One Fun Week!

So this week has been lots of fun. Erich and I both had MLK off (Yes Erich is back at work full-time now, sad I know). So we took his scouts skiing up at Snowhaven, this small little resort just 20 minutes from town. The resort is much different than I am used to, nothing but green runs...so to make it challenging they have lots and lots of jumps. So we spent the day in wipe out and biggest air contests. Erich one a few times :) Anyhow lots of the youth from the ward were there so we had a good time hanging out with them. Of course the day wouldn't be complete without an embarassing moment. The resort doesn't have a chair lift just a rope tow. You can put two people on them but apparently anything over 150 pounds makes them bobble a lot. So Erich and I not knowing this tried to ride together and ending up wiping out and stopping. Don't worry we got plenty of harrassment from the much more coordinated and rope tow experienced scouts! It was a FREEZING cold day, zero degrees, but sunny and gorgeous!!!!


After skiing we had just enough time to recoup for a big snowshoe/backpacking trip with the scouts Thursday through Saturday. It was still cold but we lucked out and had beautiful sunny days. We got a late start on Thursday and hiked about 5 miles back into a big meadow. We got there at about 9:30 at night. We had some starving scouts by that time!





Friday the plan was to ascend another 4,000 feet and 7.5 miles to a lookout but it was so snowy we couldn't find the trail. We tried switchbacking up the mountain but by the end the first big mountain the boys were practically crawling their way up it was so steep. They were all exhausted and decided to bail out the lookout plan and just just play around in the snow and return back to the meadow to sleep. It was a pretty good time. . . UNTIL we got back to camp and our hard working scout Kade decided to get us some firewood. His father had given him a hatchet, he swung hard, missed the log and lodged the hatchet in his boot. So then it became evacuate the scout with the split foot time. Thankfully his father was there when it happened so we didn't have to call a parent and tell them that we injured their son. At any rate Kade and his father and I went down the hill on Friday night late...his father and I taking his pack, we took him to the E.R. and 7 stitches later he was all taken care of. Erich stayed with the rest of the scouts and came down the hill Saturday. All in all it was quite the adventure!

Coming down the mountain we just sat on our tushes and slid down the hill. With our packs on we really got some good momentum...lots of fun, and one efficient way to get down the hill.

One More Room Done!

So we finally finished the downstairs bathroom which means we are ready to move on to the upstairs bathroom! Here's a few shots of the interim and finished project.

Last Weekend Erich and I took a little break from the house and went down to Boise. I had a Drug Court conference to attend and Erich met with a doctor to find out about getting Lasik surgery which he is VERY excited about! It was nice to see old friends and to have a variety of restaraunts to chose from. On the way down we stopped north of New Meadows and played with Libby in the snow. We found one of our dream spots to live, which is the pretty picture.

The Beginning of 2008

(Libby handing me a rooster. She even points!)

IT's 2008!!! To bring in the new year we spent the day at a bird hunting farm. Kara found out just what a horrible shot she was and Erich showed off his deadly shooting accuracy. Even Libby made an impressive showing. Afterwards we went swimming and huttubbing and then cruised back home to play games with some of our friends Ang and Nick. We discovered a fun new game Hit the Deck.

So here is the almost done kitchen. As you can tell Kara is a bit indecisve. After spending hours painting the kitchen red, she repainted it green. Primarily because the red paint was poor quality and ruined the texture. But as painting the kitchen has become Kara's least favorits task it's great to finally have it done! Life is much easier now that we have a nice place to cook and eat! Ah the simle things.

So far 2008 has been all about finishing our least favorite tasks. Kara finished painting the kitchen and Erich finished his project of updating the electric and plumbing in the nasty basement.

Erich's latest Libby project is teaching her to retrieve sheds (antlers). The idea is that she will hunt them down and bring them to us while we're out hiking. It's pretty funny to watch her try to handle the big elk antlers. Speaking of which, Dad do you recognize the one in Libby's mouth? Jake and Dad you will be sad to learn that Libby ate Erich's Browning grease hat while at church today. It's finally met it's death after 6 years.

One of our new year's resolutions is to get up into the mountains at least once a week. So here is a picture of a hike we took just 10 minutes up from our house. It was fun to play around in the snow. Mom this is the hike we took with you when you were here. Looks a little different all white!