Trip to Lander--Part 1

Monday, December 26th we headed to Wyoming.  We actually left before 9 am!  Pretty good (2 hours to get loaded/snacks/drinks,etc.)

 Brienna was able to drive in Idaho--her first time driving (without her instructor) out of Dubois!

She did a great job--luckily the weather was great & the roads were dry. She forgot sunglasses, so (lucky her) she was privileged enough to wear mine!

 We had Benjamin & Callum with us in the van.  Rusty had Zane & Emmalee.

 Benjamin finished "reading" the book, so turned to his foot for entertainment.  Overall, we had a pleasant trip!  The kids were well behaved.

 The Tetons--notice the lack of very much snow on the road & off the road.  (And try NOT to notice the crack in our windshield.)

 Now we must be in Wyoming, because Brienna is taking a picture of her (not driving!).  With good roads & only 3 stops (1--change drivers in Wyoming; 2--lunch break in Jackson; 3--pit stop in Dubois, WY), we made it to my parent's house by 4 pm.  My mom made the most delicious ham & beans with scrumptious homemade scones (& honey butter).  Yum, Yum! 

 The next day we were able to play with Kailey & Alyssa (my niece Tina's girls).  The kids like to play with their cousins & Emmalee & Kailey soon had their imaginations running wild!

 Brienna, Emmalee, Benjamin, Kailey, Alyssa, my sister Laurie & Callum at my parent's house.

 Emmalee put all the checkers in the Connect 4 game, and had 1 black checker left--so she gave herself a black eye!  Too cute.

 My mom--I love her!

 Benjamin playing Trouble.

 "Twins"--Zane & Ben have the same coat (just a few sizes different.)

And Emmalee doesn't like to pass the opportunity to get her picture taken too!  (Ben is showing off his "new" teeth here).  

All Benjamin

 Callum holding a very sleepy Benjamin.

 "Cheese"

 Brienna & Ben

 Peek-a-boo!

 Are you talking to me?

One of Benjamin's favorite things to do is take pictures with the camera.  And a lot of the time he does a pretty decent job.  Here is the world as Benjamin sees it:

Christmas Call from our Elder!

Christmas afternoon we waited for the much-anticipated phone call from Ethan.

Brienna answered the phone, and we put it on speaker phone so we could all talk & hear the same conversation.

It was great to hear Ethan's voice.  I feel fortunate that I am able to e-mail him each week--and a lot of the times we are on-line at the same time so we can e-mail back & forth numerous times.

We talked for about 10-15 minutes when our cordless phone warned us of "low battery".

And a minute later, the battery died.  Luckily we had picked up the other phone (corded) phone & we were able to talk to him for about another hour.

He sounded great--he had been sick a couple of times, but said he was finally feeling better.  I videoed the first 10 minutes that we were on speaker phone.  I can't remember a lot of what we talked about, but it was great that all the kids were able to talk to him.  We did decide that before the next phone call on Mother's Day, we will be buying a new phone with speaker-phone--and I want to take a few notes about our conversation so I can remember more.

After we talked, everyone finished packing for our trip.  I was so very tired (from staying up waiting for Santa, talking to Ethan & busy days the past week) & I guess things finally caught up to me.  So I told Rusty I just needed to lay down for about 30 minutes (it was 6:15) & then I could finish getting things ready for our trip.  

I vaguely remember the kids coming in one time, but the next thing I knew--it was 5:30 AM!  Yes--I had slept 11 hours!  The last time I had slept that long was--BC (before children).  I really must of needed that rest & sleep.  I thought it was a little early to get up, so I laid there until about 6:30 & then got up to finish getting things gathered for the trip.  I also pakced food for lunch.  We finally had everything loaded & ready to go at 8:45 am.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

We ate our "traditional" Christmas meal on Christmas Eve (ham, homemade rolls, potato salad, deviled eggs, & celery stuffed w/cheese & peanut butter).  I try to find a day in the week before Christmas that isn't too busy so I can make the dinner without feeling "stressed" & having the mess to clean up.

After driving (Brienna drove) around town looking at the Christmas lights, the kids opened their sibling gifts on Christmas Eve.  I loved how all of them were excited about what they received and what they gave.

 And I also love that they only have the 1 present to enjoy for the evening.

 We also required that all the gifts needed to be homemade.  Then we watched "Mr. Kruger's Christmas" & the kids all camped out in one bedroom.  They were all in bed by 10 pm!

 Our Christmas stockings all filled & Santa left us some presents.

 Christmas morning--the boys set their alarm & got up at 4.  They watched a movie & then about 7, we all got up and watched "The Nativity" (about 3 minutes) & I listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas songs (all on the "Mr. Kruger's Christmas dvd) while we opened presents.

Emmalee's gift from Santa.

We were only going to open our Santa gift(s) & go through our stockings before we ate our breakfast (Rusty makes omlettes every Christmas morning)--but it was early enough that we ended up opening all of the presesnts.

 Ben was thrilled--a Scooby-Doo puzzle from Santa!

 And Callum now has enough spy gear to be a detective!

 Santa's gift to the family.

 Although this pictures is blurry, I had to include it because you can't beat the happiness on Ben's face--all because he found a "huge" piece of wrapping paper!  While we were opening presents, Ben would go around and gather all the wrapping paper to stuff in a garbage bag--and we didn't even have to ask him. So when we were done opening presents, there wasn't much of a mess (at least from wrapping paper).

 We ate the delicious omlettes Rusty made us, then went to chruch at 10 am.  I played the organ & "sang" in the choir (as I played the piano).  It was a good day at church.  Then we headed home to actually see everything that everyone received for Christmas & to pack for our trip to Wyoming on Monday.

Callum showing off his long skinny johns.

And Benjamin had to show off his new jammies also.

Christmas Newsletter

Now that Christmas is over, I thought I would post our Christmas newsletter.

Brienna typed it up for us, and I put the pictures in.

(You need to click on each page in order to see both columns.)