Yesterday we went to our town's Christmas light parade!  How cool is it that this town that is soooo cold still has a parade the day after Thanksgiving!  It was a little warmer than it has been, in the 30's, so it wasn't too painful.  It lasted about 15 minutes and then everyone went to the grocery store which had free chili and hot chocolate.  And get this, the chili was homemade!  Someone from the chamber of commerce spent two days making it!  Small town score!

I decided to do some Black Friday shopping yesterday.  I walked into the Shopko Hometown store, picked up the things I needed and walked out in 10 minutes.  Yeah, Black Friday here really isn't a thing!  Brian had to work yesterday from 6:30am to close and said there was about 5 people who came in.  I'm not sure the lumber yard is the place to be on Black Friday.

I'm nearly down with my Christmas shopping, which is such a change for this shop on Christmas Eve girl.  I think I'm liking how prepared I am!

This morning as we are listening to Bing Crosby sing Lucy came up to me and said, "Mom, I learned how to blow a bubble and do Sudoku!"  Such accomplishments!

Day after Thanksgiving and we are back home in Wyoming.  The drive to Utah was a little unsettling!  We hit south pass (which is where the Willie handcart company got stuck) and the winds were blowing 65+ mph (there is an electric sign that tells you how fast the winds are blowing), blowing snow, slick roads, and to top it all off the ranchers were moving cattle that day, so 100's of cows were on the side of the roads.  The visibility was really poor as well.  It took us an hour or so to get passed that.  Then the roads were dry with no rain or snow or anything for a couple of hours.  At Evanston we hit snow that got worse around Park City, then Heber was clear, but Provo Canyon was pouring rain!  Every kind of weather!  Here is a picture I took that doesn't show what it was really like at south pass:

The road looked like dry ice the wind was blowing up so much snow!

The days in Utah were lovely!  I loved seeing Audrey and Lauren and my mom and sister and Brian's parents!  I got to see so many of my friends and enjoy the wonderful weather!  My kids were going outside in bare feet!

We had our Thanksgiving Feast on Wednesday with my mom and enjoyed all the food, especially Palmer's Peanut Butter Pie!

The drive back was really nice--completely dry and minimal winds.  We ate leftover turkey and rolls in the car on the way home since it was Thanksgiving Day.  We listened to Palmer's rock play list from his ipod on the way home and it helped to make the time go by.  Aerosmith and the Cars, and Styx are a great way to spend your time when you are stuck in a car for 7 hours!

As we were going over south pass and since the weather wasn't so bad, (only about 30 degrees and the wind was only 35 mph) we took the turn off that I've wanted to take ever since we moved up here.  It said the Willie Handcart site was just a mile off the road.  It was a dirt road and we followed it for awhile without finding a marker.  You could see the wagon ruts from all the wagon trains off the side of the road which was very cool.  We finally turned back.  I looked it up later and saw that it was really 9 miles off the road and it was the Rocky Ridge site.  It's a smaller site compared to the Martin Handcart site in Casper.  It was pretty sobering as I looked around and saw the barren landscape and the winter weather and thought about those poor pioneers being out in the elements with many of them losing their lives.  It really brought home what they went through.  We would like to go back in the spring and really spend some time there.

Slow day today, Brian's working and the kids are getting caught up on their homework.  No black Friday shopping for us!

Utah bound!  Tomorrow we leave the frozen state of Wyoming and enter the heat wave in Utah!  Can't wait!

Few bits of good news:

• Emma is now an official Worland High School Warriors cheerleader!  Go Emma!
• Brian made it safely to Billings without hitting any wildlife (although a raccoon almost lost it's life) and is enjoying the weather in Fort Wayne Indiana.
• Palmer is fine and the van almost fine after sliding into an electrical pole on the way to seminary yesterday.  Just a little ding on the front of the van.  
• Palmer got accepted to Utah State University

That's all there is to report here in the land of ice and snow!  

I've discovered that I need to go shopping as soon as I hit Utah on Saturday.  I was getting ready for church and realized that my only good winter boots are bright yellow and didn't really go with my dress today, so I slipped on my strappy sandels with my maxi skirt sans socks.  I walked out the door at 9:06am and the temperature was -11 degrees.  Within 10 seconds my toes hurt.  5 minutes later when we arrived at the church building my toes were bright red and hurt soooo bad.  Obviously I need warm church shoes.  Emma said I should just wear the yellow boots and deal with it.

I was sustained today as the Ward Music Chairmen and Sacrament meeting chorister.  Something I can totally do!  I have two Christmas programs to put together.  The ward Christmas dinner is Dec. 10th and I'm in charge of the program anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour and I can do whatever I want.  And I'm in charge of the Sacrament meeting Christmas program as well.  Woohoo!  I'm  excited to get started.  Of course the first thing I had to do was to get a substitute for next Sunday since I will be in  Utah!

My talk went well today and Andy did a great job as well.  I got to play the piano in primary again today, such a fun place to be!

Brian is getting ready to brave the arctic weather and drive to Billings so he can fly to Fort Wayne Indiana.  We won't see him until late late Friday night.  I'll miss him!

These are my dear children as they get ready to brave the -20 temps on their short walk to school.  I'm sure you can tell how happy they are!
It's amazing how much warmer 12 degrees above zero feels after you've experienced the other side!

Andy's game was not canceled today.  He played Riverton and they won.  He was playing really well, I luckily caught his foul and successful free throws on camera.  He is #13.

And this is what we do when it's too cold to do anything else at our house!

And another one:

We got some lovely snow today that warmed us up a bit.  On the bright side this snow is very dry and light so it's easy to shovel.  Not so easy if you want to build a snowman, however.

Apparently I spoke too soon.  It got down to -27 this week!  I'm starting to wonder where I really moved, did I take a wrong turn and end up in Nome Alaska, or Canada?  It's amazing what that kind of temperature feels like.  It warmed up to 12 degrees today and snowed a little.  There is a BIG difference between -27 and 12 degrees above zero.  I've never been more thankful for a warm house and warm clothes and cars that work.  I noticed on facebook that other places that got part of this arctic storm closed their schools.  Not Wyoming, they just take it in stride.  Andy's basketball game was canceled on Thursday in Cody.  The roads are pure ice and they didn't want the to risk the drive.

Our family has been saddened by the news of the death of our dear bishop from the Orem Park 8th ward.  Bishop Loveless fell ill shortly after we moved and was in the hospital for weeks without the doctors knowing what was wrong.  They finally diagnosed encephalitis and his family decided to let him go and took him off the machines that were keeping him alive.  His funeral is on Monday.  He was so young (61) and in great health.  His youngest son is Lauren's age and is on a mission.  I don't think he will be coming home for the funeral.  It's been really hard on our ward.  They have been fasting on and off for weeks for him.  He was a wonderful man and said so many kind words to our family.  Our hearts go out to his wife and children.

Christmas is starting to come to our in house in the form of boxes from Amazon!  It's so exciting!  I now need a place to store all of these things beyond the prying eyes of my children.

Brian leaves on Sunday for Indiana again for more training.  I'm sure the weather there will be lots better than here!  He will be gone until Friday and then we leave for Utah on Saturday! Woohoo!  We all can't wait!

Brrrrrrrr............

Wow.  Wow.  I thought I had experienced cold in Utah.  This is serious cold.  It's 7 degrees outside with a wind chill of -8!  They won't let the kids go outside for recess when the wind chill reaches below zero.  Peter, Lucy, and Eric walked the half a block to school completely bundled up, boots, hats, coat, gloves, etc.  Even Andy and Palmer succumbed and wore coats today.  Just opening the door for a few seconds cools your house down about 10 degrees!  This is crazy!  I set the heater to 64 degrees last night and I think it was on all night!  I don't dare turn off the heater completely because we would be icicles in our beds in the morning!  And I just discovered last night that Emma and Lucy's bedroom doesn't have a heater vent!  WHAT?!  They say they haven't been cold, but I think they need to sleep with their door open to get some heat in there.  Maybe I need to invest in electric blankets!  I'm going to leave the fireplace on all day today, it's so warm and cozy in the basement, I'm hanging out there today.

Lucy had her first basketball practice last night.  She's pretty excited about playing since she has never played before.  The high school girls basketball team came and helped with the first practice.

Since it's too cold to do anything but stay inside I've been Christmas shopping online!  It's actually more fun than I thought it would be.  I had to warn the kids that if any packages come and they open them they will get a big lump of coal for Christmas!  Peter wrote up his Christmas list and it's hysterical.  Here is what he wants:

-small batteries
-hex bug
-gatorade
-twinkies
-watermelon gum
-a watermelon
-rope
-a hibiscus flower
-a fake beard
-coal

Apparently twinkies is the theme this year since Eric also asked for it along with coconut cream pie, the lego movie and a lego mini figure.  Lucy is still working on her list, I'm sure it will be a winner as well!

Well, I am going to go sit by the fire and get warm!

Brian and I went on a date last night to the thriving metropolis of Greybull.  It's about 35 minutes north of Worland and has around 1800 people.  I have been asking around about places to go and do things and someone suggested a restaurant in Greybull that is an old speakeasy.  It was pretty cool and very authentic.  The hotel was once a center of bootlegging and there are still tunnels underneath it where they would run the alcohol so as to not get caught.  The food was just average, but I've come to not expect fabulous restaurant food here and it wasn't bad.  The drive was about like driving to Salt Lake except it wasn't!  The time was about the same, but the drive was much more relaxing than driving I-15!

Before we went to Greybull we went to a wedding of one of Brian's employees.  He was married at the LDS church by the bishop.  It was a small short sweet wedding.  Both the bride and groom used to live in Alpine Utah and now live here in Worland.  It's amazing how many people have ended up here who never thought about moving to Wyoming!

Andy did well in his two basketball games even though his team lost both games.  In the game against Powell they lost by 23 points!  They had two players who were over 6 feet tall in 8th grade!  Andy was assigned to guard the one guy who was probably 6'4"!  He did a great job and made a bunch of points, but it was nearly impossible to beat this team.  I don't know what they are feeding those kids in Powell!

The primary program was amazing today!  It was probably one of the best I've seen.  The kids were so reverent sitting up on the stand and all of them sang!  They didn't have them sit in their classes, but had the older kids sitting among the younger ones.  There were very few teachers sitting up with their classes and the kids did great!  It was Eric's last primary program and he said he was glad!  I love the feelings of the Spirit when the children sing.  It's the best sacrament meeting of the year!

We got a call from the bishop today and Andy and I get to speak next Sunday in church!  Andy is not happy about that fact at all!  I'm speaking on Elder Robbins conference talk, "Which Way Do You Face".  I also got extended a calling today, but I won't be sustained until next Sunday so you will have to just wait until next week to find out what it is!  Ha!

Brian looked at the weather forecast for the upcoming week:

Worland, Wyoming, Weather Forecasts -  Metric Units Print forecast  Days 1-7 Mon Nov 10 28°F Tue Nov 11 16°F Wed Nov 12 9°F Thu Nov 13 21°F Fri Nov 14 30°F Sat Nov 15 28°F Sun Nov 16 32°F 5°F -9°F -11°F 3°F 5°F   27°F NW 32 MPH Precip 90% NW 17 MPH Precip 50% SE 4 MPH   WSW 3 MPH   WNW 4 MPH Precip 20% SE 4 MPH   SE 4 MPH   Averages 49°F/22°F Averages 48°F/21°F Averages 47°F/21°F Averages 47°F/20°F Averages 46°F/20°F Averages 45°F/19°F Averages 45°F/19°F

It's 62 degrees right now.  So in three days it's dropping over 50 degrees!  How is that possible?!!  Help, I'm not ready!

I got to ride along with Brian yesterday as he went to Cody and Powell for work.  It was great!  We are both starting to feel better from this cold and it was nice to go someone where with Brian.  On the way home we stopped in Basin so Brian could fix a woman's windows he had installed.  She was very sweet and as we stopped for gas I took a picture of the beautiful evening.

I don't know if I never paid attention to the skies in Utah, but I love the skies here in Wyoming.  They always seem so majestic to me. The highlight of the trip was of course going to Walmart in Cody!  Any excuse to get to Walmart we take, things are so much cheaper there.  We stopped for lunch at Dairy Queen and they have orange julius' which I got!  It's been forever since I've had one.  I remember getting them in the University Mall when I was in high school.  I loved it!

As I was getting the pictures off my phone to put on the blog I saw this picture:

Peter stole my phone and had someone snap this picture!  He's such a goof ball!

When we got home that night a beautiful bouquet of flowers was waiting for me from my dear sister who sent them to help me feel better!  I love them and her!

Today Andy is playing basketball in Thermopolis.  Brian is already there and Emma and I will be leaving soon to go see him play.  Thermop (as they call it here) is just next door, a short 30 minutes away!  Palmer has started working at Brian's store on Saturdays as well as his work release class during the week.  He has a little more time now that football is over and wrestling doesn't officially start until December 1st.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, it's the primary program!  The best Sunday of the year.  It will be Eric's last time in the primary program.  I can't believe I will only have two kids left in primary soon and a son on a mission.  It seems just yesterday that I had at least two kids in diapers and I considered going to the grocery store without kids a grand adventure!  Time flies by too fast.

November in Worland

Beautiful bright blue skies, no snow, no rain.  I think the weather is worse in Utah now than here in Wyoming!  It's definitely cold at night-in the 20's, but during the day it warms right up.  I still have blooming snap dragons in my front flower beds.  I haven't even turned the heater on, we turn on the gas fireplace in the mornings and then after a few hours I turn it off and the house is warm enough for the rest of the day.  

I've got a post Halloween/change of the season cold.  I thought I would just shake it off, but it's taking a turn for the nasty.  It's amazing to be able to be sick and just rest!  I've never been able to do that before.  I've always had to go to work even if I'm sick or had a baby and/or toddler to take care of amidst my feeling yucky.  Yesterday I just took care of myself, wow what a blessing and luxury!  

Since it's November I have turned on the Christmas music and I'm loving it!  I don't think I can ever get enough of it.  I miss the radio stations playing Christmas music as soon as Halloween is over.  I'm still stuck with country music, the 50's music, or bad pop music.  The radio rarely comes on when I'm in the car.  Most people here have satellite radio in their cars, but my 2000 GMC 12 passenger van doesn't have that option unfortunately.  

Andy's basketball team played Thermopolis yesterday and they won by a land slide.  Palmer also had his football banquet and got his varsity letter for football.  His orange W looks exactly like Brian's orange W from his high school, they are twins!!

I'm luxuriating in this calm beautiful morning even though I'm sick.  I love the peacefulness of the house as I listen to music and have time to really read my scriptures without any interruption.  I'm so very thankful for this time in my life.  Our life has slowed down a bit since we moved and I think everyone is a little calmer and happier even though we miss many things we left behind.  I'm very glad we are just a short 7 hour road trip away from home!

Peter came and sang this for me today!  He was so proud of himself for making up this silly song I had to video him and share it!  He's a nut!

Halloween went well last night.  The two wards here combine to have a soup and rolls night and then a trunk or treat in the church parking lot.  It was so nice and stress free.  The kids got a lot of candy in a short amount of time and then we went home, my kind of night!  Emma and Eric went to a haunted house at the fair grounds that was kind of lame, but they had fun.  Peter went as Eric (he wore Eric's clothes and had me do his hair like Eric'), Lucy was a witch, Eric was the shoulder angel from Studio C, Andy wore his Mountain View High football jersey, Emma was Johnny Bench, and Palmer was nothing. 

Brian and I drove to Burlington today to watch Andy play in a basketball tournament.  It's about 40 minutes away, close in Wyoming standards.  It's a small town of about 250 people.  It's almost 100% LDS.  They have 2 wards there!  They lost their first game to Cody and won their second against Burlington.  Here's a few pictures.  Andy is #13.