Saturday, November 28, 2009

Hunting for Trees in the Idaho Wilderness

My alarm blares at me at 6:30 AM. I hit snooze - for the next half hour...

In a subconsious state, I hear Pops coming down the stairs and I know what he's up to. My door cracks open and I moan, "I'm awake," before he has a chance to say a word. Suddenly my alarm goes off again. Ok. I'm awake - really.

As much as I despise getting up in the morning, I wouldn't sleep through Christmas Tree hunting! I piled on layers of warm clothes and we all piled in the subby. Our neighbors, the Nichols, were parked by the curb waiting for us. We were off - almost.

We stopped at the park and ride by the freeway and grabbed Grandma and Grandpa. And we called Chad and Shallen to tell them we were on our way. Then we were off!

Grandma and Grandpa
Chad and Shallen

We drove through Sardine Canyon and entered into "my territory" - land of the Aggies. Except, I wasn't awake to comment on anything. I practically slept the whole ride as we made our way up to the wildernesses of Preston, Idaho.

After passing through a quaint little town, we soon transitioned to dirt roads. Closer.

We parked and the subby's skipping engine shut off. Let the hunt begin!


It was a most lovely day! Not too cold - all I needed was my coat and boots. The snow was super fluffy and "dry" so nothing stuck to you! I was pumped. After much debate, my mom and pops decided to head up the hill, and me and Jord followed. My boots are two sizes too big, so I trudged up the vertical "hill" with much difficulty. Of course, there was everything BUT worthy Christmas trees. We cut across the mountain side in hopes of spotting a tree. Note: I have never been whacked in the face by so many oncoming branches in my life!

I was tripping every other step and nearing face plants more often than not - I prayed that I could live to make it to my next step. I managed to jam my fingers between two branches, in which I was stuck. Later, I found myself lodged between two logs in which my boot was stuck! I came this close to losing my eye on another occasion! I slipped, I was whacked, I was slow...but my brother is the kindest kid out there, and waited for me! I love him. :)

We began crossing a grassy-ish hill, dappled in snow. It reminded me of Lord of the Rings. I was undoubtedly a hobbit. My boots were too large for my body. Jordan was Gandolf because he had a walking stick and had a huge coat that I judged worthy to be a cloak. Mom was Gimli, because she could be. And dad was Aragorn because he is the master tree tracker. Later, we changed him to Legolas because the saw in his hand resembled a bow and arrow...and that way Gimli and He were allowed to fight. :)


With no good tree in sight, we began trudging back up the road. I bailed when the cars were in my view. My family went ahead. I hopped in the subby, layed on my pillow, and crashed. I woke up, attempted to read a book that my roommate lent me, and realized that since I wasn't moving, outside was terribly nippy. Me and Jord cracked open some lunch.

Hark! Just then, Uncle Chad appeared from around the bend dragging a tree behind him! The first success! Suddenly! My mom and dad appeared from around the bend dragging a tree behind them! Then Suddenly, Tammy appeared from around the bend, not dragging a tree behind her - she came to ask my dad if he would go help Troy drag their monstrous tree out from the wilderness. We had all scored a tree at last!!! And they were Bee-U-Tee-Full!

Dragging in the tree
Our awesome tree.

We strapped them to the top of our vehicles. Classy, but nice. ;) Haha.


Our tree is a monster! It's huge now that we have it in our house! But it is a wonderful shade of green, emits a lovely smell of pine, and makes me happy inside.


Now, no matter where I go, whether at home in Logan, or at home in North Ogden, Christmas time is here!

Friday, November 27, 2009

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

As of Saturday, November 21, 2009, all of us in the apartment deemed it appropriate to begin listening to Christmas music (much to Michelle's joy :) ).

As roommates, we prepared a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday and it was simply delicious! There was "enough fruit salad to feed the Salvation Army" and the best yams ever! to be had for leftovers the next following days. Thank you Kelsie!

Most of us in the apartment are anti-Christmas music anytime prior to Thanksgiving, but the following were unconsciously considered:
     -There was snow on the ground and it felt like Christmas
     -Kelsie brought us a Christmas tree
     -We are only together for a total of maybe 2 weeks during the
       Christmas season
     -We just ate a Thanksgiving dinner...

We clearly had valid justifications. WHY NOT????

I walked into our living room Sunday night after doing some visiting around the ward. I was so excited to hear Michael Buble Christmas tunes ringing through the building, and was even more excited when I realized it was radiating from my apartment! Our kitchen table was covered in construction paper and glue sticks, paper clips and staples. The girls were making ornaments for our Charlie Brown tree! I joined in the creativity and snapped photos.

Creating Ornaments

When our tree was loaded with darling decorations, we began cutting snowflakes to hang in our hallway. It was a blast! There were pieces of paper scattered everywhere throughout the room as we made deliberate and crazy cuts into our folded paper. We had a few neighbors stop by and cut some snowflakes as well! It was a combined effort that left our hallway looking like a winter wonderland. It was so fun hanging them up and commenting on the originality of each snowflake.

Mallory creating her first snowflake of the year.
Taylor in all her creative genius.
Downstairs Mike concentrating very hard on the process of creating a snowflake
Me with some tape on my lips...
Kelsie loves the movie "Up," so in honor of it all, she created a "Kevin" Snowflake.
She even created a Squirrel snowflake later on!

Our apartment is beautiful! I love walking in and seeing our snowflakes, and admiring our quaint little tree that lives on top of our televsion. I'm truly in the Christmas spirit now!

Our Charlie Brown tree.

Bring on the Christmas music, for the actual Thanksgiving has come to an end. It's official! It's less than a month until the big day is here!!!! Do you sense the excitement in my use of exclamation points?

Afroed

It was a few days after Halloween.

Shananaba and I walked into Wal-Mart where we were accosted by the friendly Wal-Mart greeter. "All Halloween items 50% off!" And they handed me a slip of paper - suggesting that I wasn't paying attention to what they were being paid to say. But Heck! 50% off? Those are golden words to a college student! I heard them loud and clear.

We eventually made our way to the holiday section of the store and began checking out all the goods. We were trying to come up with costume ideas that Shanna and her date could wear to the upcoming institute dance. Lo behold, we found wigs. Our imaginations went crazy! Normally $8, these rad wigs were $4. We went to the check-out and were further stunned to see that the wigs were only $2!!!! Say what? We had struck gold in the Wal-Mart festivities aisle.

We returned to my apartment with excitement. Tim found the blonde wig and asked to put it on. Shanna agreed.

Tim

Then Shanna broke out the afro. It provided entertainment to one and all for the next half hour of our lives.  

Shananaba
Michelle
Jess
Kelsie and Jess
Mallory
Taylor
Rachel

A few days later, Shanna returned back to Wal-Mart and bought two more 'fros' for Michelle and I. We are the Fro Sistas!