Winter Wonderland

i guess i had forgotten just how crazy the weather can get, especially where i grew up. i suppose there was a reason for us missing an ENTIRE, consecutive week of school in 8th grade for blowing and drifting snow! i believe we may have relived that this past week! we often call the area here in marsing/caldwell the 'banana belt', but i think there was even snow here for a while and i KNOW there was some wind before we left. we had great travel conditions down to mom and dad's until about wendell, but NOT so perfect for lisa and eldon...and bud didn't even make it! our initial plans were to enjoy christmas together and the holiday party and then head off with the wright's to st. george. instead, we were marooned...but you know what, we really had a great time! i hope everyone else did too! we were all packed in a tiny, 4 bedroom house with 2 infants, 2 toddlers, and my dad who was working the nite shift loading beets in the middle of it :)! we played games, mom and i AND BEN (separate trips- he loves that town is so close) shopped around burley, ate lots of yummy food, went bowling with the wells' family, saw old friends - the anderson's!, made a trip to shop and eat in twin where i lost my purse and found it again..whew!! (and visited the beus family), and bentley and blaiz played and played! gpa and gma gave them each a stick horse with a cowboy hat, vest, and chaps. grandma helped give them some names...bentley was fine with her suggested 'chocolate' but blaiz wanted to name his 'bubblegum' instead of caramel and informed grandma that his horse enjoyed eating nuts, when she told him horses liked eating oats!! now bentley shows off 'choc-O-let' and tells everyone about 'gum-bubble', his cousin's horse.


on sunday, we ventured out to the branch even though several wards had been canceled. it is always an adventure taking small children to a singles branch, once again with only one room and no hallway for misbehaviors! but, we did fine. that afternoon, we loaded up, made a quick stop to visit aunt carolee and made our way to albion and the marsh creek inn's 'loft' that i had reserved. we had the whole place to ourselves and it wasn't too scary, plus the best part was that since it wasn't high quality furnishings, bentley and blaiz had a blast jumping on the beds, playing in the cupboards, and generally investigating every nook and cranny! we had our own kitchen and satellite tv with no dvd player???, so we watched national treasure, played some card games and little boy games, ate chex mix and hot chocolate, and headed off to bed. bridon got up every hour of the nite both this nite and the two, previous nites (complete insanity!)...we are down to once a nite now that we are back in our own beds, and tylee also had a sleeping mishap. the boys must have turned up the thermostat in her room while she was taking a nap. she was soaking wet and her hair was frizzy when she got brought out to hit the snow. she is so funny and cute though, she didn't mind! yes, off we went, to brave the snow, but by now instead of roaring winds, the snow was melting and by the time we got up to the tubing hill with our friend, kevin (thanks for the invite!!!), it was melting AND blowing! goodness! we tried to brave it for as long as we could, but alas, all of us came back to the yard and tubed on the snowpiles out of the wind. at the end of the day, eldon, without knowing, used the wrong key in his pickup ignition and therefore could not get it started...so we gave him a tow to the local mechanic and then a ride back to burley. luckily, the switchup was solved that nite and so we were all off...but it was great while it lasted!!!! happy new year everyone...and i would like to officially announce that i finished the last sharecrop paperwork today and couldn't be happier!!