While he was working on his exams I did several excursions out of the house to give him some quiet study time. I took the kids to Winter Garden aGlow at the Idaho Botanical Gardens. We met up with some friends from church. It was $8 for me and the kids were free, not too bad.
The whole garden was a sea of different light displays. We walked through the different areas. Little Lady loves Christmas lights, so this was a fun trip.
There are about five families at church that have 2.5 year olds, all born within a month of each other. Here are two of Little Ladies buddies, both their Mothers also just had babies! So there are three of us with two year olds and infants. It is pretty neat! They are looking at the reindeer here!
I believe this was Prancer.
There were lots of fun little areas she could run through.
Flower lights.
Watching trains.
She got to see Santa. She asked him for snow, candy and presents - in that order. We had a little dusting overnight! ;-)
Canyon was sleeping in the stroller - 'till then. And then he cried from that point on until we got home.
Little Lady and I have also done some baking while Papa finished up classes. We made cinnamon raisin bread. Delish! I considered mailing some vacuum sealed loaves as presents, but I'm just not confident they would keep through that trip in the mail and waiting to be opened. Thoughts?
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
A hands on helper.
The kids also received an Elf on the Shelf from Grandma Gigi.
She has named him Xavier. He has some fun ideas of things to do.
We take him up on his suggestions.
Since Chris finished up with school this past week, we got our Christmas tree this weekend. Of course, being the adventurous lot that we are, we didn't just pick one up from Costco. Oh, no - that would be too easy. We took advantage of Idaho's Christmas tree program and ventured into the forest to cut our own. Basically you buy a $10 permit and you're allowed to go into the forests and cut down a tree, 12' or less. They give you a map of the areas that are okay - some areas are off limits because of recent fires or snows and stuff like that. We packed up our gear (for what seemed like forever) and headed into the mountains! Chris' coworker gave him two spots where the good stuff is (short needle). I am not going to disclose those secret locations, but I'll just say we headed up 21 towards Lowman.
We don't get much snow in the valley (Boise), the climate is pretty much the same as Maryland, just drier. The mountains are a different story though - THAT is where you'll find the snow! Once we got past Idaho City it started to come down and we were treated to a winter wonderland.
We didn't actually go all the way to the spot suggested because we saw a nice patch of trees and it looked like a good place to stop. Of course we then had to hike in a bit, you can't cut anything within 300 feet of the road. Little Lady rode on Papa's back.
Little Man rode with me.
Getting a tree in the "wild" is very different. You start realizing how sparse they are and how TALL they are. It really took a lot of work to find a tree that looked "full" enough and wasn't 15 feet tall. We spotted this one from afar, but it was down a steep hill with downed trees all over the hill. The kiddos hung with me while Papa went to get a closer look. He shook off the snow and gave a thumbs up and cut it down. Of course, then he had to pull it up. :-)
We brought a tarp to protect it (knowing we would have to drag it) and rope. Little Lady helped the last bit of the way to the truck.
I would like to be able to say it was an awesome, idyllic experience - it stunk. Little Lady was having temper tantrums all morning, eventually saying that she wanted to go get the tree all by herself, without us. We didn't pull off at a kid friendly hiking area - or even a "woman carrying an infant" friendly area. I don't fit any of my winter clothes yet, so I was wearing yoga pants (Yay, Mama uniform!) and my hiking boots, so I was a bit chilly and was just overall annoyed. We've also had to admit that our current tires stink and if we are going to be driving around in the snow/ice we need to get new ones. I almost hit a car in a parking lot the other weekend because I turned the wheel to pull into a parking space, but the car didn't quite respond to that turn thanks to the ice all over the lot. It is a little frustrating to have a four wheel drive vehicle with a winch and everything, and know that the Accord tires handle the snow better than the Pathfinder. Have I mentioned SUV tires are expensive? At least they won't be as expensive as the ones Chris had on his Bronco......
So while I felt it was a totally stressful experience and I think it shaved a year or so off my life, I think Chris was ecstatic about it. He has been much more into this than I thought he would be. He keeps talking about how when he goes scouting (for hunting) next year he is going to mark any good trees he sees on his GPS. Uh.......I was thinking Costco sounded good for next year.....
We got home and got the tree set up, but then Chris and I had to quickly get ready for his work's Christmas Party. We got a sitter for Little Lady, but took Canyon with us. It was a nice evening and I wish we got the sitter for longer, but now we know for next year. At first I was thinking it wasn't going to work because Little Man would not settle down - it was just too much going on - but then I found a corner to hide with him and he settled down, and of course once he did everyone wanted to hold him, so I actually got to eat a meal without having to hold him! That night he slept ALL the way through the night for the first time! The couple that we went to the Mormon Temple with was at the party and the wife held Canyon for a while again - she has a magic touch or something. The night of the temple visit he slept for 5 hours (his longest stretch) after she held him much of the night and then 8+ hours Saturday night. She can hold that little guy anytime!
The tree decorating was done yesterday.
This is actually our first full sized tree. We've always done a little table top tree, but I've been saving up ornaments for that one day we had a big one.
She was VERY excited! I unpacked all the ornaments and she took them one by one over to the tree to put on with Papa.
Our ceilings are perfect height for a taller tree, so we got a bigger one. Hey, it was $10 whatever size it was! We might at well take advantage of the tall ceilings while we have them and he can still lift her to do those top ornaments!
All done and presents underneath!
Late last night I hung up the stockings I made for them. See anyone hiding in this photo?
We also stopped by Cabela's this weekend (seriously, is there a weekend we don't?) and Santa happened to be there for FREE pictures! I've been wanting to take the kids to see the Santa at the mall and get a picture, but after the mall shooting in Oregon and what happened in Connecticut the other day, I didn't feel comfortable. I still have trouble even thinking about what happened Friday without crying. I typically do not react to that stuff at all by changing how I live, but I do have concerns that there might be people getting all crazy about the end of the Mayan calendar thing and doing crazy stuff this next week. Idaho is a right to carry state but you can't carry in the mall (although I'm still betting half those people will be carrying this week). We don't have anything that is an ideal size for carrying and I was just feeling uncomfortable about going to the mall. I know we don't all agree on this stuff, but the bottom line is, we are each responsible for the safety of our own family. Even then, we still can't guarantee it, but after Friday I didn't want to be somewhere full of families and children that doesn't allow you to have that backup with you in case something does happen. And hey - Cabela's? You better believe that is a pretty safe environment......
Oh yeah, and the gun counter? Lots of ladies and lots of empty spots where the CC items are kept. Don't mess with our kids - and they are ALL our kids.
Little Lady was smitten. She gets all nervous and puts her hand over her mouth while she is talking and can't look right at him. Just smiles and looks off to the side. She again asked for snow, candy and presents.
We were able to snap our own pics and they gave us a free picture as well. I tell you, that place is such a family friendly place. I then took the kids to see the fish getting fed while Papa picked some slippers (my effort to get him to take his shoes off in the house!). While watching the fish get fed, I was a bit disturbed by the way some people acted. The large fish go after the goldfish that are put in and, well, eat them. I think it is a good educational thing and that is the reality of the food cycle. But some people were getting WAY to into it. Like, "Yeah, get that sucker"! Yes, it is just a fish, but something is dying. I think we need to still appreciate that. It was obvious several people were just seeing it as sport - which could be part of the problem that led to Friday's incident. The disconnect that life is sacred. Chris hunts, but he is very reverent about it and we feed our family that way. It isn't just done for sport. Killing should never be seen as a sport.
Enough deep thoughts.
Smile and hug your family tight!
Oh yeah, and I also discovered that Little Lady's two bottom molars (two year) are cutting through right not. Yay!!!! An excuse for her "unhappy" behavior lately!!!
Liked reading about all going on. You are living life! Even though the tree thing sucked...it is one of those forever memories.
ReplyDeleteAll is well here, busy!