First Snow at Home

Well, I know the kids saw snow a few weeks ago on our trip, but this is the first snow of the season at HOME!
MAJOR excitement!
It does make school a LOT harder, they forget everything they know and rush to get done so they can go out to play.
This was LESS then a half inch, but it occupied them all for hours this afternoon. We are supposed to get over an inch tonight, so I am prepared for more memory loss during school tomorrow.
Here are just two quick snapshots of Christopher that I thought were cute. He was having a "bad hair day." :-)

WAR EAGLE!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Smith Clan! We hope your day yesterday was spent with people you care about and that you did eat to much and totally enjoy the fellowship and the food.

(This group shot is just SO much better then last years! For those of you who haven't been long time blog readers, I was in a really big rush to get a shot with all 4 kids before everyone arrived for Thanksgiving dinner, and I was so concentrating on 2 year old Kaebrie, that it wasn't until later when I uploaded the pictures, that I noticed that in the group shot, smiling Christopher was pee'ing on the tree behind Kaebrie.)

Below is a link to last years Thanksgiving blog. I have never done that before, I hope it works!

:-)

http//smithusaf.blogspot.com/2006/11/thanksgiving-day.html

I know that we did all of the above. We had received an invitation out for Thanksgiving, and spent weeks deciding what to do. It isn't often we get invited to other peoples homes with a family this size, but in the end we decided to have people over to our home.

We served a sit down dinner at 1:00 with an open invitation to come at anytime. We ended up with 23 people between 11:00 am - 9:00 pm. Whew! A full, but very enjoyable day!

Before the day began, we had to add onto our kitchen. Here is my special counter top! That one counter that you see is my only counter space. The matching one on the opposite side holds the microwave and toaster, so we keep this big, ugly board in the trash closet, and when necessary, we drape it over the washer and dryer and create a counter! VOILA!

Here is the bird, who for the first year, was never named. Collin wanted to name it "Collin." But I don't know if we ever came to an agreement.

Sam was in charge of the un-named bird this year. He chose a complicated recipe requiring cheese cloth and other rare ingredients, but it was a HUGE success! Juicy and delicious!

She is only 10 weeks past her third birthday, but she just looks so much older. Maybe because I want to keep her as my baby and I don't want her growing up so fast, I am more aware of fast she is changing. She did announce in the middle of our sit down dinner though, "Mommy, I just tt'd in my pants," so maybe she isn't growing up as fast as it looks. :-)

Christopher, my cutey pie. This was about the only picture of him all day. He has this thing now with cameras, he HATES them. I BEGGED for this one and was glad it came out so well.

We did go outside for a few pictures, but it was COLD!!! It was 17 degrees when we woke up, and didn't get that much warmer all day. SO they look all lovey, but they are really cuddling for warmth!

(A bit off the subject, but seeing Kaitlynn's pretty hair shining in the sun reminded me of something we did last week. When she went for a hair cut, we had her hair measured. We have decided to grow it out 2 - 3 more inches, then have it cut for Wigs for Kids. They require a MINIMUM of 12 inches!! That will still leave her with shoulder length hair if we wait, so wait we will! We will measure it again around her birthday.)

Our beautiful Kaitlynn

Katy joined us again this year. Her family is all in Alaska, and her husband, Tyler is deployed again. He is gone EVERY year from September - January. They just received orders though. In the spring, they will be going to ITALY! Next holiday season they should be together, in ITALY!

(so jealous)

The kids were really hungry and were waiting to eat before we were ready. They started chanting about food. (Christopher is hiding from the camera as you can see.)

One of the only pictures with any adults in it. I was so busy yesterday, I only took 32 pictures all day long. John and Brent, two young men from our FCA group also joined us. The table was FULL! Turkey, stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, home made cranberry cause, rolls, pumpkin and cranberry bread, broccoli salad, home made pickles, sweet tea, water and wine.

John arrived at bit early, around 11, and brought me a hostess gift. His mother had probably told him to never show up empty handed, so he brough me doritos and orange juice. :-)

They both were gone by the time the night was over, so I appreciated them!

The kids ate very quickly, then had a chess tournament while the adults kept eating.

Here is my big success this year. A pumpkin cheesecake! Kaitlynn and I worked VERY hard on this and were very pleased that it presented as well as it tasted.

Years ago, I tried to make a pumpkin cheesecake. I think it was 1999. Kaitlynn was just a baby. It tasted OK, but it looked really gross. Sam's family had nicknamed it "The Sunkin' Punkin" and I never tried it again. With all the new tools I keep buying at all these Pampered Chef parties I have taken a new interest in baking ( a big reason is because Kaitlynn enjoys it so much I have fun doing it with her ).

Here are all the desserts: the cheesecake, a pumpkin cake roll (wouldn't be real Thanksgiving with that one), a chocolate pecan pie and a toll house chocolate chip pie.

Collin and Morgan won the "rock-paper-scissors" contest and won the right to break the wishbone. Morgan won!

Here is a partial picture of the girls in the garage watching a movie. At one point there were 12 kids in there!

They have their jackets on because, well, it is a garage and it was COLD in there!

Collin and Morgan decided they would rather play games then crown into the overcrowded garage. I surprised them in this picture.

And that is all. There was a lot of other stuff going on I now wish I had taken pictures of. But I guess a few is better then none at all.

The picture I miss the most?

The group picture on Sam's parents front porch.

A yearly tradition that I miss dearly.

Next year, if we are still here, Sam is scheduled to be deployed. I am thinking about saving my pennies and sending Collin and Kaitlynn back to Alabama for Thanksgiving.

We will have to see what happens!

Cathedral Pines

I used to be a really spontaneous person. Could leave for a weekend with a 10 minute warning.

It's not that I am not still that same person, I WANT to be able to leave for a weekend with 10 minutes notice, but with 4 kids, 10 minutes just won't work.

I did however, do a weekend trip with LESS then 13 hours notice! I consider that a major accomplishment.

Another pastor friend recently told Sam about this little campground right outside of Sun Valley called Cathedral Pines. It is run by the American Baptist Assoc and it has been in operation now for 88 years. So Sam called, just to get a little info and she invited the whole family up. She said when they have space available, they like to let pastors and their families come and stay for free. They were closed this weekend, but we were welcome to come. So we quickly decided yes, and the frenzy began.

Gonna be cold. Gonna be snow. Gonna be locked up all together in one room. Need winter coats brought out of storage. Need all of last years snow boots tried on. Need games and portable entertainment. Need to run to town to the 2 thrift stores because nobodies boots fit them from last year and where are the 47 gloves that I know I own????? Need to get some food that doesn't need to kept cold or need to be heated to eat. No kitchen or fridge or microwave. Need bedding and towels packed. So Friday night was spent getting mentally organized, and Saturday morning was spent getting ready.

Long Johns, extra socks, turtlenecks, extra shoes, card games, Lego's, and PULL -UPS! I am taking a 9 day potty-training 3 year old on a 3 hour drive to a cabin for the weekend. NOT going to trust her with panties for this!

We got everything packed, had to use the soft-shell on top of the van, and left for 2 days looking like we were leaving for 2 weeks. :-)

Because the camp was closed, they let us use the medical cabin. 5 beds and a POTTY!!!!!! None of the other cabins had potties. There was a central bathroom to walk to. That would NOT have been fun. 15 degrees out, snow and a 9 day in progress potty training 3 year old. So, this worked. But it is probably as close to "roughing it" as I am willing to get for awhile. :-)

We did wake up to snow on Sunday morning! So it was a mad house getting everybody dressed in all their warm layers because they were so excited to get outside and play in the snow!

We did see the care taker twice. He and his wife live there for a few months, so we did get one group picture.

Here are the family footprints. I wanted to do this on the beach this summer, but I forgot. I should have done this a few years ago, because when the 2 oldest kids have feet almost as big as their parents, it kind of looses the effect I was after.
All smiles for snow!
How many Smiths can fit on one twin mattress?

Kaebrie said the snow smelled good.

The surrounding mountains were really beautiful.
2 inches of snow and they were all as happy as can be!

I don't think Kaebrie remembers last winter, so this is probably her first snow to her. She enjoyed throwing snowballs!

But didn't enjoy getting hit by them!
These were the regular cabins that people stay in.
This is the medical cabin that we had. We had access to the first section where you see the door. The extra on the right hand side after the seam was locked up for the director. Kaberie kept calling it the "cabinet".
Yes, they did climb the hill. (Hard to have an avalanche with only 2 inches of snow).

She found a horse! I think it might have been a moose.
Playground equipment covered in snow is WAY more fun then just a regular playground.

She FLEW down this steep slick slide.

Christopher followed. He was just so happy. He LOVES being busy outside. Here, there was snow to knock off of everything! Roofs, sticks, benches, rocks and a small iced over stream that needed all the ice busted. He walked in the cabin where Kaebrie and I were, crossed his arms, said, "I am having a good time. I am not going home, ever," and then he walked back out. :-)
Snow sisters!
Just gotta love this one!
I got Tiff to be still for a quick picture!

Yes, this is the "sneaky" look. She wanted to eat the snow off of the ground, I wanted her to eat it off something cleaner.
We drove over the Galana Pass, and here is proof that I finally got to see the Sawtooth Mountains! They were gorgeous! Elevation 8901 feet.
Christopher didn't care about the pretty mountains, he saw fresh snow for snowball fights!

And make big snow balls he did!

It was wise to aware of your surroundings at all times. :-)
Christopher got Daddy pretty good!
The big boys had to go fly fishing as well. Another fun thing they have enjoyed learning how to do here.

Collin just got his own waders last weekend. Sizing his was a problem. His feet are to big to wear the youth sizes. But his body is to thin to wear the mens sizes. So he ended up getting a woman's size. They fit just fine, and look really good with a big pair of Daddy's shoes over them. :-)

Daddy had been fishing for awhile. He didn't catch anything on Saturday, but he did catch 2 large rainbow trout on Sunday, but it was so cold out that Kaebrie and I were inside the warm cabin and not out taking pictures.
Collin happily joined in. They bought some new flies, called Wooly Boogers. Sorry mom, I laugh and think of you every time they say that. :-)
Christopher fished with his special stick.

I had bought this lot of 13 pounds of Legos off of eBay, with the intention of keeping them a secret until Christmas, but this was special circumstances, and I was so glad I brought them along. The few hours I did get them to be inside, were spent creating all sorts of clever and creative contraptions.
This is what Kaebrie looks like the second you wake her up after a 2 hour nap with a flash in her face.
And this is what they look like after the entire family eats out in a very nice restaurant. You wouldn't want to see Mommy's face when she got the bill for the food from the whole family eating out in a very nice restaurant.
And that was our spontaneous trip. Nobody matched or was color-coordinated, but everyone had a great time as a family. Except for eating at McDonalds 4 times, it was PERFECT! ;-)

p.s. The potty training girl did perfect. Not one accident the entire weekend, including the drive!