Sleigh ride at The Resort!
Bob's sister Jen and her family, brother Ronny and his family, us, and his parents
Lilo's smile is SO big! :) (it's a yawn--of course she's not ferocious!)
Mady and Brooklyn... so cute!
Bob with Baby Jay--our newest nephew!
Bob and Brooklyn under all that gear
This is in Bob's parents' field--sun was setting and it turned out kind of coolWe had such a great trip home! We flew, so we avoided all the bad driving conditions, and although we got about 8 inches here a few days before we were due to fly out, the roads were all clear for our drive to the airport! We got home only to find TONS of the white stuff! About 4 feet by the time we left! So Bob did a lot of plowing with the tractor, shoveling off roofs (I helped do one—it was kind of fun!), and we even got to play in it a little! We had fun with Mady, Brooklyn, and Kai, sledding behind the 4 wheeler, which is always good times, especially because Jap cleared a 2nd route for us on the other side of the field which was pretty great! We were able to go snowboarding one day too—we went up to Schweitzer
and surprisingly they had less snow than we did in town, but it was still fun. It was a cold day and even with our masks our faces FROZE every time we went up the lift! It was one of those bitter winds that sneaks into every exposed nook and cranny… the tiny gap between your helmet and hat/mask/jacket… it found all of them. We could only do a few runs at a time before we had to warm up again! We went with the Pearsons and 2 of their kids and a friend and it was great fun. I’m getting a little better every time, so that’s nice, because I’m getting a teeny bit faster (I’m very cautious) which makes Bob happy so he doesn’t have to wait so long for me!
We were so grateful to see so much of our friends and family since we were home for a week! My brother Paul’s birthday was while we were home so that was nice to be there for that, and Bob’s dad Ron’s birthday is the same day as our nephew Jaiden’s and we got to be there for that as well, which was pretty cool. Jaiden was just having his 1st birthday, which was awesome because he’s such a miracle baby—he was born at 23 weeks, extremely premature, and really not expected to survive—we all know he’s meant to be here because he pulled through and has been a fighter from the get go and is doing so great! The local paper did a nice story on him so they came to his birthday party which was pretty cool too.
We got to go to the Pearson’s Christmas party which was so fun—they had a good crowd of about 35 and we did a big white elephant/yankee swap/dirty Santa gift exchange which was pretty hilarious. As usual, our gifts were hot items! We came home with one of ours, a game called “in a pickle” which is pretty fun, and “Big Trouble” which we gave to our nieces Mady and Brooklyn, who we’re sure will enjoy it.
I got to go to a play with my mom, grandma, aunt, and cousin, which was kind of fun—it was White Christmas and definitely festive, with some fun songs and a very talented little girl singer! We had many more Christmas celebrations, starting with a present-opening extravaganza with the Jeppsens’s (Bob’s sister and brother-in-law and their 3 kiddos) since they had to leave on Monday,
and surprisingly they had less snow than we did in town, but it was still fun. It was a cold day and even with our masks our faces FROZE every time we went up the lift! It was one of those bitter winds that sneaks into every exposed nook and cranny… the tiny gap between your helmet and hat/mask/jacket… it found all of them. We could only do a few runs at a time before we had to warm up again! We went with the Pearsons and 2 of their kids and a friend and it was great fun. I’m getting a little better every time, so that’s nice, because I’m getting a teeny bit faster (I’m very cautious) which makes Bob happy so he doesn’t have to wait so long for me!We were so grateful to see so much of our friends and family since we were home for a week! My brother Paul’s birthday was while we were home so that was nice to be there for that, and Bob’s dad Ron’s birthday is the same day as our nephew Jaiden’s and we got to be there for that as well, which was pretty cool. Jaiden was just having his 1st birthday, which was awesome because he’s such a miracle baby—he was born at 23 weeks, extremely premature, and really not expected to survive—we all know he’s meant to be here because he pulled through and has been a fighter from the get go and is doing so great! The local paper did a nice story on him so they came to his birthday party which was pretty cool too.
We got to go to the Pearson’s Christmas party which was so fun—they had a good crowd of about 35 and we did a big white elephant/yankee swap/dirty Santa gift exchange which was pretty hilarious. As usual, our gifts were hot items! We came home with one of ours, a game called “in a pickle” which is pretty fun, and “Big Trouble” which we gave to our nieces Mady and Brooklyn, who we’re sure will enjoy it.
I got to go to a play with my mom, grandma, aunt, and cousin, which was kind of fun—it was White Christmas and definitely festive, with some fun songs and a very talented little girl singer! We had many more Christmas celebrations, starting with a present-opening extravaganza with the Jeppsens’s (Bob’s sister and brother-in-law and their 3 kiddos) since they had to leave on Monday,
(This is one of my favorite pics of the whole trip! Bob's mom made each family matching PJ's, so here's Jen and her girls in their sweet PJ's hamming it up! And she wonders where they get all that sass!)
and also including a fun party at my cousins’, which has become an annual tradition, including another raucous Dirty Santa/Yankee Swap where many presents are stolen! We cleaned up there getting candy with an iTunes gift card and 2 really cute ceramic mixing/serving bowls with cherries on them.
Christmas Eve we shoveled off Bob’s grandma’s roof, then jumped off it into the truck bed which we’d filled with snow, then I climbed back up and jumped off the roof into snow and sank up to my shoulders in it! So fun. Bob’s parents took us all out to Outback to thank us for all our hard work. Then we drove down to the resort with his parents and walked around and checked out all the lights and trees and the cute gingerbread house contest they had in the Shoppes there. It was snowing so most of my pictures of the light displays are obstructed by snowflakes, sorry!
Christmas morning was spent opening presents at Bob’s parents and enjoying our nephews opening all their fun stuff and then heading over to my brothers’ where we watched our nieces and my siblings and mom and John open all theirs… we got so many fun things but we flew so we couldn’t get it all home on the plane so we’ll have Bob’s folks bring most of it next time they come.
We got to hang out with the Poteets a bit too, which is always great, and I got to hang out with the girls twice—we had a baking day which we intended to only be a morning get-together, but it ended up taking all day… we made a TON of delicious treats though!
We hung out again on our last day there when Brooke treated us all to some nice spa treatments which was such a nice way to just chat and relax and end a busy week! Overall it was a great trip and we were so glad to get to see everyone! We hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed your loved ones too and that things are settling down for everyone and you all have a great New Year! I tag everyone to elaborate on their New Year’s Resolutions…. It’s always fun to hear what everyone else’s goals are! I’m going to go with:
Eating healthier
Running at least 3 times a week every week
Doing my situps and pushups 5 days a week (can you tell I need to take my PT test?)
Being more patient and kind in general
Gossiping less (not at all is pretty much impossible!)
Keeping our house a bit cleaner—we always struggle with this—it gets so cluttered so fast!
Reading our scriptures every night I’m home (call nights are kind of a bust)
Eating out less
Watching less TV
Procrastinating less
These are all pretty generic, I know, but there are a lot of basic things I could do better with!
Have a great night to everyone, and I have a million pictures and funny stories from our week home so I’ll try to gradually post a few every day….
Here’s one not-so-funny story about puppy puke… It’s all our fault for being lazy-ish. We’ve been busy since we got back and are still not fully unpacked. The backpack that had our snacks for the plane in it was still in the hallway and the outside pocket was partway unzipped. Unfortunately, this contained a ziplock bag of dark chocolate pretzels which apparently was too tempting to Lilo…. While we were at dinner with my friends from work, she was enjoying this not-so-dog-friendly treat. As such, we returned home to a very sad Lilo with a rumbly tummy and a puddle of chocolatey dog-puke in the hallway. We expected more pukage, which of course did occur, but thought she was done by bedtime, and foolishly let her sleep with us as usual. Unfortunately, she was not done, so we awoke to a chocolatey-dog-puke bed at 2:30am. Bummer. She was soooooooooooo ashamed…. Tough to be mad at her when it was really our fault for having it where she could get to it… so we changed the sheets and comforter and spray and washed and threw everything in the washer, but then Bob was all awake and is not a good fall back asleeper, so he just stayed up with her and I went back to sleep for another 2 hours. We learned a good lesson about making sure our food is all FAR from Lilo’s reach! And that chocolate doesn’t KILL dogs… not unless they eat a ton. Everything we read said the darker the chocolate the more dangerous for the dogs, and that 2 oz of baker’s chocolate is enough to kill a 10 lb dog…. (Lilo weighs 10 pounds!). Luckily she puked it all up so she got it out of her system and didn’t have to go to the emergency vet… we did read all the other possible symptoms and watched for them though! When I got home today not only were there no new chocolate puddles, but she was running around like her old playful self, so that’s good. We’ll never make that mistake again!
~Cathy
All Mady wants for Christmas is her 2 front teeth!
Me sledding with Mady and Brooklyn
Mady and I
My fam: Mom, John, Dan, Paul, Joe, and me! 
Christmas Eve we shoveled off Bob’s grandma’s roof, then jumped off it into the truck bed which we’d filled with snow, then I climbed back up and jumped off the roof into snow and sank up to my shoulders in it! So fun. Bob’s parents took us all out to Outback to thank us for all our hard work. Then we drove down to the resort with his parents and walked around and checked out all the lights and trees and the cute gingerbread house contest they had in the Shoppes there. It was snowing so most of my pictures of the light displays are obstructed by snowflakes, sorry!
Christmas morning was spent opening presents at Bob’s parents and enjoying our nephews opening all their fun stuff and then heading over to my brothers’ where we watched our nieces and my siblings and mom and John open all theirs… we got so many fun things but we flew so we couldn’t get it all home on the plane so we’ll have Bob’s folks bring most of it next time they come.
We got to hang out with the Poteets a bit too, which is always great, and I got to hang out with the girls twice—we had a baking day which we intended to only be a morning get-together, but it ended up taking all day… we made a TON of delicious treats though!
We hung out again on our last day there when Brooke treated us all to some nice spa treatments which was such a nice way to just chat and relax and end a busy week! Overall it was a great trip and we were so glad to get to see everyone! We hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed your loved ones too and that things are settling down for everyone and you all have a great New Year! I tag everyone to elaborate on their New Year’s Resolutions…. It’s always fun to hear what everyone else’s goals are! I’m going to go with:Eating healthier
Running at least 3 times a week every week
Doing my situps and pushups 5 days a week (can you tell I need to take my PT test?)
Being more patient and kind in general
Gossiping less (not at all is pretty much impossible!)
Keeping our house a bit cleaner—we always struggle with this—it gets so cluttered so fast!
Reading our scriptures every night I’m home (call nights are kind of a bust)
Eating out less
Watching less TV
Procrastinating less
These are all pretty generic, I know, but there are a lot of basic things I could do better with!
Have a great night to everyone, and I have a million pictures and funny stories from our week home so I’ll try to gradually post a few every day….
Here’s one not-so-funny story about puppy puke… It’s all our fault for being lazy-ish. We’ve been busy since we got back and are still not fully unpacked. The backpack that had our snacks for the plane in it was still in the hallway and the outside pocket was partway unzipped. Unfortunately, this contained a ziplock bag of dark chocolate pretzels which apparently was too tempting to Lilo…. While we were at dinner with my friends from work, she was enjoying this not-so-dog-friendly treat. As such, we returned home to a very sad Lilo with a rumbly tummy and a puddle of chocolatey dog-puke in the hallway. We expected more pukage, which of course did occur, but thought she was done by bedtime, and foolishly let her sleep with us as usual. Unfortunately, she was not done, so we awoke to a chocolatey-dog-puke bed at 2:30am. Bummer. She was soooooooooooo ashamed…. Tough to be mad at her when it was really our fault for having it where she could get to it… so we changed the sheets and comforter and spray and washed and threw everything in the washer, but then Bob was all awake and is not a good fall back asleeper, so he just stayed up with her and I went back to sleep for another 2 hours. We learned a good lesson about making sure our food is all FAR from Lilo’s reach! And that chocolate doesn’t KILL dogs… not unless they eat a ton. Everything we read said the darker the chocolate the more dangerous for the dogs, and that 2 oz of baker’s chocolate is enough to kill a 10 lb dog…. (Lilo weighs 10 pounds!). Luckily she puked it all up so she got it out of her system and didn’t have to go to the emergency vet… we did read all the other possible symptoms and watched for them though! When I got home today not only were there no new chocolate puddles, but she was running around like her old playful self, so that’s good. We’ll never make that mistake again!
~Cathy
All Mady wants for Christmas is her 2 front teeth!Dressed and ready for the snow!
Me sledding with Mady and Brooklyn
Mady and ICarolyn is totally checking out Jap's cards!
Enjoying Henry's finest... Don't worry, Ron's ok--he just had a little tumor on his finger excised just before we all got home!
My fam: Mom, John, Dan, Paul, Joe, and me!
Mady and Brooklyn and I... Mady's putting her new chapstick on! :)
Enjoying Outback
Did you doubt that Ronny could carry both his boys stacked like pancakes? :)
Ok, I have about 400 pictures from this trip and I will spare you from seeing them all, but I will post a few more later. Have a great night everyone!
