Festival of Trees (and the nieces)

Friday night was spent at the Festival of Trees, for those of you outside the state of Utah, the Festival of Trees is a display of hundreds of Christmas Trees decorated and donated for the benefit of Primary Children's Medical Center.  The Festival is four days long and is the most amazing display of Christmas Trees I've ever seen.

This year Morgan and Alyssa and their dance company were part of the festivities at the festival, they were dancing on the main stage at 7:00 p.m. Friday night.  Along with eight million other people, I braved the crowds and went to see them perform in their five minute dance.  Did I tell you I'm the best aunt ever?  The girls did a great job, looked super cute in their dance costumes and were excited to see all the family and friends that came to see the.

Happy Birthday Quent

Quent spent a quiet birthday at home.  We went to dinner with my grandma to celebrate year number 42 and then headed to Willard Bay to drive through the Christmas Light display they do every year.  We had a great evening out with my grandma and Quent was happy to have a quiet day to celebrate his birthday.  The night was topped off with chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and vanilla ice cream.  A great day!

Hangin' with Grandma

We decided to get out of the house today and go explore Cache Valley.  It was the first day we have seen sun for awhile and decided to head up into the mountains to see if there were any elk at Hardware Ranch.  We headed out mid-morning so we could stop at Quent's favorite restaurant in Logan for breakfast/lunch before heading up the canyon. 

We made it up to Hardware Ranch about 1:30 p.m.  There were close to 150 elk already in the winter feeding area with many more expected.  Unfortunately it wasn't open for the season yet so we were only to see the elk from the road. It was a great day for wildlife viewing, we saw some deer, elk, wild turkeys, a bald eagle, tundra swans, a dead mountain lion (recently hunted I might ad), not to mention our resident squirrel feeding in our bird feeder.

Fun Fun Weekend

Morgan and TJ have been hanging out with Aunt Cindy and Uncle Quent this weekend.  We've had so much fun coloring, playing ponies and kicking teddy bears that I don't know where to start. Yesterday we made birthday cards for Uncle Quent, Rice Krispy treats for the party and homemade pizza, visited the "rein"deer, saw cows and played red-light-green-light.  Morgan was so worn out by the time we got everything finished she fell asleep at 6:45 p.m. and didn't wake up until 6:30 a.m.

Today we wrapped Quent's birthday presents for the birthday party, went sledding, made dinner, watched the Utes beat BYU (TJ yelled at the TV just like Joe would have done had he been watching it with us, it was pretty cute!), watched Cars and had Uncle Quent's birthday party.  It was a fun crazy day.  Here are a few of the pictures taken today.  (I was too tired yesterday to take any pictures)

Black Friday ...

Joy and I went Black Friday shopping at Walmart ... wow what an experience.  We went together last year and this is the fourth year I've actually gone Black Friday shopping.  This year we went to the Brigham City Walmart and got in line about 9 p.m. for a sale that started at 12:01 a.m.  It was a success as we did get everything we went after (even if some of it was bought online at 1:15 a.m.). 

We hit Shopko at 5:00 a.m. with her sister-in-law Kami and picked up a few more things.  We capped off the morning at Joann's at 6:00 a.m. however once we got inside and pulled a number we were number 93 to have our fabric cut, they were currently serving number 7 and that was at 6:15 a.m.  We decided it wasn't worth the wait. 

Thanksgiving 2010

We have now been in Mantua for two full years, it's amazing how time flies.  We are thankful that we will be able to spend Thanksgiving with family near and far.  Quent is working this weekend and we will be staying in Mantua this year but have family scheduled to visit throughout the weekend.  The weekend will end on Sunday as we travel to Salt Lake to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, due to different work schedules Sunday turned out to be the best day to spend together.

Joyce and Kerry came up for Thanksgiving dinner and Joe and Joy are coming up to spend the night.  Joy and I are going black Friday shopping, the plan to be formulated when she gets here but due to Walmarts change in black Friday we may be able to get everything online at 10 pm MT tonight and still get some sleep before heading out to Joanns or Target in the morning.

Morgan and TJ are going to spend the weekend with us as it is Joe and Joy's 11th wedding anniversary and they are looking forward to some alone time to Christmas shop and the BYU/Utah game.  We will return the kids on Sunday before our family's Thanksgiving dinner and then return to Mantua Sunday night with my grandma who will be spending the week with us.  (Believe me we have a schedule to keep track of all the comings and goings over the next few days)

We hope everyone has a fun and safe Thanksgiving and that were ever you are you were able to spend the day with family and friends and enjoy the day!

It's Snowing!!! -- The Blizzard has hit.

For the first time in state history there is a blizzard warning across the entire state, issued for this afternoon through about noon Wednesday. I went to the grocery store this morning ahead of the crazy weather to finish getting everything we needed for Thanksgiving.  The storm is supposed to be over by mid-day tomorrow and our high for the next couple of days isn't supposed to get much over 20 degrees. 

Prior to the storm we had crazy winds gusting as high as 67 mph and blowing 20-30 mph most of the day.  The snow we received over the weekend was neatly redistributed all over the place.  

It started snowing here about 3:45 p.m. and hasn't stopped, it's only getting worse.  The mountains are expected to get 24-48 inches while the valley floors are expected to get 4-8 inches.  We fall somewhere in the middle of that, probably more around the 18-20 inches.  Here is a video we took about 5:30 p.m. and a few pictures.  The lighting isn't great as it was dark but it gives you an idea of how much snow we're really getting.

The neighbors are back

The neighbors have returned to their winter grazing grounds.  They seem to venture to the hatchery every night and sleep under out pine trees.  They have not yet ventured into the yard, strike that, they have been in the yard, however they have left our vegetation alone. We haven't had much snow and what we have had has melted so the deer have plenty to eat without eating my rose bushes, hollyhock plants or grass.  Although I'm sure this winter they will find my plants.

And a few of the night sky ...

Erie Weather

Crazy winds and a black black storm rolled through just north of us this morning.  We were hit with wind gusts of up to 50 mph at the UDOT station just north of town and light rain.  It's supposed to be raining/snowing but at the current time the sun is out and it's a pretty nice day (sands the wind).

I happened to look out the window this morning just as the sun was popping over the mountain peak and was able to capture these pictures.  

Stylin' Clothes

TJ picked out his fancy clothes for Morgan's birthday dinner last night.  I figured he deserved his own special post with his houndstooth pants and stripped shirt paired with a red jacket.  Of course he comes by his fashion sense naturally, Papa Wilf would be proud!