What's Up with the Westras?

As the year comes to a close, and the annual Westra Christmas Eve party nears, I always gather photos from all the families to make into a video to show when everyone is together. This gathering of photos is also used to create a calendar to hang up in all the households year round. Originally, Chris's family did the calendar, then Gray took it over (and switched to digital), then Alicia put her skills to use for the past few years. She was a little busy this year, and as I'm gathering and organizing all the pictures anyway, I figured I'd try my hand at it. Making the calendar and slideshow, it was interesting to reflect on all that happened on the Westra side this past year ...

Most memorable, was Dad(Grandpa) having a heart attack. I remember getting the call from my nephew Jase, who had been with him when it happened. Just that original thought of "this can't possibly happen to MY dad!". Dad has been in excellent health and very active, this was absolutely unexpected. All the siblings gathered at the hospital and it was touch and go for a bit. Then, it seemed he would pull through physically, but his mental health was still in question. Happily, after just a few rough days, Daddy was back.

In Scott's family ... we had a wedding!

The first wedding of a Westra grandchild.

... it was the year of the missionaries! Chris and Kim and THREE missionaries out for 2015. Kim's two girls, Crystal and Kourtney. They both finished their missions here at the end of the year. Kaden is almost home (January) and Corin will be leaving. They will have a combined "homecoming/farewell" for their family! Landon left of course, but so did Janika, Wendy's oldest. 

Shane's family made a big move as the year came to a close ... literally. Due to job changes, they are leaving Utah and heading to California! We've been so lucky to have all our family close by. We will really miss having them around.

Derek and Danielle had some unexpected, but wonderful news! They are pregnant! After infertility and two darling adopted daughters, they were going to get to experience the entire pregnancy process themselves as well. Derek has been so cute documenting Danielle's pregnancy progression. It's another girl, and she's expected in January.

So THAT's what has been up with the Westra bunch this past year. 

Here's the Slideshow I made 

(it is a little long, I mean it's the WHOLE year from seven families!)

... and there are the calendar pages
We use the Apple Calendars, they are so nice!
These are the custom picture pages above the calendar for each month.

 January

 February

 March

April

 May

 June

 July

 August

 September

 October

 November

December

In the extended family~
My cousin Nikki and her family had to bid farewell to their little Eliza.

I'll always admire my cousin Nikki and all she has gone through with such strength and purpose. They are an amazing family!

2015 will be remembered. 

Weekend in Vegas and the Hoover Dam

In all the hustle and bustle of Christmas, Gray got the idea to take the boys to Vegas to watch a bowl game ... University of Utah vs BYU.  Cal was gone to Orlando with the basketball team, and Keaton didn't want to miss his Saturday game, so he sat it out, but Maga, Olivia and Ana and her boys decided to join (for the getaway anyway, not the game).

... it was Friday, December 18, and they were off.  Aiden in the car with Gray, you can see Maga/Ana in the car behind. Gray took the Durango, it's first big trip, but not quite big enough to hold everyone. 

I wasn't there to provide memories, but here's a little look at what Colton and Cooper wrote (in Letters to Landon) about it ...

From Colton: Vegas was awesome. I did learn that Aidan is kind of obsessed with me. He came on both five hour rides with us because I was in the car. We went walking down on the strip and he was always behind me. Whenever he would get in front of me, he would fall back to get behind me. Plus, there were so many escalators around! I love escalators! Also, the place we stayed at, awesome! It had its own pool and hot tub. The hot tub got up to 100 degrees, although, the pool always stayed under around 30. So it was freezing. Sometimes we would do a challenge and jump in! The house was so much nicer than the one in Saint George! ( I'm not saying that the other was bad, I'm saying that this one was way, way, way good.) And for the ride we bought, Pixels and Ant-Man. For the ride back, we rented, Age of Ultron, Shaun the Sheep movie, and Pitch Perfect 2. This was an awesome trip! And it's my birthday today. It almost already over because I had to sit in a car for six hours.

From Cooper: Colton, Dad, and I went to Las Vegas to see the BYU vs Utes game, and last week of school for Christmas Break. Las Vegas was really fun, and we got to stay in a house with a hot tub and a pool. But no one went swimming in the pool because of its temperature, it was freezing, and it was kind of like a challenge to go into the pool. The football game was really fun, the Utes scored 35-0 in the first quarter, and three of them were pick-6's. We left at the first of the fourth quarter, and dad was getting updates about the game and BYU was coming back, but they still fell short. And the Strip is crazy at night. There was so many people, but seeing all of the cool things there made up for that, like the Bellagio Fountains.

Here's some pictures ...

I recall Gray saying the ticket was wasted on Colton ...

He was playing video games for most of the game!

Hit the Hoover Dam on the way home ...

A Collection of Cakes ~ Birthdays 2015

So - I had blogged Callahan's 16th birthday back in February. I got him a couple of cakes, because I couldn't choose. NOT a problem later on. By the end of the year, we have a glut of birthdays, so even in one week, we can have three different types of cake! So sans Cal, here's the rest of the 2015 Blackham Birthdays.

Cooper was up first, on the 28th of August. He turned 12!

Keaton follows a few days after ... August 31. Big 15 for him.

After not being able to find our favorite Oreo Ice Cream cake for a while ... we had it again!

Landon celebrated his 20th birthday on his mission to Mexico. 

We celebrated for him here with a lemon-jello cake and big-head stand in!

We had a Westra family birthday celebration (Grandma on the 7th, me on the 10th) and I brought our favorite Sam's Club white cake with buttercream frosting. I was simply trying to tilt it slightly to get a better view for the camera, but it tipped over! Oopsidedown cake!

Another (non-upsidedown) cake on my actual birthday ...

... and another lemon jello cake for Grayson's big day.

I asked him to SMILE!

Whereas we didn't put on 47 candles for Grayson, we did put on all 10 for Colton!

I'd wanted our regular double decker cake, but they were out, so he got this big one.

There you go ... now you're all caught up on the Blackham Birthdays.

Colton Compilation 2015

Flashback Friday - to 2015

Every year as I fall behind on blogging, I look back and find photos of the kids that haven't happened to fall into any other category or topic. Just random pictures taken throughout the year. I've tried to do a post for each kid. It seems that almost all of my 2015 pictures of Callahan had enough of a theme that they got their own posts, but I made a Keaton Compilation, Catching Up with Cooper and Looking a Life with Landon post for such miscellaneous photos.

Here's Colton!

Modeling the leather jacket Keaton wore as a baby.

It fits, right?

 Funny faces during the family photoshoot.

 Just chilling

 In the doghouse ... duckhouse

Turkey cookies!

Poor Barfing Boy :(

 The things we find in Colton's shoes when he takes them off.

How did he wear them with all those rocks inside! Ouch!

 Homemade ice cream -- licking the beater

Love you Colton caboose!

Eating Out 2015

Eating out ... whether it's just for a pretzel or a nice sit down dinner, we don't always catch the moments on camera. But every year I look back and see quite a few "food" photos, so I figured I'd organize them all into a blog post. Landon's "Last Supper" was blogged separately, as was Cal at KFC and Grayson's Food Fest in Seattle ... but everything else I found pictures for is here ...

A couple pictures with Landon in them before he left ...

 Ice cream with cousins ...

... and a final Salt City Burger

Then Landon was gone, but we still tried to include him.

Verg's with the whole family!

An adults-only dinner at Asian Star

A simple stop at Sam's Club

We always love Tepanyaki!

 Donuts ...

HotDogs (on a stick!)

Desert Star is a show ... but there's also EATS!

More cousin outings ...

Rodizio

Tepanyaki again ...

It's not so much photographing the food ...

But the friends and family that gather as we eat out.

Most of the time we eat in ...
Like Taco Tuesday.

... and sometimes I still get snapshots!