Sledding 2023

Our yearly sledding adventure was a success! We smashed the day in before the holiday break ended on the 3rd. Justin had Monday off, went to work on Tuesday so we made the fun a priority for Monday. We had ourselves ready with enough winter gear to keep an Arizonian warm, enough snacks to keep a hippo happy, and sufficient water for a camel. We treated the family to a delicious lunch at Trudy's cafe just a few miles below Steamboat Gulch. As we entered the restaurant I asked if everyone was hungry. Evelyn quickly responded, "YES! My soul is still hungry from yesterday (she fasted a meal on Sunday)." Ha ha ha ha! Everett's bleu cheese hamburger came with a legit thick slice of cheese, it was quite the sight and tasted amazing. Bellies full we headed to the gulch for $20 of outside fun. Tubing near the ski resort costs over $200 for our family, we'll take the cheap option and use our legs to get up the hill. Gracious, the "snow" was packed tightly and iced over, it was hard to walk up without sliding about. The owner warned those at the hill several times not to climb up to the top because you would get in an accident. One group of tourists decided to go all the way up the middle hill, poor kids had hats, boots, gloves, scarves, and passengers popping off their sled before crashing with a tremendous boof. Everyone was ok but they stayed on the lower quarter after that. Thankfully, my kids were not so daring and sledded the lower runs. Phillip and Amelia were quite riticient to even sled more than a few times, preferring to relax in the snow formations dotting the field or making new ones. Josie and I spent a good 45 minutes enjoying the middle slopes. Our ward friends the Potters came about half way through the afternoon. The most favorite part was rediscovering the unpopulated slides in the treeline. It was slick enough to slide down without a sled. Justin made good use of his thermal blanket and heated gloves. The bag of extra gloves was an extra perk for those with cold hands. 

School started way earlier than we enjoyed over the holiday, that 5:45 wake up is brutal! The kids were all grumpy as expected. I did not have piano, so had 2-3 days to finally edit my own family photos taken back in October. 

Jenn Freeman hosted a fancy dinner party at Chandler's in Boise for Justin and Tyson before the busy season starts. Fancy, fancy! We tried out escargot, beef carpaccio, and tuna sashimi for appetizers. I had a mushroom soup, Justin tried the lobster bisque. My prime rib topped with bleu cheese tasted, tasted, well, delicious. We ordered every one of the desserts and had a bite (or two) of each one. That was a fun idea. Tyson looks, acts, and talks much like my brother Joe. Tyson even has a collection of flat caps and loves hard liquors. Amelia tried her best to get the little girls in bed, yet Evelyn freaked me out when I walked in from the garage. She was standing in the laundry room with her hair over her face like a creepy character from a horror movie. Welcome home muther. That was a scary welcome back to reality. 

I had the other half of my periodontal cleaning on Thursday, felt grateful my nostrils were not numb this time. 

Evelyn had her first ukulele lesson on Friday, I got the time down wrong in my calendar. Boo. Evelyn got to meet Mrs Becky and make sure we had all the right supplies. Evelyn worked her way through most of the book on her own. Becky advised her to slow down just in case she was learning the wrong technique. The girls and I made a trip to the post office, library, and UPS store finished errands I had on my list for weeks. 

Saturday we worked on cleaning up the Christmas decorations. Evelyn and I started that process on Tuesday but it was a work in progress. The boys helped put the bins back into the garage on the shelves. Amelia and I sorted through my newborn prop bins because all the fabrics got mixed up when used for Nativity costumes. Then the garage got a clean up, a much needed clean up. I put the finishing touches on the walls and got the decor back to "normal." This year I kept most of the tree collection up as part of winter decorating on my vintage library file thing. 

Sunday was a mess, the lesson plan I had did not work out at all. I was unprepared for the technology aspect. We sang a few songs making it quite apparent I work better with a plan. The new year came along way too quickly. Everett was set apart as a Deacon while Phillip was ordained a Teacher. Everett asks when he can have his temple recommend every few minutes, he is very excited. Amelia stayed home with a sick Evelyn and Josie. She was called to be the second counselor with Hailey as the President for the older girls. The Ostlers fed us for dinner, hooray! We played Telestrations (for the upteenth time) after dinner. Thank you to John and Courtenay for the fun and useful gift. We also played a round of Nuts, much to our joy.