Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve!

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

all the creatures were still stirring, probably even a mouse.

The children were (almost) nestled all snug in their beds!

Wearing new jammies after washing their heads...

Day Two...

Day two of our travels took us from Missoula, MT to Billings, MT (basically). The morning started with a little bit of pamper time for me - hair cut and color from Jim's cousin. That is always the fastest two hours when we can just chat and not worry about any one listening since she opened the salon just for us!

When I got back to the house we said our goodbyes and loaded into the van and hit the road! There's a bison farm along the way but it was snowing so hard it was tough to get a good pic.

Rylan, once again, was thrilled with the train tracks on his side of the car.
There were SO many bald eagles through about a 5 mile stretch. It was still snowing hard so I think that pushed them down into the trees, this one was working on a fresh catch from the river.

These were just two, of the five in this tree.

Once we got a couple hours east, the snow stopped and it was easier to see.

More trains for the little guy.

Continental Divide, getting closer!

One of the neat old buildings west of Bozeman, took this one while I was chatting with my mom on the phone... multitasking!

One last shot on the east side of Bozeman Pass. Not too much later, the sun was down and we were driving in the dark again.

This leg of the trip is usually 5 hours. And wouldn't you know it... we pulled out of Missoula at exactly 1 pm and hit the Laurel exit at 6 pm! It was so nice to be able to, safely, travel along at 75-77 mph for the majority of the trip.

Grandma has had some fun things planned for the kids. They've been baking, to Build A Bear, Chuck E Cheese, out to lunch, eye exams (and yah, it was of course mommy who need the new Rx... again, their vision is great!), Zoo Lights and right now they are out delivering plates of the goodies that they made and cards that Karleigh drew to the neighbors! They're having a great time and are very excited for tomorrow!

14 hours!!!

Our trip to Montana started out sketchy. This is the view out our front porch the day before we left and it continued to snow all night long. This may not be a shocking sight to most but in the Pacific Northwest, this equals a lot of snow. We can only imagine how much is at the house now since it was dark when we left and this was before the "big" storm!

Since we left our home at 5:52 am (yawn!) it was a bit nerve-wracking. We needed chains on the van just to get out of the driveway and down the hill. Jim was able to take them off about 6 miles from the house and just take it slow the rest of the way. We got to Gresham, OR - only about 25 miles from our house and the wind started to howl. We also saw the big rigs lined up and chaining up on the side of the road under the first warning sign about hazardous travel. At that, we decided to stop in Troutdale, grab a back-up pair of chains (you can never be too prepared) and wait for it to get a bit lighter before we hit the restricted travel areas... that was a smart choice.

Multnomah Falls was flowing but slowly and all the other falls around it, through the gorge, were frozen.

Hummm, thanks for the warning... ICE.

This is what I-84 looked like just outside Cascade Locks... 30 mph was pretty much the top speed.

The kids thought the frozen waterfalls through the gorge were super cool.

Look! The sun did try to come out. If you've never seen the size of these wind turbines, each of the blades is longer than an extra-long tractor trailer!
Some mule deer on the side of the freeway.
Rylan was pleased as punch to see all the trains through the gorge but sadly, he wouldn't sleep for fear of missing some.

... and then it turned into a game where I had to take a picture of the trains we saw.
Ummm, burrr. This was mid-day in eastern Washington... with the sun shining!

The colors as we approached Spokane were really cool.
Shortly after Spokane, the sun went down. For those of you who know this route... remember we left the house at 5:52 am. We arrived in Missoula, MT at a little after 9:00 pm their time. That adds up to 14 hours in the car. The trip usually takes us 8 hours!

Needless to say, once we got there we had a very tired Jim and a very happy Carson. (Jim's cousins' 8 1/2 year old son)

This is the re-cap of our first leg of our trip. It was a nervous trip but the kids did great when they needed to. We tried to keep away from the crazy drivers and were very thankful to make it in one piece especially since we came up on 3 vehicles that had slammed guard-rails and spun across the road mere minutes before we drove by. Though it was a cold, snowy trip, the places that we were most nervous about weren't nearly that big a deal. It's funny, once you get on the other side of the Cascades, the snow issue is a whole different ball game. When we were driving around Missoula we didn't even hardly think about the fact that the streets weren't plowed!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Yes, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. This is the scene that we awoke to this morning, and frankly a lighter version of what we went to sleep to! If you notice, it's the winter version of Eli's garden! It snowed all day and it's dumping on us again. Jim has never taken a sick day from work but he does take the occasional weather day, and today was one of those days. He did take the van for a test drive and had to chain up to get home so, that's where he stayed thankfully. Oh, and I didn't end up going to my OB appointment either but I checked on the little one and he/she is still alive with a heart rate of about 173 bpm this morning.

Not only is it beginning to look like Christmas outside, but inside as well. Only, it's not that decked halls, cookies baking in the kitchen look. It's the gifts boxed up, emergency kit assembled, clean laundry and half packed suitcases all over. Nice. I cannot leave the house a mess so any time that we leave for a little while, I'm like a crazy person. This year however, I just haven't felt good from the nasty virus that I am still trying to kick and I've had a headache (feels like a stress headache) for the last two or three days which makes it hard to do much... which stresses me out even more. Speaking of stressing out, I thought I was going to lose my mind when I thought about packing for a week. I can still wear one pair of my jeans (eeep) but they don't feel good at all. I had just done some clothes shopping the week before Eli's heart stopped so I knew that I had an outfit upstairs in my drawer but it was like my own little mini jack pot when I opened the drawer. I actually have three pair of pants that fit now and I can just continue to wear some of my looser fitting shirts. Sure, it's not enough to get me through a week but I can do laundry.

Speaking of Eli... one of my girlfriends sent us a Christmas card today and in it was the most perfect little silver angel ornament. I've wanted to get one for Eli but haven't been able to make myself do it. What a wonderful gift! Jim hung it right near the top of our tree right out front and the crystal on it catches the light just perfectly!

We'll be heading out e.a.r.l.y. Saturday morning and heading towards Montana via the Columbia Gorge. We are hoping to get out in front of the next nasty snow/ice (yay!) storm that they are predicting for this area later that day and into Sunday. We'll be going as far as Missoula and staying with Jim's aunt and uncle which is such a warm and relaxing stop. Then Sunday morning I have my own personal "beauty" appointment set up. Karleigh may join me and Jessie may trim her hair while mine sits and then we'll be on to Billings. Hopefully we'll get to grab some national championship Griz gear while we're there... the game is tomorrow in Chattanooga (Mel!) so GO GRIZ! And please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for a safe trip. Jim has put his mad Eagle Scout skillz to use and has all sorts of emergency preparedness stuff for us so hopefully we won't need any of it! Hopefully I'll get a chance to check in again but until then, Merry almost Christmas!

More snow and cold!

As you can tell, yesterday was another snowy day here as was today. The stuff we have now, isn't going anywhere for a while. Jim took the kids outside yesterday even though it was very cold and very windy. They didn't stay out too long but you can't deny a kid from the pacific northwest a chance to play in the snow when you have it. Although these kids get it more often than others in the area since we are at about 1300 feet in elevation, they don't love it any less. It was chilly though around 18 to 20 degrees and the wind was blowing up here about 35 mph. The snow was certainly not falling, it was go every which way but down. They got to play crazy outside with daddy, do a little sledding, made a couple snow angles and came back in... and didn't ask to go back out again!

Luckily, we ate dinner early last night because with the east wind howling, it knocked our power out for a few hours. We got the stove going and were able to keep the house warm but the wind was scaring the kids even after the power came back on around 9. Rylan actually fell asleep in my arms which he hasn't done in a very long time. It was so nice though, you don't often get that from a big three year old unless they're sick. The combination of cold weather and lack of power froze up the pressure pipes for our water pump so we didn't have decent water pressure at all. So, around 10 pm, Jim trekked down the hill with the 4 wheel drive pick up truck to fix that in um, 12 degree, insanely windy, weather. He was able to hold the switch to fill the tanks in the basement so we had running water and power by the time we got into bed around 10:30 last night. Come to find out though, in that trip down and back up, the 4 wheel drive in the truck managed to get locked so that's not working right either. Of course! Luckily, that's just our back up vehicle and by this morning the road crews had, plowed, sanded and de-iced our hill so taking the car to work was no problem for him. It does seem that when something goes, it all goes though doesn't it?! I got the pump guy out here this afternoon and he explained where the issue really lies and I'll just say that we're lucky that nothing is broken down at the pump because there were frozen pipes, not a frozen switch - so Jim was messing with a whole lot of pressure that in the words of the fatherly pump guy "can often end up going boom, and nobody wants that." Yikes! So, the way to thaw it out is with a torch. Go figure. Who would have thought that using a torch would be safer than flipping a switch!?!

First Snow!

We have our first snow of the season! The kids were super excited when they woke up and saw it even though it's really just a dusting. We're supposed to get a fair amount more tonight. It's pretty much been snowing all day but the temp right now is at that right in between place where it's just soppy wet but still snowing hard. I can hear the few cars outside the window and some are having more luck than other navigating the hill but that's par for the course up here. So, for now, I'll just share a couple pics and then I think I'm going to join the kiddos for a nap!

This is the "this is the closest thing to a smile you're going to get since you made me stop playing to smile" smile:

This is the "you can't make me look at you" look:

And, what's a little slave labor? The snow was so wet that it stuck to the dish so of course very little was coming in!

That's it for now and hopefully, if we have to put up with this crazy cold snap that they're predicting, we'll actually have some snow to play in! If we get it tonight, it'll be sticking around for the next 5 days or so.