Bear River Lodge Snowmobiling Adventure

We have had a lot of fun the past couple of weeks. The last weekend in January, Calvin, Camden and I went up to the Bear River Lodge for my parents neighborhood snowmobile party. We got to stay in the brand new, five-bedroom cabin, which was soooo nice! It is really a beautiful cabin. We went up on Thursday night, snowmobiled Friday, and went home on Saturday. Everything was so fun.

We didn't get up there until kind of late on Thursday because we had to wait for Calvin to get out of class. He did leave early though, so that was really nice of him :) We played some games and talked with the other people who were there. Everyone got checked into their cabins.

On Friday morning, we got up and made breakfast and packed lunches for the snowmobile ride. My grandparents were there and my grandma was so nice to stay and watch Camden while we went out on the ride. We then got ready to go out on our ride with 30 snowmobiles! What a HUGE group! We had all types on the ride. Some people brought their own snowmobiles, some rented singles, and some rented doubles.

It was the PERFECT day for snowmobiling! We had two feet of new snow and the sun was shining; it was amazing. With all that new snow and some inexperienced snowmobilers, Calvin spent a lot of time helping people get unstuck. We finally made it to a resting point and we got to go out and play in an area called the Super Bowls. This was the best ride of my life! The snow was just awesome. It was so much fun to ride out there in the brand new powder.

We then were going to try to go up the back of Double Hill and around, but the hill became a grave yard for the inexperienced. We watched as people tried to make it up the huge hill, but one by one, fell victim to the deep snow. After at least half an hour of trying to get people unstuck, we headed back to the Whitney warming hut. We stopped there and had lunch, then broke into smaller groups to finish up the day. Calvin and I went with my dad and about 6 other snowmobilers to take the off-road way back. This was a great ride! It was fun not to have to stop to get people unstuck (except maybe me a couple times, oops!).

When we got back, everyone had a little rest, and then it was time for dinner. We had dinner then played some games and went to bed. The next morning we had breakfast, then cleaned up and went home. What a weekend! When we got back to our house, we just spent some time relaxing.

Well, that was our awesome adventure at the Bear River Lodge! It is nice to be able to spend some time enjoying what the lodge has to offer since I spend every day working for it!

Camden is doing great! He is so cute and he's growing so fast. He is totally getting into everything now. He crawls across the floor, pulling himself along with his arms. He's also climbing up on stuff and pulling himself up to standing. It is truly amazing how fast he learns.

So, I can't put pictures on my computer right now, but I will add some soon!

Jump!

Camden is enjoying learning how to use the fun things he got for Christmas. It is so fun to watch him jump and play and explore. He is quickly learning how to get around and get into everything he shouldn't. He keeps me busy trying to make sure everything is safe for him and trying to keep him out from under my desk when we're working in the office.

We had a fun weekend. On Friday, we went up to Bountiful for my Grandpa's Birthday and Retirement party. It was also supposed to be a party for opening my grandparents' mission call, but it hadn't come yet. Oh well! Hopefully it will come soon! They are anxious to see where they will be going.

We also stopped at my parents house before the party and dropped Camden off while we went to the Bountiful temple. Camden loves Tiger, their cat. Here's a video.

Saturday night we went and saw Madagascar 2. It's probably a good thing we saw it at the dollar theater :)

Calvin is busy this week trying to get ahead on school work so that we can enjoy our weekend trip to the lodge. My parents are hosting their annual neighborhood snowmobiling trip and we're going too. It should be a lot of fun!

We have gotten a ton of snow here the last couple of days! Here's a picture of our house and the mountains of snow. You can see the huge piles that build up from the wind we get.

Winter Days

So I haven't written a post for a little while, but not much has been going on! Calvin is getting back into the school routine and Camden and I are enjoying being at home. I'm working hard to increase our rentals at the lodge and Calvin is just trying to make sure he graduates! We're also working hard to sell our house. We'd really like to get things settled so we can make some plans for North Carolina. If you know anyone who wants to buy a very nice house for a great price in Spanish Fork, let us know!

Camden is growing quickly and changing quickly! It seems like every time I do the laundry, I take clothes out of his dresser that have gotten too small. He has two little teeth that have come in on the bottom, and two that are really close on the top.

He is also getting very close to crawling...ah! It is so cute to see him try. He can get up on his hands and knees, and then he just rocks back and forth. He's getting pretty good at the army crawl.

We've been able to spend some time with my family the last couple of weeks, which has been a lot of fun. This last weekend was my dad's birthday, so we went up and had a nice BBQ dinner and just talked and watched a movie. On Saturday we spent time running errands and just enjoying being together.

Well, that's about all I have to say right now! Things are good!

Sweet and Sour!

You know those stories that you tell when people ask, What is your most embarrassing moment? Well, I have a new one to tell.
Last night, my mom came by to visit for a little bit. We decided to order some dinner from a Chinese restaurant in Spanish Fork that delivers, Lucky Five. When the delivery arrived, we sat down to eat our delicious beef and broccoli, sesame chicken, and...sweet and sour chicken. However, much to our dismay, our delivery did not include the sweet and sour sauce! There was only a container of plain, breaded chicken. Well, we simply could not eat our chicken without the sauce! So, I picked up my phone, and from memory dialed the easy to remember phone number, 798-7889.
The person answered, and I began to explain the unfortunate situation something like this,
"Hi, this is Ashton, we just had our order delivered, and there was no sauce, so we were wondering if your driver was still out and maybe he still has it and he could drop it off." In the background, Calvin and my mom are prompting, Sweet and Sour! Just to make sure they brought the right kind of sauce, I added, "Sweet and Sour!" Well, the next thing the person said was, "Um...this is the Menan (or something...) residence." After that, I was pretty much speechless and probably just said, "Oh" before hanging up totally embarrassed! I laughed so hard. I can't believe I did that. So....the easy to remember number was actually 798-7998. Oops! Just to end the story right, we did get a hold of Lucky 5, and they did bring the Sweet and Sour sauce.

Home Means Nevada

Calvin taught me the Nevada state song:

"Home means Nevada, Home means the hills,
Home means the sage and the pine.
Out by the Truckee, silvery rills,
Out where the sun always shines,
Here is the land which I love the best,
Fairer than all I can see.
Deep in the heart of the golden west
Home means Nevada to me"

We have had a lot of fun here with Calvin's family. Camden is constantly entertained with his uncles and aunts, and they with him.

This morning we woke up to trees and grass covered with frost; it was beautiful!

We also took some family pictures.

L-R: Top Row-Walter, Sonja, Laiel, Meagan, Katie, Calvin, Ashton
Bottom Row-McKay, Ivan, Camille, Camden

Santa Claus Came To Town

We had a wonderful Christmas and we have really been enjoying the Holiday and the time Calvin has had off of school. I wish he never had to go back! We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family. On Saturday we had a very fun Christmas Party. With Amy and Danny getting ready to leave on thier Honeymoon to Hawaii, we wanted to make sure we had a celebration before they left. My parents planned the whole day. We had several games and activities and an amazing packing tape ball. If you won a game, you could either pick from a bag of prizes or pick an envelope containing a prize. In the packing tape ball, there were DVD's, lotion, other prizes, and little candy canes. We sat in a circle and rolled dice; whenever you got doubles, you got a turn at trying to rip open the ball and get the prizes out. If you got a candy cane out, you got to pick one of the prizes or the envelopes. Inside the bag of prizes, there were items for all of us to be more prepared-things like light sticks, flashlights, first aid kits, etc. to go in our 72 hour safety bags. Inside the envelopes were gift cards and money. We had a lot of fun!

We spent time during the week making ginger bread houses, going to the Nutcracker Ballet, and playing Emily and Brooklyn's new game, Guitar Hero World Tour with two guitars :)

On Christmas Eve, we went back to our house in Spanish Fork. When we arrived, we found 2 foot snow drifts in our driveway! Calvin braved the cold and wind and shoveled the driveway. We got his truck all ready to take on our drive to Nevada by cleaning it out and putting on the camper shell. It took some extra work because we had left two pieces of sod in the back of the truck and they had frozen to the bed. It took several car washes and a couple of shovels, but we got it all cleaned out. We had fun getting everything else ready for Christmas morning!

In the morning, we got Camden up and went downstairs to see what Santa Claus had brought.

After that, we drove up to Bountiful to see my grandparents and then on to my parents house. We had fun playing with Christmas presents and visiting with the family. We ended the day with a game of Ticket to Ride, a new game my family got. Dad won-of course.

On Friday, we woke up early and headed to Nevada. The drive was long, but we lucked out and got some pretty nice weather...once we got out of Utah. We saw quite a few cars that had slid off the road where there was a lot of snow, but we made it to Fallon without any trouble.

We've had fun here with Calvin's siblings and parents. We'll put up a few pictures of the fun we've had!

Happy Holidays!

We wish you all a happy holiday season! Calvin has finished his finals and now has some time off! We've had a busy couple of weeks with Calvin finishing projects and papers and taking tests. I have enjoyed decorating our house and getting ready for Christmas. Camden is becoming more active every day. He is rolling around and grabbing onto everything. He is so curious and just goes for what he wants. We like to feed him and teach him how to drink out of cups.

This semester, Calvin took a jogging class and he was finishing up his final miles at home on Saturday night. Camden loves to kick his legs and as Calvin was running, it looked like Camden was too! Here is a little video of them together. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to rotate it.

A few weeks ago, my parents were out of town, and we went with Emily and Brooklyn to see the lights. Here are a couple pictures of the trip there...none of the lights. We plan on going again this week, so we'll take some more pictures.