SNOW DAY!

We have lived in the Boise area for 11 years.  I think in that time we have had one maybe two snow days.  They are very rare.  However, on December 1, 2010, there was a snow day.  It was a good one too.  We woke up to 6-8 inches of snow.  It snowed all day, and the temperatures were just right for keeping the snow around and for playing outside. 
I was in costco the middle of November.  I saw they had some snow shovels and we had broke ours last year.  I put one in my cart and when I was in the check out line the guy behind me was making fun of me and telling me we wouldn't need a snow shovel this year.  On December 1, I was doing the laughing as I used our new snow shovel to clear the walk and drive way.  HA...mean Costco man.
Joel had to fly out that morning and had an exciting time driving the ranger on the freeway at 6am.  His plane was delayed, but he finally made it to SLC. 
The kids had a lot of fun in the snow.  Caden shoveled drive ways and he and Josh made a snow fort.  The girls played with the Simpson's and made an igloo.  Of course the snow angels were awesome!  They even got to ride behind the Keller's 4-wheeler on sleds.
Our ski resort Bogus Basin even opened on Thanksgiving.  That hasn't happened for 20 years.
Hurray for snow!! 

T h A n K s G i v i n g

Our Thanksgiving vacation started when Coelton arrived home on Friday the 19th.  The girls didn't even have school on Friday.  Poor Caden did.  We enjoyed a great 5 days together.  This year the kids didn't have school the entire week of Thanksgiving! 

Coelton was able to get his interviews and medical papers done for his mission papers.  They will hopefully be sent the first of December and we will be hoping for a call before Christmas.

Here are some pictures of us goofin off and spending time together

We left for Idaho Falls to spend the Thanksgiving holiday on Wednesday.  There was a big storm what dumped a lot of snow and the temperatures were freezing!  This made for tretorturous roads.  It was fun to see all the snow so early!  Bogus Basin even opened on Thanksgiving day...something that hasn't happened for more than 20 years. 

We arrived in Pocatello after 4 hours on the road.  We stayed the night with the Weston's.  We had a good time with them.  The girls always love spending time together.  The boys found the wii and the adults had a last chance work out at Golds to burn off all the food we were about to eat!

We drove the rest of the way on Thanksgiving afternoon.  That stretch of the freeway was the worst.  It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Justin's church. 

We set up and decorated with Mom's Thanksgiving decorations, it was a nice touch that brought her near.   We were all ready for our lovely Thanksgiving feast.  Everyone made very yummy food and we had a nice dinner together.

This is such a cute picture of Jace.

After dinner we had a wild game of dodge ball.  Remember on the movie Dumb and Dumber when the girl throws a snow ball at Harry, then he throws one really hard at her and knocks her down and pushes her face in the snow?  That is how Joel plays dodge ball.  Let's just say...it hurt.

Poor Lance...still recovering from hip surgery after his horse accident.

When we left the church to go home, we piled all of these kids in our car and took them to the hotel we stayed at to go swimming. 

Yes, we stayed at a hotel this trip.  Joel has so many free nights, it didn't cost us anything and he loves their beds and the treadmill.  After the first night, we decided it was pretty lame.  We wanted to stay with family!  I have to admit though...it was nice to be close to the shopping. 

Thursday night we decided to mosey over to Walmart to see if we could score some sweet deals.  We went over at 11pm.  Their sale started at midnight.  We used our awesome shop lifting skills, I mean shopping skills and got what we wanted.  We did however, almost loose our lives in the mosh pit at the $2 DVD's  : ) 

We were going to go to bed and get up to hit Target at 4am.  On the way we saw all these happy people coming out of the mall with lots of shopping bags so we went over to see what was going on.  We found out that Old Navy was open!  We scored $5 here and there and everywhere!  Finally time to check out, except the line was so long we couldn't find the END.  After one and a half hours in line, we were outta there.  But wait...Aeropostale opens at 3...why not.  So we RAN to aeropostale and was the first 100 people in the store to receive a free gift.   

Finally we made it to Target to see the line go all the way to the back of the store.  We waited in the car and then went in when ALL those people were inside.  We didn't think we would get anything we wanted.  But we did...we all got everything we wanted.  The only problem was the hour and a half wait to check out.  So stupid.  But the memories and laughter are priceless.

I went to go to bed and Joel wanted me to go to Penney's with him, so I did.  After Penney's and Sears, I was finally able to go to sleep...8:30a.m.

We spent some time in Shelley on Friday night.

BSU played Nevada and LOST!  The first loss in a 24 game winning streak.  Coelton and Joel were giddy with excitement.

On Saturday morning we were able to do baptisms at the Idaho Falls temple.  Most of us...during the night Hailey was up all night throwing up.  It was really nasty.  Since I was trashed and Joel was on coud 9 with the BSU game, he ended up cleaning it up.

  By morning Joel was feeling sick too, so Joel and Hailey weren't able to attend.  Coelton and Caden and I went with all the uncles, aunts, Grandpa and cousins 12 and older.  It was neat.   Afterwards we went to Smitty's for breakfast.

Hailey and Joel were sick all day Saturday.  It was awful.  I was glad we weren't staying with anyone at that point.  Joel and the boys went to Jarin's law office and watched the BYU vs. Utah game.  They lost by 1 point!!

On Sunday we were getting ready to go to a 9am sacrament meeting and Joel's parents called.  They said that the freeway was closed from Burly to Utah, and the weather was getting worse.  They told us we shouls hit the road and head home.  They offered to take Coelton back to Rexburg for us.  We were on the road by 10am.  The weather was horrible and for a while we didn't know if we were going to make it back.  We could only go 30 mph.  After Burly the roads cleared and it was smooth sailing.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, the snow and bad roads will be something we will always remember.  We're so thankful for our families and that we can spend time together.



Lordy Lordy Look Who's 40!

I hit the big one this year.  I've walked through the big doors into an older generation. 

My family and friends did a great job in making it a special day. 

My surprises and fun started on Thursday.

#1- My friends came and picked me up and took me to Cheesecake Factory; my favorite place!!  I got some fun gifts for turning 40; including a tiara that says 40 on it.  The girls loved it and wanted me to wear it on my birthday.

#2- A box arrived at the doorstep on Friday afternoon.  I opened it to find a lovely colorful bouquet of roses in every color.  My boyfriend...he loves me.

#3- Friday evening I was doing some cleaning in the kitchen and turned around to see Coelton standing in the living room!  He totally surprised me and came home for the weekend.  I was so surprised and overcome; I started to cry.  He made fun of me.

#4- Saturday morning the family woke me up to give me breakfast in bed and presents.  A new camera!!  Now I can take some sweet pics of the kids on the track!  The kids gave me a gift card to Downeast.  Coelton thought it was a restaurant and was disappointed we all weren't going to Downeast to eat. 

#5- The Fam sent me out the door after my breakfast for a pedicure and a manicure!  It was awesome.

When I drove home I was surprised to see a big banner on the garage door!

#6- We enjoyed a nice quiet day and a great dinner of french dip and birthday cake! 

What a great birthday!  Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes and phone calls.

LIFE BEGINS AT 40! 

Disneyland Trip 2010

5 years ago in 2005 we went to Disneyland.  It was my first time, and I was 35 years old.  Joel had been about 3 times as a kid.  We took Coelton (13) Caden (10) Hailey (6).  Chloe was only a year old so we left her in St. George with Aunt Jan. 
5 years later Chloe is finally 48 inches tall and ready to go to Disneyland! Only this time it was Coelton who was left behind.  He couldn't take time off of his classes. I still don't think the kids realize how lucky they are!
  We get free hotels and free airfare (Daddy's gone all the time PERKS) so that part was easy.

  We did a 3 day "park hopper" to Disney and California Adventure.  We also did a day at Sea World in San Diego.  We rented a car to get us to and fro and we were set!
Nov. 3, we caught a plane to Orange County and flew into the John Wayne airport.  The kids didn't have school on the 4th or 5th.  We stayed a total of 7 days; flying home on the 9th.

~DAY 1~
We were up early and ate our free breakfast.  We saw the Simpson's at breakfast.  Bishop Simpson and his 6 children were there too! (along with lovely wife Lynette)   It was a HOT day...97 degrees!
We headed to Disneyland, parked the car and shuttled to the main gate.  We decided to do California Adventure first.  We headed straight to "Tower of Terror".  What a thrill! 

Our favorite California Adventure attractions are:
Tower of Terror
California Screamin'
Soarin over California
Toy Story Midway Mania (Joel had the high score for the day!)
Grizzly River Run
Aladdin the musical
It's Tough to be a Bug show
Muppet Vision 3D show
Mickey's Fun Wheel

There is so much more at DCA, but these are our favorites.
The girls loved filling their autograph books with characters autographs.  I think they have like 25!  It became a game to find ALL the princesses.  Caden enjoyed collecting smashed pennies, and everyone liked trading pins with the staff.

~Day 2~
Up and at em' early again.  The parks opened at 8am.  We arrived on time and was there for the rope drop.  We headed for Tower of Terror again.  We loved riding all the great rides in the mornings.  We could walk right on without crowds.  
This day it was a little cooler, only 85 degrees. 
We did Disneyland for the majority of the day.  Our favorite Disney Attractions are:
Splash Mountain
Indiana Jones
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Disney Princess Fantasy Fair
Space Mountain
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion Holiday
Pixie Hollow
Mad Tea Party
All the princess rides

This day was a Friday and it was more crowded.  We watched the night time show "Fantasmic" which was awesome.  We also watched the fireworks and saw Tinker flying in the air around the castle.  SO COOL!
By the end of this day it was 11:30pm.  We were SO tired.  Chloe slept through all the shows and had to be carried back to the shuttle.

~Day 3~
We drove to San Diego to Sea World on this day (Saturday).  We loved all the shows and were happy the only ride here is Atlantis.  We were "rided" out! This day had cooled down nicely to 75.  Our favorite shows here were:
Believe- the Shamu show
Blue Horizons- the dolphin show (we saw it 2 times)  They have 2 trained pilot WHALES.
Seal Lions Live- It's like Saturday Night Live...So funny!
Pet's Rule
Pirates in 4D show.
Shamu Rocks  

For the Shamu rocks show I really wanted to be front and center.  We arrived early and when they started to let people in; Joel started running to get us a spot.  They were yelling at Joel to "Stop running!" but it didn't stop him.  We got awesome seats and put on our rain gear and really enjoyed this show.  We were DRENCHED...but dry underneath : )
Another high light of sea world was petting the sting rays.  We also ate the most amazing food we had the entire trip!  We went to Pineapple Pete's Island Eats and got funnel cakes!   We shared 2 brownie and one strawberry, piled high with ice cream and whip cream and hot chocolate syrup!  Yummmm!!

~Day 4~

We slept in and went to church at 10:30. We had just set the clocks back due to daylight savings. The extra hour of sleep was perfect. We attended the Anaheim 4th ward which was just around the corner from our hotel at the Homewood Suites.
After church we went to see the Newport Temple. We also walked around the beach and enjoyed that alot.
We lounged around the hotel and enjoyed the swimming pool for the rest of the day.

~Day 5~
Jeff and Mel go to Disneyland every 3 years and it was time for another trip.  Our vacations overlapped this one day.  We met them and McKenna at the main gate early Monday morning.  We once again headed straight for Tower of Terror!  We had fun trying to keep serious or sleeping faces for the pictures. 
The weather was very nice on this day.  A jacket wearing day of 65. 
It was really neat to see all the Christmas decorations going up.  Each day there was a little more. 

Chloe was such a trooper the entire trip.  She did everything and never complained or was scared.  One time she cried on splash Mountain when she got drenched.  The only thing that scared her was the "Bugs Life" Show. 

We really enjoyed this day, being with Jeff's family.  Hailey especially loved being with McKenna.  We basically did all our favorites on this day and filled it in with the stuff we hadn't done yet.  Jeff brought his watch that tells you how many miles you have walked.  We did 12 miles that day, but aren't sure if it counted ride miles too. 

We went to the show World of Color at DCA before the park closed.  It was a really good show!!
 Joel's parents came this day.  They flew in late afternoon, so we went to their hotel to visit at like 9pm, before we went back to our hotel. 

~Day 6~
We were scheduled to fly out at 6:30 a.m.  This meant getting up at 4ish to get there on time.  I begged Joel to change our flights, so he did and we had a new departure time of 10:30. 
We got up at like 8 and packed everything, got ready, hurried downstairs for breakfast and then drove to the airport.  We arrived back in Boise at 4:00. 
It was a great trip.  I wouldn't say it's a great vacation, just because you are so tired by the end of it.  Disneyland is truly magical and amazing.  Chloe kept asking if it was real....the princesses, characters, shows...it all seemed so real!!  I loved seeing it through a child's eyes. 
Farewell Disneyland...until 2015.