Back in the Saddle

Well I have been trying to get the boys back into good sleep habits so we have been enforcing a strict reading time at 8pm and bed at 8:30am. Steve and I have been getting up at 6am with Lila to get her out the door. Tuesdays are my day to attend the temple and Ellie has been wanting to go to the Ogden temple so I scheduled her and I a session at 9:30am. So January 6th we dropped the boys off for their first school day of 2026, then we went to the temple. It was a lovely morning. When we got home it was time to cleanup and Ellie packed up to go back to her apartment on Wednesday (technically UofU classes have started but she is taking a semester off to explore other major options). Ellie also worked on her bike. The boys activities were starting back up with pickleball leagues, basketball practices and games. Saturday, January 10th, Steve went to an elder's quorum activity first thing in the morning then we took Marcus to his basketball game. After which Steve and I did our strength workout. Nourish Move Love on YouTube posted a new program where she works out with her husband the boys saw him and said, "Hey did you guys unlock a new character in your workouts?" 😂 The sun was out so we went outside to play basketball with the boys. Andrew was hitting all of the shots he was taking so we encouraged him to take some shots at the game but unfortunately he didn't really have an opportunity but he has really made some improvements. Sunday, January 11th Lila's young women's group sung in sacrament meeting and Steve taught the elder's quorum lesson (with only 2 days notice). Everyone said he did great! I'm sure he did but I can truly empathize with the agony of teaching one of those lessons. Sunday afternoon we had one-on-one interviews with the kids to talk about New Year's Goals (Steve had given us all our New Years blessings on December 28th which was nice). Then that evening Lila started to not feel so great. Thankfully the next couple of days are light at school (they are doing an A/B schedule on Monday and a practice ACT on Tuesday but she did all those prep lessons and took the real exam in December which by the way she got her scores and she rocked it) so she can stay home the next couple of days and rest and recover.

The boys did really good reading the Book of Mormon over the summer and wanted to keep that moment but trying to do it before bed is just too hard, too many variables. So in our interviews we discussed other times and they chose right after school as they are eating their after school snack. Day 1 ☑

While we were playing with the boys we noticed the hoop was shaking a lot. One of the bolts had come out so Steve fixed it but to do so he had to lower the hoop and the boys wanted to try dunking while the hoop was low. 😂

Mischief Managed

We had talked about doing another ski trip over Christmas break but a few weeks ago Ellie mentioned that her friend Lizze would be going through the Mesa temple to receive her endowment and she wanted to go. So Steve and I discussed it with the kids and we decided to go to Mesa for New Years. I also asked the kids if they were ok leaving on New Year's Eve. I wanted to enjoy the sun for as long as we could, to which they all agreed. However the week of, Lila was a little frustrated because her friend group made plans for New Year's Eve, whoops. They have also been hanging out every night so she was frustrated with herself (and felt like us) when she wasn't packed the night before and didn't go hang out with her friends. Then in the morning she still wasn't ready and we all waited for her to pack. . .2 hours. . .we patiently waited and did not say anything except to offer our help on occasion. Anyway, we were on the road and listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (since Marcus and I have not found a lot of time to read together I thought it would be fun to listen as a family while we drove). Nothing super exciting happened on the drive. We stopped in Fillmore picked up Costa Vida for lunch and gassed up the van. Then we stopped again in Page for gas and the kids chose to get some dinner at Jack in the Box (they opened one up by us and every time we drive by the boys say we should try it so we did on this road trip). They even had a Gremlin snack box which we ordered, it was funny because of the Gremlins in the trees at Grand Targhee. We arrived at our VRBO around 8pm and the boys, as always, began exploring the place.

 

Andrew was so excited for the giant chess game that he even packed his chess book with strategies and said he had "to play at least 6 rounds of chess or he would crash out". The foosball table inside was also a big hit with them although a little loud on occasion for us. After exploring the boys decided since they spent all day in the car they were staying up until midnight to ring in the new year and I thought why not. So we got in our swim clothes and hit the hot tub. The boys even jumped in the pool for a bit. While we sat in the hot tub we could see fireworks all around us, it was fun!

 

We all took a quick shower and opened some sparkling cider and said Happy New Year! Then as we were brushing teeth for bed Andrew said he had a loose tooth that was bothering him so at 12:02am Jan 1st he lost a tooth.

 

The next morning we let everyone sleep in then we found a way to watch the Texas Tech football game and left the boys watching that while Steve and I ran to the grocery store across the street. The football game was so sad! Thankfully by the time it was over the rainy overcast morning was gone and the sun was out so we all got in the pool and we were going to get in the hot tub but when we opened the cover it was green so we messaged the manager and he came over to fix it while the girls got ready to go shopping. We went to this fun mall just a few miles away and started with this store called ReClectic, it was fun. Then we ventured out into the mall and thought we would walk around it without realizing how big it was. After a couple of hours we were tired and ready to be done but still had a lot of mall to walk. 😂 We made it back to our car picked up some yummy Pei Wei (also just across the street from us) on our way home and ate dinner with the kids. We all got some pretty ironic fortunes from our cookies.

Britney: Bend the rod while it is hot. (we laughed so hard and said that a lot over the weekend)

Marcus: You were born with a "sixth sense" and super insight. Lucky number: 7 (I could not believe he got a fortune with the infamous 6-7 reference and he didn't even notice. He is always doing the gesture and saying 6-7)

Andrew: To be mature is to accept imperfections.

Lila: Listen to the wisdom of the old. 

Ellie: Do not mistake temptation for opportunity.

Friday, January 2nd we snagged a baptism appointment for noon at the Mesa temple. Ellie slept in while the boys and Steve started a new puzzle (a 500 piece puzzle was completed every day we were there) and then Lila, Steve, and I walked to Trade Joe's to pick up some snacks. Then we all got ready to go to the temple. As we drove there I told them that the Mesa temple was the temple Steve and I attended while living in Tucson. It was the only temple in the area until 2010 when the Gila Valley temple opened and then we started going to that one because it was a small temple you could make an appointment and the traffic that direction was better. We told them we would get a babysitter for a Friday night and leave around 5:30/6pm hoping to make the last session of the night then drive home, get there around 12:30/1am, take the babysitter home. I also told them that my Great Grandma Wyoma Call Buckley served a mission at the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center as an elderly single sister. When she passed away in 1991 our family received some letters from people she taught while serving there. We took some pictures together. The one with just the two of us, Marcus said maybe he should sit in my lap like baby Jesus was in Mary's lap since he is my baby. Then Marcus and I walked over to the visitor's center.

 

We had a blast doing a little scavenger hunt and enjoying all of the things at the visitor's center.

The crew came over and met us and we showed them our favorite things and took some pictures together although Marcus would not be in the Cristus picture again because he already took one there.

 

 

Ellie wanted to go next door to the distribution center to look for a few things so her and Steve headed over there. Steve sent us a text that they had BYU Creamery ice cream so we splurged and everyone got a scoop. Then we went home and hot tubbed all afternoon. Andrew and Steve had a diving competition for which the girls sat in those chair judging. And of course there was hours of monkey in the middle again. 

 

We talked about doing a hike but I think everyone was still recuperating from staying up until midnight and all the swimming so we decided to go watch the sunset at Hole in a Rock but it was a very popular destination so we never actually went out into hole but we ventured around and watched the sunset.

That evening the girls wanted to watch a movie with the boys that was only on AppleTV that we had access to at the rental so they did. Here is a picture of everyone around the puzzle before bed. We even listened to a few Harry Potter chapters while puzzling because we needed to get in a little extra listening time if we wanted to finish it on the drive home.

 

The morning of Saturday, January 3rd Ellie went with Lizzie to take pictures of her family. There was more swimming and relaxing. Ellie and I left to go to the Mesa temple to do intiatories around 4pm and for Ellie to attend the endowment session with Lizzie. Ellie snapped a few pictures of Lizzie and her parents before we went in.

 

Everyone voted to be on the road early Sunday morning to drive home. So Steve made breakfast burritos that could be heated up and consumed in the car. Everyone was loaded and we were off around 7:30am. Ellie wanted to drive by the Phoenix Temple so we made a quick detour to see that then we we had smooth travels the rest of the way. Everyone traveled great. We finished our book just as we were getting off the freeway, perfect timing. Then it was a quick unload and everyone started unpacking. Thankfully they have the day off of school on Monday, January 5th so we can recover a little bit more before getting back into routines. I had calendars for the kids as we do for new years so I let them come pick them out Monday morning. Marcus got a Harry Potter calendar he was excited about and it's a good thing we finished the book because January highlights Severus Snape because his birthday is January 9th and it shows his patronus which would have given away a key point in the book.

There you have our new year's mischief. We had a good time together. We don't usually travel over the Christmas break but both of these trips were fun and very different. I told the kids we almost traveled from the north end of the US to the southern end within a week because of the two trips. Here's to 2026 and all of the adventures it holds.

Cozy & Bright

We had our nice candlelit Christmas Eve dinner with ham and smoked pineapple. We talked about the names of Jesus and what they mean to us. Then we watched a special episode of  Music and the Spoken Word. Kodiak enjoyed the Christmas ham and the only picture I took that evening. 😂

 

The boys wanted to check the Santa Tracker but then Andrew said his friends told him he needed to watch A Christmas Story so we watched that (not my favorite movie but I can see why the boys his age like it). Then we sent everyone to bed with a reminder that Christmas would be a little smaller because of the trips and experiences we have shared the last few months. The boys texted us at 7:45am saying they had been waiting 15 minutes for the phone's downtime to be over so we began getting everyone up and going.

As mentioned before Marcus has been really into Harry Potter and one of his Christmas wishes was a nice wand. Ellie 3-D printed him a wand and Steve & I ordered him a spell book. He came home from school on Thursday and had the exact book we ordered, I had to do a double take because I had received the notification it had been delivered that day and I thought, did he check the mail and open a package?. . .No he had brought it home from the library and spent his spare time over the next several days copying the spells into a notebook. Steve and I just smiled every time knowing he would be getting that very book Christmas morning. Now he practices the spells with his wand, trying the movements and saying the words, it's so cute.

 

 

 

Marcus really wanted this game device at Five Below when we were there but when I showed it to Steve he knew how cheesey it would be and found a similar but nicer device online. Marcus was excited. We actually let Andrew take it to his tech party before school let out with the caveat he could not tell anyone about it because it was a Christmas surprise.

We played games and enjoyed yummy easy food. Lila was pretty excited about her Shark Fusion Hair device which I was grateful about because I really did not know what to get her this year. For dinner we had Ellie air fry chicken in her new Ninja Flip while Steve made waffles in the new waffle maker (did I tell the story of how our old waffle maker got put away with waffles still in it. Several weeks later I could smell something and was trying to figure out what it was. I finally started opening cupboards smelling them and found the waffles basically liquid in the old maker. So disgusting! I couldn't even remember the last time we had waffles so they had been in their a while hence the need for a new waffle maker. My friend told me about this one that flips and makes two at a time so we went with that and don't you worry I was able to fit the new one in my waffle making cupboard because I have a lot of those mini dash shape ones and Steve tells me all the waffle makers have to fit in that cupboard😂).

Each of the kids received a knitting kit in their stocking and the boys are determined to figure out how to do it. Andrew watched some videos then showed Marcus what he learned. 

I kept thinking we would watch a Harry Potter movie but we just kept playing and hanging out. It was a wonderful enjoyable day and thankfully Steve has Friday off too. In the morning he is going to help Andrew's VEX team (he is good about helping them think through things and teaching them when is a good time to program something so the robot performs consistently vs human driver, super proud of all the boys on the VEX team and their participation over break) then we will continue to chill, play games, and  probably watch a Harry Potter movie. The girls want to go swing dancing again and spend some time with their friends. Life is good. We are truly grateful for this time of year we get to spend together and celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Grand Targhee

This year we decided to buy the Mountain Collective passes instead of season passes to our local resort (for several reasons). In August we booked a ski trip to Grand Targhee for right before Christmas. This winter has been weird and we have experienced the warmest December on record. Our local mountains are struggling to keep the slopes opened because it is so warm they are getting rain instead of snow. Grand Targhee looked a little better with a storm in the forecast for the Sunday/Monday we would be there (I was hoping it would not impact our traveling). We packed up Saturday and Steve was a trooper and loaded up all the ski gear and everything in the van that night so all we had to to Sunday after our church meeting was load up food and last minute stuff (and the girls stuff because they just take longer to pack 😂). After church Marcus asked, "When are we leaving to the ski resort? I cannot wait to see snow." Which made me feel good and think the work is worth it. We were on the road by 11:30am so we could drive during the day and take it slow in case we experienced any weather. We were fortunate that it was just overcast and rainy until we started our climb to Targhee. The kids traveled like troopers eating leftover pizza and snacks I had packed. We got checked into our lodge and I asked the kids what they wanted me to cook for dinner. Lila said she didn't seem too hungry so whatever I felt like making. I put in the taco soup I had brought and as soon as it started cooking Lila was dieing. She said it smelt so good she couldn't wait to eat. It was hilarious.

 

Then we played some games and watched a couple of the new Phineas and Ferb episodes. It was a good start to our little ski trip. Marcus woke up excited to go skiing. This surprised both Steve and I because he is our one that we have to really encourage to go skiing. He said he liked the idea of walking right out of the lodge to the skiing so we were hopeful. We started making breakfast and getting ready. Ellie was still sleeping so we let her sleep in while we took the other three out. Andrew said we should do the bunny hill once since it was our first time skiing this season and we could see that lift from our room so they thought it would be fun. They had a lot of fun things setup on this hill in the trees: little villages of gremlins, eyes, lodges, candy cane lanes. It was fun and encouraged Marcus to go tree skiing with everyone.

 

It was a wise idea to start slow because we went to do the big lift Dream Catcher next and as we were going up I saw something drop from a few chairs in front of us where Lila and Andrew were riding. We looked down and it was one of Andrew's skis. We got to the top where it was windy and blowing icy snow right at us (good thing I had convinced Marcus to wear a gator, I pulled it up over his face on the lift). Anyway, we told Steve to ski down as fast as he could on a new run he had never done before to get the ski. We were going to wait at the top but it was so miserable there that we decided to ski down slowly with Andrew. Andrew tried on one ski but it was too difficult so he took it off and started hiking. We had two ski patrols stop and ask if we were ok and some other nice people. One ski patrol offered Andrew a ride down with them but he didn't want to do that. We finally found a little place where the wind wasn't quite as bad and hunkered down waiting for Steve. We told him to follow the trail of pine branches one of the ski patrol had put down so you could see where you were going. He told us he felt fortunate (and I'll add maybe divinely lead) to cut in at just the right spot to find the ski. We skied down and I thought for sure the day was ruined and the kids would not want to continue skiing but as soon as we got out of the wind and reached a good skiing section, Marcus said, "That was agony but then we made it to the fun skiing." I told him sometimes that is just how life is, you have to push through the really rough hard times to find the enjoyable moments. We skied the Shoshone lift a couple of more times then I took Lila and Marcus back to the lodge to rest and get some lunch. Ellie was up and getting ready. Andrew and Steve went to try Sacajawea lift to see if the conditions were any better. They came back and I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich ready for Steve so he could go back out with Ellie. They explored another area but the low visibility made Ellie queezy so they came back just as the 4 of us were getting ready to go back out. I took Andrew and Marcus to explore more of Shoshone lift while Steve took Lila out to the other area. She had a blast with Steve. The boys and I managed to find a terrain park but decided to wait to it try until the next day (well I decided that because it was super busy with teens and are last run of the day and the visibility was still low, they weren't too happy with me but understood). We met back up at the lodge and everyone was dripping wet. I got out the boot dryer at lunch time and put Steve first set of gloves on it in the upstairs bathroom. Steve decided to turn up the heat in that bathroom (it was basically a sauna) and we hung up gear and kept rotating gloves on the dryer. We manage to dry everything off before the next day.

 

Tuesday, December 23rd when I opened the window there was light and we could see so much more of the mountain it was amazing. We were excited for another day of skiing. We once again let Ellie sleep in. The five of us headed up Shoshone and were surprised how clearly we could see the Blackfoot lift and the runs there (we could not see any of it the day before). Our first run we decided to go check out the terrain park which is called the North Pole (so festive).

 

 

Then we decided to try Blackfoot and Marcus was a real trooper skiing some steep stuff. Steve said he found some great powder in between the trees so Lila, Andrew, and Steve were skiing in and out of the trees while Marcus and I did the groomer. We did that run 3 times and then Marcus was tired so he and I headed over to a run that would take us towards Shoshone lift and we found Bob again (we saw him the first day skiing down after the lost ski but it was too windy and cold to take a picture that day).

 

We ate lunch together then headed over to the shop to get stickers and some souvenirs. Andrew got a hat that says WYDAHO 😂 Then all 6 of us went out to explore the mountain. We skied over to Sacajawea, Marcus was determined to ride all of the lifts (I'm telling you this trip was a game changer for him and I'm so glad we did it). Then we worked our way over to Colter where we could all ride the lift together (poor Lila got the seat where there was a continual drip so Steve tried to protect her with his glove). At the top we were able to see this amazing view of the Tetons.

 

 

Then we headed back to the main area. I took Marcus back to Shoshone lift while Steve took the others to Blackfoot to show Ellie the good snow we skied that morning. As Marcus and I were going up the lift he pointed up to the mountain and said there they are and you know it was them so we took some pics and sent them a text that we could see them.

 

We all had a great time! Everyone in the family were troopers and we are grateful for this memorable experience. The boys are already trying to plan a time to go back and ski the ghee with their cousin Kyle.

we had a lovely sunset from our deck that evening.

 

We packed up and had to scrape the van off with our room keys because we forgot to pack the snow scraper (haven't needed it so far this season 😕). Then started our drive home around 9am Christmas Eve. The drive was a totally different experience with views of the Tetons at almost every turn.

We stopped in Idaho Falls for Christmas Eve brunch at Abracadabra's. It was fun and a lot of food.

 

Then we came home unloaded the van, showered, and began getting ready for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and festivities.