February Happenings

 We spent a good amount of February in St George.  Thus February was much better than January.  Jake and I did a last second quick trip by ourselves to check the house out and get it stocked.  Then we went down the next weekend with Sage and a friend, since Kate was being responsible and going to school.  We finally got the whole family there over President's Day.  Even Zack!  Obviously we're loving having a place to go in St George.  I think it's good for us because Jake's always so busy it's really hard to plan ahead, thus we mostly went nowhere.  But now we have a place to go where we don't have to plan ahead and it's life changing!

Kate went to the Sweetheart's Dance.  This group was much better than the preference group, and a good time was had by all.  I'm proud of her for going to these dances because it's definitely out of her comfort zone.

A few months ago I got asked to help with a big muti-stake service activity.  I was in charge of one the projects we did.  We decided to put together refugee hygiene kits.  We were able to get the items donated, and managed to put almost 200 kits together in less than 30 minutes.  It was crazy for a second, and then it was done.  It was fun to deliver all of them and hope that we helped a little bit.

Not much else to say about February.  Except I'm realizing I need to take my phone out more for pics.  Not too many lately...

Kate and my friend Lisa helped set everything up and get it packed away.

Kate and her sweethearts date, Shane

One of the times we went to St George there was a hot air balloon festival right outside our door!

Sage's friend knows one of the balloon pilots, so last second they got to go on an epic hot air balloon ride!

We've been able to get some good mountain biking in, even though it's been pretty rainy in St George so not a lot of trails are open.

There are amazing Jeep trails right around the corner from our house.

Part of the balloon festival.  So cool to see them lit up at night!

So responsible doing homework on vacation

Jake makes most meals when we're in St George.  A definite win for all of us.

Sage and I went on a 13 mile ride while Jake and Zack went on a 20 mile ride.  I feel like we made a good decision.

Putting the hygiene kits together

The boxes of kits ready to load up.  Jake was nice and brought his truck to deliver them all.  He even braved being the only man in the building and came inside to help.

January (A.K.A. the longest month of my life)

 January is never my favorite month.  But this year I had extreme dislike.  I swear the month lasted an eternity.  It seemed like it was never going to end.  Ever.  For reals.  This winter has been brutal in so many ways, and it started with January.  I think I mentioned that we started the year off having church canceled due to extreme snow.  Well, that was just the beginning.  There's a new term I learned this year - atmospheric river.  Those words now bring me anxiety.  Apparently, if there's an atmospheric river in California then that means we're going to get dumped on here as well.  I swear it snowed almost every day of January.  It was brutal.  I know we need the water so much.  I feel bad complaining, but it's been a lot.  Especially in Midway.  There's another new phrase I've learned this year - snow fatigue.  That's what everyone has this year in Midway.  Poor Jake literally moved snow almost every day, for hours at a time.  Have I complained enough?  I think not.  There aren't enough words to express how brutal this winter has been.  We have feet of snow on the ground, and then we drive to Provo and there's no snow.  No snow people!  We live in the Polar Vortex.  Ok.  I'll stop.

So, when there's an atmospheric river, snow fatigue, and a polar vortex, what do you do?  You buy a house in St George.  Yep, that's what we did.  I won't write all the details, but basically the perfect little house was listed in Hurricane.  We went to look at it over Christmas, decided it looked great, bought it.  One of the main reasons we jumped on it is that they sold it furnished.  Everything.  Kitchen items, sheets, towels, etc.  That was a must.  I can barely decorate the house I've had for 8 years, let alone furnish and decorate another one.  So this was perfect.  It's also within a mile of Sand Hollow Reservoir and Sand Mountain where we do tons of jeeping.  So the perfect location.  Since we closed on it we've been down there a ridiculous amount.  Unfortunately, St George is also having a long, not good winter.  But even so, there's no snow and it's way warmer than it is here.  I think going there has helped me keep my sanity.  Maybe.

I didn't take many pics because, well, worst month ever.  This is what I have:

Sage made some sledding hills for us on the piles of snow.

I laugh now that I took this picture.  The snow got so much higher than this.  It was all I could do to keep a little square showing.

Our cute little St George house.  God bless St George

What I look like after running on a humid day.  

December Happenings Part 2

Christmas day was good and low key. Kind of loved going to church on Christmas. Then sat around like slugs the rest of the day. For the break we went to St George, which was a good choice. Getting out of the winter tundra of Midway is necessary sometimes. We did a few bike rides, which felt so good. And more relaxing. We took a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas. Some of the Higley's were going, and none of our kids had been, so we thought why not? We walked around on the strip for a few hours. It was crazy busy and gross, but cool to see once in your life. Now we never have to take our kids again. They did not seem super impressed. But they're teenagers, so it's hard to tell. That night we all went to an America's Got Talent show. It was pretty good. Fun to go to something like that, because we never do. And the next morning we were on the road bright and early. New Years was uneventful. I don't even have any pictures. Obviously not my favorite holiday. We were back home and Zack and Sage hung out with friends. That's about it. The only thing of note is that church was cancelled New Years Day because there was so much snow. That's only happened one other time in all the years we've lived here. Little did we know that this was the beginning of a couple of weeks of non-stop snow...

Pre-church picture

Modeling new Christmas outfits

More modeling

Sage made fancy snacks

Beautiful desert without snow

Loving my new bike and bike clothes.  And love riding with my boys even though I just chase them most of the time.

It's a good thing Kate smiles.  

Sage tolerates us

December Happenings Part 1

 December had a lot of things.  As usual.  Mostly fun things.  We started off with our annual neighborhood food drive.  The usual neighbors showed up, and we collected a lot of food for the food pantry.  We participated in a couple of family Christmas parties.  One with the Wright family up in Kaysville.  Always good times and fun to catch up with everyone.  And one at our house with the Spjutes.  Also fun and this year Dad and Kathy made it possible for all of us to go to the ice castles.  That was super fun with all of the littles.  I mean, everything's fun with littles.  They actually get excited about things and don't roll their eyes at you.  We are deep into teenagers here.

Kate had a piano recital where I got to play the 'Sleigh Ride' duet with her that I used to play with Mel.  She made me learn the other part, which kept things interesting.  But it's fun to keep the legacy alive.  Sage broke her hand at a YW activity.  Basically she was chasing a boy and her hand slammed into a door.  Can you tell we're in the teenage phase?  Luckily it wasn't a bad break.  She was able to just wear a splint for a few weeks.  No surgery needed.  But she also got a new bike that she was so excited to ride in St George.  Unfortunately, no biking with a broken hand.  She was so sad.  It was a major bummer.

I think I'll include Christmas Eve in part one, move Christmas day to part two.  Keeps things exciting.  This year Christmas day was on Sunday.  I remember hating that as a kid, but kind of loved it this year.  So we went skiing on Christmas Eve instead.  The skiing was excellent, not even crowded.  Sage talked Jake into lunch at 5 Guys after skiing.  The second we got home I started cooking.  Mostly I was working on dinner rolls and sweet rolls.  Both of which turned out wonderfully.  The sweet rolls were my talent for the year.  I've never made them before, so I wasn't sure how they'd turn out.  My family told me I could sell them if I wanted.  So I guess that means they were good.  Hooray!  Everyone else did a talent (kind of).  I think we need to up our talent game next year.  We talked about Jesus and opened our Christmas pj's.  All-in-all, a great Christmas Eve.

Sage got to go to a tea party at the Grand America Hotel with Chloe and Sierra.  Good thing we have cousins for fun things like that!

Christmas Eve skiing

The ice castles

Our neighborhood food drive

Wright Christmas party

Sage getting an xray

Broken hand (really thumb but she won't let us say that)

Zack came home and earned good money installing closets for Jake

Sleigh Ride!

We got to see Charlie Jenkins.  An annual tradition

Sage's new bike

Spjute party with lots of good food

Ice castles minus Sage

5 Guys Christmas Eve

Sweet rolls!

Christmas Eve pajamas