Friday, December 22, 2006

Madsen Family Christmas Quiz


For those of you lucky enough to make the printed Christmas card list, here is the Christmas Quiz again. For those of you who were overlooked by our bulk mail consultants, here is the Christmas Quiz:

Merry Christmas to all and to all a New Quiz! This year our update is in the form of a test. (Note: there may be more than one correct answer). The highest score (that is reported first) will be greatly rewarded with a free vacation* to where ever we are stationed next year (you may want to opt out of the prize if you suspect we may be sent to Iran—as the winner is obligated to accept the prize). Good luck and Enjoy!

1. Daniel finishes up his radiology residency this summer where he has even been the chief resident. Yet he still managed to find spare time, in which he has:
a) Planed, organized and executed a high tech (and rather mean) joke for his brother to come home to from his honeymoon. (check it out on http://dsmadsen.blogspot.com/ –hit link 10/29-11/05)
b) Spent 6 weeks in Washington DC for a board preparation conference (which he has since taken and passed his boards). While there he spent his weekends in NYC biking or running with his brother-in-law Bryce
c) Hit (but did not kill) an angry charging moose (with his manly mini-van—not his gun).
d) Bought 4 really old snowmobiles that can’t go very fast but are light weight so even the girls can lift them, so that makes them really good, right?

2. Carol has enjoyed staying home with the girls, and for fun
a) She compiled and formatted a cookbook for her church (the irony is on many levels)
b) She directed the elementary school choir for their holiday performance
c) She almost finished the Salt Lake City marathon
d) She likes long walks in the park, feeding ducks and sipping hot cocoa by a blazing fire

3. Our 10 year old Lindsey is an avid learner and tries to impress people with:
a) Spelling her chosen bonus words like lipohemarthrosis
b) Getting and staying up on water skies
c) Taking the calculator away from her teacher to solve a problem that her 5th grade teacher was struggling with
d) Advancing in both piano and violin

4. Kimmer, our 7 year old, is a very bright, kind and socially aware kid. She keeps busy with:
a) Her role in the school play Honk Jr (the ugly duckling) where she plays a cute duckling
b) Water skiing where she got up and skied for a while on her first try
c) Listening to and reading Harry Potter
d) Piano lessons that she added this year to her musical studies which already includes violin

5. Rachel is almost 4, loves preschool, singing, dancing, skipping, on-demand television, doing cartwheels, and making people think she is older than she is, because:
a) She is really good with numbers and can figure out on any day of the week how many more days until her next dance class
b) She expects to get a violin for her 4th birthday (she has asked for this for several years now)
c) She can recognize, write and tell you the sound of each letter
d) She got up, stayed up and even went out of the wake water skiing before she fell

6. Grace, our gleeful walking 1 year old accompanied us to:
a) Washington DC (twice), Pennsylvania and NYC
b) Glacier, Zion and Yellowstone National Parks
c) Utah’s famous Nutty Putty cave (where we went spelunking)
d) San Diego where we fed the bat rays at Sea World

We are so grateful for good friends and family. We hope you have a wonderful, meaningful holiday. We love hearing from you! Merry Christmas!

Love,
the Madsen family

Christmas Quiz Answers

For those of you who need to cheat, here are the answers to the Madsen Family Christmas Quiz:

1. a & b (c is almost true, but the stumbling baby moose fell to its knees and narrowly missed te car. d is what Daniel always threatens to do but somehow can't quite fork out the money)

2. a, b and d (c isn't even close to being true!)

3. a, b, c, & d

4. a, b, c and d

5. a, b & c

6. a, b, & c (spelunking at nutty putty would be pretty crazy with a baby!)

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Holiday Pictures

Don't you just love holiday family pictures?
I took a few pictures while we were getting ready to take a picture for our family Christmas letter. Hopefully Santa wasn't watching.






You'd better not cry,
You'd better not pout. . .


You'd better not cry I'm telling you why





Hopefully Santa is still coming to town.
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Snowshoeing



Mark and I enjoyed a wonderful few hours snowshoeing at Wasatch Mountain State Park today.






I uploaded a video of Mark's fastest movements during the day.







We were looking for deer, but didn't see any while we were snowshoeing. But we did see billions of little bugs on the snow. At first I thought they were ash from people's wood burning stoves, but then when you got down really close to the ground, you could seen these little black specks jumping around. They looked like tiny little beatles. Anybody know what they are?

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Sea World

Our happy family after a day at Sea World.

 Posted by Picasa

Doug and Alisha's Reception

Notice Mom is wearing a different dress.

The happy couple


A view of things to come . . . .



"I caught the flowers!"

 Posted by Picasa

More wedding pictures

Bryce and I share several characteristics, including our beautiful skulls. But bare scalps can be dangerous in the Dixie sun. Here Bryce fashions an improvised shade device using Rachel.


Did ganster Doug grow up in the hood?


The enterouge



Beautiful Day

 Posted by Picasa

The people at the Wedding

The cool girls: Katie Powell and Kimberly Madsen


David and Tori are so hot, they've got to wear shades!

No one could be happier that Doug is married than these two.

 Posted by Picasa

Doug and Alisha's Wedding

Just a few pictures of the lovely couple . . . .




 Posted by Picasa

Doug's Bachelor Party

St. George has a new indoor go-carting facility, where we decided to have Doug's bachelor party. It was such a riot, we all went back for another round the next day between the lucheon and the reception.


Robert and Julie demonstrate their starting technique.


Robert raises his hand for help? The gas pedal is on the right!
 Posted by Picasa

Doug's Truck

I guess anyone who reads this blog knows that we love to decorate for weddings. After Alicia saw the "love" we showed to Robert, she was reported to have said, "They better not try that on my apartment."

But Alicia had nothing to fear. Knowing Doug, we had long figured that his wife would suffer enough. So we put together the most classy decorations for his truck that we could think of.


WE SEE YOU BEN!!!


 Posted by Picasa