trip and a scuba trip for Reed and I. Below is a family shot taken at the PCC.

We toured a sub and went through the museum at the Pearl harbor memorial.

Some shots of the sub.

Cute Kara

Grandma Shelley with baby McKay!

Kylie ready for snorkling!

The cutest baby in the entire world. We all had so much fun plying with "busty-pants". A name Kara started calling him. We loved hearing him talk and seeing him smile. Life is good!

At the Temple!

We had fun exploring all the villages at the Polynesian culture center.

We went to the amazing show and Luau.

Grandpa Reed and McKay

Here we are on our whale watch/snorkle trip. The water was pretty rough and there were a few who tossed there cookies. Bummer! We saw lots of amazing fish and whales and worked on our tans a little too.


One of Lauren's good friends Abby was also in Hawaii with her family. Lauren wanted me to take some pictures of them. I loved to one above.

Bakin Cookies

One of our favorite family traditions is making sugar cookies at Christmas time. We had fun baking, frosting and being together.

Lauren rolling up a storm.

Cute Kylie!

Baking mom.

The best part of making yummy cookies is eating them. Yea for Christmas! and Yea for cookies!

Two Amazing Weddings

The month of December was filled with some pretty amazing family time. We had the great opportunity to attend two family weddings. The first was the weekend of December 11th. Reed, Lauren, Kylie and I flew to Seattle Washington for our nephew Jeff's wedding in the Seattle temple. He married a sweet girl named Karli.

We had so much fun hangin with Carl and Deb. We saw a lot of the Seattle area in a short weekend. You would be surprised to know that it rained almost the whole time while we were there. We even woke up one day to Deb and Carl trying to prevent their basement from flooding.
Jeff and Karli made such a cute couple and we were so happy to share their special day with them.
The very next weekend we all drove to Medford Oregon for our nieces wedding to Skyler Smedley. This was also a rainy/fun weekend. Both weddings I was able to bring my camera and I had a great time taking pictures. By the end of both weekends my wrist was hurting from carrying the heavy camera around.
Below is a cute shot of all the cousins in their aprons that Aunt Julie made for them. They all helped serve at the reception. It was a fun way to make everyone feel included.

A cute shot of my sister Julies family.

We had almost the whole Winegar family together. We all had fun enjoying the wedding day. The rest of the weekend was spent talking, laughing, playing games and just enjoying each others company. Yea, for weddings and spending time with family. I can't wait for next summer when my nephew Tyler is getting married.

Kara's mission call

Kara got her mission call several weeks ago! She is going to the Resistencia Argentina mission. She reports to the MTC on March 2nd. She is so excited and we are so proud of her decision to serve a mission. She is going to be an amazing missionary!

Happy Thanksgiving

This is the first Thanksgiving in along time that we spent at home. Kara and Heather flew home from College and my parents flew from Utah. We had a peaceful and enjoyable holiday. My my mom and I did all the cooking. We kept with our tradition of eating around 1:00p.m. and then went to see the new Disney Movie "Tangled". I can't wait for Kara and Heather to be home again in a few weeks.