The elves!

The kids loved the witches at Gardner Village during October so we decided to try the elves. Although they are cute and fun, they are not as fun as the witches. The kids still had fun running from elf to elf and, of course thanks to Aunt Tami, (even though I still had to pay) a trip to the candy store.  Kaci wasn't as scared of the elves as she was the witches but she still wouldn't take any pictures or get anywhere near those elves! 

Here are Chase, Kaylee and "Babers" a.k.a. Layla!  (Kaci calls her babers cuz her mom calls her babers.) 
Chase loves the Hershey Kiss elf.  YUM!!
Kaci crashed on her way there and I couldn't resist taking a picture.
We had a fun time with the elves although if I were to do it again I would do it at night when all of the Christmas lights are lit up!!

GRANDPA is the BIG 6-0!!!

We started out our vacation by watching a big game but we won't mention anything about the game especially since someone forgot to tell Hall that he wears blue!  

On Sunday, we celebrated grandpas 60th birthday.  Grandma and Tami fixed grandpas favorite Sunday meal -- Roast beef, burnt carrots and dark gravy.  YUM!!  Then we had cake and opened presents!  Here are the kids singing happy birthday!

As a kid I remember 60 being so old but now I think how young he looks!!
Here are the grandkids with Grandpa!  
Layla was touching grandpas present and playing with the ribbon and Kaci kept telling her NO! "No Layla.  That's Grandpas present!"
We had a fun time celebrating with Grandpa and we were glad that we could be there for his birthday!  Hope you had a fun one dad!!  We love you!! 

The LONG drive home!!

I thought I would start by telling you about the end of our vacation.  After a very fun 10 days spent with family, we got in the car and headed home.  We had been watching the news and travel conditions but the weather people -- who are way over paid in my opinion  (I want the job that you can be wrong 50% of the time and still get paid $200,000+) -- insisted that the storm would be done by Sunday morning so we woke up early Sunday and headed on our way. We flew through Utah and hit Vail in 7 hours including a lunch and gas stop.  No weather issues.  Sunny. Great roads.  Then, we hit Vail.  There was only a couple of inches on the ground and the roads were clear but idiot people drive to slow or to quickly and cause problems.  10-15 cars in front of us there is a wreck so both lanes are shut down while they clear it up.  We sat in PARK for about 45 minutes.  When we FINALLY got through, we followed the other cars --who were driving way too slow -- down to Silverthorne where they had everyone exit.  I-70 had been shut down.  There was maybe six inches of snow on the ground,  the roads were plowed, not too slick and they were shut down.  Growing up in Idaho, if they shut down the road for these conditions we would never go anywhere!  It was almost dinnertime so we tried to find a place to eat.  The first place, the wait was 2 1/2 hours.  LOVELY!!  Then, we found Chipolte and went in there.  It was only about 1/2 full so we were able to get some dinner and a table.  We would have been fine staying there except some GRUMPY guy at the table next to us kept blaming Jason and anyone else who lives in Colorado for the freeway being shut and him missing his flight. (Like the rest of us are happy about this.  Buck up mister and just deal!)  We found out that they had opened a shelter and headed there.  We were sent to a school gym.  Jason had brought in the kids pillows, blankets, gameboys, ipods etc.  Anything to pass the time.  

Kaci actually was really good and sat and read books!
Chase was getting bored but loved playing the game boys.

Here is everyone along the wall waiting for any news.  (Thank goodness for internet access phones.)
Here is Kaci playing around on the gameboy!
Jackson was trying to go to sleep.  It was pretty loud so I don't think he had any luck!

We watched some lady attempt to do yoga.  She had her mat and was doing all of her moves.  I really wanted to take her picture so you could see how funny she looked but her friend was sitting next to me and I didn't want to have to explain why I was taking a picture of her friend. After we left, Jason said I should have had one of the kids stand in front of her.  Too late!  After about an our hour, they opened the road back up and it was a mass exodus to the freeway.  At that point it was 8:30 and we had been in the car for 12 hours!!  We chugged along at 5 MPH to the Eisenhour tunnel where we were able to speed up to about 20MPH.  As we exited the tunnel, there was a TON of snow.  45 inches in 48 hours.  The roads were still pretty good but we did have to go slow for about 5 miles.  Then there was only about 6 inches of snow and then about 10 minutes later NONE!!  The roads were clear and we could go 50-60 the rest of the way home.  It was crazy how 2 miles could have so much snow and then hardly any!  Anyways, our 8 1/2 hour trip turned into 15 hours!  The kids did great and being the AWESOME mom I am I even let them sleep in and be late for school on Monday.  I rock, don't I!  

Girls Day Out!

With the boys at the BYU game, the girls gat to PARTY!!  OK not really but we did get to entertain all of the girls who got left behind.  We decided to go swimming.  Kaci was raring to go!!

Here are Kaylee, Layla, Jane and Kaci.  They all had a blast. Even the little ones loved being in the water.
Marian and Kaylee enjoyed the slides and swimming the the pool.  Everyone loved the hot tub.
While we were home, a lot of Dr. Mario was played.  Mark and Val tried REALLY hard to beat me.  Val finally did but I was on level 20 and Val was on level 5.  I guess that counts as a win right!  (Sidenote -- I am not competitive at all.)
We are glad that everyone came and we hope that they will come back.  We loved having a full house!!

BYU vs AFA

What a fun game to watch.  Another beautiful day in Colorado, although a little chilly.  I think everyone was a little worried after the first half but BYU looked great during the second half and pulled out the win.  Now we just hope they show up next week.  GO COUGS!!

Grandpa Gardner, Uncle Mark and Uncle Ryan all came for the game!  Uncle Mark must have been in charge of the concessions because my boys are drinking Mountain Dew.  YUCK!
Here are the cougs getting ready to do there thing!  What a fun time everyone had!!

FINALLY!!!!

Sorry -- kind of blurry but you get to see that it is FINALLY under $2!!  YEAH!! 

In my next life I am going to be a...

PLUMBER!!!!!

Jason is usually pretty good about fixing stuff around the house.  What he can't do by himself, he will usually call his dad or ask a neighbor.  He thought that our leaky toilet would just need a flapper replaced but as he started on the project he realized that it was a little more complex.  We had a cracked tube.  Our neighbor came over and looked at it and basically said  "You better call a plumber!"  So, Joe the plumber (and yes his name was Joe and he introduced himself by saying that his name is really Joe and he didn't need to hear any Joe the plumber jokes) and his worker bee came over to fix the toilet.  I had them check our other toilets to see if they had the same problem (before they told me the cost).  2 of the toilets had the same cracked tube and the 3rd one was weak but not cracked yet so, of course, they wanted to fix all 3 for (sit down for this one) $300 bucks a toilet. What!  $300 bucks, you have got to be kidding me. He nicely said that because we were having more than one toilet done that the 2nd and 3rd toilet he would do for $275 each. Oh how kind you are Joe. Knowing Jason, I knew that there was no way he was going to have the 3rd toilet fixed because technically the tube hadn't cracked yet so I gave them permission to go ahead on the 2. So Joe sits down at the table to do his paper work while his worker dude fixes the toilets. You and your friend come to fix the toilet and he does all the work and my guess is Joe makes more money than him.  I want that job.  So, 1 hour and 30 minutes later and $600 bucks poorer the work is done. The toilets work. No more running water. Just think if Joe would have worked on the 2nd toilet while his buddy worked on the 1st toilet they could have done it in 45 minutes. $600 for 45 minutes of work.  I want that job!!