December 27, 2009

Location: Blackfoot, Idaho

Today we got up early and all went to church with Dad, Grandma & Great Aunt Elvira. Our kids were at their absolute finest during the meeting (SARCASM!). Jeremy finally took Taylee out in the hall. That allowed our row to have a little bit of peace. After awhile I heard distant painful crying and knew it was Taylee. So I rushed out to check on her. She had ran into a door or wall or chair or...well Jer wasn't quite sure. Her forehead was already swollen, on top of a previous bruise/scrape. Bring on Bruise #38! Needless to say, Jer took the kids home after the first hour while the rest of us stayed to listen to Dad teach his Sunday School lesson. He's awesome!

After Dad's class, we hurried home to get ready and head to West Yellowstone. The Hone Family was there for the week and we decided to crash their party! We were all ecstatic to play in lots of snow again! I think Jer was the most excited seeing as he had almost everything packed & in the car by the time we got home from church!

Location: West Yellowstone, Montana

Arrival: 2:00pm

As soon as we unloaded, Me/Jer, Lynds/Aaron, Mason/Anna took off on a snowmobile ride. The rest of the fam volunteered to watch our kids! WOOHOO! Anden had been asking, "Where are my cousins Max and Isaac?" for the past week since we arrived in Idaho. So he was stoked to finally be with the boys!! While we were gone, the kids went sledding! Looks like they had an awesome time! (Thanks for the pics Lacie!)

We rode from West up to Two Top. It's the very peak of the mountain and it's frigid up there! We lucked out and it was a beautiful clear (but don't be fooled it was FREEZING) day where you could see the whole valley. This was nice for a change since all I saw was the back of Jer's helmet the whole way. At least that was better than Lyndsay. She couldn't see anything since her helmet face mask froze over 2 mins into the 2 hr ride! lol

Well the ride up was fun and I stayed relatively warm hiding behind Jer. The ride back down however was a much different story! The sun was starting to set while we were on top and I swear the temp dropped 20 degrees...which is a big deal when you started out at 20 degrees! So the entire ride home I sang songs to myself to keep from slipping into hypothermic slumber. Then I would alternate with pep talks to my toes and fingers to continue wiggling for survival. When we finally arrived back to the condos, I immediately jumped off the sled. Well in my mind I did. The rest of my body sat there frozen and had to be pushed off. We stumbled back into the warmth and winced with pain while our fingers defrosted. I now remember why I live in Arizona.

We all laughed, ate, played and laughed some more. Eventually we finally got all the kids to bed. This meant it was time for the adults to stay up all night playing cards. The Hones are pros and they really preyed upon our weaknesses. So much for beginners mercy. I was "SCUM" half the game. lol