Christmas Break 2011: Part Five

Part Five: Grand Targhee

A few days before Christmas, my parents took us up to Grand Targhee Ski Resort. We drove up a very bare mountain the night before our skiing was to begin with serious doubts. We told the girls to pray hard for snow, and guess what? It snowed! All night and most of the day! Kirsten called it a Christmas miracle. I personally think those little girls have an "in" with the man upstairs. I have a feeling He is quite partial to their innocent pleadings.

Guess who learned to ski?

My favorite part was when one of them would fall, they would just lay on the ground until their teacher came to pick them up. Apparently untangling skis is much too difficult for little legs to even attempt. Hilarious. That instructor got a serious workout!


 After a two year hiatus, I also re-entered the skiing world.  I was happy to discover that, though my stamina could use some serious work, for the most part I've still got it. And it felt good!

I refuse to mention a certain gentleman who usually snowboards but, on a whim, decided to try skiing one day and totally showed me up. Does he have to be good at everything?

He did have a mildly embarrassing moment, however, when he attempted to jump in a snow bank only to discover the snow was only a couple of inches deep. Ha! Take that Mr. Perfect!

We soaked our sore bodies in the super hot jacuzzi each evening and had fun playing games and eating late into the night. One of our nights there we held our Nazareth Night - one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Definitely a trip to remember! Thank you Mom and Dad!

Christmas Break 2011: Part Four

Part Four: Hansen Family Christmas Party

Most of the Hansen family left town for Christmas, so we had a party together a week early. We ate a wonderful dinner, then did Mom's special Nativity program. I think she had a part and a costume for everyone - 21 people (including brand new baby Madelyn).

Grandma Hansen (age 95), Mom, Grandma Boyer (age 93)

The angels: Lainy and Sarah Jane

Doug, Jessica, and dog Burley. They are expecting their own little miracle soon and we are SO thrilled for them!

Craig, Becca, and baby Madelyn

Waiting for the festivities to begin!

We ended the program by singing together a beautiful hymn written by Brad's mom. She is seriously gifted. It was a beautiful experience to sing about the Savior together. The perfect way to end the evening and usher in the week of Christmas.

ps: Bry and Rach - you were dearly missed! Next year maybe?

Christmas Break 2011: Part Three

Part Three: Salt Lake City

Brad and I were able to get away by ourselves to Salt Lake City for a couple of days before Christmas. We left the girls with my parents (my first time leaving them overnight!). The business of the trip was for Brad to interview with the University of Utah. My reasons for going were nostalgic.

6 years ago (on December 23rd) Brad proposed to me under the Christmas lights on Temple Square. While we were there we found our spot and remembered... It was fun and lovely and a much needed escape.

Christmas Break: Part Two

Part Two: Family Parties

Our first day back in Rexburg we attended two family parties. (FYI: We don't go home to relax: We go to see as much family as we can.) First was a Christmas party with my Grandma Smith's family. A get together with the Smith's always means an abundance of good food, including my Grandma's famous rolls. The. Best. Ever. Period.

After dinner we were faced with a task: share some highlights of our year or share a talent. We opted to entertain the crowd with a spur-of-the-moment rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town in which Brad, Lainy, and I sang helplessly as Leah yelled sporadic words into the microphone. Good times. It was fun to be together and hear from my cousins about their lives over the past year.

Party #2 was a birthday dinner for my Grandpa Dye. Did you know that I am the granddaughter of a real life mountain climber? A quite famous one too. He climbed mostly in the Sawtooth Range, but ventured elsewhere and even climbed the Eiger in Switzerland. It was fun to hear him talk about his climbing experiences and his acquaintances with other famous climbers like Glenn Exum (of the Grand Teton climbing school fame) and Paul Petzoldt (who apparently was a great guy unless he was drunk). My grandpa did this all with support from my grandmother who was raising eight children and working as a nurse. While sitting at dinner I was reminded again of the countless wonderful things I have inherited from my grandparents. Not only a love of rolls and jam, but a great love of the outdoors, adventure, and hard work.

My Grandfather, Lyman Cox Dye on Jungfrau 1970

It's days and evenings like this that make the 12-hour drive totally worth it. Puke and all.

Christmas Break 2011: Part One

The other night I sat down to write a blog post about our Christmas vacation. I made it about three paragraphs in when I hit major writer's block. Seriously. I mean, how do you sum-up three weeks worth of parties, vacations, 12-hour drives, and Christmas? I decided that I can't. At least not without it being extremely long and boring. So I am breaking up the highlights of our Christmas break 2011 and giving it to you in parts, little by little, for the next week or so. I feel better already.

Part One: The Drive

 Our girls are really fabulous travelers, or we would never attempt to drive over 700 miles and spend over 12 hours in the car twice in three weeks. That much time and distance in a car is kind of mind-boggling. But the time passed quickly as the girls were content to sing Christmas Carols, play I Spy, and watch an occasional movie while we drove through 3 states to get home for Christmas.

Luckily we had great roads for the drive. Montana and Idaho have no snow! It was a little crazy and a little depressing, but really great for travel.

Unfortunately we discovered during our drive that little Leah gets carsick. That's right folks. She became sick after every curvy mountain pass we drove over (minus one when she was sleeping). I think her grand total came to 4. Poor, poor baby girl.

Because she gave us little to no warning that she was sick we didn't have time to pull over to help her, or even grab a bag, so each episode resulted in an awful, smelly mess. I peeled off one of her little t-shirts and left it by side of the road somewhere in Montana. I just couldn't bring myself to keep it. Let it be known and recorded that cleaning puke out of a carseat using only baby wipes is the worst experience EVER.

Let it also be known that I love that baby girl and my heart broke for her each time she became sick.

About an hour outside of Rexburg, Lainy decided she needed to throw-up too. And all I could do was laugh. I know that is horrible. Brad thought I had lost my mind (or my heart). But sometimes it's better to laugh when you really feel like screaming and pulling your hair out at the thought of cleaning up yet another gross car seat and sick girl

Needless to say we were thrilled to get to Rexburg, not only to be welcomed by our wonderful and anxious family members, but to take nice, hot showers and wash the drive down the drain.

Driving portion of the trip done! Enter part two: party time.