NJ Warner Adventures

Christmas 2009

2010-01-02T14:09:00.001-08:00

A few days after Christmas, the Warner family spent the night in Salt Lake and among other things enjoyed seeing the lights on Temple Square.
Rachelle and her cousin Haley on Temple Square.

CHRISTMAS EVE--My parents came over for dinner, games, and our reinactment of the Nativity. This plate was a gift from all the Carter kids. The painting on the plate is of our home in California done by my dad's sister Myrna.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Cousins--Rachel, Rachelle, Haley, Ashleigh, Megan.

We spent the afternoon with the Warner's at Matt and Lynn's house. The girls had fun with a photo shoot in the back yard.

CHILLIN'

Tara and Allie with Santa, I mean Grandpa W.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

RUNAWAY TRAIN

2009-05-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

RUNAWAY TRAIN--This is how my life has felt for a long time. That is why there hasn't been a new post for quite awhile. I even tried to get this one up and had to delay it. It's not complete, but here it is. If I try to complete it, I will never get it posted.

Rachelle had fun babysitting my nephew's kids Andrew and Sarah. They are such cute kids and so fun.

While Ryan and Rachel were in Utah we got to hike the Battle Creek Trail. It was beautiful. It was fun to have them here and wish they could have stayed longer.

TARA AND ANDREW

SARAH

RACHELLE

RACHELLE AND KAMI

GIRLS CAMPOUT at BIG SPRINGS

Me and my girls and Lady had a great time camping out for 2 nights and the first night my sister and her 2 youngest got to join us.

HERSHEY TRACK MEET: Kami made it to the Region Finals in the 100 and 200. Rachelle made it to the State Finals in the 100 and 200 and took 3rd there.

SULFUR CREEK in CAPITOL REEF--After having an adventureless summer, Nate drove Tara and I down to Capitol Reef to complete the hike that I wanted to when we were down there in the Spring. He took the youth group down this same hike earlier.

TARA & JENNI

SCHOOLWORK

END OF SCHOOL PROGRAMS:
TARA

KAMI

BEING GOOFY

KAMI

GIRLS SOCCER-- I was Kami's coach. She was MVP--voted by the players.

TARA

RACHELLE

ALPINE DAYS: Rachelle took 1st in the 100, 200 and 400.

KAMI & TARA were both successful at FIELD DAY!!

JOSH

80's CHOIR CONCERT

KELSEY A. AND RACHELLE

SPRING BREAK @ DISNEYLAND & the BEACH

Here's what happens when you put things on the stove that don't belong there. I was in the other room and asked Kami to turn the burner on for the potatoes. The wrong burner was turned on and we had a little fire. No one was hurt. This used to be my Bosch Mixer.

DRAPER TEMPLE

2009-03-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

My older kids went to the open house with the Youth Group, so Nate and I took Kami and Tara today. They were so excited and loved it, but didn't like taking pictures after. They were done and ready to go at that point. (Nate had promised to take them to eat after.)

I loved all the paintings in the temple and in the reception area.

ARTWORK

2009-03-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Tara's artwork from school this winter. I love to save things, but hate to have them stacked up somewhere. My solution is to take pictures of most of them after they have been displayed for a few weeks and then I can throw them away without feeling quilty. Sometimes I will save one or two of the smaller ones. Kami's Artwork
Kami took an art class from Irina over the winter and these are some of the results. Kami did these with help from her teacher. Kami also doodles a lot and the birthday cake is one of the many random drawings she has done. I love what Irina has done with Kami and can't wait to get her going again.

UTAH SPRING

2009-03-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

MY FIRST FLOWER OF THE YEAR!

On Tues. I was so excited to see the first hint of Spring and the beauty that I love. Then on Wed....

...There was snow. Utah's typical Spring. You never know what to expect from one day to the next. Fortunately the snow melted fast.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

2009-03-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

I felt bad taking this picture, but oh well. The girls played a great game to get the to semi-finals in the tournament. Then in the semi's we were ahead and playing great the first half. Then for some reason the coach changed their defense in the second half from one that was working great. The other team started catching up and with 3 min. to go took the lead. We lost by 3. It was pretty dissapointing, but not the end of the world. It is always interesting to me to see how each person handles dissapointment or adversity differently. Rachelle was mad right after, slept on the way home and then was fine.

RACHELLE 7th grade club bball.Running the offense.

Off the steal, she gets a fast break lay-up.

Rachelle is a very quick on defense and a lot of fun to watch.

Kami demonstrating great follow through.

Even though this defender is taller, Kami made the short bank shot.
Kami and her cousin, Allie, who is in the same basketball league (3rd/4th grade). Kami is one grade older than Allie.

RACHELLE'S 13TH B-DAY

2009-03-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

Feb. 14, 2009; Rachelle played 3 indoor soccer games bright and early on her birthday. Then Nate and I took her to lunch. We opened presents with Granny and Grandpa Carter and Grammy and Grandpa Warner.

Rachelle and Tara with their Grandparents. Rachelle is 13 now--my 3rd teenager.

Rachelle's cake (above). Karen's cake (below). Rachelle shares her birthday with Grammy Warner.

TARA the TEASE

2009-03-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

GOOFY TARA

Tara is such a tease. The other day I had a snack by the computer with a cup of water that I put near my chair. She immediately reminded me that we are NOT to have food by the computer. Later that night we were all watching a movie when someone pointed out a spilled cup of water on the carpet. Nate's disciplining started to come out and Tara quickly chimed in, "Mom did it". Nate questioningly looked at me and wasn't too pleased. Tara was loving this (no kids got in trouble) and then, with a grin added "Mom brought soda down here too." Nate was getting more irritated. I had to quickly let him know that she was teasing. At that point she burst out laughing.

NEW TOILET

2009-02-18T17:21:00.000-08:00

OLD TOILET--It wasn't broken until the boys were carrying it outside and it dropped. Josh was mad he got toilet water on his pants and had to change immediately.

NEW TOILET--YIPPEE

NATE working on the new toilet.

To me one toilet is the same as another. My best friend is very particular about her toilets. In fact she always replaces them when moving into a new home. Well, after having to plunge after each and every use of the toilet and some gross overflows that yours truly had to clean, we finally gave in and bought a new one. Wow, what a difference. This toilet is definitely not the same as the last. My girls are no longer afraid to flush the toilet. YEAH!!! It has enough power to flush 18 golf balls (I think that is the amount that was said). I'm not going to try it though.

You just can't please everyone

2009-02-18T13:52:00.000-08:00

Dallas' 9th grade basketball team played great to get to the Semi-Finals, but were simply worn out and couldn't finish. They lost, but then were to play for 3rd place which they had a very good shot at. We got to the game with high hopes. For the 1st quarter both teams played all of their bench players only. Then the other team switched to his starters and rotated some of the other players in. Our team however stuck with the bench players for the entire game. They hung in there pretty good, but at the end lost by 6. Here's where you can't please everyone. These players didn't get much playing time during the season, so the coach probably did this to keep them happy. However, while it was great to give these players a chance and we liked the sportsmanship, the starting player's parents (myself included) would have liked to see some rotation and play to win, like the other team did. At the end of the game some comments from the parents of the bench players were of dissatisfaction. They were somewhat happy about the playing time, but were still upset about the lack of it earlier in the season. COACHES SIMPLY CAN'T PLEASE EVERYONE.

TRADITIONS

2009-02-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

KAMI making cookies

TARA stirring the gravy.

One of my favorite traditions I have in our family is SUNDAY COOKING. It started out of necessity, and continued for the fun and learning, and helpfulness.

When all of my children were little and they wanted to cook with me every meal. I had to find a way to let them cook with me, but still be able to get the meals done quickly. My solution was to have them take turns on Sundays cooking with me. They got to cook side by side with me on Sundays and choose the cookie or other dessert to make as well. After doing this for years, my 3 oldest take on more responsibility and are much more helpful-it is one on one time I get with each of them, and they are learning to be capable in the kitchen, and it gives me a little space during the week. Even though my boys don't always love it anymore, I still make them do it with me. There have even been times when we don't have any treats in the house and they will whip up some cookies on there own, or fix a yummy snack.
JOSH making a pudding pie. He didn't like me taking the picture, but oh well. I love that he doesn't wait for me to fix things for him. He is pretty creative and makes some great sandwiches.

WARNER BASKETBALL 08/09

2009-02-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

The Warner kids are having a great year in sports. We just had 4 exciting (even a little stressful) games in a row, so I just have to write about it. DALLAS below is playing on Timpview's 9th grade team and helped lead his team to a huge win over their cross town rival. They led the entire way, but their leading scorer fouled out with a few minutes to go. It came down to the wire. Between getting some steals and running the offense smoothly, he helped their team hold on for the win. He starts as a 2 guard except when their starting point guard is injured, then he takes over at that spot. His defense is incredible and with each game his ball handling has improved immensely.

JOSH is a Sophomore. He is the starting point guard on the JV team (only for the 1st half) and then plays most of the game on the Varsity team. He is doing quite well. He is a great point guard who you can count on to run the offense smoothly and keep control. He is so fast and other teams find it hard to get past him. The day after Dallas's team's big win Josh led the Varsity team to a victory over his cousin's team (who beat them the last time around in a very frustrating game that Josh couldn't play in due to injury). There is a link below of a great article about Josh and his cousin Taylor.

KAMI is in the 4th grade and in her 2nd year of basketball. Surprisingly she is one of the tallest on her team. Even at that she mostly plays point guard. She is a good ball handler and already has a mean cross over. She is the high scorer, rebounder and a great defender on her team.

CROSS OVER in action.

RACHELLE is in the 7th grade and is the starting point guard. I don't have any pics of her yet. She, like the others is very fast and tough to get past. She is also very aggressive on offense. Along with being the leading scorer on her team, she is great at getting the ball inside to her post players. For her last game we left in plenty of time to get there 30 min. early. However, when we got just past the exit right before the one we wanted (about 4 miles in between), we got stuck in stop and go traffic. It took us 45 min. from that point to get off the freeway. We barely made it to the game with 2:00 min. to go in the 1st half. Her team only had 4 players until she got there. She ran in, got a steal that led to her layup and foul shot that she made. We were up by 6 at half time. We got a comfortable lead, but lost it and had to fight to win right up to the end. With 30 seconds to go the game was tied. She drove to the hoop, got fouled and made both shots. We got a steal on the other end and Rachelle took it the hoop again. She was fouled, and made both shots again. Now there was less than 10 sec. and we led by 4. They won the game.

TARA is in the 1st grade and not yet playing basketball even though she really wants to. While sitting at one of Josh's games, with a sad look on her face she said, "Why am I the only one not playing basketball?" Next year.

I hope this doesn't sound too much like bragging, but I am having so much fun watching each of my children grow and progress in the things that they love. As a mom we feel the emotions of our children whether they are successful in their endeavors or struggling. So when they are doing well, you can't help but be happy for them, and when they have a bad game or music or dance performance, etc... you feel their pain and want to help them feel better.

Thanks for letting me share my excitment.

p.s. I really need a new camera that is good for sports. I have hard time getting good enough lighting for the basketball games. Does anyone have a recommendation?

Prep Rally - Warner leads T'Birds past Mountain View

2009-02-04T11:52:00.000-08:00

Prep Rally - Warner leads T'Birds past Mountain View

LITTLE ANNOYANCES

2009-01-20T12:49:00.000-08:00

UNCLOSED or EMPTY containers. I don't know why, but my children can't seem to close food boxes or throw them away when they take the last item out of it. So when I see a box in the freezer or cupboard I can't believe that we have some of that food.

2. WALNUTS--This is one that drives Nate "nuts". We have a large walnut tree in our backyard and a dog with a special talent. So even when we keep the nuts picked up (this isn't very often. Picking up walnuts is an actual chore on our children's job chart.), our dog sniffs them out from the bushes, under leaves, etc... Then she cracks and eats them. The shells are then left to be stepped on in the grass or on the carpets in our garage. Not only does it look messy, but it is painful if stepped on in barefeet.
Backyard piles

Garage Pile
Our tree in the Fall. Walnuts ready to drop.

Lady getting the walnut ready to eat. She also likes to throw them into the air and play.

3. TOOTHPASTE in the sink. My children will spit and rinse, but not rinse out the sink. This is apparently my job. Hmmmm. They do actually know how the squeeze the tube correctly though.

4. JACKETS dropped right below the coat rack or SHOES dropped wherever they were taken off.

5. UTAH WINTERS--dry skin, icy parking lots, inversion, etc...

These are all just "little annoyances" and for the most part, I can deal with it and move on. However, there are times when I really want to scream. Do any of you ever feel this way or have some interesting things that your children do or don't do?

CHRISTMAS & THE HOLIDAYS

2009-01-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

Rachelle and her cousins (Haley, Kelsey, Rachel and Hannah) hanging out on Christmas Day.

I'm a little late in getting my December pictures up, O.K. maybe a lot late. Sorry. Now that everyone is back to school, I can do a few productive things.

Our dog Lady seems to like resting by the igloo that the kids built.

We had a few big snow storms recently and the kids loved it. Josh led the igloo building with everyone else helping. Dallas built a tower and Rachelle made a small snowman. Tara also had fun sliding down a hill the neighbor built. The snow is fun to play in, but a pain to drive in. I am happy to say that I haven't gotten stuck this year and I have been able to help push out a few other people including Nate.

Christmas Day; BEFORE (below) and AFTER (above).

Rachelle, Kami and Tara each did a part of our Gingerbread house. Rachelle was unavailable for the picture though. When trying to fit the big tree all together it broke into several pieces. I felt like we were putting humpty dumpty back together again.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-29T15:47:00.001-08:00

Tara is our gentle Mary on top of the donkey-Rachelle. Shepherd-Josh; Wiseman-Dallas; Joseph-Nate; Narrator-Nate; Sheep-Jenni (photographer).

After getting full from our yummy Turkey dinner, we acted out the Nativity. After that we were able to play the much awaited White Elephant game.

The shepherd watching over his flock and sees the angel.

As Nate acts out Joseph, he also reads the story.

2008-12-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

Santa came to visit at our ward party and only our two youngest sat on his lap. They were excited to see him. When Santa entered the room, Tara and her friend Tanner ran outside to see if his sleigh and reindeer were on the roof. She ran in to tell me that they were nowhere to be found and he couldn't be the real Santa. I gave her the possibilties of him being Santa's helper or they were parked somewhere else.

YEARS PAST

TARA at the age of 1 wasn't too sure about Santa, but was o.k.However, she definitely didn't like being confined in a blanket and acting the part of baby Jesus. As you can see she no longer has the blanket on. In fact I don't think it lasted more than a couple of minutes.

KAMI at the age of 1 was very curious about Santa and seemed to be o.k. No screaming.

RACHELLE at the age of 1 was set on Santa's lap angainst her wishes and she let us know.

DALLAS and JOSH were the same as Rachelle, but I couldn't find their screaming pictures.

OH THE THINGS WE MAKE OUR CHILDREN DO.

HAIR

2008-12-27T15:26:00.000-08:00

Dallas normally has curly hair and much to the shagrin of his dad, it has been fairly long. However, when it is curly I don't think it looks all that long and it looks pretty good. For some strange reason, Josh and Dallas decided to take the flat iron to his hair and see what it looked like. They thought it was pretty cool looking. I thought it was pretty funny that my boys were in using the flat iron. It wasn't long after this picture that Dallas decided he was ready for a hair cut.

Capitol Reef & Esclante

2008-11-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

I don't know what happened, but this picture was down below with the other FRUITA pictures under the "ice cream" caption. Oh well.

I don't remember the name of this hike, but it was the first one we did in Capitol Reef. It wasn't real exciting, so the kids climbed in/on & up everything possible.

Dallas was the first to climb to the top of the slick rock. So then Nate and everyone else had to do it. Tara was mad that she was too little to do it. The next one I helped her climb up and we all made it to the top. It's so hard being smaler than everone else.

The kids had fun trying to get this bird to fly while we were at the lookout point somewhere on Boulder Mtn. However, it just kept hanging around.

Tara and Kami liked to climb into every hole in the rock walls that was possible.

On our way to Lower Calf Creek Falls.

LOWER CALF CREEK FALLS in Escalante

This deer was just on the other side of the stream on our way to Lower Calf Creek Falls.

The Arch along the Escalante River.

Nate dared the kids to get in the freezing cold water. Our feet were already very cold from walking in the river periodically.

ESCALANTE RIVER

Looking out over Capitol Reef

The girls in the Historic School House in FRUITA.

Climbing up to see the Indians food storage cave.

HICKMAN BRIDGE:

Enjoying homemade icecream in FRUITA.

Dallas didn't want to get his shoes wet again, so in the following pictures are his attempts to get from one side of the river to the other without getting his shoes or feet wet. It was harder than he thought.

Nate and Dallas were trying to catch lizards all day. They were small and extremely fast. Dallas found this one in the river. Everyone took turns holding it.

The kids had fun watching as Nate destroyed anthills and played with the ants.

Up above Sulphur Creek is CASTLE ROCK.

After 3 days of hiking, everyone was pretty tired. Needless to say, the ride home was very quiet.

BRYCE CANYON GIRLS TRIP

2008-10-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

KELLY, MARY, JENNI--At the end of our hike, some random guy asked if he could take our picture. He started to focus in with his camera and his friend said that we might like it done with one of ours. He was pretty funny. He just joined in our conversation and made us laugh for a while.

Can you see the QUEEN in the picture above? When surrounded by all the rock formations, it took me awhile.

This crested Blue Jay hung around by us for quite awhile, when we were eating lunch. His wing and tail feathers are a brillian blue, but I couldn't ever quite get them in the shot.

WALL OF WINDOWS-I didn't get the full wall.

AMPITHEATRE

I thought it was pretty cool to see this lone Aspen among all the red & white rock and some evergreens.

I don't know what kind of trees these are, but they reminded us of something in a Dr. Seuss book.

Can you see the CASTLE ROCKS in the far background?

MARY

My friend called and said "I found a hotel near Bryce Canyon for this weekend. Can you come?" At that moment, I was a little ticked with Nate, and the whole "housewife" thing-never ending laundry, cooking, cleaning, hours in the car, etc... so without much thought I said o.k. So myself and 2 of my friends Mary and Kelly left Thurs. afternoon and came home from Bryce on Sun. There were some things that I missed at home and felt bad about, like Rachelle's championship soccer game that went into a shootout and they won. However, it was good to get away for a little bit and get some hiking in. Below are some of the pictures. Lots of scenery.

BACKYARD FUN

2008-10-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Kami, Rachelle, Allie (cousin) and Tara playing in our backyard.
KAMI

RACHELLE & ALLIE

TARA

If you have a germ issue, you might not want to look at the following pics. The girls had fun putting walnuts on their noses and letting Lady gently eat them. They said it tickled. I figured this was much better then when my boys covered their faces with peanut butter and let her lick it off.

Jackson Hole Girls Trip

2008-10-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Nate and the boys had lots of fun adventures happening, so when Shannon called and offered their condo in Jackson Hole, we jumped at the chance. We had a great time relaxing, playing in the pool and going to the BarJ Ranch. While we were there, Nate, Josh & Dallas were at a scout camp near Jackson Hole. They stopped by a couple of times to say hi. Nobody wanted to watch the movie on the little couch, so they all squished in and were happy.
Good Morning

These are my attempts at getting a relaxed look instead of a forced smile. Instead they look miserable.

While in Jackson we went to a ChuckWagon dinner and show. It was a little long for Tara, but all of us had a great time. There was more than enough food (too much for the girls), and the entertainment was kept us laughing all night.

While waiting for the show to start, we walked around the ranch and little village. The girls liked the train.

Rachelle and her friend Kelsey Anderson.
Tara is really just jumping in, but I she must have thought about diving also.
Kami's big jump.

I'm not sure why, but Rachelle wanted this picture taken.

Mt. Timpanogas Hike

2008-10-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

After years of Me hiking/backpacking and Nate saying "I can see the mountains fine from here.", he finally decided that he wanted to hike to the top of Timp. So on October 2nd, we did it. He took the day off work -something he never does, and Rachelle got to skip school. I loved having them hike with me.

FIRST FALLS: We started around 7:00am and it was still a little dark.

Coming up the Aspen side of Timpanogas the colors were gorgeous

Me (Jenni), Rachelle, & Nate on the Saddle.
Woops, I think I got these few pics. out of order. Oh well. Looking out from the Saddle.
GLACIER LAKE (a.k.a. EMERALD LAKE) I have never seen the lake this low before. The part that remains is still very pretty, but it is sad to see such a small glacier and even less of the beautiful lake.
There is a small puddle of the lake on the right and on the by the remains of the glacier is the rest of the lake.

Coming up the steep incline to the Saddle, Rachelle and then Nate work their way up. We were in kind of a hurry to make sure we got back in time for Josh's football game and Rachelle's soccer practice, so at this point Nate said a few times that he wasn't sure he'd make it to the top. I simply told him yes we would since that is what we came to do and to speed up.
Almost to the top, Rachelle looks down the path that we just came up.

Rachelle (above) and Nate (below) in the shack at the top of Mt. Timpanogas.

Nate and Jenni at the top.
Nate looking triumphant on the top of Timp. We signed our names on the shack. Nate's says "Nate the Great".

Misc. 2008

2008-10-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Every year we get a few bird's nests in our yard. This time around there was a nest that was low enough for everyone to watch the progress-eggs hatching etc... There were four birds in this nest. New birds aren't real pretty, but I thought it was pretty cool to get to see them develop.

On Tara's 7th birthday her class went on a field trip. She loved wearing her crown. We went up American Fork Canyon and Smokey the Bear visited. He was going to give her a birthday hug, but she was way too scared of him. She wouldn't even get close to him.

Park City in the Spring.
The girls were swimming in the nice warm pool with the snow piled up beside it. They decided to test their fortitude.
Woops. The picture is twisted.
Dallas, Rachelle, Tara, Josh, Kami.

Rachelle and Kami's Piano Recital.
Rachelle's valentine box. It was a crazy love bug. The opening to put cards in was it's mouth with the tongue sticking out.
I took Rachelle, Kami and Tara with their cousins, Allie and Curtis to the local circus.

Dog bite. This isn't the best picture, but I had to at least document it. Now both Kami and Dallas have scars on their calf from a dog bite.

The WARNERS 2008

2008-10-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

Nate, Jenni, Josh, Dallas, Rachelle, Kami and Tara.