Friends and Snow over the Holidays

My good friend Rob was back in town during the holidays. He is going to school in Orlando. We met up and went to LA Burdicks and got some hot chocolate. I have heard about their hot chocolate and that it is the best ever. It was really good. It was the thickest hot chocolate I have ever drank. It is basically straight chocolate curls melted with just a little milk added to keep it a liquid. It was tasty. It was so nice to catch up with Rob. When I get to see old friends again it reminds me how much I miss seeing and spending time with them. Thanks Rob for fitting me into your schedule while you are back in town. Will look forward to our next visit.

December 26th we had a snow emergency which is when they close everything down. By 2pm the emergency was in order and people were to stay off the roads if at all possible. It started snowing and the wind was blowing nearly 40 miles an hour. I could hear the snow plows plowing all night long and the wind blew all night long. when I got up Monday morning this is what I found.

The car to one of the girls who lives above me.

That is my foot the snow went just above the top of my boat in this area. There was a lot of drift and my side of the driveway seems to always get it all.

That car you see right there is my friend Emily's car. She was suppose to come back Monday night from her Christmas vacation and so I had a chore in getting it unstuck. It resulted in calling my neighbor to come help and the girl upstairs (Vanita) came and helped. The three of us managed to finally get it out and unburied. Where that car is parked is where the new home for all the snow went. We had to shovel the snow to one side of the drive way to make room for the car to get out of that spot and then shovel it all into that spot so we could have our driveway back.

In this spot the snow was taller than my knees.

I will not be sad if this is the last snow storm we get. Fortunately for me my company has everyone set up to work remotely from home when needs be. They sent an email out on Sunday night informing people to stay home and work and stay safe. I was very grateful for that because it still allowed me to work and get my driveway cleaned. I have no idea what time I would have actually made it into work if I would have had to clean out my driveway in order to go. I might have gotten there by noon or later but I don't think much before that. It sure does pay to work for an amazing company who puts the well being of their employees first.

Christmas light exploring

One of my family traditions is to go Christmas light looking. I asked my friend Daniel if he would like to go with me and so we headed out to find some places I had heard of from some locals. We found a few streets that had some really good lights. All of these pictures come from the same street. This entire street minus about 3 houses were totally decorated. We saw another street that everyone on the street had decorated with just white lights. It was very pretty. Thanks Daniel for joining me in our Christmas Light Exploring!

 We even saw a couple of houses that had blinking lights set to music. They were fun to see but were not as impressive as the ones on youtube. Thank you to all my friends who helped me fill my time during this Christmas season. I really enjoyed attending Bishop and Sister Maitland's Christmas Eve festivities. They sure do a great job at making you feel like a part of their family. Just what one needs when they are not with their own family for the holiday. For Christmas I had the opportunity to go to the Hutchins' home with my friend Julie and spend the day with them and their family. I am so Grateful for the Hutchins and the Maitlands for being a home away from home. Thank you for sharing your love with so many and inviting me into your families. 

I hope every one had a Merry Christmas and a 

Happy New Year! 

Party it up tonight!!!

Family Times

 I wanted to get pictures with everyone before I left. So while we were still dressed in our Sunday best we took some pictures. 

 Me and the kids!

Sarah and Martha

 Carson and Kaden started fighting with each other so they got a time out and had to stand at the wall then Briana started trying to boss them around about how to stand at the wall so she also got a time out to stand at the wall. 

To finish their punishment they had to hug each other. At the end of their hug Carson took Kaden's hand as you see it and said lets tango. It was so funny. 

 How could a girl resist kisses from two of the most handsome men in her life. 

 Martha and Kaden I loved his little smile here. 

 Carson and Martha 

 Briana and Martha

 Sierra was being a pest about taking a picture. Here is our funny picture.

 Martha and Sierra this one is much better. 

Martha and Paityn

Thanks again for allowing me to come and spend so much time with you all over the Thanksgiving holiday. I have missed you all so much and I already miss you. I had such a good time playing and visiting with you all. Thanks for making a fun vacation with many new adventures. Can't wait till my next visit.

Family Adventures from one to another

We stayed in the house most of the time while I was in town visiting Sarah. She was feeling bad that we hadn't really done anything for me to see the area so we decided to take an adventure and head to Kolob. There are too many of us for one car so we had to take both. We made a picnic lunch and all of us bundled up as warm as we could and we headed out. While we were on the freeway Steve calls Sarah and tells her that her tire is flat. We pull off the freeway and to the side of the road and Sarah rolls her window down and we can hear the air escaping the tire. We decided we couldn't make it back to town considering the speed of the air leaving the tire. So Steve began to change the tire. In all honesty the flat tire was probably a blessing in disguise. In the time we stood there for Steve to change the tire was miserable. It was freezing cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. Sarah said the wind would probably be worse at Kolob. Thank goodness we don't get more flat tires but because of the stretch of time between flat tires it works our memories to see if we really remember how to change them and where the Jack is suppose to go.

Nice Bum shot Steve

Instead of going to Kolob and seeing this...

or this...

I got to see the famous BIG O TIRES of Cedar City, UT. This is a must see for all travelers who have never been to Southern Utah. If you look up online the top 5 places to visit in Southern Utah BIG O comes in at #1. At least I got to see the biggest attraction of Southern Utah, I don't feel like I missed out on anything at all.

Here is the whole gang keeping warm in the waiting room. Waiting for our tire to be fixed. The exciting thing in BIG O is not the TV that doesn't work to show any real stations but mainly snow... but is the candy dispensers that the kids loved putting their quarter into and getting a handful of goodies. Most of their hands were to small to get all the goodies without filling the floor with said goodies. So I lent them my hand in exchange of a goody a piece. I think that was a fair bargain.

Paityn was trying to figure out what to think of this new found adventure at BIG O TIRES.

Kaden loves giving hugs and this was just to cute to not snap a memory of it.

 Steve and Paityn

I love Paityn's little hat she sports it well.

Since we were dressed up warm and had a picnic we decided to go have one. Yes we froze our butts off but it added to the experience for the day.

She is such a cheeser

Hey you can actually see Kaden's eyes in his hat. He was trying to wander off before finishing his lunch. He thought it would be alright to go explore as long as he had something in his mouth that he was eating on.

Carson and me.

I don't think I sport hats well but Briana's Princess hat...well that is another story. Look how good I look in that hat.

Briana, Sarah, Kaden.

Kaden eating his orange.

Everyone in the car. Carson and Sierra had to share a seatbelt because there wasn't enough for everyone. They were funny about sharing but did a good job and were nice to each other.

To make sure I got to see more than just the BIGGEST Attraction ever Sarah decided we should take a drive up Cedar Canyon. It was a gorgeous drive. I loved all the rock formations. It was a different feeling to the mountains than what I grew up with in spending my years in the Big Horn Mountains.

It was so cold the water froze and the ice structures along the side of the mountain were really cool.

I think this is one of my favorite. I really liked the red in the rocks.

Looking over the valley

Another rolling ice water way.

Me and the Red Mountains. We were leaving the Canyon and I figured we better pull over and I should get my picture here to prove that I really was here and saw these spectacular Rocks, Mountains, Snow and Ice.

If you look real close behind me you will see ice falls. This damn froze over and it looks like the water is still flowing but it is all iced over.

On our drive back down the Canyon we started to sing Christmas Carols and we had a good time with each other. We shared stories with the kids of when Sarah and I were young of a few Christmas adventures we went on and we just really enjoyed our time. Thanks Carpenter family for showing me around Southern Utah and creating yet again another great adventure.