Sick Last Day

We didn't go sledding even once. That's a first. I was hoping to sled into 2020 at the springs like we did a few years ago, but Preston was sick. He was sick all day. Poor little guy felt miserable. We all climbed into Preston's bed and watched the festivities on Mike's laptop. We woke him up for it, then he went right back to sleep. What a fun way to start this decade.

Maysen, Mike, Stephanie

 Stephanie & Preston

Jorja went to a party with Hailey, Emily and Allison. She was not too happy about that. Jorja does not like parties. But Emily had already bought her a ticket. Jorja was nervous and called us about it. She ended up being fine and having a great time, although she said she doesn't want to do that again. She texted me when she got to Hailey's house. She said she had fun and didn't kiss any boys! Well done Porge!

Tape

My dad, Brett and I went to see Bubs ref a game at Riverton High School. He did a great job, although the Riverton coach got mad at Bubs when Bubs asked if he had any tape because two players almost hurt themselves by tripping over some mat that was sticking up. Luckily some mom's were on the case and brought Bubs tape speedy quick. It was fun to watch him and fun to be there with my dad and Brett. Jeri (Miller) Johnson was also there and that was really cool. She sat by my dad and we were able to catch up with her. Brett and Jeri used to be really good friends, so that was cool.

Brett and his family left for Emmitt, Idaho today to see Rachel's family. Mike, Maysen, Preston and I went to the cabin. Jorja had to work this week, so she stayed behind at Hailey's house. Jorja and Hailey went to see Cats tonight and it was as terrible as all the reviews said it was. They thought it was funny though.

New Ducks

Marie has to get shots every other week. She has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Poor girl. Not getting enough sleep, dancing all day yesterday, eating sugar and dairy have not helped her this week at all.

Rachel & Marie

 Church ~ Stephanie and Grace

Mike has been talking to a duck rescue person. He told her if she came across a girl pekin duck that he would love to take care of it. While we were at church he got this text from her and was quite excited. She came this afternoon and brought two new girl ducks. We let Maysen and Jorja name them, since Preston's duck is Quacky Chan. Jorja named her duck Angel. She was deciding between Angel and Kiki before, and now Kiki is an Angel. Maysen named her duck Cream. Maysen's duck has a hole in his foot. Poor little duckie.

 Cream, Quacky Chan, Angel

 Behind the duckhouse

Scoop and Cori came over after church and brought presents! Bubs and his family and Matt and his family came over for dinner. My dad brought lasagna. It was delicious. We had fun. We ate. The kids played together. We played games. My dad even brought cake for my birthday! Well, a big cookie and brownie. I didn't expect that and was so surprised!

Eve, Brett, Grace, Marie

I had four gingerbread houses waiting for Brett's girls. They had a great time!

 Marie ~ she made a Great Wolf Lodge cabin, complete with waterslide!

 Mina

 Grace

 Eve

I couldn't find pictures of Eve for some reason, so I took a screen shot of Eve from this video Brett sent me. Haha.

Birthday cake!

Hanging with Brett

Brett's kids are here and Matt's kids came over to play. Marie got some nail stamps for Christmas and Jorja spent some time with her teaching her how to use them. Marie did a great job on her nails! Jorja also painted a lot of nails. Eve kept changing her mind. So Jorja painted Eve's nails three times I think. Mike told me Jorja looked so cute with all the cousins around her. I hurried down for a picture, but Jorja was gone. You can see our pingpong table that has turned into a workshop. You can tell Stockton isn't home when the pingpong table looks like that! I spent most of the day playing Dominion with Brett and Matt. It was a lot of fun. I won one game and lost the other.

Greg, Mina, Jeff, Eve, Anne, Grace

Matt made the most heroic dive with Amy. I didn't even notice how close she was to the stairs. Matt was changing Greg's diaper. All of a sudden I hear him yell her name. He ran down the hall and dove for her before I could react, and right as she started to fall. There was absolutely no chance she wasn't going to fall down those stairs. We made him do a reenactment of catching her, but Amy wasn't really cooperating.

Amy & Matt

Brett's had a really close group of friends in high school. They still keep in touch. They had planned to get together today. Brett told him he wasn't coming to town. It was only a week ago that they decided to come. Perfect timing on his part. Rachel went to a wedding and I went with Brett in Rachel's place. We went to dinner and then to an escape room. It was one I had done two years ago, but I remembered hardly anything. I remembered the light switch thing that annoyed me so bad last time. I remembered where the other rooms were placed. That was all I remembered. I did find a few things and whispered to Brett. Everyone left the last room and Brett and I were left in there. A few seconds after Brett left I found the key they had been looking for. I called to Brett and handed it to him. He went into the other room right as the rest of the group were asking for a clue as to where the key was. Brett burst in and stopped them. Haha. It was funny.

Carter & his wife, Josh & wife, Matt & wife, Todd & wife, Brett and Stephanie

 Our serious faces

We went to Cold Stone after and hung out why all those friends were able to catch up. It was fun for me to just hang out with Brett. So glad he came into town!

46 Years Old

That is how old I am. It is also how old my mom was when she got cancer. I can't even imagine getting cancer this year. Especially cancer that her older sister had just died of a year before. I don't like thinking about it, but it is always in the back of my mind.

Today was fun. Stockton called me early this morning. I got to talk with him for an hour. That was nice. It was different than talking to him on p-day. He was by himself while his companion was getting ready for the day, so he was able to be more open. I love him so much! We went to Seussical the Musical. It was weird. I thought The Cat in the Hat did a great job though. Fun to see something different and fun to be there with my family. We tried to go to Cheesecake Factory before the play. We thought we left in plenty of time to beat the crowd. We got there at 5:20, but the wait was an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and forty five minutes. That wasn't going to work. We ended up getting something in the food court at the mall and going to Cheesecake Factory after the play. There was no crowd then! It was a perfect plan, except Brett and Rachel came while we were gone. They had our garage code so they were able to get in and get settled. They were all sound asleep when we got home. Exhausted from their two day drive.

Kaylee

 Stephanie, Maysen, Preston, Mike, Jorja

 Jorja & Stephanie

 Stephanie & Jorja

Mike took our picture. The lighting is weird, but still proof we were all there. I got annoyed with Preston for the faces he was making. Come on! It's my birthday. You can give me a good picture! A guy next to us asked us if Mike wanted to be in, so Preston behaved himself for that one.

Jorja, Stephanie, Preston, Maysen

 Come on Preston! You look ridiculous!

 Mike, Jorja, Stephanie, Preston, Maysen

 Stephanie

It's hard to tell what is going on in this fork/salt picture, but those forks are holding up Salty. I think she is the Queen salt shaker. Or at least a princess. Too bad their tower broke and Salty became a casualty that spilled salt everywhere. 

Ariel View

We left the cabin today. Luckily Mike and I will be back in a few days. I sure do love it here. Steve and Shannon left first. We packed up and then did a few quick runs up to the Springs. It was super icy and fast. Mike had some pictures from Christmas that he sent me. Look how cool the cabin looks from above! You can see Weston working on the snow fort.

Parrydise

 Preston flying his drone

 Jacob, Preston, Jorja, Weston, Stephanie

The roads were great on the way home. We stopped at the newly built McDonalds and were severely disappointed. They took out the saddle chairs and tried to make it look all fancy. This is Wyoming! Come on!!!

Preston, Jorja, Maysen's hat, Mike, McDonalds worker

 Maysen, Jorja & Preston, Mike

 I can't believe I forgot to take my clock with me to get the change from 400 to 300s

We got back in time to go to the newest Jumanji movie. Maysen didn't want to go though. Preston was so excited to use his popcorn bucket. Mike and Jorja sat on each side of him. I sat by Jorja. I was a few seats away from Preston but I could still hear him giggling throughout the entire movie. It was adorable! Jorja kept asking me if I could hear Preston. Usually Preston hates movies. This was darling. The movie was great as well. We all loved it.

Christmas

Christmas at the cabin is the best! We had stockings and Santa presents. Mike and I got a back up camera. Maysen got ear pods, the generic kind. Jorja got a mini photo printer and Preston got a drone. He loved it and Mike and Preston had a lot of fun with that today. Too bad I didn't steal any pictures.

Today revolved around missionaries. Brandon and Erica called this morning. (Brandon also got to call on Monday and Erica got to call yesterday. It was their p-days. Stockton's p-day got changed to today.) Stockton called this afternoon. It was so great to talk to him. He did a video chat. Brandon and Erica do that every week. Stockton usually just calls us. That works great because we get to talk for a long time while both of us are doing stuff. It was nice to actually see him on Christmas though! I found a couple of pictures on Stockton's google photos that were taken yesterday. I don't know which family this is, but I love that they took care of my boy!

Four kids, Stockton on the rocking horse, Elder Kelly

 Stockton and Elder Kelly

 I got this peppermint shot glass and egg nog to put in it. hahaha

 Jacob, Stephanie, Tiny Shannon

While we spent the day talking to missionaries, Weston spent the day building a snow fort. I don't have a picture of the outside for some reason, but here we are enjoying it with him while playing cards. Jacob played with us too. He came out after I took these pictures though.

Preston, Jorja, Weston, Stephanie

Weston, Jorja and Preston all stayed and watched a movie. Mike put on Abominable for them. They were cozy in there. They had grand plans to sleep there, but after the cards and the movie they were ready to come inside.

Jorja, Weston, Preston

Mike, Steve, Jacob and I played two games of pinochle this trip. Both games Mike and I were getting killed, then somehow came back and won. We had Jumanji on in the background while we played. Maybe that helped steal their concentration and catch them off guard. We leave tomorrow. This trip has seemed super fast and really fun. It is so nice to have time to spend with Mike's family. I'm glad two of his siblings were able to come up here and enjoy this time with him. Jorja loves having two cousins in her same grade. Nice that we live in Utah now where she can enjoy them!

Christmas Eve

I love spending Christmas Eve at the cabin. Sherry and her family left this morning. Steve and Shannon stayed here with us. Mike and Steve were able to fix the 4 wheeler, so that was wonderful. Today was pretty warm and it was snowing wet snow. Ugh. Great for building things, not great for sledding. We had a lot of fun playing games though. We went night sledding, which was a ton of fun. The light on my hat started dimming which made sledding super dark sometimes. I held it out in front of me while I sled on my belly, that seemed to work better. I need to remember to charge it everyday. Mike and Sherry bought a giant sled that has been fun. Except that it is super hard to steer! Steve and Weston almost ran straight into a tree. It is really fun though. We sled all the way until Christmas! Haha

Just after midnight we hung our stockings and opened our Christmas jammies before we crashed for the night.

No Stockton ~ hope the has a nice Christmas in Arizona!

 Christmas jammies ~ Stephanie, Preston, Jorja, Mike, Maysen

I let everyone pick out their own jammies this year. I wanted cactus ones and Jorja went along with me. Maysen picked out some red ones. Mike wanted a duck shirt. Preston wanted a homemade duck shirt. I need to get a better picture. But it is Quacky Chan playing Apples to Apples. He loves it.

Stephanie & Jorja

 I was annoyed that Jorja was pulling a face, so I made her take another picture

I always forget that I have SO MANY wrinkles when I lift my eyebrows!