And so it begins…the long dreaded basement remodel. First step, demolition.
Daily Archives: January 4, 2015
Christmas 2014
I should start off saying we had a great Christmas, or really three Christmases! After out Sun Valley trip, we got to spend a little while with my family. Josie and her family came into town, and Kevin came home from School. We got to eat some great food and we even opened our gifts to each other.
Second Christmas was our own. We had a little celebration with the three amigos and opened our gifts to each other.
The third celebration was the official one, or at least the one that happened on Christmas. This year Christmas was with Kathryn’s family. Earlier this year, the family had been talking about going on a trip out of town for Christmas. Kathryn put forward a proposal that instead of going out of town, what if we did a Christmas up at the cabin. Everyone agreed and it became official. You have to snowmobile up to the cabin in the winter, so instead of packing in all the presents, we just opened them early on Christmas Eve Morning at Kathryn’s house. Never before have we opened up so many of the presents so early. It was fun!
Here Ashley was put into one of the present boxes and she was stuck and couldn’t get out. It was fun for a couple of seconds.
We got all packed up and headed up to the cabin. Ashley finally got to put on her adorable snow suit. It was very reminiscent of A Christmas Story because she pretty much couldn’t move.
Once everyone was transported up to the cabin, the festivities began. One of the first orders of business was to go out and find a Christmas tree. We scouted around a found one that looked like a good candidate. With a few swift blows from a hatched, it was felled and loaded onto the snowmobile toboggan.
While a couple of us boys wrapped the tree in lights and other decorations, Kathryn led an ornament craft party for the girls. They made Pinterest worthy pine cone ornaments.
Then it was time for Kathryn’s present to the family. In honor of her Grandma Pauline Hawker, she made matching pajama pants for the whole family! It was a labor of love. She is amazing! 
We played games…
and flew and drove fun remote control toys…
and sledded…
and ate great food…
and did a puzzle…
and watched Lord of the Rings 1 and 2, and hot tubbed, and just had a blast!
Here we are on our way out after the great weekend. Thank you Tim and Suzanne for hosting the great Christmas week, and to Kathryn for your vision of how much fun a Christmas up at the cabin could be!
Sun Valley with Friends
Several months ago, our good friends James and Erica Peterson called us up wondering about the possibility of a preseason Sun Valley weekend trip. We decided it sounded like a great idea. Ashley could get some quality Grandma Julie and Grandpa Ray time in, and we could have a fun getaway with our friends. So we bought our tickets and put the date on the calendar. Time flew by and soon it was time to make the trip. Ashley was a trooper on the way up to Idaho. We had a quick visit with my parents before we headed off to Sun Valley. The lodge is under renovation, so we stayed in the Inn. It had amazingly long hallways packed with room after room. It seemed like a good setting for a scary movie. The Inn also has a large round pool/hot tub like the Lodge had. We enjoyed getting dressed up in our robes and slippers and enjoying the pool. We also got some good food at Smoky Mountain Pizza.
We lucked out the next day and had some great snow for skiing up on Baldy. There really hadn’t been much snow for a long time, and we were up there the day after a nice storm rolled through. No way to plan that months in advance. On Baldy, we found another one of our college friends and skied some runs with him.
I always love skiing with Kathryn. When we only go once a year, or less, it can be a little slow to get back into the groove, but we both did great. It was an awesome trip. Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching Ashley for us so we could go.