Thank you to Everyone!!!!

I want to thank everyone that helped me celebrate the big 4-0! I had such a great weekend and feel very blessed to have so many people I call friends. After all the fun, came the scary drive home for many. Imagine a snow storm in the middle of winter in the mountains. Luckily, everyone made it home safely. After Renee's road updates, I decided to take Ronda and Lon up on their offer to stay the night. The next day this was the road - considerably better than the night before, given you can see the road.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!

Celebration continues on Saturday........

The group of sledders headed out to find a hill to sled down. As you can see, I'm much further behind as the snow was up to my hips. After taking this shot, I turned around and settled back in the house by the fire.


The sledders returned just a few minutes later and continued the snow festivities behind the house. The kids had fun riding that tube down a little snow drift out the back door of the house.

Just doesn't seem fair that every time I snapped a picture of Renee it was as if we were doing glamour shots. Love your snow chair!!!!
Kirsten was all bundled up and ready for some snow fun. I was worried one of the twins was going to disappear in the snow bank - they are so small in a world of 3 foot of snow.

Buddy dog had a great time in the snow until the pads of his feet started hurting from all the snow that was stuck to the bottom of his paws. He got stuck a few times, but he never gave up and eventually got to the sledders.

Birthday Celebrations

My designated driver (Kerry) was a good sport since he didn't feel well Friday night. I guess the trip to the bar was just what he needed because after drinking "Red Bull" he felt much better on Saturday.


Well, this 40 year old couldn't have asked for a better bunch of events to help celebrate. We started out on Friday night at the Eagles in Pendleton. We had a great time or at least that's what they tell me. Pictured above: Gwen, Rachelle, Rob, Melisa, Karen, Andrea and Kerry. The party went until about 12:30am.


The party kept rolling along and somehow my drink (yes that jar in front of me) was always full.

Rachelle came from Walla Walla to help celebrate. We've been friends since freshman in high school. Wow - that's 25 years.


Karen and her daughter, Andrea helped me celebrate too.

Travel Checklist

1) Buddy dog, complete with dog blanket, water dish, water and treats
2) Sunflower seeds with a plastic cup and lid to spit shells
3) Cell phone and charger
4) Mints.... after a while you can't eat any more sunflower seeds because your mouth is raw
5) At least one stop at a Taco John's (more if you can squeeze them in)
6) Cooler with bottled water and diet Coke
7) Snacks (a sandwich, crackers and string cheese)
8) Music -I usually try to have at least one new CD to listen to, but always shuffle back to the oldies but goodies.
9) Heated seats so that Buddy dog and I can stay warm as we travel North (-20 when we got home on Friday night)
10) Scoop shovel - my brother-in-law gave me a scoop shovel just in case I get stuck. I carry it hoping I never have to use it
11) Warm coat, boots, hat, gloves
12) Garbage sack so I can throw things out at the next stop and keep the car somewhat tidy

I don't know about you, but I've made enough trips to Montana that I am completely in a routine. Everything has its place in the car, easily accessible so that I can reach everything while driving. Buddy has the whole back seat, but prefers to sit in the front next to me.

Buddy traveled especially well this trip. He used his new blanket from Aunt Karen to keep warm as we went from 40 to -20 in about 80 miles. It was a crisp, bright night as we had a full moon or near full moon to travel by.

Bumper cars anyone?

So, I'm driving along yesterday. Just got off the phone to let everyone know that all is going well. I've driven close to 200 miles and the roads are bare and dry...........
Twenty minutes later I'm on the first mountain pass for a total of three and things are not as "clear" as they had been. Luckily, I managed just fine. Coming off of Lookout Pass, coming into Idaho, me and 6 other drivers were having fun practicing our winter driving skills. Unfortunately one driver had a little problem, but she finally got her vehicle stopped and the rest of us managed to safely move over to the left lane to avoid the famous winter bumper car races. Don't worry, I was being really safe when I snapped this picture - I was going all of 30 mph and there wasn't a car anywhere behind me. Smile!

Christmas in Montana

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. I sure did. I left on Friday, December 21st, drove all day to get to my Mom and Dad's place. The rest of the family that had to travel came on Saturday. We had Christmas Eve at my Aunt's house just like we have always done for all of my years. It was fun. We exchanged gifts among aunts, uncles, cousins and more cousins. Just 23 of us this year, but we managed to fill the back room when it came time to exchange gifts.
Deanna and Terry live close by and that's were I stayed this Christmas vacation. Deanna had my room all ready, complete with two beds and two heated blankets. I always had one kid with me when it came time to head to the "homestead" (the name we have given Deanna and Terry's - not really the homestead, but as with any nickname, it stuck).
Christmas is never the same when the kids aren't there. This year everyone was home. The first thing Dakotah showed me was her driver's license. I even let her chauffeur me around a bit - that was nice. Will got his electric guitar that he has been itching to have for quite some time. I don't think I've ever seen him speechless, but that did it. He was so proud of it and eager to learn his first three chords. Saige never stops entertaining us either with her quick wit or her smiling face. Just a few times we had to ask her to turn her frown upside down. Joining the picture this year is Saige's new doll, named Sam (it's a "my twin doll").
OK, so in order for everyone to cooperate while getting their picture with my NEW camera, I had to smile for the camera as well. Buddy wouldn't look at the camera so he got cropped out.

Just like a kid.......

I gave Gwen her Christmas present this morning and the entire time she was opening it Buddy was sitting next to her and whining because he wanted to help. Buddy has always liked to open packages and can usually sniff his out of the pile because they smell the best. Don't worry if you don't have one for him he'll just pick one out of the pile. My sister Deanna likes to conveniently set one package aside so she can be the last one to open a package on Christmas morning. Buddy out smarted her when he went looking for another package. We were all so busy opening packages that we didn't notice that he hauled one off to open. It wasn't until Deanna went looking for her package that we realized that Buddy had helped himself. Isn't he so cute?

BRANSON

Most of you know that I flew to Branson, Missouri and met my family there. We went to 6 different shows. The group of us had a great time. In the picture above you'll see my sister Deanna standing behind me and my Mom is next to me in the red vest. My 2 Aunts and a friend of the family completed our little subgroup.
It was very hard to get a good picture during the shows, but Deanna and I kept taking pictures in hopes of getting a couple of good ones. I think the trip will always be memorable for each of us and even though the pictures don't really do the performance justice, we will remember everything we liked when we see these photos.
Because we went after Thanksgiving, we got to see mostly Christmas shows. They were fantastic and the stages were so beautiful with the 1000's of lights everywhere.

Kids are Great!

Sometimes you just can help but laugh. My nephew is one the most entertaining guys I know. Always hamming it up for the camera. Family photos are always a risk, because there isn't anyone on the other side of the camera watching Will to see if he is making a silly face. Doesn't matter to me, I love his faces and them make me laugh.
At school they had "weird hair day". He got the idea to have his sister put mini pigtails all over his head. I don't think he thought it was much fun until it was all done and he could goof off in front of the camera.