December Photo Challenge

 Week 48 Lights

Week 49 Magical

Week 50 Lights Out

Week 51 Joy and Laughter

Week 52 New Beginnings

Steamboat Springs - Days 3 and 4

Tuesday morning was pretty slow. We didn't have too much planned.

Chris had thought about maybe going skiing, but the girls weren't terribly interested, and he was still pretty tired from our snowshoeing jaunt from the day before.

It was discount Tuesday at the local movie theater, so we went to see Spiderman: No Way Home around noon. It was the second time for the girls and they all loved it. Apparently you need to see all of the Spiderman movies for some of the scenes to make the most sense.

We walked along Main Street and stopped at a few of the shops. It was snowing so we didn't stay out too long.

Our evening was pretty chill and consisted of watching the Disney movie "Encanto" and ordering in Mexican food from a nearby restaurant.

We had to check out of the condo by 10 am on Wednesday morning. That meant waking a few of our girls up "early" around 9:30 am so they could eat and pack up.

The roads driving home were in a little better condition for driving and traveling during the daytime hours was a lot easier as well. It took us about four hours to get home.

Steamboat Springs - Day 2

Chris and Misha were up early and drove to the grocery store to buy milk and butter—and donuts and bacon and eggs. 

They whipped up a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs for breakfast.

We planned to snowshoe today. I have snowshoes, so we borrowed four more sets of shoes from our friends. 

Chris picked a hike that was four miles long with 600 feet of elevation gain.

Just to tell you how much fun snowshoeing is, our friends had never even unpackaged their snowshoes, so here I was in the cold temperatures trying to snip through zip ties with fingernails clippers!

We weren't sure we would need snowshoes or if the trail would be hard packed enough for us to walk in boots. Nope, we only went a short distance until we stopped on the trail to put on the snowshoes.

After a bit, Kristen complained that hers felt funny. That's when I realized hers were on the wrong feet. I had to pull off my gloves and get her switched around. 

After a half a mile, the girls had had enough. They turned around a hiked back to the car.

Chris and I continued on. We should have gone back.

The weather was fantastic at first with mostly blue skies and no wind. As we continued, the clouds rolled in and it began to snow on us for our last half mile.

Four miles and 600 feet of elevation gain is challenge enough on a good day with hiking boots. In snowshoes it was HARD! I was so ready to be done but we had to continue on.

It was with so much relief that we finally reached the car and took off those shoes.

We burned about 1500 calories and hiked for almost 2 and a half hours. I don't eat a lot of carbs right now, but once we returned to the car, I ate the extra sandwich we had packed. 

For later in the day, Chris had scouted out a fun ice bumper activity. There were only 4 tickets available, so Chris and the girls became willing participants.

The bumper "car" activity was held at the local ice rink and lasted for about twenty minutes. The girls lamented that the cars were restricted to the "slow" speed. Still they had a lot of fun. (I was telling my chiropractor about it a couple of days later and he said, "Those are the kinds of things that keep me in business!")

We picked up pizza on the way home. 

Steamboat Springs - Day 1

One of our Christmas gifts from Grandma Ball included a few days at her timeshare. This time we headed up to Steamboat Springs. 

We had to go to the mountains to find snow!

We started our day with an earlier church than ours so that we could get on the road. Steamboat is about 3 and a half hours away on a good weather day. We encountered fairly decent driving until we got close to the Eisenhower Tunnel along I-70. 

Apparently there was a Toyota Corolla ahead of us that slowed everyone to a crawl as they didn't have a lot of experience driving in slow and were inching along at a snail's pace with their hazards on. 

That slowed us down about an hour and a half.

As we turned off at Silverthorne, snow-packed roads greeted us and our pace slowed even more to about 30-40 mph depending on the cars in front of us.

It was slow going all the way to Steamboat Springs from Silverthorne. We probably should have gone to a 9 am church. As it was, we were driving about 25 mph in a long line of cars driving into Steamboat. What should have taken 4 hours turned into a six hour drive.

Chris was grateful to finally be done with the white-knuckle driving once we arrived. For me, it was too much reminiscent of all the snowy driving in Southern Alberta and the drives home from Rexburg.

We packed a good amount of food for this trip so we didn't have to go to the store as much. (As much...as we forgot to put butter and milk in this time!)

We dined on leftover gnocchi and meatballs and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Christmas Day 2022

Christmas morning is always an oft-anticipated day at our house.

Our girls sleep in longer than they used to (or maybe some do), so we didn't start any kind festivities until after 8 am this year.

Even then, Amy was slow to get out of bed! (She wasn't feeling great after her booster shot, so she can have a pass this year.)

We all received some amazing gifts. I love that the girls are creative with their gift-giving and put some thought into their gifts.

One of the gifts that Chris gave to me is a trip to Glenwood Springs the weekend of Jan 15-17 via train. We have always wanted to take the train and are looking forward to a unique experience.

Our girls received tickets to see a Lion King performance in Denver on December 31st. They were all excited by that.

Kristen's creative wrap job of Misha's curtain rod. So, no, it wasn't a scooter.

For our Christmas dinner, we enjoyed gnocchi and meatballs. Kristen made Christmas 'crackers' for each of us stuffed with personalized gifts for each person.

Chris' mom gifted us a few days at her timeshare. We were headed to Steamboat Springs and were leaving Sunday after an early church. That meant Christmas afternoon and evening were a little more busy than usual as we prepared suitcases and food to take.

Kristen and Amy had to make a quick trip to Mead (about 15 minutes from us) to retrieve snowshoes from our friends so that we could add that to our adventure.

Covid Boosters

Amy and Kristen were the last in the family to get their Covid booster. Amy waited until getting home from BYU just in case she had a negative reaction.

Kristen got her booster on December 22nd and didn't seem to have any ill effects from it whatsoever.

Amy, on the other hand, got hit hard. She was down for a couple of days after getting the booster on the 23rd. Even Christmas morning had her stretched out on the couch. She perked up after awhile, but had a slow start to the day.

We will wait and see if there will be round two for boosters.

Chick fil A Soft Opening

Chick fil A in Longmont has been delaying their opening for a few weeks. Seems to be the norm when you are trying to get moved into a new space.

Kristen has had a few days of training over the past couple of weeks and last night Chick fil A offered a soft opening to friends and family of the workers.

They weren't offering salad, so I opted not to get the food, but Chris and Amy went to the soft opening. The bonus? The food was FREE.

Chick fil A was totally busy but it was good to help them iron out the kinks.

Deer in the Front Yard

For the past couple of days, I have woken up to find deer in our front yard. On Saturday, there was a herd of twelve. You can't see them as they were behind the trees—eating the trees and pooping on the lawn much to Chris' chagrin!

Today, there were only two.

Jolayne's New Church Assignment

On a related sad note to the cancellation of my last week of seminary before being released, I have been waking up at 4 am all week since then. 

Perhaps that is because I am stressing preparing for my new assignment as a Church Service Missionary as a religion teacher in the BYU-I Pathway program beginning January 6th! I am feeling a lot overwhelmed with that and all of the training that I need to do before then. 

I do training at 4 am since I am awake!

Making Hamburger Buns

I wanted to cook chicken patties for dinner but didn't have any hamburger buns for them.

Not to worry, I made some. 

Finished Seminary

Seminary was scheduled to be held through the 16th of December, two days of which were finals for the kids.

On Sunday, the 12th, my team teacher texted me that she woke up sick without her sense of smell. Covid. Great!

In fact, not great. She thought she was getting sick the week before and stayed home Tuesday morning. Thinking she was feeling better, she came to class on Wednesday and Thursday, but wore a mask. This was the first time EVER that I have seen her wear a mask.

Unfortunately, another of the girls in our class tested positive for Covid (she happens to be the girlfriend of my team teacher's son) and our Bishop's family (we have seminary in their basement) had sniffles (later to find out that some of them tested positive as well). The decision was made to cancel seminary for our class for the rest of the week/semester. 

Was I sad? A little because I knew I was being released from being a seminary teacher on the following Sunday. Only a little sad though because I turned off my 5 am alarm!

White Elephant Party

Chris and I attended a white elephant party with friends on Saturday night. 

Chris took as his gift a pair of brass pheasants that he had received as a white elephant gift two years ago. He and his friend David had used them as target practice.

The person who chose his gift is actually the person who had brought the brass pheasants two years ago. I could hear his wife whisper, "Oh no, it's the brass pheasants!" They were looking a little worse for the wear, but so funny that they returned to their original owner.

There seemed to be a theme in other gifts.

Chris was the first to unwrap the belly button fanny pack. Crazily, someone stole it from him! She said she wanted the life savers inside.

Two belly button fanny packs and a t-shirt of a man's hairy chest.

More OUR Center Volunteering

Misha had signed up to serve at the OUR Center shortly after coming home for Christmas break. With one of the scholarships my girls have, they are required to have 16 hours of service in Colorado. Any chance they get, they like to help make and serve meals at the OUR Center.

Amy wasn't signed up to go, but needs to get hours in while she is home from Utah. The bonus is that they have served at the OUR Center enough that they could probably run the show!

Neighbor Gifts for Christmas

As a family, we like to take neighbor gifts at Christmas to our friends, neighbors on the street, and ministering people. I spent time making rolls and bread. Kristen and Chris spent the rest of the day delivering.

Finals Week

Misha got off fairly easy for finals week as she only had projects to finish and hand in.

Amy, on the other hand, had a myriad of tests to take. It was safe to say, she was certainly grateful to be done. 

Chris had originally scheduled her flight home back at the beginning of the semester. When Amy knew her finals schedule, she had to make a change (fortunately United had already adjusted her flight so that it was a free change to make). Once she finished finals on Thursday night and was DONE, she again, fortunately, was able to change her flight one more time to come home Friday evening.

So happy to have them both home.

Meatballs for Christmas Day

I bought a bunch of ground beef and then decided to make the meatballs for our Christmas Day dinner. It is nice to have some of the effort done ahead so that Christmas Day isn't so busy. 

Our tradition now is to make pasta, gnocchi, and meatballs for Christmas dinner. 

Misha's Tree

Misha bought a Christmas tree. 

About a week later I asked her what her theme or color was. She replied, "Green." I took her a few of our old ornaments and a string of lights so she and her roommate could decorate it together.

A Sleepover at Misha's

After the concert and dinner, we dropped the three girls (Misha, Kristen, and Sam) off at Misha's apartment. Kristen was excited to be spending the night. 

She was getting the couch, so hopefully that was a decent sleep for her in a noisy college dorm.

Chris' Travel

Chris has been doing his best on his last couple flights to log as many trip legs as possible. That goes against ALL of his rules for travel, but apparently the separate legs count toward achieving status and that has been hard to do over the past couple of years.

He was happy to see that United extended 1K status to him for next year. Yay! Nothing like Global Services of years past, but every little bit helps.

Giving Machines

We had the opportunity to stop at The Giving Machines (sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and select some items to donate.

We chose two local items that go to the Denver Rescue Mission: a winter coat and a sanitary supply kit.

We also chose to items for the Project Worthmore: 1 month of fresh produce and art supplies.

We LOVE to be able to help this way. 

Denver Christkindl Market

After the symphony, we walked to Civic Center Park in Denver to see the Christkindl Market. It was fun to walk through the market and see all the people celebrating.

We walked down the 16th Street Mall hoping to find a place for dinner. We should know better to have a reservation. Most of the waits were an hour and a half or more. 

We finally drove to the Cherry Creek area and had dinner at Wahoo's Fish Tacos.