let me just begin this post by saying that this is probably going to be the LONGEST post ever!! we took a lot of pictures and had so much fun going home to idaho for new years weekend, it was like christmas day all over again! . . . and again . . . and again . . . as we traveled from family to family opening the presents that had been patiently waiting since christmas!!!:) the kids were so excited to see all their cousins and grandparents, we miss everyone so much now that we live in saratoga! it's just too hard to get home as often as we wish we could! although, i saw this when we pulled into the driveway and questioned why we'd ever want to go back . . .
BRRRR!!! and that's not even the coldest it got!!! it was -25 at gr. ruby's one night!!! it was in the negatives every night we were there and the highs were in the teens or single digits during the day . . . it was SOOOO cold!!!! we made a spur of the moment decision to go on a wed. night rather than thursday (shocking i know!;) mostly because heidi and richard had decided to have a new years party at their church and we would have missed it if we waited til thursday! trav still had to work, but he would get done at 5 and the party would start at 6 so it would work out perfectly!:)
there was food, nerf guns, basketball, dodge-ball, butt-ball and whatever anyone felt like doing, it was great!:)
this was what lynlee did all night, there were 4 of these colored balls and her whole goal the entire night was to try to get ahold of all 4 of them and haul them around, it was so funny! crazy kid!!
ah, loved this one!:)
i can't tell for sure, but i don't think kade wanted his picture taken . . . Lol!!!;) . . . or nick for that matter!
dodgeball!!
girls pic!!!
i loved this one of gr. susan and colty!
i was laughing my butt off at aiden's pictionary . . . "fresh meat . . . ooh aaah oohh" . . . HAHAHA!!! is that a bazooka or an atomic bomb the cow is being shot with ?!:)
didn't take long before this happened . . .
guess the window couldn't take a basketball being hucked into it . . . weird . .
good thing the church isn't too far from their house, richard had to run for reinforcements before the gym was -10 like the outside!!! brrrr!!!!
not too long after that, crap really started hitting the fan! rylee stepped on a piece of glass . . .
and skylar leaped over a chair and ripped his pants open to avoid killing a small child during butt-ball . . . well folks, i think that's our cue to hit the road!!;)
after all that, we all kind of went in different directions to welcome the new year:) heidi and richard got all the kids (poor buggers, Lol!!:) and i think most of the rest of us headed back out to jeff and susan's. i think heidi sent us this one at like, 0130 in the morning, crazy kids!! although sadie looks a little dazed and confused, i can't imagine she lasted too much longer than that! hopefully!!;)
and this was aiden at 12:05 . . .
HAHAHAHA!!!!! yep, that's our aiden!! i couldn't believe he even made it to midnight!!
we also got to meet this little guy . . . baby cash, who was such a sweetheart! and sadie was such a baby hog, she wouldn't give him up!!! she loved him so much! she still hasn't stopped talking about how cute baby cash was! it almost makes me feel guilty that she won't have any more brothers or sisters of her own . . . almost . . . ;)
the look on his face in this one cracked me up! i think he was filling his diaper or something, Lol!!;)
even lynnles got a turn, she loved him too!:)
then i got ahold of him . . . FINALLY!!! geez!!!;) and i wasn't about to give him up!!
aiden was really cute with kade and ryker, he sat by them and played games for a long time! it was so cute!!:) he's such a good cousin!;)
the next day, we got to go out to gr. ruby's, yay! the kids were so excited to see her and gr. dennis, they always miss them so much!!
i loved this one of colty! what a cute, happy boy!
one thing i was SUPER excited about was that gr. ruby had to go out to dad and vauna's to check on their water while they're gone to arizona and i went with her to see if i could FINALLY see the owls!! and guess what . . .
I DID!!! i've never been so excited in my whole life! i got a few pics of them that i was really excited for . . . and as an added bonus, there weren't only the horned owls, there were BARN OWLS too!! WHAT A TREAT!!!!
oh my heck those things are awesome! i LOVE owls!!
the barn owls were super skittish and hard to get a picture of, but i somehow managed to get a good one of one of them too. and check this out . . . seriously the weirdest thing i've ever seen in my life . . .
it's an alien owl!!! Lol!!! but seriously, i've never seen anything like that, like EVER!! i had to look multiple times to make sure i was really looking at what i thought i was looking at . . . what in the world is it doing?! sleeping? tucking it's face in because it was colder than crap in idaho that weekend?! i'm still not sure that i'm sure . . . i think i'm going with the alien owl theory . . ;)
i loved this one of the fluffed up horned owl, he was really cool-looking:)
and these of the owl silhouette and the sunset . . . so pretty!!
and these next ones i'm not even sure i'm ready to talk about yet! Lol!!;) i was just running over to gr. rubys to pick up aiden and sadie because they had stayed the night one night, and actually thought about taking my camera . . . AND DECIDED NOT TO!!!! STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!! i should've known i would lose the money shot of a lifetime!
i knew that there was a barn owl or two that hung around the straw stacks by the road, so when i pulled in, i looked back to see if there was an owl up in there and sure enough, THERE WAS!!!! as soon as i got out of the van (with my POS phone camera!) the owl flew off. i walked around the side of the stack just to see if i might be able to see him still by chance, and he had just caught a mouse!! which you totally can't tell because yes . . . again, i forgot my FREAKING CAMERA!!!
he saw me again and flew off across the road, but i saw him land on the side of the stack in the background so i got back on the road and followed him. now this is the part that i'm never going to feel ok about ever again . . .
when he landed on the side of the stack, he got a little tangled up in some strings so i was able to pull up right beside him and take this pic out the window of my van right as he looked at me . . . WITH MY PHONE CAMERA!!!! NOOOO!!!! he still has the mouse in his mouth and everything . . . like i said, money shot of a lifetime if i could have taken it with the nice camera! i almost wish none of it had ever happened, i think i regret not having the nikon more than if i'd never even seen it in the first place!! Lol!!!;) although i have thought to myself a couple times that it's only because of me that he caught that mouse to begin with! i made him fly around that stack right at the moment when it went running by in the first place, Lol!! so if it's any consolation, it's thanks to me that he got his dinner that day!;)
the next day, we got to go see gr. dick and gr. helen, the kids were so excited to see them too!:) and i'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they would have even MORE presents to open!!! Lol!!;) but they always like to go visit them, so i didn't take offense because i know they would have been excited anyway!;)
this one is lynlee giving her minnie mouse robe loves when she opened it . . . it makes me laugh so hard!!! she has the most serious look on her face!
i was so worried about being late to their house that i didn't realize til we got there and everyone was saying that they were starving, that no one had actually eaten any breakfast! fail!!! so gr. dick and gr. helen whipped us up pancakes, ham, eggs, berries and whipped cream . . . it was seriously impressive! and i felt seriously bad, Lol!! who forgets to feed half their family breakfast?! and for them to make such an effort for us with no warning . . . DAH!!! step back everyone, mother of the year right here!! Lol!!!;) thanks again gr. dick and gr. helen, you are wonderful!!:)
after gr. dick and gr. helen's house, we ran a few presents around and then headed back out to jeff and susan's to pack up and get ready to head back home to utah. which is always such a bummer because we never want to leave and come back to this dumb place! we should've known that when we decided to move straight to st. george when we got married that we'd become perma-utards and never be able to kick this state to the curb!! Lol!!!;) ok, maybe i'm being a little harsh, there are definitely things i love about being where we are (most of which revolve around hiking/traveling;) all i know is that we've been trying for a very long time to get back home to good ol' idey-ho . . . someday friends, someday. all in all, it was such a fun trip and we were so glad we got to see everyone! we had so much fun and were even able to be there for cash's baby blessing and rykers b-day party:) and kind of for mak's, we snagged him a b-day present but had to hit the road before his started:( bummer! the pic above is of our house when we got home, and half the stuff that was laying around didn't even make it into the picture, it was so destroyed! i still haven't caught up on everything a week later!! which is ok, because it was all worth it:) there's nothing better than getting to hang out with our families, we miss them so much! going home to see everyone is always so much fun, we wouldn't trade it for anything! we love you families!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
