Tolman Top 40 Hits of 2018

(in chronological order)
1. Attending Amanda & Ryan's wedding
2. Watching Ammon play in a basketball game on his birthday
3. Ammon presenting and passing his Senior Project!
4. Josh getting a free trip to San Antonio Texas for golf course meetings
5. Ammon's senior night basketball game, in which he got to be a starter
6.  Kala going to her high school drama 20 year reunion in Utah
7. Buying a new car!
8. Ammon & Aspen finding the gold eggs at the Perkins Easter Egg Hunt
9. Josh & Kala celebrating their 20th anniversary!
10. Ammon winning Prom King
11. Kanyon playing a near-perfect soccer game as the goalie, and winning!
12. Jonah and Micah winning the science fair at West J
13. Ammon winning District XC Champion!
14. Watching Ammon play at state golf
15. Jonah and Micah's 8th grade formal in Salmon (after attending school in WJ for months)
16. Ammon graduating high school, and speaking at the ceremony as a Valedictorian
17. Playing at TopGolf and Ziplining at Heise on vacation
18. Eating ribs at Jackson's house on Father's Day
19. Dedicating Caleb's grave in Salmon with the Tolman's over 4th of July
20. Kala & Josh floating the Salmon river with her WJ friends
21. Ammon completing the 55K Beaverhead Endurance Run
22. Jonah and Micah's scout camp to Taylor Mountain
23. Kala's trip to see Amanda, her sisters, and new nephew Fynn
24. Jetskiing on Bear Lake with the Whalls
25. Kala rafting on the Salmon River with lady friends (thanks to Ammon for the gift)
26. Jeeping in the mountains around Salmon
27. Camping at Stanley Lake
28. Dropping off Ammon at U of I
29. Kanyon going to XC camp
30. Jonah and Micah got their first paycheck from their first "real" job at the golf course
31. Celebrating Jonah and Micah's birthday at a XC meet
32. Jonah and Micah's team winning District XC champions
33. Micah's team winning the 1st State XC Championship title in history!
34. Kala & Josh going to McCall in the fall for golf meetings
35. Micah, Jonah, & Josh having a successful (and interesting) deer hunting season
36. Kanyon performing in his first band concert
37. Josh's birthday weekend in a nice hotel and Father's weekend at U of I with Ammon
38. Jonah and Micah being the first ones in their grade to get their Driver's Licenses
39. Ammon's hilarious comments after his wisdom teeth were removed
40. Vacationing to Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico over Christmas break

Christmas 2018

On Christmas Eve, Josh and I made an unexpected trip to Missoula to meet a buyer for Jonah's motorbike. Jonah had recently purchased a different motorcycle from an individual, and wanted to sell the one he got last spring as it was too high geared to be a good trail bike for him. It snowed all the way over the pass on our drive and the whole time we were in Montana. I was hoping for a white Christmas in Salmon--but alas, it didn't snow in Salmon. We met up at a gas station right off the interstate. It was the weirdest sale Josh and I have ever been a part of. The fellow wanted to try out the bike, but he wasn't wearing good shoes, and because it was snowing, his shoes were really slippery. He kept flooding the bike because he kept gassing it when he kick started it, which was unnecessary. Because he kept flooding it, it would stop and he had to start it repeatedly. On one of the starts, his foot slipped, and his leg became gashed by the foot peg. The cut was pretty deep. He told Josh to load it into his truck while he went inside the gas station to get some bandaging supplies. He came out a few minutes later and said he needed to go to the hospital to get some stitches. By this time, his pants surrounding the wound were completely soaked with blood. He had borrowed a truck from a friend and had driven over from Spokane--Missoula was the half-way point for both of us (about 2.5-3 hours distance). We felt bad that he had to go to the doctor on Christmas Eve, and drive home such a long way with an injured leg! As he was signing the paperwork before we left the parking lot, he lost his glasses, and we spent 5 minutes looking for them--they had fallen in between the seat when he bent over to get a pen. It was just crazy! However, the sale was made, and we turned around and drove back home, and he followed us as far as the hospital on our way.  

When we got back to Salmon later that afternoon, I worked on the food I was taking to Hailey's annual Christmas Eve party that night. I made some salsa with chips, and took some homemade O'Henry bars as well. We headed to the party around 6:00. It was so much fun! There was a ton of good food, as always, and the company was delightful! There was a bit of a rivalry between the guys and gals during the board game competition--the guys have won the past 2 years! The girls had a strong showing at first, but the guys won in the end. We played a fun new game called "Banned Words" and played "Mad Gab" as well. We left around midnight.

My friend Heather sent me this surprise Christmas gift in the mail.

I love the earrings she made! And I listened to the CD on Christmas Day

as I was cooking dinner.

Hailey giving directions for the new game. The Williams family, 

Jones families, Oliverson family, and Hobbs family were also there. 

We slept in on Christmas morning, until after 9am!! This was the first year that there wasn't any unwrapped gifts from Santa. Because we went on a week-long family vacation starting the day after Christmas, we didn't have as many gifts this year. Each boy was limited to $75 in gifts due to the expenses of the family vacation (this was the first time we've ever gone on a vacation for Christmas!). When the boys got up, they opened their stockings first. Since there wasn't anything too exciting in the stockings, I gave them all scratch tickets for the first time ever, that way they could have SOMETHING to do on Christmas morning! Ammon was so excited when he saw the scratch tickets for him, because he thought he was finally getting them now that he's an adult (Josh and I always give them to each other in our stockings), however he was a little disappointed when he realized his brothers also got them too!! Nobody won it big, just a few bucks for each of them, but at least it was something different that they weren't expecting!

We ate our breakfast of French toast and sausage, and then started our rotation of opening gifts. Each child picked a gift from under the tree, and then we watched each one open the gift, before they returned to the tree and started the next round. It was very quiet and relaxing, and I enjoyed being with my family! There weren't too many rounds of gift-opening, but that was okay: we are getting to the point in our lives when the children have most of their needs and wants filled. 

This was Jonah's main gift: Bluetooth speaker & earphones

Tim and Barb brought these back from Las Vegas

for Ammon. He collects golf balls!

This was one gift that Kanyon didn't ask for, but was

happily surprised by! He LOVES this game!

Micah really wanted some dressy church shoes similar

to Ammon's. He looks so handsome in them!

He loves those flat bill hats!

They got identical guitar cases to hold the guitars that they got for their birthday. 

  

This was his only "toy" gift this year. He picked it out

with Grandma's Christmas money. He loves hula hoops!

This one even lights up, too! 

The after-effects of Christmas morning in the living room!

Jonah with his gifts

Kanyon and all his new stuff

Micah with his new loot

Ammon with his newly-received presents

  

After we cleaned up Christmas, the boys started working on a puzzle of the nativity that Aunt Tiffany gave us and Josh and I started preparing dinner. That evening, we ate turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, creamed corn, stuffing, and orange coconut salad.  The sister missionaries Sister Smith and Sister Contessa joined us for dinner, and a few rounds of the game "Cover Your Assets" before they had to leave to Idaho Falls for Zone Conference the next day. It was so fun having them here with us! I just love those two ladies! After dinner, our family watched a few Christmas movies like "Elf" and "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation". It was a super relaxing Christmas at home! 

Pre-Christmas Activities in December

December and May are the two busiest, craziest months of the year, I swear!!! Since December is just one long marathon of Christmas activities, I decided to do one long blog post to talk about it all, too. 

The festivities in December kicked off from the moment the month began: on December 1 the Light the World monthly campaign began. The YW/YM in our ward handed out free hot cocoa and free cookies on Main Street. Kanyon and I stopped by their booth to see Dad, Jonah, and Micah. 

Josh captured this beautiful sunset at the golf course on December 4. 

Micah sang carols with the Legacy Choir at the After Hours event on Main Street on Thursday, December 6. They walked to different businesses that were open late to accommodate holiday shoppers, and sang Christmas carols. It was awesome! And SUPER cold! I've never attended it before, and I drove up from Mud Lake that night to hear them sing. Josh and I walked with them and listened to them sing at 5 businesses, then the two of us ate dinner at the Bistro with Phil and Darcy after the choir left there (it was their anniversary!).

The next morning, Josh drove with me back to Mud Lake. We witnessed a gorgeous sunrise over the distant Tetons. He watched my students perform a Reader's Theater that morning, and then he went to Rigby to visit Pup and Idaho Falls to finish Christmas shopping. He got back later that afternoon after we were done with school and drove Kanyon and I home to Salmon for the weekend. We got to Salmon in time to watch Jonah play with the pep band at the home basketball game that night.

We delivered our neighbor goodies in two segments, over the course of two weekends, this year. I packaged together one of my homemade freezer raspberry jams along with a container of biscuits for our friends and family. The twins delivered the first round to our loop on Sunday night the 9th, and Josh, Kanyon, and I did the city/bar hill route the next weekend.

The golf course is pretty in both the summer AND the winter!

Josh has a great eye for beauty! This was a sunrise on the 12th. 

Jonah and Micah's choir and band concert was on the evening of Wednesday the 12th. I drove up from Mud Lake and got there after the concert began, but I didn't miss either of the twins' performances. They both did fantastic and I was so, so proud of them!! Mr. Anderson does a great job as the music director in Salmon, and I'm so glad my boys are both in the music program! Jonah continues to play the trumpet, and Micah started singing this year. They also both took guitar from Mr. Anderson first semester, but the guitar class didn't perform at the Christmas concert due to the limited time available in the commons area for all the other groups to perform. (p.s. I really wish Salmon had an auditorium!!) Josh and I took the twins out for snacks afterward at Taco Grande as a special treat after we helped take down the concert set.

They both looked so handsome!

I sure love these good boys!

The following day, my students performed in their K-5 Christmas music program. It was a cute show about elves. I sang with some of the faculty for one of the songs in the show, too.

Ammon took his last college final on the afternoon of the 13th and he drove home to Salmon that night. Early the next morning (around 5am), Josh and Ammon drove down to Idaho Falls and stopped to pick me up in Mud Lake (I took the day off) to go get Ammon's wisdom teeth surgically removed. The procedure took about a half hour. He was hilarious coming out of anesthetic!! It was priceless! Josh drove him back home to Salmon to recover, and I checked Kanyon out of school early and drove home about 20 minutes behind them.

His face was pretty swollen for a few days, and he spent most of the time on the couch resting, taking pain meds, eating soft foods, and playing Xbox with his friends when they came over to visit him. I know it's not the funnest way to start Christmas break, but it was the optimal time to get it done!

Josh took the twins to a YM fishing activity on Saturday the 15th while I stayed home with Ammon and Kanyon (the doctor said not to leave him alone for the first couple of days). Jonah even caught a fish!

I had a ticket to see the matinee showing of the local ballet production of "Nutcracker", and I had to leave before Josh got back, but Ammon was doing alright so I wasn't too worried. I sat by myself at the show (it's all too real at moments like that when I realize that I don't have a ton of friends--but if I want to do something, I have to be okay with going solo!), and I absolutely enjoyed it! It was at a new venue this year; rather than on the elementary school stage, the director Nida Bird opened up her own stage at the same location that she teachers her classes. It was nice to actually see the show with the raised seating now (the Pioneer stage really is a terrible venue for performances because the stage is only raised a couple feet).

That evening, Josh took me on a Jeep drive up Blackrock. We had a beautiful view of snowy Salmon from a different angle! I loved being back in the Jeep with my man. It's a new favorite of mine!

On Sunday the 16th, Josh and I went and watched Darcy sing with the Cantata at the Faith Bible Chapel. It was a wonderful experience, and so uplifting! Darcy sang in a trio for one of the songs and she sounded exceptional, as always.

That night, our Home Evening activity was to make graham cracker houses. I'd purchased a ton of candy ahead of time, and then made some frosting. While Josh and I were at the cantata, the boys worked on their houses. Ammon's friend Madi came over and helped him with his while we were gone, too. I think the houses turned out so cute! I loved everybody's unique creations!

I went out with my girlfriends during the last week of school. We went out on a weeknight to eat at Jalisco's, and then we drove around and looked at Christmas lights and watched a Christmas light show at a residence in Idaho Falls. It was such a relaxing, enjoyable night. I sure love these ladies!

I've never seen a house so decked out! It was right by Candy Cane Lane. 

This house had the light show set to music, and lasted about 40 minutes.

It was worth it!

The 2nd grade had their Polar Express party in my classroom on the 20th--we decided it would be better to do it the 2nd to the last day of school before Christmas break, rather than the last day. I'm glad we did that because all my students were there on the 20th, but 5 of them were gone the next day!

Kanyon's Junior High Christmas Dance was the same day as my party. I think the Jr. High teachers had thought the same thing as me and my team teacher did! Kanyon looked so handsome for the dance! He normally doesn't wear plaid shirts, so it was unusual to see him with this attire, but quite nice, too!

Jonah and Micah were out for Christmas break on the 20th, but Kanyon and I didn't get home until Friday evening of the 21st. It snowed in Salmon on Friday--the good, thick, packing kind of snow, and Jonah and Micah built a huge snowman near the entrance of our house. It made me smile when I first drove up and saw it. It is amazingly mostly still there (I'm writing this at the beginning of February!). They did a great job! Isn't it adorable?!!

Yay! My Christmas Break had finally arrived!! And what did I do?! I headed into school to watch a ball game in Salmon with Josh (the girls basketball team was playing against the West Jefferson team). Ammon surprised me and came into the game, too. He looked all healed! I loved seeing him up and about!

I was so happy for Christmas break to finally arrive!!! The students get CA-RAZY the closer the break is, and by the time the break came, I was in dire need of a vacation! I was so glad to be home with my family and ready to celebrate Christmas with them!