Snow Machines

Carter

The snow was really deep.  Our little Enticers got stuck occasionally. Ethan is waiting for Carter to come help him lift the back end out of the deep part.

It was so fun to see the boys working together out there.

Here comes Ethan!

Can you see Olivia?  Oh there she is her giant yellow helmet!

It wouldn't be the New Year without fireworks!

Here I am with my buddy Heather!  Our other friend, Kim, who was our host, stayed in the cabin to watch the fireworks.

Here is most of the gang that was there for New years.  6 adults and 14 children.  Most of these kids were teenagers and so fun with our little ones.  They were awesome.  The boys even slept in the cold attic of the cabin for us!  Thanks boys!

This is what we are snow machining on.  A frozen lake.  Here is a shot of under the dock where the snow isn't packed on.  It was pretty cool!

OK those were obviously videos of the lake we were on. This lake is owned by our friend's family.  Like it is an original homestead site from back in the day.  If you are looking on a map we were just west of BIG LAKE, about an hour from our house.  Now let me tell you about BIG LAKE and the ice.  We took our machines over the land to check out Big Lake.  It was so cool.  The lake really is gigantic.  Not Great Lakes gigantic but certainly Utah Lake or Oneida Lake gigantic.  In the winter Big Lake plows roads and grates the ice on the lake to make roads you can drive on!  Like with your car.  Snow machines stay off the ice roads and zoom in the open spaces.  It was crazy! The town of Big Lake (named after, well, the Lake!) names the ice roads and cuts  the same ones every year. We went out to this island that has a restaurant on it.  You can only reach this restaurant by boat in the summer or snow machine in the winter.  There were tons of homes on the island too and cabins all along the shore of the lake.   I didn't bring my camera for that part of the trip and I am totally kicking myself now.  We are hoping to go over Martin Luther King day and I will for sure get pictures then.

Here is our host and buddy and snow machine extraordinaire, Skeet, along with JaDee and Nate.

Ethan gets ready to take his ole Mom out for a spin!

TONIGHT!

So I wasn't with Courtney and Sherie at midnight like for the last "Twilight" movie, but I am going with friends to Moose's Tooth and then the show tonight!

I had a dream about the movie last night.

It came when I slept in instead of going to spin class.

I'd say that is a fair trade.

peace

Amber and her boy Ammon photo courtesy Amber's Website

I have a friend in Perry who for the last 3 and some years has been battling stage 4 Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Her 5 children range from just older than Carter to Olivia's age. She and I were pregnant together this last round 4 years ago. And shortly after her baby was born came her Stage 4 diagnosis. They gave her 22 months.

She made it 42.

Last night she passed away.

We all knew it was coming. But it is still never easy to hear. I am sure the hardest thing about her battle was knowing she would be leaving her kids. They are a great family.

Read about her here. Please. Her example will change your life.

Bless you, Amber, now at peace.

picture full

Olivia with her dress I got for free at our Stake's clothing exchange and her Build a Bear, Zoe, the Zebra in her pink evening dress on the way to pre-school show and tell. Usually she tries to take her toilet paper "Flying Things." But to let her teachers know I buy my daughter real toys, and do not force her to play with trash, (like the grungy ribbon she brought the week before) I talked her into bringing Zoe.

I am getting better at Olivia's hair. I have been inspired by some little hair do blogs I keep stumbling across. One day we actually got it pretty cute and she wore a dress to pre-school so I snapped some pictures of my little girl growing up.

And our grand friends J and J with their 3 kids moved last week!! The witness protection program had to relocate them (j/k, but they do ask to remain anonymous on here) and we are SOOOO SAD!!! J was my shopping buddy, decorating buddy, and BFF in Alaska. I tell ya, if it wasn't for her, I totally would be living with my mother in law waiting for JaDee to get done with Alaska. And her kids were my boys BFFs as well. The games these guys came up with! Oh we are going to miss them.

Monopoly Marathons were a favorite all last winter with J's kids. We had one last hurrah hours before their plane took off. They have an interesting set of house rules that include auctioning off unclaimed property. Ethan seriously knows the whole board by heart. Next time you see him ask him the rent of Indiana with 1 house and I guarantee you, he knows what it is.

And the last time I put these decorations away was when we were getting ready to move.



I can't believe it was this time LAST YEAR that we were getting ready to turn our lives upside down. But all in all we are doing great here. We just miss you all so very much.


And my new favorite thing ever is this:


A Scentsy mini lite. When it comes to fall I love the smells. While damp leaves may smell good outside I want cinnamon, and cider and cloves inside. This totally does the job and my house won't burn down! For all of you in Perry Alyssa Braegger (Linda Bergeson's daughter) sells it. Highly recommended!

I hope you are not someone I visit teach because if you are seeing this now then you won't be surprised when I give you this for October's visit. I actually made these at Kaye's house this weekend.

And here is Olivia with a Flying Thing tied to an emery board. I think the Flying Thing in this picture is actually being a parrot with the "real" parrot she has in the other hand.

Home

We made it. 17 days of fun in UT and WY. We have like a million pictures and a million stories and million laughs.

But while we were gone Champ got in on some action. Our good friend Sarah house/dog sat for us and she got engaged while she was here!! Check out this link for whole story. It's a cute one. And we are so happy for Sarah and Jed.