Out in the snow we go

A few weeks ago, or, more like a few months ago, B came home from work and told me that M at work had told him there were snow sculptures in McCall. McCall isn't super close to our house, but it doesn't take days to get there. We love McCall! It's beautiful and there are mountains around it and a huge lake in the middle and trees! We love it there! OK, I'm feeling a little guilt, we haven't actually stayed in McCall. We do however drive through it every time we drive to Boise or Utah. We have stopped and used the bathroom at two different gas stations and stuck our feet in the freezing cold lake and looked at the cabins for sale on the real estate company window. A cabin in the mountains. If money was no issue, a cabin in the mountains is what I would want. When we saw the $5,000,000, yes you saw right, five million dollar price tag on a normal sized cabin in McCall, we threw up on the sidewalk and walked back to the car. Five million dollars. That's crazy! We love our drive through and since it's clearly too expensive to stay there, we clam our drive through as actually going to McCall and being able to say that we have been there and love it. Anyway, M from work told B that the snow sculptures are pretty cool and the first night they are open to the public, there are fireworks. The fireworks alone are almost worth the drive. We kind of forgot about the snow sculptures until a week before they were going to start. We didn't think it would be a big deal because there is such a lack of humanity around these parts that we thought we would still be able to find a place to stay in McCall where we would be able to see the snow sculptures and the fireworks and make so many happy, smiling, we love this, memories as a family. We were wrong, dead wrong. There are only two or three hotels in McCall, and one is only accessible by snowmobile. That really cut our choices down. When I called the lady at the accessible by car hotel to see if they had any rooms available she said,"none."  I thought, "Well that's a big ol' truckload of disappointment now isn't it?" The images of our happy, smiling, we love this, memories as a family were slipping away and I was going to hang up the phone when she told me to call a little hotel in another city. I told her thank you and called the other place only to learn that they are,"about 20-30 minutes away from McCall if the roads are clear." I wanted to say,"news flash! There are snow sculptures. And what my dear, do you suppose they use to make said snow sculptures? Snow of course! And where do they get the snow? From the ground! Of course the roads won't be clear!" I din't say those things I just said thanks anyway and hung my head and I cried. Not really, for some reason, You are my Sunshine, just popped into my head and I started singing. Anyway, needless to say, we didn't stay in McCall or the surrounding area's, but we did go to the snow sculptures. Snow sculptures and sand sculptures are very similar. The only differences are the material that is used and the snow and the wind and the bitter cold temperatures and instead of children complaining that they're hot, they're complaining that they're too cold, that their toes are frozen (maybe you should have listened to me when I told you that rain boots and snow boots are not the same thing and that rain boots will not keep your feet warm. Just sayin') and they are having a snot issue and can we go yet and how many more do we have to look at etc, etc, etc. Remember those happy, smiling, we love this, memories as a family we were going to make? Ha! Good one!

Flowers made out of snow? That's amazing, and it was huge! 

I forgot the boys were wearing tennis shoes, of course their feet would freeze! What were they thinking?! Anyway, when we first drove past this I thought it was a castle. It's not. The theme was, beyond tomorrow, so this is some kind of space ship thing. 

Here is the U.S. Capital. Do all capital buildings look like this? I feel like I could have said this was a capital building and it wouldn't matter what state I said or if I said it was the U.S. Capital because they all look the same. That's all.

 I think this cupcake is awesome! I love the red cherry on top. 

This throne was cool, especially when it had icicle's pointing up towards the sky on the arm rest. I felt so bad when I broke them. Oops! 

 MINION'S!!! Of course this one was the favorite sculpture that we saw. 

We wanted a family picture in front of one of the sculptures. We were looking for the perfect one. We didn't realize that we had come to the last sculpture. Unbeknownst to us, we had used the process of elimination, and this is the sculpture that we were all going to stand in front of. B found the perfect spot for someone to take the picture from. In that exact spot, you would be able to see us and the cool plane thing behind us. Not only did B find the perfect spot, he then found someone to take our picture. 

 This is the picture the guy took. B took the guy to the spot and said,"Just from right here." So what did the guy do? He backed up really far. B and I were talking through our smiles that we, the people in the picture, were going to be tiny because this hobo who is taking our picture is too far away. We didn't want to ask him to take another one from the before mentioned perfect spot, because right before he took the picture, little B fell in the snow, M was certain her toes were going to fall off and K was really tempted to stop pulling on the caution tape and just reach over and only Heaven knows what his plans included after that. In a nut shell, we were done. We thanked the nice man who had a really nice camera hanging around his neck so we thought for sure he would know how to take a picture, but clearly he doesn't, and left. Now that the trauma has melted away, much like these snow sculptures, we look at the pictures and are happy that we went. we are also happy that we didn't spend money on a hotel. The snow sculptures were cool, especially if you're just driving through, like we did or if you own a $5,000,000 cabin that you can go cozy up in. Just be sure to wear snow boots, take hot chocolate with you and don't assume that people with nice camera's have any clue how to take a good picture.

Happy Happy Birthday to you!

Welp, it's true. Another year has come and gone and there is a little lady in our house that had a birthday. M turned ten. 10! I can't believe she's already ten. Time goes by so fast! I remember when she was a wee wee wee little lass and all she did was cry. I would cry with her and dream of the day that I would be a grandma so that when the baby cried I could hand said baby back to it's mom and I could walk away. Not to mention the poop and spit up that was launched in my direction and hit various parts of my body. Needless to say, that was not a good time. Now, she's ten and the crying and spitting up have stopped. We may or may not still have the poop issue. :) M is still quiet. She doesn't like to be the center of attention. We asked her if she wanted us to bring her treats or balloons to her at school. Panic covered her face and in an almost desperate voice she said, "No! Please don't!" I asked her if it was because she was embarrassed of us or she didn't want to be the center of attention. She said that she just didn't like to have everyone staring at her. So, we stayed home and didn't take her a treat or balloons at school. M is very gentle and loves to play. She loves her little brothers and loves to act like she's in charge. She doesn't like learning new things because she feels stupid that she doesn't already know how to do it. She is learning to snow ski and so far loves it. She can't totally stop and is working on it. B has told her to turn slowly and try going up hill to stop. Instead, she sits down and drags her hands behind her. At least she's able to stop and that's what's important right?! I know they're late in coming, but her birthday pictures are ready to be put up!

 Isn't she lovely? She just got expanders on her teeth to widen her jaw for the braces that are coming her way in about four weeks.

 I try to tell her that she should open her eyes more, but when she opens her eyes more, her smile gets smaller. Having her try is funny and sometimes I ask her to do it just to have a good laugh.Now, don't misunderstand, I'm not laughing at her or making fun of her. She laughs with me and then we refocus and snap a couple more pictures.

 Oh how we love our M! We are so happy and thankful that she's part of our family. I am so happy that she's the oldest. She is so willing to help. She is getting really good at cooking and if I need help with dinner I can ask her and she'll come help. She's made entire dinners by herself as I am helping K with his homework. She is my girl support since we are surrounded by three boys in our family. We talk about how stinky boys are and ponder on the reason's why. I truly love this sweet thing and I am so so happy that she's ours forever!

Oh dear what can the matter be?

 Remember this? Remember how impressed you were when you saw that we had taken the wet bar out, patched the hole, had it textured and then primed and painted? We were pretty pleased with ourselves too. And then

 This happened. We were downstairs brushing the teeth of the offspring when I heard B say, "I'm worried about that wall." I asked why and he told me to come look. When I first looked there was a lot more water. Seeing the water oozing from the wall did not feel our hearts with warm fuzzie's that's for certain. B sent a text the P who had helped us before asking if he knew any good plumbers. Oozing walls felt above our pay grade so we were going to call someone to come look at it. P said he could come look. We felt bad because it wasn't our intent to have him come look at it when we asked if he knew a good plumber. We just knew that he grew up here so he might know what plumbers are good and what ones to steer clear of.

P came over but because he doesn't have x-ray vision, he had to cut into the wall. Yes the brand new wall that had been done for less than a week. 

After getting back into the wall, they found that the black pipe was leaking. At first they thought that the water was coming up from the ground and that would have been terrible. We would have had to call someone to break up the cement to find the leak. It was all sounding like it was going to cost us our first born and then Heaven smiled on us and these smarty pants fellas discovered that it was the black pipe that was the culprit. The glue that has been used to glue the pipe together had come lost it's stickiness. We, and when I say we I mean P. He showed up the next day with the supplies in hand. Anyway, we had to cut the pipe in two, take out the non sticky part, put in a new piece of pipe and then connect it to the old pipe using pieces of rubber and screwing them in place. 

 Then there was a lot of measuring,

Cutting

Drilling

and mudding to fix the wall, again.

Not too shabby for a first timer. We still need to texture, prime and paint and then hopefully we're done cutting into the wall for a little while. Although B has come up with a great plan to add a projector that will shine onto this wall. I don't know what's involved in hanging a projector but I wouldn't be surprised if it includes cutting into this wall. I'd be even less shocked if they told us the best place to cut into the wall would be right in this here corner.Maybe we should hold off on painting until we know for sure!