The last week of 2021

 So of course we always love going to Midway . . . and so when my parents had a 17-year old guest coming (My parents met her parents and family while serving their mission in Germany.) we made sure to make it over there. We decided to have the kids go earlier that week so they had a more days to be up there with Melody (the German teen). I had to work Monday and Tuesday and Ben had to work Tues-Fri. So it's a long story, but in the end and due to snowy conditions (especially over Soldier Summit), Ben and the kids took the train to Provo. 

But before we left, per my dad's request, the kids all took a Covid test. Jonas and Lucy were pretty hilarious! Luckily they were all negative.

Shockingly, the train arrived in Provo on time - 9:30pm. Paul Formisano was in Provo and so he kindly picked them all up and drove them to Midway. Then he and Ben came back down to Provo. Paul drove Ben to the train station at 4:00 am for his ride back . . . only to find out it was delayed until 3:30 that afternoon. (The train was coming from the Sierra Nevadas . . . you know, they only got like 17 feet of snow on Donner Pass. Wimps that the train was delayed. Kidding.) So Paul drove Ben back up to Midway so Ben could hang out with the family.

My parents had made reservations for lunch at the Cafe Galeria in Midway. They have these cute outdoor igloo seating that made it extra special - especially with the snow that was coming down that day. How fun.

I think this shot was taken inside the igloo, but I don't really know . . . ?

It was a little bit cool in there, but the space heater helped.

After that, my kids, Melody and mom walked about the Zenger's home (i.e., mansion). The Zengers are in my parents ward. Sister Zenger owns about a million creches and puts them out on display in her home and opens it up for visitors to walk through and admire. :) Ben and my dad quickly rushed through it and then headed down to Provo. (Ben's trained ended up not leaving until 6:30 pm - 14 hours delayed. Oh well. He slept on the train and made it back to Montrose by 1am.) My kids really enjoyed checking out all the different and awesome creches. 

On Tuesday, my parents and Melody dropped my kids off at Park City to ski and snowboard. What should have taken them about 40 minutes, took them 90 minutes due to traffic. Ugh.

But the kids had a pretty good time. The boys had fun - but it was snowing all day and Miles' goggles were pretty bad. But the boys still had fun. The girls got a bit lost, ended up on a not-fun black diamond hill and Emmy's ski kept popping off . . . Emmy was a bit frustrated by that. But it was none the less an adventure for the girls as they had never really skied on their own. And Park City is huge compared to what we normally ski at. The girls and boys both said the lines were pretty long. Again, we are not even used to lines where we normally go. But I still think it was a good day for them.

On Wednesday they all went thrift-shopping in the morning. Emmy bought some jeans, Lucy some cute shoes, and Miles a hideous leather jacket. Then they all went bowling and had a good time there, too. After lunch they headed over to skate at Midway's Ice Rink. I had left Montrose at about 9:30 and ended up passing them on my way to the house. I dropped off my stuff, sadly paused the awesome book on tape I was listening to, and went and watched the kids at the Ice Rink. They had a great time! They stayed until the Zamboni came out and kicked them off. :)

It had been a while since my kids had skated, but they did great. Melody was a good skater, too. Fun and beautiful times in Midway. 

After a yummy dinner, we headed (in some light snow) to Thanksgiving Point to its Lumanria display. It's so awesome! We went a couple years ago and just loved it. I loved it again this year. It's nice to be outside, in the cold (it was cold!), looking at Christmas-lights galore. It's magical.

This is the only picture I got. I don't take too many pictures when it's cold because I don't want to freeze my hands. :)

On Thursday I took the kids and we all went skiing at Park City again. But we stayed on The Canyons side of the resort. The snow was great! We saw the boys only at the start and finish of our ski day - they had a blast and loved skiing the double-blacks, I guess. The girls and I ended up on a black and I wanted to cry. I hated it so much. It was just steep and moguls. Puke. I actually discovered I don't really like skiing anymore and I am not sure I want to ever do it again . . . I don't hate it. I am just old and I get cold. It needs to be a sunny, total blue-bird of a day. Then I'd consider going. :) The girls and I had a good day, though, really and it was fun just being with them.

This was the only picture I got of our entire day skiing. (Such a pain taking off my gloves, etc. And cold! But for this picture, I was riding in the gondola). We saw a moose on our gondola lift - so cool and so fun!

We got home and then my mom and I headed down to SLC. My parents surprised me: originally my mom had told me we were going to the theater (just she and I). Since the show was Anastasia, my dad didn't really want to go and so I was going to go in his place. Well, it turned out that it wasn't Anastasia but . . . Hamilton! My tricky and awesome parents! The only problem: a big storm was coming that night and so it kind of put a damper on my excitement. I just hate traveling in the snow. But I was up for tying . . . My mom and I made it as far as Kimball Junction (usually about 25 minutes from their home, but took us 50) and then turned around. It was a white-out. The roads were horrible. We were going 30 MPH and so would end up late to the show. The snow wasn't letting up. We had already passed three vehicles, including a heavy-duty truck, off the side of the road. So we called it quits and drove back home . . . What a bummer. :( But . . . on Friday my mom called the ticket office and we were told we could come down at 7 (the show started at 8) and put our names on a list. If there were unsold tickets by 7:50, they would give them to us . . . 

So that was the plan for the evening. But during the day the kids were able to get out and enjoy the 8+ inches of snow that fell during the night. It was beautiful and the kids had so much fun! (We had originally planned to drive home on Friday so the kids could make it to their Stake New Year's Eve dance . . . but it got canceled because of a storm that was coming through Montrose. Which was such a bummer for the kids! But probably worked out well so we didn't have to drive back in crazy, snowy conditions . . . )

Cute grandma. :)

Snow much fun!

I took a bunch of videos, but still didn't even upload all of them. But click here for my youtube channel if you want to watch some.

After sledding we went to the movie theater and watched Sing 2. My mom said it was "cute." So cute she fell asleep during it. :) I thought she was being generous in her critique of the movie. But it was kind of fun to watch, I guess. I think my kids liked it. I mean, Lucy listed it as her fav movie of 2021. What the?!

That night, the kids all had plans: The three older were going to the Wasatch County Rec. Center for its Teen Party. All the youth from Heber and Midway were invited, I think. They had an okay time . . . they didn't really know anyone, of course. Miles and Melody (and Emmy some of the time) just walked around and talked and did a few things. Jonas watched the dance for awhile and then walked around with various different groups and kids. He said he had fun. Emmy was just with Miles and Melody or by herself. Apparently Jonas didn't want her hanging around him. Lame-O. But whatever. Balloons dropped at midnight and so at least they got to celebrate the New Year. Lucy stayed home (not old enough to attend) and watched Titanic with Grandpa. Perfect. She's been wanting to watch it again for quite some time. She told Grandpa when to fast-forward it, ha. :)

My mom and I headed back down to SLC - this time with much clearer roads! We got there and as soon as it was 7, we checked in with the ticket-office and gave them our story and our names. Then we grabbed some yummy street-tacos and then came back and waited until 7:50. When we checked back in, we had been assigned awesome seats - almost as awesome as my parents' season-tickets. They usually sit in row F, in the middle. Well we got row G, just barely off-center. They were amazing seats and we actually sat next to a couple from our old Sandy ward. (I didn't really know them.) But we also saw, and visited during intermission, another couple - that I knew well - from our Sandy ward. Ha. She was actually my YW president for a time and he was the bishop at one point and did a few "marriage-prep" sessions with Ben and I. Anyways, it was fun to see them. But the show was absolutely amazing and just a blast to watch. I loved it so much.

Hamilton with my mom - so great! 

And here's a cute picture of cute Melody. She got along with all of my kids - but Miles especially. They are like 10 days difference in age, with Miles being older. The two of them stayed up late - like 2am - and would play cards and other games. Melody was also really sweet with Lucy and seemed to like her a lot. 

We headed out Saturday morning and had a fairly decent drive home. There were stretches of sketchy road, but not much at all. The sketchiest part was from GJ - when Jonas was driving. :) But we made it home and then the girls had 4 friends over for a "party" - complete with card games, playing in the snow, eating food, etc. They got to stay until midnight and so it was a fun and late-night for them. The boys went to a dance at the Elks lodge and had a good time, too.

Alright, to wrap up the year, here are the 2021 Interviews:

Here's the video version: https://youtu.be/OoPTqp-7cNo

Here's to a new and better year - please!!! :) I don't want to hear covid, corona, omicron, delta, rapid, PCR or anything of the sort anymore! 

Christmastime 2021

Well Christmastime is always such a good time. Even though it didn't feel too Christmasy with the balmy weather we had, but oh well. There were still a lot of fun things that we did and enjoyed this season, even without the snow. 

See, even cutting down our Christmas tree didn't involve hardly any snow - or any coats either! But it was still a good time and we got two cute trees. :)

We have two birthday celebrations during the Christmastime season. Jonas' birthday was good - albeit a bit routine. He got up, went to seminary, then to school, then to climbing practice, and finally back home. :) We all enjoyed his birthday dinner choice: orange chicken, of course. He opened gifts - including a lot of shirts, a gift card, a pack of 110 fruit snacks (his favorite), money, etc. We watched his movie-pick: Red Notice. Plus, we ate some delicious (even though it was funny-looking) homemade chocolate cake. A good day, I think.

Jonas, a new shirt, and a funny-looking yet delicious-tasting chocolate birthday cake.

We had a really fun ward Christmas party that following weekend. It was cutely decorated and just nice. We ate, played a Christmas-themed Family Feud, danced, etc. We all had a good time. Lucy's friend, Genevieve, joined us, too.

Ben and I at the "photo booth."

Cute and getting-older girls, Genevieve and Lucy.

Such cute sisters - especially when they are not fighting!

Next up was Gingerbread Houses! They are always so much fun and I just love looking at them on our piano for the next couple of weeks - until they get destroyed and eaten on New Year's. :)

My house. 

Lucy's house.

Emmy's house.

Jonas' hunter's cabin.

Ben's lovely tudor house.

And Miles' amazing school house. :)

The following day was Ben's birthday - 46 years old. He spent the day working, of course. When he got home we enjoyed dinner from Crash Burger and his Grandma Gwen's Cherry Chocolate cake. He chose an old movie (of course): Bright Eyes with Shirley Temple. It was a bit weird, but Shirley Temple is pretty adorable and so the movie was pretty cute. :) I know at least Emmy liked it!

Our plans for Christmas Eve didn't quite work out due to the weather. It doesn't snow for like eons, and then it decides to snow a bunch in the mountains and ruin our plans! We had decided to stay at a doctor's place in Crested Butte on Thursday night. Until Ben remembered he was on-call. Boohoo. So we still decided to just drive up Friday morning, Christmas Eve, and ski. Only a huge storm was predicted in which over a foot of snow was to fall that day - which isn't great to ski in. The next day would be perfect, but that's a lot of snow coming down while skiing - not to mention the sketchy drive. Oh, plus 40MPH wind gusts. No thanks. So we had to cancel those plans, too, which was a bummer. But the day turned out good still. Miles took a College Algebra exam (rocking it, finally, with a 95%) in the morning and when he finished we headed down to Ouray's Hot Springs. We soaked for a good 1 1/2 hours and it was really nice - snow even started falling and so it was just awesome and beautiful! We came back home and got dinner ready (Swedish meatballs). After eating, we all got our new PJs and then the kids opened their sibling gifts. They are getting really good at buying thoughtful and fun gifts for each other. Since this is my "journal" of sorts, I will detail the gifts: Miles got Jonas stupid Trump stickers (which Jonas wanted), Emmy and Lucy he got Pit Vipers - the best sunglasses (and not cheap) to get if you're a teen. Jonas got Miles a $30 gift card to the local car wash, for Emmy he got her a cool hat, and for Lucy a cute "western-styled" shirt. Emmy got Miles a funny t-shirt that says, "Chalk, the other white powder." And has a stick-figure of a climber. It's perfect. The boys annoyingly talk/joke about drugs, etc. all the time. In fact, literally right before Miles opened this gift, he had made some stupid cocaine remark. So it was perfect. She also got him some cool socks. Emmy got Jonas an awesome America sweatshirt and some spicy pretzels. They were spicy for Jonas which definitely says something! For Lucy, Emmy got her LED lights and slippers. Both loved. Lucy got Miles a cool MINI-COOPER tie and socks. Lucy got Jonas a cool Murdoch's hat (his favorite store where he spends all of his money on clothing, boots, etc.). Lucy got Emmy a cute blanket hoodie in her favorite color. Proud of these kids for spending their own money on these thoughtful gifts.

Emmy and all of her sibling gifts: hat, Pitties (which is the ugliest name for Pit Vipers), and her blanket hoodie. Miles put Emmy's sunglasses in a "prank box." It was perfect and Emmy totally fell for it. :)

Brigham in Jonas' hat. He enjoyed watching the kids open their gifts. :)

Kids, new PJs, the kid Christmas tree, and sibling gifts. So fun.

Ben and I in our jammies, too. 

We matched our kids this year, which was pretty fun. I didn't get a picture of the boys, but whatever. :)

We ended Christmas Eve with eating rice pudding (Lucy got the almond, meaning she got to choose the Christmas day movie) and watching the Muppet's Christmas Carol. Super fun and cute. The kids all slept in the boys room and watched another movie while Ben and I set up Christmas. We no longer have Santa-believers, which is sad but also makes it easier . . . Luckily I had wrapped the gifts and so it didn't take us forever to get everything set-up.

These pictures were taken with an app. I love them! I only wish the apps existed when my kids were younger and still believed in Santa! But my kids (and mom) were like, "Who's that?!" "A neighbor?" So great.

We got woken up at 7:30 (which is not bad at all!) on Christmas morning. The kids got to see what Santa brought them - awesome lego sets for the boys, an iPod touch for Emmy, and a gel-nail set for Lucy. There was lots of goodies in their stockings, too - including every kid getting a nice sleeping pad for camping and a headlamp, plus lots of other fun items. We all got luggage, too - not necessarily Christmas gifts, but we decided to present them on Christmas. :) After eating our delicious Christmas braid bread, we were back to opening gifts. The boys had a couple of gifts, but mostly got a large amount of cash. :) The girls were thrilled with all their gifts - new leotards, dresses, lots of clothes, curling irons, Echo dot, etc. Ben had spoiled me with 12-days of Christmas - I got amazing gifts, including Apple AirPods, Marmot gloves, an Osprey day-pack, an adorable water bottle, a beautiful and colorful wooden spoon that I love, and more. So thoughtful and fun!

The day was spent with the boys working on their lego sets, Ben and I taking the dogs out on a walk and getting dinner ready, and the girls doing their nails. The Elders came over for dinner at 5. We did fondue and it worked out great and was a lot of fun - and very filling. :) We then played Secret Hitler for the next hour and that was so much fun. I am sad I didn't get a picture of the Elders! They are so great and it was so nice to have them join us for Christmas dinner. We got them each a really cool Montrose mug - they were huge and had a Sasquatch on it. :) We were going to do a chocolate fondue for dessert - but the Elders had to leave at 7 and so we didn't have time. Plus, we were too full anyways! We watched Lucy's movie-pick: Top Gun. Then went to bed. A fun and full day.

Jonas busy working on his lego set.

The girls working on the gel nails. 

Miles busy at work on his set.

The dogs just chilling.

Emmy with her new iPod touch. A gift from Santa for her and me - now she won't have to borrow my phone all the time to Marco Polo, use Instagram, make Reels, etc. Awesome. She loves it, as you can see. :)

Our cute and new fondue pot. We made the fondue on the stove and then transferred it to it's warmer thing. It was yummy and fun.

Jonas' lego truck. So cool!

Miles' lego typewriter! So awesome!

Merry Christmas!