Crazy Cat

Happy New Years everyone! We had a nice, stress free evening. Steve & Shannon and their family came up. We played games, games, and more games. I won Ticket to Ride, then lost when we played after midnight. In my defence, I'm not a night person.

The kids loved having their cousins sleep over. Preston made it until 11:30, then he crashed on my lap.

Happy 2011!

Stockton, Mike, Maysen, Jorja, Stephanie

Talon was ridiculous today. We kept finding him in crazy places or doing crazy things.

Talon in the dryer

Talon playing with the screensaver
Talon on Henry.
Now that was FUNNY! He is up so high!

Preston & Talon

Shannon & Steve
Stockton watching the microwave clock change.

Weston, Stockton, Jorja

Jacob

Stockton, Mike, Maysen, Jorja, Stephanie

Weston & Shan, Brandon

Weston, Shannon, Brandon

Jacob

Spencer

Erica

I have the best life! Hope next year is even more amazing than this year!

Marshmallow World

Today started with a Dominion game. Maysen dominated. What's up with that? Jorja wasn't far behind her. I put up a very poor showing. At least I made up for it with Ticket to Ride at the end of the day.

Steve and Shannon and their family came up to enjoy the snow. Boy did we have a lot. It is so beautiful! We sledded down the driveway and Mike picked us up with the 4-wheeler. I couldn't get going as fast as the cabin, but Jorja was hauling. Even with Preston. They loved it. Mike tied sleds to the back and that worked out really well. Preston LOVED riding on the sleds up the driveway. He felt so big!

Maysen & Erica

Heated driveway = Good idea

Mike + extras

Mike & Preston

Preston wearing Jorja's old snow clothes

Steve & Brandon

Shannon

Jorja

Preston & Jorja

Preston yelling "FASTOR"

Scary Roads

Grandma & Preston

We left home this morning to drive on some pretty scary roads. I was so glad it was Mike driving and not me. The freeway was down to one lane, because the other lane was too nasty. Everyone was going about 30 miles an hour. Then out of nowhere, big trucks zoomed past. They were so close and made it so you couldn't see at all.

Once we got around Lagoon, everything cleared up. It was a little rainy, but we are used to driving in rain. We made it up to Mike's house - no problem. We got home around 3:30, just in time to get ready to go diving. About 4:15 we headed out, and it was snowing. There was already an inch on the ground. I guess that should have been my first clue. Once down the driveway, I realized that this might not be a good idea. I told Mike we should miss diving today. We turned around and couldn't make it up the driveway. We decided since we couldn't make it up, we might as well go. So we did. If we thought the roads were bad on the way back from Idaho, they were tons worse on the way to diving. It was crazy because we were just on these roads!

I couldn't even watch I was so scared. I was more scared because our van got stuck twice already. We did make it to diving. We were only fifteen minutes late. I was so glad it wasn't cancelled. I figured that would be just our luck. Once we got there, I was glad Stockton was able to go. He didn't go on Monday and he probably can't go next Monday.

Now for the drive home. It wasn't too bad, but we parked the van on Wasatch and Mike walked all the way to his house. He brought the jeep down and we ferried the kids up. Once everyone was safe in the house, Mike and I went and took the van to our new house. Now it didn't make it up our new driveway! We tried toeing it with the jeep, but it wouldn't budge. So, as of now, it is halfway up our driveway. At least it is off the road.

Oops! Stuck Again

This morning started out with a quick game of Dominion before Matt left. I once again dominated. Maysen, Stockton and Mike played with us. We spent the rest of the day sledding and packing up. The kids were spoiled with two snowmobiles and only four sledders . . . they had a ton of fun.

Once we closed down the cabin and started to leave, we got stuck. Our poor van couldn't take the Idaho roads very well. We got stuck coming into the cabin and we got stuck leaving the cabin. For the record, we didn't try to drive up to the cabin, we have never tried to go up to the cabin in the snow....even with a 4-wheel drive.

After trying to get the car out, we went and got Sharon to help us. She recruited Derek and Lauren, thank goodness. With their help, and their 4-wheeler, they were able to pull us out and point us in the right direction. I am so glad they were there! Although being snowed in at the cabin wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I wonder what Mike's job would think of that....especially when he is scheduled to go on call in a few days.

We made it to Idaho without incident. Unless you call Preston throwing up an incident. My kids get car sick so easily. The round-abouts on the street before Grandma's did him in. When will I learn to be prepared for the inevitable throw up in the car? I am a slow learner.

We stopped at Grandma's, cleaned Preston up and headed for Sizzler. (That's how confident we were that Preston was just car sick.) We got the kids down for bed before Grandma and Grandpa came home from the Couch's. Mike and I talked to them for quite awhile before bed. It was really nice. I love being at Grandma's, I wish we could stay longer. Although it is suppose to storm tonight/tomorrow....we'll see if our car can make it home!

Happy Birthday to Me!

That's a lot of candles

Preston, Maysen and Stephanie

Being at the cabin on my birthday is the best! Jorja and Preston woke me up early this morning with breakfast in bed. Mike was excited to give me my present in the morning. Preston said, "I want to give you an ipod or an iphone from me." Mike made me go for a treasure hunt to find my present. I found a present in the woodbox that was chirping. It was an iphone. I wonder if Preston knew what the present was. Mike gets annoyed with my phone because I never carry it. I don't like to carry it because my battery is horrible. Mike was going to get me a battery, but instead he bought an old iphone off of his boss. Works for me.

The other gift I was given was from my dad. He gave me Trek to Zion. Basically it is exactly the same as Ticket to Ride. Exactly. Maysen enjoyed it though, because it didn't have any passengers. Even Jorja played. It was her first time playing any Ticket to Ride version, and she did really well. I won the game, so it was pretty fun.

Most of the day was spent outside. Love, love, love the cabin. We raced down the hill over and over. Paul ended up getting to five first. Stockton was excited to get on the scoreboard. We also went to the springs for a few runs. What birthday would be complete without a trip to the springs? At least for me. Mike and I both took a snowmobile up, Stockton and Jorja rode behind us. There was a lot of snow, but the gutter lanes still existed. Still fun though.

The end of the day was spent playing games and more games. Scene it?, Word on the Street, Dominion, and Pillage and Plunder. I just dominated P&P, so it was pretty cool. Mike is trying to get Matt to play Scrabble right now....we'll see how that goes.

The other cool things that happened today were: I got Maysen and Stockton to play Dominion this morning and they liked it. Maysen, Jorja and Stockton made me a birthday cake all by themselves. It was yummy. What a wonderful day.

Jorja and Maysen

Gutter Lane

Today was a day spent outside. Maysen spent it mostly on the roof. Jorja jumped off the back of the roof about four times. Maysen did once. Crazy. Maysen named the different ways off the roof. Like, 'plunge' or 'drop' . . . and some cool names that I can't remember. Maysen is asleep or I would ask her. Preston came on the roof but didn't jump off, thank goodness. I hope they enjoyed their time up there, because they are not going up there again!

Jorja

Preston

Stephanie and Preston
Jorja

Maysen

Paul and Jackson came up in the afternoon. There was much rejoicing. We love having them around! And they brought snowmobiles. We made one run up to the springs. The sled hill wasn't too great. Someone had come up with a 4-wheeler, so sledding down felt like we were riding in the gutter lane at a bowling alley.

We stayed up pretty late playing games. Dominion, Ticket to Ride and Pillage and Plunder. Matt and Jackson battled out the Pirate game, but Jackson pulled it off in the end. I had an okay showing, but I was never was any competition. At least I wasn't as pathetic pirate as Paul. That is all one could ask.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was great this year. The clocks weren't set for daylights savings, so the kids woke us up extra early. Mike and I were so tired we didn't notice until we were already too awake to go back to sleep. We had a pretty simple Christmas this year. Most of the kids presents were jammies. They were really happy about that. We also got a few games to play as a family.

Jorja, Preston, Maysen, Stockton

We spent some time outside. Maysen spent most of her time on the roof. The weather was great and it was really fun. The rest of the day we spent playing Mario Chess (Stockton has been really excited about this present....he knew about it months ago), Puppy Bingo, Word on the Street, Missionary Impossible, Go Fish and Disney Scene It?

Stockton & Mike

Stockton, Mike, Preston Mike & Preston

Preston

Jorja

Stockton

Maysen

Jorja

Matt came up this evening. He got a speeding ticket on the way up. Oops. We played Settlers of Catan when he got here. After we got the kids to bed we played Dominion about four times. Pretty awesome.