Country skiing

 Since David had never been cross country skiing, we decided that we would do that before we left. Nathan wanted to come "country skiing" too. We rented our skis from BYU-I and headed up to Hariman in Island Park. The weather was absolutely beautiful, 34* and sunny. We brought a sled with us to carry our provisions (and Nathan when he got tired). Nathan surprised us, he did very well on his skis. At first when he would fall he needed help getting up but he soon learned to get up on his own. He has a very short stride (MUCH shorter than grandpa's!) so he went very slow, but he kept going and going.

Learning how to turn

Getting ready in the parking lot

Off we go!

Waiting

The one downhill part of the trip, Heather and I had to do it twice.

More waiting

Nathan pulling the sled

We had to convince Nathan to get in the sled, he had taken his skis off and was just walking with us.

We made it to the Jones house for our lunch, but it was closed so we had to eat outside.

Dad had given David a lesson on trains in Yellowstone along the trip, so he was able to read more about that at lunch.

We had a really fun trip, even if it did take us two hours to go 3 miles. It was worth it!

Family pictures

 There was freezing fog on Saturday, so on Sunday when we woke up the trees were beautiful with frost. After we got home from church I had grandma and aunt Heather take pictures of us in front of one of the neighbors trees. I think they are pretty cute in our wintery wonderland.

Sledding with the Porters

 On Saturday, one of mommy's friends growing up invited us  out to his house to go sledding with them. Since there wasn't much snow, we couldn't go downhill sledding anywhere but Bo (Porter) had a solution! He pulled us along in a sled with his RZR 4 wheeler. Anderson was a little nervous at the beginning so he rode in the front with David and Bo. Nathan loved being pulled in the sled with Bo's kids. They were laughing and screaming and eating snow the whole time. Thanks Bo and Celeste for the great day!

Tessa was happy just to be there.

David and I had a lot of fun driving the RZR

Anderson also liked riding in the sled.

And I have to admit, it was fun to be pulled.

Date night

 Because of the kindness of Aunt Heather, grandma and grandpa, David and I were able to drive down to Salt Lake City Utah to go to Temple Square. We drove down on Wednesday afternoon and checked into our hotel before heading to the Salt Lake temple to do a session. When we came out, the Christmas lights were on and it was beautiful! We walked around a bit to enjoy the Christmas music, lights and the different nativity scenes they had. After we were good and frozen from all the walking we went across the street to the new City Creek mall for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. In the morning, before heading home we had a few stops we had to make: 1- the British Pantry and 2- In-N-Out Burger! The British Pantry moved locations and is much smaller now with a very small selection to choose from. In-N-Out however did not disappoint! Even though it was so cold outside, I could not resist getting a Neapolitan milk shake.

Temple Square

YUM!

IDAHO!

 Despite the fact that when we arrived in Idaho the temperature was 4* the boys were so excited to see so much snow (there was only about 5 inches but it was the most they have seen) they tromped right through it with just their pants ans shoes on. They wanted to stay out and play in it but they were easily convinced that it would be better if they had their snow clothes on.

 The next day they were so excited to go out and play in the snow to build snowmen and have a snowball fight. The thought had never occurred to Nathan that there are two different kinds of snow- wet and dry. Unfortunately the snow was very dry so we could not build any snowmen. It took a lot of packing just to make one snowball for Nathan to throw at me. Nathan was disappointed, but due to the extreme cold he got over it pretty quickly.

 AJ was having a hard time walking in his snow boots, and when he fell he had a hard time getting up.

So amazed by the snow!

Frozen berries

We didn't go out and play in the snow too much, but the boys had a lot of fun in it! Maybe if it wasn't quite so cold.

Tessa's first flight

 Tessa had her very first flight when we headed from Atlanta to Idaho Falls. She did great! In fact, all three kids did great! There was an empty seat by me so I put Tessa in it for a while, she sat there just fine.

The Christmas tree hunt

We decided that we needed to go get our Christmas tree before we leave for Idaho in two days, because when we get back the only trees left will be "Charlie Brown" Christmas trees. As we have done for the last 5 years we went to the Shriners, they always have a great selection and the money goes to a good cause (the children's hospital). Also, David loves their boiled peanuts! We found the perfect tree and took it home to decorate it. The weather was a beautiful 75* at 6p.m.

 On Saturday, we went to the City's Santa Parade, the weather had changed! The temperature at the parade was a chilly 36*. It was so cold we didn't stay for the whole parade.