Sleepover in Stanley

On the day after Christmas, we made our annual trek to Stanley. Josh aunt and uncle's family own the Lower Stanley Store and Cabins, and for the past 10 years (since 2005), we've gone to visit them every weekend after Christmas to do the program in their branch's sacrament meeting. We left on Saturday afternoon; it's a 2 hour drive to get there from our house. As we were leaving, we checked the mail and had received a package filled with chocolates from our friends the Johnson's who live in England. That was a fun surprise!

Since it was so close to Christmas, most of the Forsgren children were still visiting in Stanley--all except Samantha (who's on her mission) and Wheaton & Clerissa (who left to visit Clerissa's family), As soon as we arrived, our boys went straightway up the stairs in the Forsgren's large house and played video games with their cousins for hours! As they played, I worked on some requirements for a college class until it was supper time. Erick made dinner, and afterwards, we started playing board games. One of our favorite games to play with the Forsgren's is Telestrations because they are such excellent artists! They have the party pack, which is nice because up to 12 players can be involved. We even got Josh to participate with us this time (he doesn't like that game), and we had such a hilarious time!! We all laughed so hard every single round!

After playing several rounds, it was getting late, so we headed back to the hotel next door to go to bed. We didn't sleep very well that night. Kanyon was rolling all over the floor in his sleeping bag, and the twins were making noise in their sleep, and it was challenging to get a good night's sleep with them in the room! When we woke up the next morning, it was -18* outside (Stanley is almost always the coldest place in Idaho during winter). Brrrr. Their hotel is right next to the Salmon river, so I stepped out onto the back deck when I woke up to take some photos of the gorgeous views of the nearby Sawtooth mountains and the river. 

It was so cold, even the wooden hand railing was frozen!!

The river had so much steam rising since the air was so cold. 

I never tire of looking at the beautiful Sawtooth range

Their church started at 10am, so after we ate, got dressed, and the boys played for a bit with their cousins, it was time to go. Since Josh and I were the speakers last year, Ed & Kathy took a turn being the main speakers this year. Ammon was the youth speaker, and he gave the talk that he gave in our ward in November about his favorite hymn "Count Your Many Blessings". The primary children in our ward were taught a special musical number called "The Miracle" this year, and it's a beautiful song that they all love to sing. So I asked Kanyon, Jonah, and Micah to sing that song as the special musical number during the Sacrament Meeting. Jonah and Micah weren't very excited to do that, and Micah especially so. He kept saying he didn't want to do it, and that he was just going to stay home from going to Stanley so that he wouldn't have to sing with his brothers. I told him he didn't have to sing, he could talk instead, but that was even a worse choice for him (last August when our family spoke in Sacrament Meeting, he'd said that he'd rather have broken a leg than have to speak in church). He just hates getting up in front of people. But they did it, and it was a nice song. We like going to church in Stanley because its such a small branch and a different experience than we are accustomed to. After church, we went back to the hotel to change our clothes, and headed next door to get together with the Forsgren's again.

Jonah broke this giant icicle outside of our hotel room

Aunt Janet made taco soup for dinner, and it was a hit! The boys devoured it! Watching all these boys, both big and small, at the table eating their soup made me laugh! I felt like it captured both the present and the future of my boys eating dinner together!

After dinner, Denae and Michael taught me a new game called "Bang". Jonathon, Aaron, and Ammon joined us, too. It's a strategy card game, with people playing different roles (sheriff, deputy, outlaw, and renegade), and you have to try to kill certain people based on the cards you get, but it's a mystery which role each person is until they die. It was interesting, and had a lot of different rules, but I started getting the hang of it after the 3rd round. Ammon just loved it (of course)!

Later that afternoon, we returned home. Kanyon was so sad the whole way. He'd been looking forward to going there just as much as he had anticipated Thanksgiving, because he loves spending time with family. He was sad all that night and the next day that he couldn't stay longer at the Forsgren's house to play with them. We are so blessed to live so close to them, and to have opportunities like these for our boys to make such wonderful, lasting memories with their cousins.