Christmas in Island Park, Idaho

I know I'm seriously delayed in posting these pictures, but at first I was busy and then I was lazy. So I'm finally making time. And no more excuses.

This was our beautiful tree (everyone kept calling it a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but with decorations you could barely tell there were spaces in the branches). We also raised it on a platform so we could fit the presents better - we had a lot of people...

Apparently in the few days we were there, Island Park got way more snow than it has in a long time. I think we got over 3 feet, maybe close to 4 feet of snow. Good thing we didn't have anywhere we HAD to be! I thoroughly enjoyed having an excuse to not leave. :)

This is what we looked out on basically every day. Lots of white.

Here's Connor, enjoying the snow. Nearly everyone went out for a little while on Christmas day. I think I was out there for about 7 minutes. The boys played football in the snow. I wished I'd gotten some pictures - they had a blast - I'm amazed they didn't lose the football in all that snow!

We'd like to thank Glenn for teaching Nate and me how to play Mexican Train over Thanksgiving, so we would have something to keep everyone busy for HOURS and HOURS. :) I think these guys played for 5 hours straight at one point. Nate was sure glad to get those dominoes for a Christmas present!
Another activity that took up PLENTY of time was this puzzle. It looks easy you say? Go jump in a lake. It was 2,000 pieces and took FOREVER. We stayed up super late the last night we were there trying to finish it. Those dolphins were the killer part. Whew.
Kippy got to lay the final piece since we're pretty sure she spent more time on it than anyone. Someday, I will have that kind of patience.

Until then...

This is how I felt when it was finally completed. I think this face is similar to the one I made when we spent like 5 hours trying to find the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. NOT worth it.
But everyone else was pretty thrilled we completed it!

And I had to throw one of Lindsey in there since A. she didn't get to be there when it was completed, B. because she also spent a TON of time on it and C. She's cute and pregnant, so why not!?
I think I've only made one or two gingerbread houses in my life, so I was pretty excited when Kippy told me we were having a Gingerbread House contest! These Frakes don't joke around with Gingerbread houses. The one above is mine and Nate's. We cut gumdrops in half and made bricks for the whole house. That was pretty awesome.
You may have noticed our Happy Little Joker. Totally Nate's idea of course.

Connor and Lindsey's house. They seemed more concerned with eating the candy, I think. :) Con had a good idea with the skier and the snowboarder on the roof though.
Here's a closeup of the skier and snowboarder.
Dan and Kippy's traditional gingerbread house. I thought it was perfect. The roof was pretty insane. You'd get quite the sugar high from lickin' that thing.
Jordan and Paige's psychadelic (sp?) Gingerbread house, complete with....
Rock climbers and a rock climing wall on the back (notice the climbers have harnesses and a rope...)

I didnt' get any pictures of Trav and Rachel's because they took FOREVER to finish it. :) They made a little jail on the front and a miniature Jack McCoy (from Law and Order) to go with it. Lots of work, for sure!

Speaking of Law and Order, I don't have pictures,but I'm pretty sure we watched about 20 episodes AT LEAST of that show. Frakes family favorite. If you haven't seen it you should. It's been on for 18 seasons, after all. It MUST be good!

Preface to the following pictures: We were supposed to leave Tuesday morning and Monday afternoon the wind started blowing like crazy, to the point that the roads were quickly becoming covered with snow. We quickly packed up most of our stuff, put it in the cars, and the boys drove them down to the main road. What we thought might take a couple of house, took more like SIX hours to do. They kept getting stuck and the snow kept piling up.
Here they are one of the times they were stuck (this is like 200 yards from the cabin - great start, wouldn't you say?). They were there for over 45 minutes, stuck in that one spot.
Here are the snowplows trying to get them out. Even with those two and later another couple of backhoes and tractors, it STILL took forever to get in. They ended up leaving Dan's car at the VERY helpful neighbors and they all came back on snowmobiles until the wind stopped and the snowplows could get the roads cleared.
This is what they all looked like when they came back inside. Trav may have been slightly redder than the rest, since he got knocked off the snowmobile. Pretty funny and sad at the same time. We girls spent the whole time watching out the windows and praying for them. We sure love those boys of ours!

So that was our holiday. We had a blast, for sure. It was fun to be with family and be lazy.

And since no post is complete without my tummy (and certain mothers and sisters of mine would be upset), here are a couple of the belly. This is about 21 1/2 weeks.
Nate insisted this shirt did not show the true size of my belly and I said it was fine, so we took one with this shirt...
And this one. You can be the judge of which one makes me look bigger.

And which ever one you say will probably not be worn again. :D I'm obviously showing more now since a woman at work two days ago said "Well, when did you start showing?" Apparently it's noticeable now.