"We've seen great sights"

12-21-07 from Jay, Aleen, Katie

Rockwoods at the Arctic Circle at minus 36.9 degres

Aleen, Jay and Katie are watching the Northern Lights at Bettles Lodge which is 35 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Temp. very cold. Now just below a minus 36 degrees. The high today was minus 20 degrees. We were all dresses with 6 layers of clothing and looked like eskemos with our loaned fur coats. The flight from Fairbanks to Bettles was cold but sights remarkable. We followed the Alaskan oil pipe line and saw Dalani and lots of cold mountian areas. The food is great and Lodge is warm with all the emminties and comforts of warmth. It is hard to breath when we are out in the cold. We're going on a dog sled ride tomorrow. The sun us up for about 3 hours per day from 11:30am to 2:30pm. We will keep you advised on our activities.

This gives almost as much of a fear danger adrenalin rush as Katie's.

After being my personal chauffeur for a year and a half he finally can drive on his own! SO NOW he can also be my delivery, pick-up and errand boy, ha ha just kidding...well no, not really.

He has been preparing for this since he was just a little guy, and then we made him wait so long. He was the first of his friends to get his learners permit and almost the last to get his final licence.

He said "the extravaganza has arrived!!!"

You'll never believe what I did today

I didn't tell anyone I was going in case I chickened out, but as it turned out I didn't. I thought it would be a good way to get my mind off Bryan, celebrate my half birthday and comemorate my 100th geocache find(it was in the parking lot out front). It wasn't scary at all...ok just a little. It was really fun though and I almost threw up after the parachute was up. (I've never grown out of the motion sickness thing) I never thought I'd do something crazy that Bryce hadn't even done. I paid the arm and a leg they charge for a DVD of it and some snapshots. It turned out to be worth it. Plus since I was all by myself I needed proof I did it. So here's the proof...

Thanks to Katie and Bryan for letting us have Sarah's party at their house.

It has been a good month. Sarah had her third birthday and Samantha turned six months old. She weighed in at 14 lbs. 8 oz at her doctor visit and had a good check up. Jacob takes good care of his sisters and we are adjusting to a new baby in the family. All the kids got their flu immunizations last Thursday--what an ordeal! We had to promise a treat at the store if they would hold still and then all three cried and cried after it was over. Now we just have to go back for the second dose of their immunization in six weeks.

Awsome Bryce!

The Spectrum
Bryce Rockwood pumps up the crowd as he heads for the finish line of the St. George Marathon Saturday in St. George!

Anna saw you there and in the newspaper and sent me this. She lives there and went to see a friend race, she was going to go say hi but she said you were on the cell phone talking all excited and happy.

Here is a link to the paper and picture for everyone, pretty cool!

The Spectrum PHOTOGALLERIES

where did all the Rockwoods go?

Hello from the cabin

It nice today - was really really nice yesterday (Jailynn, the Toll kids and Grandma hiked to "Beautiful" Solitude. Dad/Grandpa arrived last night but he has meetings all day today (to 8:30PM) and most of tomorrow. It is suppose to snow Friday and Saturday.

We all send our love and good luck to Bryce on his run in ST. George.

I'm using Dad's new computer at the cabin - he now just has to plug it in - SWEET!

Nate's dream

Here's Nate fulfilling a life-goal of walking out onto the island at Lake Solitude.

Bloods Lake

Looks like Katies geocache at Blood Lake got published. We'll see how soon it gets found.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gc15p3w

Family Pictures

I have been meaning to put the link here for the pictures from the Cabin and Joshua's blessing for a long time. I have most of them uploaded and I turned the block off so if you want to right click and grab any that you want, you can.
The Toll House Kodak Gallery

Just scroll down to find the file with the cabin pictures in it, it is down a bit.

Nate in Provo

Katie and I went down Monday to help Nate with the last of his stuff - the heavy stuff. I left late and got a few quick caches on the way so it was very hot when we moved the stuff. Afterwards Katie, Nate and I went around to a few caches nearby. I wish we had gone up in the mountians instead where it wasn't 100 degrees. Their house looks nice and clean and the neighborhood seems good. On the way home I grabbed some more for a total of 15 for me that day. It's kind of wierd that Nate and Carrie live in Utah now. Unfortunately it's still 84 miles away for us to drive wether we go through Salt Lake or Heber.

SWIMMING AT THE TOLL'S

Katrina, Kjirsten, and Tori floating in the pond. Unfortunately, this was the only picture we took (with Tori's camera). We do have videos of riding the goats, I'll see if I can figure out how to put those on here. We'd love to get a copy of the family blessing picture.

TORI IN CALIFORNIA

Tori and Grandma in Monterey. Tori had a FABULOUS time on her vacation! We'll get all the pictures on Kodak gallery soon.

Nate, Carrie and Simon's new home in Orem

More "Then & Now"

Here are some more, who has more of these with the spooky candle effects, so far it looks like an Andy thing that runs in his genes, some kind of aura, you know like midoclorians, the Force.

Then & Now

Here are some "Then & Now" pictures I thought were fun from the copper mines.

No pictures for the Blob

No pictures unless Katie wants to post some but she and I had a nice time hiking around in the Uintas yesterday. We found a few geocaches and placed one at Hoover Lake. We got hailed on while looking for a cache at Bald Mountain Pass, the highest paved road in Utah.

Cousins hiking up to Twin Lakes

Here we are taking a rest stop while the grown-ups look for a geocache.

Hike at Sunset

Here's a picture of Mark on top of the world.

What happened?

No one ever writes anything on here. I thought I'd put this picture up of Jocob throwing rocks off the top of Guardsman Pass (I caught it a little too late) but I was suprised to see I was the last person to write anything before that.

Big Bear and Lou

I just wanted to put this picture on here of Lou and Big Bear because I thought it was cute. She likes to lay on him and take naps there. I don' t even know where Big Bear came from, does anyone know? Does Nate know where Georgie, Chip-Chop, and Thumper came from?

Dockers free flight

So I've got my clothes picked out - is everyone going to get the free flight and go to Orlando or something this winter? Boston in the fall?

http://www.dockersfreeflight.com

Happy Birthday Katie....

Let's pretend we had a party at the new Nut Tree playground.

Happy Mother's Day to the Original Shell!

Happy Mother's Day from one Shell to another.
(as in "you all came from the same shell" ~ Dad)
Love Jailynn and all my little "pearls", the grandkids.
PS Here are the links to all the NEW little pearls so we can see them while they are still up on the hospital web sites, I found Simons too!

Simon

Samantha

Joshua

Here's a couple vacation pictures but none of Holland

All the Holland pictures are still in the camera but I got this one of Paris off my phone. We took this standing on the balcony of our hotel room. We couldn't see this view from inside the room, those cost too much. The other one is at Giverny, just over the border into Normandy. You can see Monet's house in the background. It was my favorite place to go on the whole trip. The wisteria was blooming on his japanese bridge, but I didn't get a picture of that on my phone, just this one with a little bit of my finger in the corner for a bonus.

We're ready to see some pictures of Holland!

What do we do on Nate's Birthday?

We hang out at the hospital and play Bocce ball out on the lawn.

(Samantha and Jacob hanging out)
Happy Birthday Nathan, It's the best day of the year (and your birthday is today)!

The baby white car meets its end

Here's what I did on Wednesday

I went up to see Joshua this weekend. He is so tiny. It was fun to watch dad try and avoid the cats and keep them off his pillow. We got him with this one though. He acts pretty much the same as when you try to touch his nose, but he couldn't get out of the hammock fast enough.

Dad and Tori

Happy Birthday to Tori: Now a TEENAGER!!!!

She needs to post a Teenager Tori picture for us.

Dad is now 6 decades older than Katrina 6 & 66

I did give him the ultimate Grandpa Jay gift - something that he would HAVE to have sometime: A TREASURE HUNTER -- metal detector. Perfect for beachcombing for those hidden treasures.

Grampas Birthday

Ok, lets all sing together now......

What do we do on Grandpa's Birthday...???

We have Circus Peanuts

What do we do on Grandpa's Birthday...?

We have a BBQ....

What do we do on Grandpa's Birthday...?

We eat Caaaaaaake...

Happy Birthday Grandpa your Birthday in today.....HEY!!!

Where are the baby pictures? Tori and I are dying to see him! (so are the boys, even if they won't admit it).
--Liz

Two more birthdays

Happy Birthday to Kjirsten and her dad! Kjirsten now joins Mark as a double digit and Jerry just keeps on leading everyone with another bithday.

Hope you both have a fun day - who's making the cake?

Now the question is: will any babies be born before Tori turns 13? We'll just have to wait and see.

Let the fun begin!

Happy Birthday Mark

Today we can welcome Mark to the world of Double Digit. He is no longer a single guy!

Hope you have a fun 10th birthday day Mark:

Happy Happy Birthday! "What do (or did) you do on Mark-y's Birthday?"

We love you we do!

Happy Birthday #30 Carrie Rockwood

Happy Birthday to Carrie on Sunday the 18th as she (and the rest of us) wait for the Birthday of Simon in a few weeks.

Nate's planning a great dinner - so glad that Dad and I can be here to share it (Lucky us)

Next comes Mark turning 10 on the 27th. Lots of Birthdays - hope everyone is having a nice time - you are all so quiet - we miss hearing from you.

Love, Mom

In case you were wondering

For those of you who haven't taken a careful account of the trees in Brighton, I found a picture from two years ago that I happenned to take from almost the same spot when the first two trees in this clump fell. Imagine that. They're all part of the upcoming photo-montage "Outhouses as Special Places". That would have been one big mess if the tree got it - who knows what the Forest Service would have required us to do, not to mention the ruin of my photo essay.

So I guess the question now is whether or not these trees made any sound when they fell, right Nate?

At the Cabin Today

I hummed around Brighton and Solitude today. It was really nice and warm with hardly anyone there. We had forgotten Jacob's coat back in September and today I finally went up to get it.

Anyone notice what's missing from this next picture? The rest of the tree fell without hurting anything. I thought for sure it was going to smash Dad's special place but that horseshoe on the door did the trick.

That path going above the outhouse is an official snowshoe trail. I don't know if they started it this year but there are a lot of snowshoe trails going all over but not up the mountain at all. They look pretty nice but I think if I was going to snowshoe I'd go on a real trail where I actually go somewhere instead of going around loops and stuff. With the cross-country skis I don't mind it because it's more like running. I bet they make you pay for it too but of course we still get free trail passes because of the cabin.

Happy Birthday Mom - one day late

I thought someone would have posted this yesterday but I guess it should have been me. We did call but no one was there. It sounds like Mom and Dad were on another one of thier mystery vacations...Hope it was fun!!

The cold is finally wearing off but there is still lots of snow. Today was the first day I was able to finally go for a run outside. It has been several weeks of running on the treadmill (yuk!) Liz had more of a birthday weekend. We celebrated Friday at home (with chili and cornbread!!!) then wend out to dinner on Saturday and had a birthday cake on Sunday.

Happy Birthday with a cold cold wind

Is it cold or what? Everyone one looks like they need Hot Chocoate or Hot Apple Juice for Jacob.

Liz needs to have a Birthday party at home by the fire with hot chili with corn bread and honey. We'll wait to find out what she actually did on a day when it feels like it's way way below zero.

It does feel cold here too - but I guess I best not say even one word about that - it's to warm here to say anything --- but there was frost all over this morning and the wind sure feel cold. Hey, I even put on an extra sweater when I went to the store.

Anyway - I hope you all can stay warm and Happy Birthday to Liz.