Visiting the Salisburys in Basin City, Washington

The kids and I drove up to Washington to visit my sister, Krista, her husband, John, and their kids: Kelsey, Lindsey, Justin, Jenna and Jared. A fun time was had by all! We played games, ate delicious food, built things with Legos, swam, and played Laser Tag with the laser guns we brought from home.

After swimming we had quite the scare when we couldn't find Weston. We knew he came home in the van but didn't know if he wandered off on the farm somewhere. We ran around frantically calling his name thinking he could've followed a kitty into a far away field somewhere when we found him in a heap by all of the stuff by the front door. The poor, tired little guy barely made it past the front door before his swimming induced drowsiness got the best of him.

We were all VERY relieved to find him!

"When the party was over," as my Dad used to say, we left Basin City early in the morning and headed back home to Utah. I awoke the kids and put them in the van with their pillows and blankets. Hayden is laying all the way down in the back seat and had already fallen back to sleep. They relaxed while we drove to Pasco and got breakfast at McDonald's. We didn't make very many stops on the way home and arrived in Spanish Fork, Utah safe and sound. I love modern day travel. Road trips are the bomb!

It's Always Fun For Everyone When Sarah Comes

My neice, Sarah, came for a sleepover and I taught her how to curl her hair in ringlets. She was an attentive student and is very proficient at it! Whenever Sarah comes, our whole family has fun. She is a year and a half older than Hayden, and Hayden loves to play Super Smash Brother's Brawl with her. Abby, of course, loves having another girl around. Bastian and Weston love attention from Sarah, and I'm pretty sure she loves all the attention they give to her. Being the baby of her family, it is a very different experience coming to our house when she gets to take the role of oldest AND wisest. We love you Sarah!

Sister POWER!

When sisters get together great things come to pass. Teresa flew in from Seattle and Shelly flew in from Phoenix and Cherisse, Allison and I drove to my Mom's house. We all pitched in and helped her organize her house. Teresa is an absolute whiz at organization and getting rid of things. Below from left to right is Mom, Teresa, Cherisse, Annalee, Allison, me, Shelly, and Cherisse. Teresa quickly tackled the garage..... and won. How does she do it?

Sarah helped clean.

So did Amanda and Rachel.

Here are Cherisse and Annalee going through the 40 pictures that Shelly and I hung on the walls.

Shelly measured meticulously so the pictures would look uniform on the wall.

My mother found many treasures that she had been searching for....and many treasures she was NOT searching for.

Kerry came and helped too.

It was a very successful weekend. There was much laughter and fun had while with my sisters. It was great to come together and help my amazing mother.

Family Lunch

We had a fabulous family gathering at my house with family that we don't get to see very often....even though we don't live very far from each other! My Aunt Melba, cousin Marlene Safesten, her husband, Curtis Safesten, first cousins once removed, Linde and Heidi, first cousins twice removed Jacob and Olivia, my mother, my sister, Allison and my two sons, Bastian and Weston were there. We had fun visiting and eating Cafe Rio salads. They were gracious guests. Now if only I could get them to come more often......Back row from the left: My mom, Allison, Linde, Jacob, Aunt Melba, Marlene.
Front row: Bastian, Weston, me, Heidi and Olivia.

Some have said that I look a lot like Heidi and I can't think of a greater compliment!

Sledding with the Routts....and Grandma Bastian

The Saturday after Christmas Day we went sledding with my sister, Allison, her husband, Bill, and her daughters, Amanda, Rachel, and Sarah. My mother came also, though she did not take her turn sledding down the hill. We all ate lunch together at my house before heading to the sledding hills in Salem.

Gavin Comes to Play

Ashlee came to visit us in December. We let her do her family's laundry in exchange for her letting us play with Gavin! My kids love Gavin. He is growing so big and is an adorable smiley little guy. Ashlee is so fun to visit with. When she came in Bastian asked, "Where's Ben?" (Ashlee's husband) She said, "He's at work." Weston said, "Again?"

My Mother's Christmas Tree

My mother called me and asked me to come help her. It seems as though life is so busy, but I don’t ever want to think that life is too busy to help the ones I love. I rearranged my schedule and had a good friend watch Bastian after kindergarten on a Monday so I could go help her. Initially I thought I was going over to help pack some of Cherisse’s things in boxes as she has just moved into her own apartment with Jesse and Annalee. She has been living with my mother for around 2 years now. But to my surprise, when I got to my mom’s house she had the tree up and said, “We’re going to decorate the tree.” I love decorating trees. I love looking at each ornament. Each one is unique and has its own beauty and charm. But what I failed to realize is that my mother has a REAL tree. You know, the kind that is cut down in a forest. It would be hours before we would pull out decorations for the tree. FIRST AND FOREMOST comes the dreaded lights. I got up on the ladder to start the lights on her 12 foot tree. My mom is the queen of Christmas and the pressure I felt to do a great job on her tree was huge. I knew that she would love ANYTHING that I did on the tree, but I have been staring with admiration at her trees for years and to mess up on HER tree was a distressing thought. It didn’t help when she said, “I want all the lights on the top to point down.” I was surprised that my lighting skills came back to me, but I had to use some pretty powerful self-talk to stay up on that ladder. I have been taking for granted my pre-lit fake trees. My mom and I had lunch together. She got out a letter that she received from someone whose life Mindy had touched. We had a good cry together.
The next day, she called and asked for help again. I decided to take Bastian out of kindergarten on Friday and I went and helped her for a few more hours. She had all the lights on! Hallelujah! So then we got to put on the decorations. The tree looks lovely. We took some pictures but they don’t capture the beauty of the tree in real life. I have come to the conclusion that it is because the camera can’t take pictures of magic.
My mom was looking through her decorations and couldn't find all her icicles. She pulled out this basket brimming with icicles and said, "All I could find were these." Then we laughed out loud.

Thanksgiving at the Salisbury's

We safely arrived in Washington at my sister's house for Thanksgiving. Abby, Jenna, and Weston are below with the kitten Marie. Here is what we saw EVERY time we opened the front door. With a crowd like this on the front porch, the door was opened OFTEN....by Weston.

Thanksgiving dinner was oh so delicious! Turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, mmm yam yam, rolls, jam, orangesicle jello/pudding with whipped topping, corn, and nut cups with nuts and m&ms. The thought of this dinner still makes me salivate.

Krista is quite the hostess. Everything was beautiful AND delicious.

We had so much fun playing phase 10 one night and I said how surprised I was that we weren't decorating her tree. Krista said, "I didn't think you would want to do that." I said, "Why would you think that?" Krista said, "Jenna, hurry downstairs and get all the Christmas decorations!" Abby and Jenna dragged container after container up the stairs and we put up the tree and began decorating for Christmas.

It was so fun helping Krista decorate her tree. I almost never get a chance to help my sisters and brothers that live far away from me. While we were decorating Kelsey and Lindsey practiced a beautiful duet of the song Sleigh Ride on the piano. They are both great pianists. It makes me wish I would've been a little more serious when it came to learning to play the piano.

This is Krista's tree before I left. After I left she put on even more icicles and hanging balls on her curtain rods. It looked beautiful. I love Christmas.

We had so much fun visiting, playing, and laughing. I am so thankful for family.

Notable Quotables

Kelsey and I went to John's parents house and gave them the extra food Krista had prepared for them as their meal. It's just the two of them and they are so old and cute. Lyman has so many quotes he's memorized over the years and he told us these two while we were there.

"You can't make money by depositing your hind quarters in an easy chair."

"If it's only the view from where you sit that makes you fear defeat, life is full of many isle. Why don't you get up and change your seat?"