Andrew returned home from his mission in Africa and we all went out to hear him speak in church and then went over to his house for a family dinner.
Then we went home and had birthday cake. Hmm, whose birthday was it?
We were going down to pick up Alana from BYU (Provo). The plan was to head to Grandma and Grandpa's place in Picture Butte on Wednesday night after Jamie and Jenelle's basketball game.
Wednesday afternoon it started snowing....again.
This was after about an hour it started snowing.
We loaded up the van in winter conditions.
The garden center at Superstore looked like a Christmas Tree lot.
Jamie and Jenelle won their game. Its fun to have them on the same team. Sorry - no pictures.
It took about 3 1/2 hours to drive to Picture Butte because of the snow. (usually around 2 hours). This is in grandma and grandpa's driveway just before we headed out. There was lots of snow all the way to Great Falls. We ended up driving about 60 k/hr because of the icy roads.
After Great Fall the roads where fine. We did have a delay at the border however. There was some confusion regarding Erika's Visa but it worked out okay.
There is art in everyday life. This is the hub of the rear wheel that I noticed when I was filling up with gas.
Ice on the van.
More ice on the van.
We got to Salt Lake City around 10 pm on Thursday.
On Friday morning we went to Provo to get Alana. She worked at the Museum of Art (MOA) on campus We checked out it out.
At the MOA
Notice how Alana's placement changes the name of where she worked.
To find our van I looked for that one-of-a-kind topper we have - we inherited it and I've never seen one like it before. That was before this day. I found out that its not one-of-a-kind. There was one that was identical that happened to be parked a couple cars away. Good thing the other van was blue.
"The girls" in the van.
On Saturday we went to watch Chay play soccer. We made up most of the spectators. Chay found his cheering section "distracting".
Blade had fun on the pitcher's mound
They were everywhere downtown. These must be the senior gang members who parked their scooters.
Dave did this most of the time we were there. He was doing it when we arrived on Thursday night and again on Saturday night.Their sewer gets backed up because of roots. This auger did a good job in clearing them out.
Chay celebrated his 12th birthday on Sunday but we had the cake on Saturday evening because we were leaving early Sunday morning.
Then we introduced the family to the Tim Tam Slam.
The van was really packed to the max. It amazing that we got everything in (except Alana's "fat" mirror - a mirror that makes you look fat)
The girls were packed in as well but they seemed comfy. (Jenelle was wedged in behind this seat)
On the way home we stopped in Blackfoot Idaho to go to church. After church we ran into heavy snow around Idaho Falls. It was white out conditions but it didn't last long. The road were fine until we hit Claresholm. More snow.
Highlight: It was great to visit with Wilma and Dave and family. Its been almost 2 years since we were last down there with Jamie and Jenelle. Our kids love being together. Thanks Wilma and Dave. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for treating us to a meal out to celebrate the birthdays of Blade, Chay, Jenelle and me. (And Jacqui as well, but she must of got on a wrong plane and ended up in Florida)
Another highlight: Judy and I were also able to get the the Jordan River temple early Friday morning and the Salt Lake Temple early Saturday morning.
Disappointment: NPS has changed and they don't offer the big sales anymore.
