The first weekend of January, Josh and I went to Ogden to see our friends Amanda and Ryan be sealed in the temple. They were married last January the 5th, and now one year later, got to finally be sealed with each other! It was a momentous occasion and we were so happy for the opportunity to be in attendance! However, the day turned out differently than we had originally planned... The prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints announced earlier that week that some of the wording and elements of the temple ordinances had changed. Josh and I have NEVER seen the temple so busy, as a result of everyone wanting to know the changes! Josh drove down to Mud Lake on Friday night, and then on Saturday morning, Josh and I drove down to Ogden (Kanyon stayed in Mud Lake and played with some friends that day). We arrived at the temple at 12:30. Ryan and Amanda wanted to do an endowment session with their family and close friends before the sealing. We waited in line for two hours and FINALLY got into the 2:30 endowment session, and finished just in time for their 4:00 sealing appointment. The waiting lines for the endowment session extended from the waiting room into the hallway. It was absolutely crazy!!! Their sealing was beautiful, just beautiful. I was so glad to have witnessed the joyous event! Afterward, we all went to eat at the Union Grill. Josh and I had eaten there last year with John and his parents after Amanda and Ryan's reception, and were glad about going back--the food is superb!! We sat by Ryan and Amanda, and the meal was outstanding, of course, finished off by an exceptional bread pudding that we shared. On our way back to Mud Lake that night, we stopped by the Berube's house and visited with Ryan and Amanda for about an hour. We got back to my rental before Midnight, and had driven through a couple of snowstorms on the way. We went to church in Mud Lake on Sunday morning, but then our cars got stuck in my driveway after church, and we spent 45 minutes trying to get them out before driving home to Salmon. The following day, there was a snow day in Mud Lake due to all the drifting snow, and I was glad to have a day in Salmon since I hadn't been home all weekend. It had been an eventful weekend!
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| Josh captured this sunset on the drive down to Mud Lake on Friday night. |
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| Ogden temple |
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| The group that came to the sealing |
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Hannah was a little late for the photo (which by the way was freezing outside!)
so we took another one!
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| The happy couple |
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Since I wasn't in the group photo (as a result of taking the picture), we did a
selfie at the restaurant afterwards instead.
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| I highly recommend their bread pudding! |
Josh listed the suburban for sale in January, after we got back from our vacation. It was the last family vacation with Ammon that we'll probably have for a long time, and we decided we no longer needed it, as our new family size of 5 can fit into my car. We were basically only using the suburban for driving to church on Sundays and for going on vacations, so it was time to let it go. It's been a good vehicle for us, and we were sad to see it go, but we knew it was no longer a necessity in our family. He sold it a few weeks later for $4000.
I went out with my Mud Lake friends on Tuesday the 8th to celebrate the birthdays of two of the ladies in our group. We had a raucous good time at Outback Steak House. We ate, laughed, and Val and Rosalba opened gifts. We drove around afterwards, and went to a couple of stores. I love hanging out with the women in our "dominoes" group!
I signed up Kanyon for a Ski Idaho pass this winter: a highly-discounted benefit for 6th grade students to ski twice anywhere in the state for less than $20 total. I took Kanyon and the twins skiing to Lost Trail on January 19, for Kanyon to use the first pass. I signed him up for a snowboard lesson while the twins went skiing. I actually didn't go skiing with them--I stayed behind in the lodge. It was cold and windy and I happily stayed inside and read! After Kanyon's lesson, he went with the twins on two runs before we went home. Kanyon has been trying to learn to snowboard for several years now, and he hasn't been loving it, so I told him after this season, if he really didn't want to go anymore, that I wouldn't make him. The instructor said he did a good job, but he struggled with doing a couple of the runs after the lesson ended. I was grateful for the twins' willingness to go with him!
That night, after we got back from the ski hill, I went to a drag queen comedy show at one of the bars in Salmon with my friend John. This queen right here was our favorite! Some of the other comedians were just okay, and a couple were funny, but she was the best of the show (as well as being the only drag queen)!
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has had multiple changes this January: including wording in the temple ordinances, a time change of Sunday worship from 3 hours to 2 hours, and the change in YM/YW age advancements. Now the youth can move up to the next level class in January of the year in which they will turn 12, 14, and 16. That means Kanyon got to move up to the YM Deacon class at the beginning of January (he would've otherwise had to wait until his birthday in February to advance from primary) and Jonah and Micah got to advance to the Priests class in January rather than waiting until September. Josh ordained them to their new priesthood offices on Sunday, January 20. In the coming weeks, Jonah and Micah blessed the sacrament for the first time with Josh having the honor of sitting by them and helping them, and Kanyon began passing the sacrament for the first time, too. These were some pretty exciting changes in our family!
Josh's sister Tiffany gave our family a 1000 piece puzzle of the Nativity for Christmas. It was a rather difficult puzzle with lots of dark colored pieces. The boys started on it on Christmas day. Ammon's friend Madi worked on it when she came to Ammon's birthday party. I continued to work on it every weekend when I came home from school in January, and finally finished it on the evening of Sunday the 20th! It felt good to finish it!
The Salmon girls basketball team's Senior Night was on Friday, January 25 against West J. I made it back to Salmon in time to watch Jonah play in the Savage band and watch Micah sing the National Anthem with the Legacy Choir. I love watching my kids use their talents!
Josh and I went to Lolo Hot Springs overnight on Saturday for a relaxing weekend getaway. It was the first time we'd been there. We had a super relaxing time--there was no TV channels in our tiny room, so we checked out DVD's and watched them, and read books, and soaked in the indoor tubs. There was a restaurant next to our hotel, and we ate there on Saturday night. We had a good time! We would totally go there again!
Our Family Home Evening plan for this year (it changes each year based on the inspiration I feel that we need) is to have Josh and I take turns teaching lessons out of the new Come Follow Me plan for families. The boys will rotate between helping us teach a lesson, making dessert, or picking the game. We mostly have FHE on Sunday nights during the school year, before Kanyon and I head back to Mud Lake for the week. After Josh and I got home from Lolo Hot Springs, we had our Family Home Evening, and concluded the evening with the dessert and game. Kanyon picked the game "Boggle". Josh and I have both always been competitive when playing games for as long as we've been married! On this particular night, we actually TIED while playing--which was very momentous, because Josh usually schools me when we play this game, but he hates losing if I win, so I felt like we both won in this case! It was worth documenting...
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| January 28: Josh hiked up S Hill to get a view of the golf course. |
On Tuesday January 29, Josh went for a Jeep drive and a hike up Briney Creek. His bus route goes to Elk Bend and back every school day, and he'd passed by this spot every day along his drive and wondered where it lead. Finally, he decided he would go check it out!
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| He passed by some mountain lion tracks |
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| A view of the Salmon River along his hike |
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| Beautiful view of the distant mountains |
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| Cool rock formation |
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| I love the beauty that he captures so well! |
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| This is as far as the jeep went. |
On the night of the 29th, I got to see Wylie start for the West Jefferson boys basketball team. Wylie's sister is my friend and a 1st grade teacher at the school I work at, and his mom is one of Kanyon's 6th grade teachers. Wylie has Down's Syndrome, and just turned 21, which means at the end of the semester in January, he would no longer be able to enroll in high school. Wylie is very athletic, and has wanted to be a starter for the West J boys basketball team, and he was able to do so on this particular game. It was incredible! He warmed up with the team, and played the first 3 minutes with his younger twin brothers who are also on the team and another set of twins that are family friends of his. Wylie was the star: he fouled, made several field goals, and a couple of free throws. All of his teammates, the other team's players, and the refs made sure that he accomplished his dream. It was so cool! I couldn't stop crying and cheering during his play time! There was a huge crowd in the audience: lots of people had come just to support Wylie. I was incredibly glad to be in attendance, and witness such an awesome event. When he was ready to be taken out of the game and put on the bench, they started the game over: both the time and the score. But those first 3 minutes were truly memorable and the best part of the game!
I started out the month's summary with a great photo by Josh, and I'm gonna end it the same way: he captured this gorgeous sunset from Lover's Lookout on the last day of January:
