Family Pictures

Plans were made before Christmas to try and take a big family picture as everyone would be together at least before George left on a mission. We were originally going to take it outside in the snow, however a snow storm started sometime in the night and wasn't about to let up when we had planned for the pictures to be taken, so we improvised and went to the high school gym. We didn't have any great cameras there, but I brought mine and had a few snapped with it. At least the picture was taken right? I had someone get one of just us as that isn't always easy to coordinate with Adam's schedule and then of course the boys wanted us to hurry as a gym should be used for basketball and not pictures :) They played for quite some time and had a great time of it as well. My cousin Aaron ventured over from Middleton through the storm to play as well so it was a party.

Christmas Day in Oregon

On Saturday Adam decided that we needed to head to Oregon on Sunday as a storm was going to be coming through our travel path and we would have left sooner, however I was giving a talk in sacrament meeting and could not leave until after it. That is probably the quickest I have ever packed for a long trip, as Susie had packed the boys' bags and I had to try and think of everything we needed to bring to be prepared for a week of vacation (with the boys it is their breathing machine and medicines for their asthma, just in case). We ended up taking the truck and then Daniel and Susie in the 4-runner as the excursion we took before to Oregon looked like it might have a problem on the way and we didn't want to take a chance. We made good time and did well until we got to Burley and found the storm doing what storms do best and the road conditions causing slow traveling. We decided to go all the way through as the possibility of being snowed in for a couple days was haunting us. We picked up Sheldon and Sara Ann in our caravan as they had left earlier, but had slid off the road on the way. The 30-40 mph was fine with me so that our lives were not threatened than what they already were. We were glad to stay for a week and enjoy the time we had with family. My parents had a house full of people as usual, but it always makes for there never being a dull moment. Adam was on top of making sure that we played basketball every day at the school and we took advantage of the opportunity to take Tyson sledding which he was a little skeptical of at first, but after we forced him down with Adam he was hooked after that. He would get to the bottom and roll off the sled and start marching back up to the top of the hill, knowing that his dad was right behind him with his sled to do it again. Family is what life is all about. Lincoln didn't go sledding with us, but him and Addy found Tyson's presents of "tractor backhoes" to be very entertaining.

Santa Came

We went to Adam's aunt Angelyn's house for a Christmas dinner a few weeks before the big day and they had arranged for a Santa to come and distribute some little gifts to each of the kids. Adam was holding Tyson as we were all singing some Christmas songs waiting for Santa to come and when he came, boy did he come. He barreled his red coat and all, down the basement stairs and around the corner he flew quieting the audience of children...all but Tyson. He had Tyson scared to death with a curtling cry/scream that was not to be comforted. The rest of us were in tears laughing at the sight. He was very leery of that white bearded man...until he started handing out little gifts and then Tyson was over his fear and on Santa's lap so he could get his gift even to pose a faint smile for my camera. Lincoln was quite the opposite with Santa, he smiled and enjoyed this jolly man as if they were great friends. It was a wonderful gathering as always is with family.