Judy Family Christmas Party

On New Years Day we left Albion, and the Hammer clan, and drove to Idaho Falls for the Judy family Christmas party.

We all met at Heise Hot Springs.  Yes...more hot pool soaking.  It's always a little un-nerving sitting in the hot water, while every stares at you.  I get a little grossed out if I look into the water very long.  There always seems to be band aids, scabs, hair and diaper particles floating around...and that's just the stuff you can see! 

As a kid our family would go to Heise a lot.  Always in the winter and usually for someones birthday or for FHE.  Lots of fun memories at Heise.

As we were leaving we saw a herd of deer in the parking lot.  

We went to Grandpa's house for our party.  He has been busy trying to get the basement finished.  All the sheet rock was hung and it was nice to be able to have room for all 41 of us.  17 granddaughters, 7 grandsons, 8 siblings, 7spouses and our Daddy/Grandpa.
We do feel the other two members of our family near.  Mom is always close by and Lori, our oldest sibling is there too.  We miss them very much. 

Justin was in charge of the Christmas party and had a nice french dip dinner for us all.

We rotate family names and buy a family gift.  Dad is also in the rotation, but he still buys for all the grand kids.  Clint had our family this year and gave us movie tickets!  We love the movies, so it will be nice to use.
Claudine gave out the traditional family calendar.  She did a beautiful job! 

This year we had Heather's family and we gave them Mario Cart and some wheels since they got a new Wii for Christmas!  Tyler was so excited he ran over and gave Joel a big hug.
We also gave Dad some new clothes and socks.  He looks so handsome in his new vest.

Dad is not a shopper, so he hires a few elves to help him out.  DaNae is the head elf and she made all the granddaughters adorable headbands!  There were Aeropostale shirts for the grandsons.  The little boys got trucks...of course.  Dad loves to get his Santa bag and sit in his chair and call up the grand kids one at a time and he gets a big hug from each of them.

Hailey and Kayla got a lot of the same items for Christmas this year...their mom's must be sisters.  Great minds think alike.  We find our kids have a lot of the same clothes. 

Macey has a little crush for Coelton.  He loves it, and loves to tease her whenever they are together.

Hammer Family Christmas Memory

The Hammer family decided to do something different this year for Christmas.  We decided to pool or money together and create a memory instead of buying gifts.  It was a great idea...until they put Joel and I in charge. 
We all decided we wanted to stay together in a cabin somewhere.  All we had to do was find a cabin that would sleep about 45 people for 2 nights.  It was a lot harder than it sounds.  Most cabins wanted a 3 night minimum stay and not many cabins can sleep 45 people.
It was October and we still didn't have a place.  I was searching again on the Internet and this time found a place called " Grove" it was an old college dorm in Albion Utah with 15 bedrooms and 8,000 square feet!  A bed for everyone!  The only problem is the cost was too much, and we didn't know if the owner would let us stay for 2 nights.  When we called the owner agreed to 2 nights and also knocked some money off if we paid cash up front.  It was perfect!
The Hammer family had their family reunion last summer near Albion, which is outside of Burly and also  near the City of Rocks.   We all loved the area and loved that everyone had the same distance to travel...roughly 2.5 hours.  

 This is the lower level of the dorm.  There is a kitchen and large eating area and several rooms.  Most bedrooms have sinks, showers and toilets in the rooms.  Each family had their own toilet and shower.  That's 9 toilets and showers!!

This is the second floor which is all bedrooms and showers.  The end of the hall is a sitting area and balcony.

This is a picture from the balcony.  While we were there is snowed every day.  It was also VERY COLD!

This is the 3rd floor, a gaming room and movie room.   The big boys loved this room!  And the adults loved a place to send all the kids.

Playing games with Grandma.

We all arrived at Campus Grove on Thursday the 30th.  We had plans to go skiing at Pomerelle.  There were about 25 people who wanted to go, so we headed up the mountain 7 miles to the ski resort.  It was snowing and blowing so bad we couldn't see the road.  There were several cars stuck and I had to roll the window down and hang my head out to even see anything!  I would tell Joel if I thought he was driving off the road.  We had 10 people in our Yukon.  We did make it up to the top, but it took us an hour.   We decided to drive back down and try again the next day. 

On Friday (New Years Eve) we all drove to City of Rocks and went for a soak at Durfee Hot Springs. 

After our soak, the skiers went to attempt getting to the top of the mountain again and the others went back to Campus Grove.  We were happy to see clear skies!  However, when we actually saw what we drove on the night before we were scared.  If we would have driven off the road, we would have rolled to the bottom!  We were excited to finally get to go skiing with everyone, only it was -10 degrees!  Brrrrrrrr. 

We could maybe do 2 runs and then had to go in the lodge to thaw out, then back out for another 2.

Austin and Coelton

Jan, Cade, Caleb, Joel and Chase

Jace and Caden

Donald and Julie

McKenna Hailey and Jeff

Joel and Natalie

We left after about 3.5 hours...none of us could feel our fingers or toes.   When we arrived back at Campus Grove we enjoyed playing games and eating good food until we rang in the new year. 

~2011~

January 1, we took lots of pictures.  Grandma wanted to get a picture of the kids who all graduated last year.  Connor is in this group too, he doesn't graduate until this year.  He had to work, so couldn't come.

When I finished taking all of these pictures, Grandma kept finding more and more people to take pictures of.   I didn't mind, because I love taking pictures.

Coelton and Paige are at BYU-I.  Austin is at BYU.

Paige is 6 months older than Coelton and Austin who are just a week apart.

The kids in order from right to left.

Brysan, Caden, Cade

Alyssa, Maiya, Mckenna. Hailey

Chloe, Izzy, Hannah  (all have January birthdays)

This picture has Riley, who is Andrew's little girl.

Jared, Hunter, Taeson, Stockton, Logan, Jackson