"Dad, this tree won't fit in our backyard." "It's not going in the yard, Russ, it's going in the living room"

Over Christmas Vacation, we took our traditional annual overnight trip to Stanley, Idaho. Stanley is about an hour north of the famous tourist spot of Sun Valley, Idaho, and is about 2 hours southwest of where we live. From Salmon, the drive follows along the winding Salmon River almost the entire way there, so there's inevitably a puking kid in the car every time. Stanley is traditionally the coldest town in Idaho every single winter, so the negative temperatures we experienced while there were to be expected. 

Josh's Aunt & Uncle own a motel & the Jerry's Store in Stanley, which is who and where we stay when we visit. Josh's brother Malachi took the 3 older boys on the Friday following Christmas, and they stayed an extra night. The boys went sledding with their Forsgren cousins and played and had a great time. Josh and I took Kanyon on Saturday, and arrived there late that afternoon. Five of the 7 Forsgren kids were home that weekend, which made it fun (Jonathon was at work in Twin Falls, and Eric is on his mission). Weaton's fiancee Clerissa was also there, as well as Uncle Malachi, so there was quite the crew.

The Forsgren's have built their home around and in between the C-store and Motel, and it's so big and fun for the boys to play in. Because their home is sandwiched between the highway and the River, they built a large room for their kids to play in since there wasn't a lot of outdoor space. In the summer, they bring a trampoline into the big room, and in the winter, they always have a huge Christmas tree in there!

 

On Saturday night, we ate a yummy homemade pizza dinner with the "big cousins" (that's what my boys call them because they're all tall), and played games. Some of the boys spent a lot of time in their "game room" with all their electronics games. I also brought some board games, and we played them at the table after dinner.

We spent the night in one of their nice motel rooms that night, but Ammon opted to sleep in his sleeping bag in one of the cousins' rooms instead. The boys watched a movie, Kanyon played on his tablet, Josh read a book, and we had some nice down time relaxing before bed.

On Sunday morning, we got up and got ready for church. My mom had sent the boys really nice church outfits for Christmas, and it was the first time they got to wear their nice new clothes. They looked so handsome, so I took some pictures of them on the back deck in the freezing temps, and they were good sports about it!

I just loved the views from the back deck of our motel room! It is so gorgeous!

Going to church in Stanley is a unique experience. They don't have an LDS chapel. During the summer months, they use a community chapel, and in the winter months, they use the community center. Both buildings are too small for their congregation, so after Sacrament meeting, the youth go across the street to meet in a home, and the primary children meet in the kitchen for their class.

The annual tradition is that the Tolman family from Salmon provides the Stanley branch's program for the last Sunday of the year. This year, I was a speaker as well as Kathy, my mother-in-law. Malachi did the special musical number, a song he composed and played on the piano. It was a lovely program. I really enjoy going to church there! After church ended, the boys played with some of the ginormous icicles outside before we headed back to the motel.

 

After we changed our clothes, and got packed, we ate dinner with the Forsgren's again, and visited and played with them for a few hours.

 

We returned back home to Salmon that evening. We had such an awesome visit with our family! It was definitely an enjoyable part of our Christmas vacation!