Alisha turns 14!

Well, Alisha's birthday is finally over and maybe now we can get back to normal life. It seems like birthday activities have taken over and have consumed not just one day of celebration, but actually a couple of weeks!

On Monday the 21st of January, (MLK Day) she spent the day at Sundance Resort snowboarding with Austin and her good friend Brianne Baugh.

On Thursday the 24th, I took her to get hair cut and also get some blond highlights (something she has wanted for about a year!) It turned out really cute and now she looks more grown up than ever.

Friday the 25th was her birthday party with friends. She invited Brianne again along with five friends from the ward. They played games, ate pizza and other junk, and went on a fun scavenger hunt around the ward. Some of the more unusual items they were supposed to find included: a broccoli "tree", a "Box Top for Education", a piece of candy, and a envelope with a cancelled stamp. Both teams of girls found all the items and were back in a half hour. After that they had brownies and icecream and then Alisha opened her gifts.

Saturday the 26th, we went to dinner just the four of us at a Mexican restaurant that advertises with us. Our neighbor across the street works there and hooked us up with free drinks, guacamole, and a big slice of cheesecake for the Birthday Girl. Afterwards we went to the mall so Alisha could spend a gift card that she had received. We ended up at a sporting goods store where we found a heck of a deal on a snowboarding jacket so now Alisha can be even more stylish on the hills than she already is!
Sunday (the 27th) was Alisha's ACTUAL birthday. Before church she opened her presents from us: a new skirt, shoes, shirt, a silver ring, thermals (for snowboarding) and pajama pants. Alisha was excited to finally get to join the Mia Maid class in Young Women's. The Grandparents (and Grandma Kallunki's friend Jean) and the Wilde's all came over for a yummy lasagna dinner that Matt had been up early making. She recieved a Hannah Montana wig from the Wilde's, (see photo), a dolphin beach towel from Grandma Kallunki that she bought in Hawaii, two shirts and some other small treats from Grandma and Grandma Wilde. All-in-all she was a very spoiled girl but we love her a lot so I guess it's ok!

The photos below from a trip down to Fairview with her friends Becca Jacot and Shaila Hill on February 9th. This trip was also part of her birthday celebration. Neither of her friends had snowboarded before so we rented equipment for them and Matt took the girls and Austin down to Fairview Canyon for the day. You can see in the one photo just how deep the snow is there! They were jumping from the cab of the truck onto the bank!

Austin Kallunki, Personal Trainer

A couple of weeks ago Austin came home from school and told me this story about a boy in his class that I wanted to share. This boy apparently thinks that he needs to lose weight because he weighs more than his 13 year-old brother. (The boy is 11) He asked Austin if he would help him lose some weight. Austin said "Sure! Meet me at recess and we'll run a mile on the track!" Well they ran at recess and the boy said afterward "I'll never do THAT again!". The next day at school the boy asked if Austin wanted to run with him at recess again. Austin had an orthodontist appointment and was going to miss recess but the boy said "That's ok, I'll just run my myself today!" and he did!

I don't know if they've been keeping it up since it's been so bitterly cold lately but I was proud of Austin for wanting to help his friend and being a good example of how a healthy, fit young man should be like!

Welcome to our Blog!

It seems like there are blogs that I visit most every day and today while I was blogging, Matt asked why I haven't started a blog for us. I guess my answer is "time". Well today is Martin Luther King Day so the kids are out of school and we aren't working seriously so I guess today is a good day to start!

Even though it would have been nice to sleep in this morning, we got up early. The kids had planned to go snowboarding at Sundance so we had to get them ready to catch the bus to the resort by 8:45. Alisha's birthday is this coming Sunday so she took her friend Brianne Baugh as part of her birthday celebration. (She originally wanted to take three friends snowboarding but it didn't work out). We had a heavy winter storm move in since about midnight last night so there is a lot of fresh powder for the kids to enjoy. We've had at least six inches so far and it is still snowing quite heavy.

Matt was scheduled to teach a dive class at the pool at 10 this morning so once he left, I decided I would do something I hardly ever do....go back to bed and watch TV for a couple of hours! That's what I call a vacation day!

Anyway, I hope to update this blog at least once or twice a week so check back to see what's new in the Krazy Kallunki world!