Christmas in St. George

On Christmas Eve we headed north from AZ to St. George, UT with a stop to see our friends the Fillmores in Vegas. In St. George, we met up with Jim's side of the family minus his brother Jon's family who were stuck in AK due to work. Jim's parents had gotten three timeshare condos for the family to stay in for the week. We started the festivities off with the traditional nativity play. Grammy has been hard at work making costumes and had a slew of them this year. Jonas was a wise man with the other 2 year old cousins, Maren an angel, Whitney was Mary, and Jim was a donkey and camel.

It was followed by the traditional angel food cake for dessert. The next morning we all gathered to open stockings and gifts.




Some went hiking that afternoon while the others finished up the preparations for our big dinner. Sunday was spent attending church and relaxing. Monday we headed to Zion National Park. The older kids and a few adults hiked up Angels Landing while the others explored other trails in the park. Jim and Jon created a harnessed rope team of the older kids to take them on the last exposed section of the trail.




After a quick lunch, many of the adults went to do a canyoneering adventure down Keyhole Canyon. Three of the guys had done this the month previous and wanted to take the rest of us down this amazing slot canyon. They said it would be cold but pretty fast and the worst part would be a 50 meter swim just before reaching the car. However due to recent storms there was a stream running down the canyon that hadn't been there when they previously had done it.



As such there was much more swimming involved and downclimbing short waterfalls that had once been dry. Due to these conditions and a larger group it took us much longer to travel the short canyon.




Even with the wetsuits and other gear we wore, I think we all had various degrees of hypothermia when we reached the car. It was fun but I'll look to do it again in the summer months! The next day Pops rented ATV's and we spent the day exploring the desert. The older kids had fun taking turns driving the small one around. Jim and his sister got some climbing in that evening before the sun set.



The next two days the weather became cold and wet so we enjoyed a trip to the dinosaur track museum where it was cool to see the numerous dinosaur tracks preserved in the rock and they had a fun hands on kids area. We also alternated trips to the St. George temple.



It cleared Thursday evening so we headed to Snow Canyon State Park to do a few short hikes and explore a cool, little slot canyonwith the kids.



Friday we packed up and headed home. We enjoyed dinner with friends from AZ and then games with the neighbors to ring in the new year. Luckily my sister in-laws took lots of pictures as Jonas had broken my lens just before we left so most of the pictures are from them.

Christmas 2010

Dear Family and Friends, Christmas 2010

It’s been a busy year with three different addresses for us but we’re slowly getting settled in our new home that we purchased the end of October. Our new contact information is listed below. We have plenty of room for visitors so come and stay! We’ll entice you with the fact that it’s only 8 miles to the nearest ski resort.

Jonas (20 months) has taken over Maren’s title as “Our little tornado” and he is also a climber extraordinaire which enables him to add to the mess. It’s hard to get mad at him though as he knows just when to flash his sweet smile or break out in a cute little dance.

Maren (4) loves to play pretend, her new bunk bed, and trying to keep up with Whitney. She dearly misses her friends in VA and asks almost daily to go visit them. She’s enjoying having neighbors her age on both sides so there are kids to play with during the day.

Whitney (6) is excelling in school and will be moving to her 3^rd school after the break. She loves when mom comes to volunteer at her school in the classroom or teaching PE. She loves to read, has been taking ice skating lessons, playing basketball, and played soccer on an all girls team this fall.

Katie keeps very busy between trying to keep our household running with two moves during the year and getting out to enjoy the outdoors. She continues to do Crossfit and competed in a few competitions this year. Her team placed 4^th at a regional competition in OH and qualified to compete at the Crossfit World Championships in July in CA. She’s enjoying the opportunity to be able to play soccer again and has played on indoor and outdoor teams this year. Jim is still bitter that he missed out on the amazing week long adventure trip she took to Puerto Rico this spring as he was deployed a few days prior to our departure.

Jim is enjoying the decrease in work load since separating from the Air Force in June. He spent 3.5 weeks in Chile this spring helping to set up a field hospital after the earthquake. He continues to play disc golf and is enjoying the opportunity to ski, climb, and bike more frequently. He volunteers at one of the local ski resort clinics so he can get a free pass to ski most days. He enjoyed a guy’s trip to Zion National Park this fall to do some canyoneering.

We continued to enjoy traveling and exploring new places this year. Our adventures took us to the Outer Banks in NC to kiteboard, a camping and climbing trip with friends to Seneca Rocks in WV, and stops in Kirtland, OH, Nauvoo, IL, and Lawrence, KS to sightsee and visit family on our move across the country. We purchased a small ski boat just prior to leaving VA and have enjoyed time spent on the local lakes along with boat camping trips to Flaming Gorge and Lake Powell. When Jim’s family came to visit for a reunion in August we enjoyed taking them all to tour Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks for a few days. Jim climbed the Grand Teton with his 65 year old dad, brother in law, and 9 year old nephew then joined Katie and his sister to climb Teewinot. This Thanksgiving Katie and the kids spent a week in OR with her family.

We reflect on the wonderous gift of our Savior’s life at this time of year and the blessings he daily gives us. Some of our greatest blessings are our family and the friends we’ve met throughout the years. Thank you for your love and support! We hope this letter finds you happy and well!

Love- Jim, Katie, Whitney, Maren, and Jonas Dahle

Winter in Arizona

(View from grandparents' patio)

The kids and I headed south at the beginning of Christmas break to spend time with my mom's parents. The kids made a list of the things they wanted to do while there and they accomplished everything on their list:

They especially enjoyed being able to go Christmas shopping with their great grandparents. My grandma had a Pinkalicious birthday party for Maren with some of their friends and neighbors. I enjoyed the opportunity to play a round of golf with each of my grandparents. Still can't beat my grandpa yet but it was sure great to be out in short sleeves and shorts playing golf in December! Jonas broke my main camera lens just before we left so our pictures are sparse of our vacation.

Happy Birthday Maren!

Maren chose to celebrate her birthday by going to ChicFil-A with some friends for lunch. We had cupcakes and play time when we got home and more cupcakes and presents that night. Happy 4th Birthday sweet girl!

Brookwood Elementary

Whitney attended Brookwood for the first half of the school year. She waited until Christmas break to make the switch to our school near our new home. It was a tearful goodbye for her friends and teacher Mrs. King whom she dearly loved. She adjusting well to her new school and teachers but still misses her old class.

Festival of Trees

We attended the Festival of Trees as a family this year. It is a fundraiser for the Primary Childrens Medical Center where groups donate decorated trees, gingerbread houses, wreaths, quilts, and other items to be auctioned off. Many of the items are donated in honor of someone so there are many touching stories that go with each display. Here are a few of our favorites this year:


The girls were also excited to see the gingerbread house that was donated by our neighbor.



This one was a candy amusement park.

Thanksgiving in Oregon outnumbered by kids

Now that we are in driving distance of family and Whitney had the entire week of Thanksgiving off of school, the kids and I decided to head to my parents house in Oregon for 10 days. Jim had to work since he had asked to have a week at Christmas off. We headed north with a stop in Idaho to see my dad's parents, pick my mom up in Boise, and then onto our stop for the night in Oregon. The next morning we made a detour up into WA to pick up my brothers 3 kids. His family was planning on coming down for the holiday but my sister in law ended up having a c-section the next morning so it was good we had picked up the older kids. We stopped in Portland to pick up my mom's van and two more cousins. The cousins had a blast playing together the entire week. My brother Kyle, his wife Diane, and their twin boys joined us a few days later. We had a fun Thanksgiving together but missed the others that couldn't make it. The kids enjoyed a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, two trips to the indoor water park, making gingerbread houses, nightly swims in the hot tub, and playing with their cousins all day long. We got delayed a day returning home due to a snowstorm but otherwise had a wonderful trip.

When we left there was no snow on the ground and we come home to this huge pile in our yard from all the snow Jim had to shovel while we were out of town.

Children's museum

We got a deal on a six month pass to the children's museum which is perfect as it gives us something to do when it is cold out. Jonas loves to play at the water station and in the tree house. Maren of course loved getting on the horse and loves the little town with the grocery store, house, farm, and construction zone. We went one day for a special program with the Radio City Rockettes. The girls got to learn how to do the kick line and make their own dancing doll.

Home Sweet Home

We moved into our new home on Halloween day. The house is three floors with a walkout basement. We can truly say there is space for everything even guests so come and stay! Here's few shots sans furniture of the house:


Getting the keys -- Backyard



Kitchen and view from kitchen/family room


View from family room and dining room


Entryway/Living & Dining rooms/Office -- Maren dancing in the basement


View from the back deck, the street lives up to it's name Sunset Ridge

As you may be able to tell one of the things that really drew us to this place was the incredible amount of natural light in the house and the great view that goes with it. It's a great house in a great location (only 8 miles to the nearest ski resort!) with awesome neighbors.