While we packed the car with our essentials (and yes, we did buy essentials, like paper towels and KC strip steaks), we realized this card might spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E for us.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
We Have Joined the Others
We did it. We joined Costco, and with our fellow members will be buying in bulk more often than we should. We spent our Sunday afternoon getting our pictures taken for our cards (enjoy Michael's actual membership card below) and roaming the aisles. Our first stop: the liquor section. Michael immediately turned into a five-year-old running towards the Christmas tree to open his gifts when he saw the 18-pack of Guinness for $20- which we bought. I was excited to see the five-pack box of toffee chocolate chip cookie dough mix- which we bought.
While we packed the car with our essentials (and yes, we did buy essentials, like paper towels and KC strip steaks), we realized this card might spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E for us.
While we packed the car with our essentials (and yes, we did buy essentials, like paper towels and KC strip steaks), we realized this card might spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E for us.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Christmas Travelers
This was probably the busiest Christmas for us (granted it's only our third Christmas together, but still). We celebrated all over the place!
In Kansas City, we enjoyed a ham dinner with my grandparents accompanied by some of the best homemade peanut brittle we have ever tasted. We gave our Motor Home Christmas care package to them before they set off on their annual four month voyage to Arizona so my grandma can escape the cold.
The next night we drove to Hutchinson to celebrate Christmas with the Ball family. Michael got up early Saturday and had a boys day hunting with his dad and brothers while Becky and I stayed inside where it was warm and made a bunch of Christmas cookies. I LOVE those cherry wink cookies! Sunday we did our gift exchange as Sam merrily passed out - and tried open - everyone's gifts.
Three days later on the 23rd, we stuffed our bags into my brother's Xterra for our first road trip to- and our first Christmas in- Montana. Jim, his girlfriend Rhonda, Michael and I hit the road at 10:30 at night. The driving to and from is a paragraph all in its own.
The weather was fine from Kansas City to about Hays, Kan. Then all hell broke loose! The roads IMMEDIATELY turned to ice and there were 40 mph wind gusts and snow drifts that caused white outs at times. The roads were rough through the rest of Kansas, eastern and northern Colorado and even the first part of Wyoming. From about Cheyenne, Wyoming, to my mom's in northwestern Montana the roads were fine. Our trip ended up being about six hours longer than expected due to the weather but we made it to Heron, Montana, just before 3 a.m. We unpacked, said our hellos and hugged, scarfed down some chili and went to bed. The thirty hour trip wore us out! And I think that was the first Christmas Eve any of us spent on a road trip.
Interesting note: We leave Kansas City and it snowed eight inches. We arrive in Montana and there are just a few spots of snow on the ground. I think it was last year my mom sent me pictures of the six feet of snow they had up there! Here's a picture looking out onto my mom's front yard. The mountain range in the background is Idaho.
Christmas Day we had a big group of people over for dinner and gift giving. We got a Costco membership which we're very excited to start using - Michael mainly wants to stock up on their Guinness deals; I want to roam the aisles for free samples. Mike got a micro multi-tool thingy (yes, that's what I am calling it) that he utilized on the car ride back to KC. That is a Reese's Piece he is putting in his mouth.
Since we were there about eight days, we took it easy. My mom made some darn good food; food that if she didn't make I wasn't leaving until she did! Potato soup with homemade noodles was on the list, along with a roast dinner, biscuits and gravy one morning and of course a plethora of peanut butter balls!
It finally snowed the last couple days we were there. Michael and I took out the four wheeler a few times and trekked up and down the mountain roads and pulled each other on the sled. If only I would have captured on film the air he got when I pulled him over the mound of ice and snow. Don't feel bad for him; he got me back.
Here's a Montana portrait of my mom, Rhonda, me, Ed, Jim, Michael and Danny. Oh ya, and Moose and Cookie.
We left News Years Day. We went a different route home, traveling across the entire state of South Dakota. Luckily, we never ran into any bad weather or roads. The only problem we encountered was the temperatures. Jim's car had an outside temperature reader so we could see the temperature fluctuating outside. We left my mom's in the very northwest corner at about 30 degrees. Once we got to the passes in southern Montana, the temperature dropped rapidly, stopping at about 12 degrees, I think. By the time we got to the middle of South Dakota around 3 a.m., the temperature dropped a lot more. It got into the single digits, it read zero degrees for a while, and got down into the negative temps. Bitter, freezing, frigid, NONE of those words can truly describe to you how cold NEGATIVE 28 DEGREES FEELS! The floor boards were so cold, there was nothing we could do to keep our feet warm. Once we reached Council Bluffs, Iowa, the temperature sky rocketed back to a warm seven degrees and pretty much stayed there even when we got back to Kansas City News Years Day in the afternoon.
Now we're back getting into the groove of things again. Happy New Year!
In Kansas City, we enjoyed a ham dinner with my grandparents accompanied by some of the best homemade peanut brittle we have ever tasted. We gave our Motor Home Christmas care package to them before they set off on their annual four month voyage to Arizona so my grandma can escape the cold.
The next night we drove to Hutchinson to celebrate Christmas with the Ball family. Michael got up early Saturday and had a boys day hunting with his dad and brothers while Becky and I stayed inside where it was warm and made a bunch of Christmas cookies. I LOVE those cherry wink cookies! Sunday we did our gift exchange as Sam merrily passed out - and tried open - everyone's gifts.
Three days later on the 23rd, we stuffed our bags into my brother's Xterra for our first road trip to- and our first Christmas in- Montana. Jim, his girlfriend Rhonda, Michael and I hit the road at 10:30 at night. The driving to and from is a paragraph all in its own.
The weather was fine from Kansas City to about Hays, Kan. Then all hell broke loose! The roads IMMEDIATELY turned to ice and there were 40 mph wind gusts and snow drifts that caused white outs at times. The roads were rough through the rest of Kansas, eastern and northern Colorado and even the first part of Wyoming. From about Cheyenne, Wyoming, to my mom's in northwestern Montana the roads were fine. Our trip ended up being about six hours longer than expected due to the weather but we made it to Heron, Montana, just before 3 a.m. We unpacked, said our hellos and hugged, scarfed down some chili and went to bed. The thirty hour trip wore us out! And I think that was the first Christmas Eve any of us spent on a road trip.
Interesting note: We leave Kansas City and it snowed eight inches. We arrive in Montana and there are just a few spots of snow on the ground. I think it was last year my mom sent me pictures of the six feet of snow they had up there! Here's a picture looking out onto my mom's front yard. The mountain range in the background is Idaho.
Christmas Day we had a big group of people over for dinner and gift giving. We got a Costco membership which we're very excited to start using - Michael mainly wants to stock up on their Guinness deals; I want to roam the aisles for free samples. Mike got a micro multi-tool thingy (yes, that's what I am calling it) that he utilized on the car ride back to KC. That is a Reese's Piece he is putting in his mouth.
Since we were there about eight days, we took it easy. My mom made some darn good food; food that if she didn't make I wasn't leaving until she did! Potato soup with homemade noodles was on the list, along with a roast dinner, biscuits and gravy one morning and of course a plethora of peanut butter balls!
It finally snowed the last couple days we were there. Michael and I took out the four wheeler a few times and trekked up and down the mountain roads and pulled each other on the sled. If only I would have captured on film the air he got when I pulled him over the mound of ice and snow. Don't feel bad for him; he got me back.
Here's a Montana portrait of my mom, Rhonda, me, Ed, Jim, Michael and Danny. Oh ya, and Moose and Cookie.
We left News Years Day. We went a different route home, traveling across the entire state of South Dakota. Luckily, we never ran into any bad weather or roads. The only problem we encountered was the temperatures. Jim's car had an outside temperature reader so we could see the temperature fluctuating outside. We left my mom's in the very northwest corner at about 30 degrees. Once we got to the passes in southern Montana, the temperature dropped rapidly, stopping at about 12 degrees, I think. By the time we got to the middle of South Dakota around 3 a.m., the temperature dropped a lot more. It got into the single digits, it read zero degrees for a while, and got down into the negative temps. Bitter, freezing, frigid, NONE of those words can truly describe to you how cold NEGATIVE 28 DEGREES FEELS! The floor boards were so cold, there was nothing we could do to keep our feet warm. Once we reached Council Bluffs, Iowa, the temperature sky rocketed back to a warm seven degrees and pretty much stayed there even when we got back to Kansas City News Years Day in the afternoon.
Now we're back getting into the groove of things again. Happy New Year!
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