Our Christmas Tree Adventure

We had quite the fun adventure finding a Christmas tree this year. Every year we like to go cut our own tree, which sometimes can be frustrating, because you can never find the perfect tree. But it's the fun memories you make, that make it all worth it! This year we headed out with some of Nick's family and made the big loop from our house to Dubois to Island Park and then back home! It was so fun and a beautiful drive, but we somehow made it home without a tree. Everyone else (except Haley & Nick) and us found their trees. But Nick was too picky. Here's some pictures of our first hunt . . .

The girls with cousin, Kalli!

Lisa & Leland with their cute family and TREE!
Couldn't leave without making a snow angel!

And now, onto our next attempt.

The next day we decided to try again. It was a lovely drive . . . a cliff on one side of the narrow road and a raging, Snake river on the other! But really, it was beautiful. We saw lots of this- And this . . .
And these . . .
Some more of this . . .

And instead of beautiful pine trees, we saw lots of cedar trees and SAGEBRUSH!

So we did more of this. . .

We had no idea how far, or where this road went. But we kept going and going . . . until we started seeing "No trespassing, Private Property" signs, and decided we'd better turn around! At that point, we had already gone about 15-20 miles on this little dirt road! So we headed back. We found a place to pull off the road . . .
And we sent Nick off up the mountain. I told him not to come back without a tree in hand. Meanwhile, the girls and I took some pictures-

My sweet sister, Janelle, brought the girls these adorable sweaters from Peru this last summer. Don't they look so cute?!

Lucy had fun, playing in the snow . . . Kate got cold, and sat in the car . . . We waited . . . and waited . . . Then we heard something . . .
It was Nick . . . and he had a TREE! We were so excited.
That pretty much sums it up! We did have fun, even though we almost ended up with a sagebrush Christmas tree. Now we can't wait to head back to Lewisville, once Nick finishes up finals today, (Yes! That's one more semester down!) so we can enjoy our hard earned Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving in Oregon!

We had a great time in Klamath for Thanksgiving. It's always fun to go home. We missed Nathan, Alisa, Janelle, and Brian terribly though. It was weird without them there. The only other time that has happened was the two years Nathan was on his mission. I guess this is what happens when you grow up. Poor Janelle tried to hard to get home (from BYU) and even braved a few hours of driving in a snowstorm, just to turn back. Thankfully we have lots of wonderful family in Utah, so she was well taken care of. And Brian had his Thanksgiving "sack dinner" at the MTC. He has now arrived in Denmark, we are so excited for him and can't wait to be able to talk to him at Christmas. *Watch for a blog coming soon on Brian's experiences in Denmark* The girls had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, they love to go to "the Oregon." We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Mark & Alissa & their family too. Nick, Dad, and I braved the black friday crowds and shopped with the crazies, it was great. We also went ice skating, because that's what you do on the day after Thanksgiving! This is all Lucy was concerned about. She's talked about it for months. My Dad willingly drug her around the ice rink for two hours, by the end she was almost doing it on her own! Here are some pictures of our fun time.

Nick you're supposed to smile, this is fun!

Thankful

For family home evening last night we had a lesson on being thankful. The girls made these cute turkeys and wrote things they are thankful for on the feathers. They loved it and it was fun to hear the things they are thankful for. Life has been hard lately, really hard. But I am so thankful for the gospel in my life and the many, many blessings it brings. I have a wonderful little family and am so thankful for them. I have much to be thankful for and I am excited for this time of year to remind us of all we have been given!

The Girlies

This past weekend was the first weekend we have spent in Twin, since Nick started school on August 23rd. That's 8 weekends in a row that we packed up and headed somewhere! Not to mention our crazy summer too! It's really worn me out! It was so nice to just stay put, hopefully things are going to slow down a bit now. Last weekend, we decided to go to one of our favorite places here, Shoshone Falls. However, I forgot to take any pics of the falls, I just got the girls. The falls aren't as exciting this time of year, compared to Spring.