A Bill to Endorse

Tuesday I arrived home willing the snow to fall faster and thicker because I was in no mood to go back to work on Wednesday.  It wasn't that I didn't want to deal with something in particular so much as I just felt exhausted.  I had a full day of church and work on Sunday, and I had stayed late nearly every evening the week before.  Feeling out of sync, I hoped that the inch of snow would at least pile in front of our door and keep me in.  Gratefully, it didn't.

 

As I worked up a batch of chocolate chip cookies after dinner, the phone rang.  The caller id gave me no help to know who it was, so I was quite surprised to hear Tom's friend JW on the line.  I haven't seen him in 18 months, so with a happy surprise, I passed the phone off to Tom.  As I stirred in the chocolate chips, I realized that there was probably only bad news on the end of that line.  JW's dad was diagnosed with ALS a while back, the fast moving kind.  Indeed, Bill went to be with his creator on January 19th.  I never met Bill, though the stories paint a lovely image of a faith-filled man who lived and loved with all his heart, all his soul, and all his mind.  The funeral was Wednesday at 1 pm, so without delay we both spoke to our bosses, who both understood the need for the time off. 

 

Driving to Santa Fe, Thomas filled me in on even more stories and wisdom from Bill.  He leaves behind a wife and four children, the oldest being Tom's friend JW,  They've been friends since middle school, and Rosalie affectionately called Tom a son, too. The church was packed, but we found a seat up near the front.  The service was beautiful and stirring. The reception might not have ended for us, had we not had Granny's birthday party to get to in Miami.  As we entered the church and up to our leaving, Tom pointed out old friends from back in the day.  This is a side I have yet to see of Tom's past, and surrounded by friends, he talked and talked and talked.

 

Though I never met him, I can tell by the legacy he leaves in his family what a familiar man he would have been had we met.  After our wedding in 2010, JW and his wife Stephanie and their three boys stopped by Miami on their way back to Ithaca, New York for work.  I hadn't seen them since, and yet I was clutched tight by JW's family as if they knew me back in middle school, too.  His brother Dave hugged me and said how great it was to meet me and all the good things he had heard about me.  He remembered how much fun his nephews had visiting us 18 months earlier.  His mom held me as tight as a daughter and kissed my cheek and looked into my spirit with such fierce recognition that I knew her amazing capacity to love.  JW's sisters are much younger, but even they seemed to know who I was.  It felt good to belong in a place where I was still very much a stranger. 

 

I wish I had the occasion to meet Bill.   I am grateful Tom carries his spirit with him.

 

"When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul."  from the card we found and also the first verse to one of the songs we sang...

How to Start Your Day

This week, though a "short" week because the office was closed on Monday, feels like it has been dragging on too long.  Though the office was closed, I did work Sunday afternoon and will have a full day this coming Sunday, too.  Maybe this is tipping the scale a little heavier on the "long" side.  Plus, Thomas has not been feeling super, and these last couple of days it's been a mind over matter situation for me.  "I can't get sick; I don't have time to get sick," I keep telling myself.

 

So in addition to gobbling up little tangerines for Vitamin C and trying to get a good night's rest, I have been supplementing my immunity with eye candy.  Sounds weird, I know, but follow this link to see what lifts my spirits.  Better than taking two pills every four hours, this will instantaneously bring a smile to your face.  They say that laughter is the best medicine, so don't hold back! 

 

If at first you didn't succeed, click any part of this sentence four times a day, roughly every four to six hours, to feel great!

FIRE DRILL!!!

Actually, it was more like a smoke alarm!

Tom is not one to make a big fuss about his birthday, and he really prefers that nobody else make a fuss either.  Last year we had cake mid-week at Mom & Pop's to celebrate here, and we drove up to Denver for the weekend and had dinner with his friends up in Conifer.  This year we weren't planning on going anywhere, since we just spent a lot of time in the car driving to and from Portland.

So for his birthday, I tried to make a special meal.  On the eve of his birthday, I whipped up a stuffed lobster tail over pasta dish.  It was super tasty, and maybe even better than the actual birthday meal.  He has talked about on a number occasions a favorite dish that his mom made - ground beef and cabbage.  I tried to be sneaky and get the method of cooking from his mom - not really a recipe: ingredients are browned ground beef and chopped cabbage.  Of course I got caught on the phone with a parishioner for an hour, 30 minutes of which was past the end of my work day - time I really needed to race home and start cooking if I was going to beat him home.  Luckily I had arranged for Pop to stall him and ask him to stop by on his way home.  And he was running late, too. 

Dinner was, needless to say, a surprise to him.  I haven't cooked meat yet for him, and he took it as a sign I might eat it with him, but I opted for a burrito.  I had picked up some rocky road ice cream - his favorite - and stuck a candle in it for dessert.  He opened his gifts from me, and we enjoyed a quiet rest of the evening.

The party really got hopping forty-eight hours later!  We went over to Daniel and Julie's house for dessert and drinks.  It was fun, and we had a lot of fun.  I made a German chocolate cake for Thomas with home-made coconut, pecan frosting.  It was tasty - even I ate some.  I had 35 candles left after the one in the ice cream Wednesday, so in they all went to spell "TOM":

A flaming Tom on his cake:

 His cake put off a lot of light, and before he even had a chance to blow them out, the smoke alarm went off! 

We sat and told stories until late in the night.  It was fun to party on a Friday because most nobody had to get up too early.  And everyone got a party favor after he opened his candy-gram from Portland with more candy than the kids get for Halloween!  We were lucky to sleep in together in the morning and enjoy a lazy day start to a busy and hard-working rest of our weekend!

I LOVE YOU, THOMAS!!

Yeah Hooray!

I am not a New Year's Resolution type.  Yet I find myself secretly proud of myself for accomplishing something I decided I should do in 2012.  Not sure how to classify it, but proud all the same, and I am going to shamelessly pat myself on the back for it because it's really not a big deal to anyone else.

My mom found out the day we arrived in Portland for Christmas vacation that she had breast cancer.  I use past tense, optimistically, because she had a mastectomy on Thursday of last week.  Really - a dramatic two weeks for her.  It shocked me and scared me, but most of all reminded me that I haven't been to a doctor for anything but trauma and drama since 2002-ish.  That's a long time!  I wasn't an athlete and didn't have a commercial driver's license, so I had no need for regular physicals of any kind.  And while I like to think I have had more than enough doctor's appointments, surgeries, and physical therapy to last a lifetime, I know that "wellness visits" can be a positive thing.

Today was my appointment with a nurse practitioner recommended by my sister-in-law.  It was a good appointment, except for forgetting to ask about a tetanus shot (better to get the preventative shot than need an emergency room visit!).  I also have set the balls in motion for some baseline testing, considering the health risks I have inherited from my parents.  It feels good to have been able to do this.  And my NP is really awesome.  (Thanks, Marie, for a good recommendation.)

And now, post my momma's surgery, I am surprised.  Sure I was scared, but I should think my momma would be even more scared.  And though I know I was praying for her among of chorus of other friends and family and family of friends and friends of family....she's touched a lot of lives, her every response has been an attitude of gratitude!  What an example of faith and a thankful heart!

ps - my other resolution-ish thing has been to walk more.  I have already gotten in 3 - 1 hour long walks and a 20 minute one in.  Not bad for the winter!

pps - yeah - the sunsets and full moon have been amazingly beautiful!  And the reflection of the colors in the melting snow was just wild!

Forest & Desert in One!

Holbrook had been our stopover specifically so we could drive through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park.  Just south of town you pick up the highway through the park and then catch I-40 at the north end of town.  This was definitely set up to be a drive-through park, and though there are a lot of pre-marked areas to go explore things they want you to see, there is a lot more to the park that is off limits.  Thomas and I felt a little restricted, but not for everyone staring down their nose at you reminding you not to pick up any petrified wood or other articles.  The map even came with a notice to rat out any other tourists who looked suspiciously like stealing our national treasures.  When I picked up a pistachio shell that very obviously didn't belong (it wasn't petrified yet, and I don't think any of the petrified trees were pistachio trees), I was conscious that it looked like I might be convicting a felony instead of picking up someone else's trash.  Enough rant - we made it out with a courteous, "Did you have fun?" from the park ranger in the booth as we exited and didn't have any cavity searches for fossilized bark.  And truthfully, it really was worth seeing.

There was a neat video about the Triassic Park that it used to be and how the petrified wood came to be.  What I wanted to know is if they can count the rings of a petrified tree to figure out how old it was when it fell!  These pictures make it look like you could...

This down tree looked more real than the others.  The blonder color of petrified bark intrigued me.

The north end of the park is painted desert.  We pulled over for a couple more pictures, but what we remarked about the two ends of the park is that any Joe Schmoe could walk right down old Route 66 and not notice either one - the petrified wood or the painted desert.  The colors are stunning, but you can't see what's out there until you're practically right up on the rim.  Wonder how many people passed by without seeing and felt bad when they found out what they missed?!?



A little water was trickling through, but the wideness of the beds made me think that when the rain does come, the flash floods through the desert must be awesome.



Home Again!

The rest of the drive from the Painted Desert was mostly a breeze.  We did take a less than satisfying detour to find a spot Thomas passed years and years back, but it wasn't on the map and thus difficult to find.  We turned around before running out of gas.  We also stopped for groceries and dinner in Santa Fe.  It was late when we got home, but we managed to drag ourselves and any perishable items out of the car.

Tom built a fire and stood in front of it.  This was what he wanted to do.  I called our parents to say we arrived and then listened to messages and sorted through the mail.  We both were a little too keyed up to just crash, but the time came and reminded us what a comfortable bed we have.  We let the sun get high in the sky before daring to step out of it.  We busied ourselves with getting ready for NM family Christmas and New Year's Eve celebration rolled into one, unpacking the car and possibly unpacking the bags unpacked from the car, watering plants, napping, and getting our bearings.

The Christmas party was fun.  We showed up a little early to Marie and Dave's to hang out.  The last couple years the party has been across the road at Daniel & Julie's, but the snow and mud slick between their driveway and Salado Creek Rd might have turned our fun into a tow-party.


Maya helped Sofia feel a little more festive with her Santa hat.

Sofia was happy hanging out in front of the fire place until we all descended on the tree and many presents underneath.  Everyone was so generous!

We ate, we drank, and we were merry!  Julie brought a delicious frozen strawberry-fruity punch that we spiked, and the boys were sampling shots of Christmas presents.  The party lasted until about 11:30 pm for us, and then it was time to pack up.  We made it home and rang in the New Year with a kiss and a phone call to my parents.  Having officially celebrated New Year's with me, they were free to go to bed.  We slept in for another sluggo day.  The compost, some housecleaning, stacking wood - much that could have been done, but we left it for another day and enjoyed a day of rest (Thomas loaded a new computer game, and I worked on a new kakuro book) and talking with friends.

The second is another story.  Having enoyed our day of rest, we both had Monday off and put it to good use.  I went for an hour long walk and came back ready to work.  Thomas got to work on a cat house for Felix and blocked off the entrance to under the trailer - it was time.  I restocked the wood porch and split kindling after composting a few buckets of food scraps.  And then I set to work on cleaning the bathrooms (the last motel of our trip home inspired me).  We put in a full day of work and then called it quits.  It feels good to be home!

Felix's new home...Tom put it a little platform inside and carpeted the whole thing.  We welcome any suggestions on how to get Felix to live in it.  Monday night we lay in bed listening to her scratching for a way back under the house, and from what we can tell, it hasn't been lived in.

A Grand Sight Pt II

From the Kolb Studio, we walked back out to a shuttle to take us back to the parking lot.  I was amazed at how large the "village" at the south rim is.  I didn't realize how commercialized it is.  I commented to Thomas about how the Grand Canyon is a spectator sport.  Sure there is hiking and camping, which we really hope to be able to go back and do, but it felt much more separate from us than our trips through other national parks.  Don't get me wrong - beeeeeautiful!  

We headed down to the east end of the rim and walked around.  It was again stunning.  The tower was crowded with people, so we wandered off on our own.  The sun was setting, the winds were picking up, and the temperature was falling.  I was amused at the fashion of the Grand Canyon, and Thomas and I laughed about the various styles.  We were in the minority that lacked style - knee high leather boots, the hats, the sun glasses, the leggings and designer labels.  A lot of them looked very cold at the end of the day.  But we didn't go for people watching (just an extra bonus): more pictures!

The south rim was the most convenient for our other national park visits and for travel time.  However, we noted that the pictures from the north rim would likely have looked a lot more snowy.  We also would have had the sun on our face and not our backs as we gazed, and the opposite in the pictures.  Interesting observation...  I wonder

How awesome~

Driving away from the Grand Canyon, the colors and sunset were all stunning.  We basked in the glow of a beautiful day.  We also looked forward to a good meal - a sit down affair with service (like I said, breakfast didn't count).  Since our grand feast of sizzling soup and leftovers on Monday, we had mostly been snacking and piecing together meals.  Amy & Pat gave us a delicious loaf of bread that we just ate plain out of the bag - so good!  We also had crackers, cuties, spiced nuts, and Tom's beef jerky.  We were able to get by on that considering that we were so sedentary.  But Thursday night we were going out!  In Flagstaff Tom found a bar and grill by the university that looked promising, and it was.  I enjoyed a portabello mushroom sandwich, and Thomas went for the fish and chips.  When all was said and done, it wasn't an expensive meal, but it was a good meal.  It left Tom a little sleepy though, so I drove on to Holbrook, where we would stay the night.  It was an uneventful ride down the highway into another tourist town holding on from the Route 66 days.  We drove through an area that looked a bit run down, so tried our luck at the other end of town.  The hotels had full parking lots, which was a good sign until we learned that they were too full - no room at the inn!  We kept coasting along and found a Route 66 era motel with space in the parking lot.  I was nearly finished with my book, so I let Thomas check us in alone.  He came back to the car and said we had found an unbeatable deal - the room was cheaper than our dinner!  And it was.  It wasn't bad, and I haven't noticed any rashes or itches that won't go away, but the bathroom was at least fifty years old.  The shower bore lost of rust stains from leaky plumbing, and the base of the walls showed where the steam ran down and tracked dust.  It was just as well we would be home the next day in our own bathroom.  All the same, we both slept well.

A Grand Sight

From Kingman, Arizona there is only one place to go.  We arrived at Williams, but we didn't know what time it was.  We had been listening to NPR out of Vegas, and we also know that Arizona doesn't do the whole time change thing, so we weren't sure what time it was.  We knew it was breakfast time, so we picked a cafe (my choice, and a bad one!).  Thomas looked at the clock on the wall, and it said 10:30 am.  The clock by the kitchen said 9:30 am.  Hmmm....not helpful.  The waitress was a little confused by it, too, as she told us they don't change the time - so why would they not be the same?  Supposedly the one by the kitchen needed a battery.  

Okay - the only place you go from Kingman is THE GRAND CANYON!!!  It was my first time, and I snapped a lot of pictures!  And talk about foreigners - there were all stripes admiring the work of billions of years.  Thomas led me "blindfolded" to the stairs that walked down to the rim, and then I looked up from the brim of my hat and just let my jaw go slack.  Wow!!

We started walking west along the rim and passed the obvious sections of hordes of cameras to find a quieter spot.  Is it possible to get a bad backdrop?

This flag outside the Kolb Studio caught my eye - patriotic as I am.  The exhibit in the studio was about the Kolb brothers and their shenanigans in the canyon.  "Peanut vendors," as Tom would say!  We harumphed about how rigid and regimented tourism is nowadays, and that one hundred years ago, Tom and his crew from high school very likely would have been the daredevils of the canyon.  God bless America and all the rules...

There was a lot of snow on the south rim, and in spots the trail was icy and packed snow.  Thomas had no fear to get up to the edge, though I was a little more nervous.

Death Valley

Around midday on Wednesday, we pulled over to a scenic overlook into Death Valley.  There wasn't a picket fence with Death Valley on one side and the rest of California on the other.  The landscape just eased into the park.  Along the way we saw a whole bunch of mines, probably abandoned.  There was also an area of rectangular pools of water - not sure what they were extracting, but a car driving between them in the distance appeared to be floating.  Then the profile of the horizon started changing - palm like cactus or cactus like palms spiked up out of the landscape here and there, never close together, likely not enough water.  A couple were big enough to look like little trees in autumn, but most were stumpy.  As we progressed along the highway, they disappeared, but we couldn't help but laugh about how we felt like we were on some other planet from a sci-fi movie.  Then we saw a guy running with a rope trailing off his belt behind him connected to a tire.  That's when we really knew we were it was a different reality!

Over and over again I can say that the blend of colors were so amazing!

The texture of the land was fascinating, along with the striations of color.

I tried to ask a girl who looked like Maya or Maddie's age to take our picture, knowing how much those two enjoy playing with our camera, but her blank look surprised me.  Her father came over speaking a heavily accented English, and I realized my mistake.  There were so many foreign accents from all the visitors - mostly Asian in Death Valley.  (Yes, Thomas is in slippers.  Wore them most of the way to and from Portland, as well as in Portland.  What can I say?)

We enjoyed all the scenery in Death Valley and made an afternoon of it, since we knew that we wouldn't make it to Hoover Dam in daylight anyway.  Approaching the lights of Las Vegas, I dared let my curiosity get the better of me.  I asked Thomas what the strip looked like.  I have read about books and seen movies that reference the strip.  I really have no desire to spend time or money there, but to be so close and at night.  I dared!  I naively suggested that a casino might be the size of our property - ha!  Ten acres is probably a small casino and certainly not large enough for even a parking lot.  Thomas was a patient driver.  I might have lost it.  The traffic we got stuck in was akin to a line of people arriving for the Cirque de Soleil or other shows starting around dinner time.  It afforded me a little more time to look in all directions and then afforded me too much time.  We were both ready to shed the lights and crowds and people and lights and lights and flashing lights!  It's not like I didn't live a mile from downtown Denver for a decade, but I did feel like Dorothy about to be swallowed by a twister of commotion.

I would trade a picture of the lights for a picture of those cactusy palmy plants at Death Valley, but this is what I got.  New York, New York on my right.  Arc de triomphe was on my left.  Cesar's - Bellagio's - Luxor - on and on...  what a headache to be a taxi driver there!

So Thomas and I don't really worry about the other sneaking off to Vegas for a gambling binge!  It unfortunately kind of burned us out.  Thomas was a little edgy, and at the helm he led us onward to Kingman, Arizona for the night.  The Hoover Dam remained in the dark till next time.  We crashed at another classy Route 66 era motel and rested up for a big day!

Crossing More State Lines

Having crossed into Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon, we took the plunge on an entirely different route home.  We did have a GPS - more of a backpacking model than driving model, which served us well, until we stopped at an information center/rest stop in California that passed out free maps.  We acquired a California and Arizona map, neglecting Nevada in between.

Tuesday morning came too quickly.  I wasn't ready to leave yet, especially not knowing when our next reason to visit would be.  Thomas got the car loaded, and I got teary-eyed with my mom.  She found out on the 22nd that she has breast cancer, and the mastectomy isn't until the 5th.  It sucks not to be there, but it made leaving that much harder.  I drove us out of town via a Hyundai dealership where we could finally get a spare key cut.  Unfortunately, it was nearly an hour delay, almost as long as it took to get four new tires mounted the morning before, and they aren't even a fancy key!  As soon as we could, we hit the road and headed south.  The daylight took us to Mt. Shasta and a little beyond, but soon we were driving down a heavily wooded two lane road toward Nevada that got darker and darker.  

My sister marveled that we would drive to Oregon, but the beauty of the drive is that I didn't have to share my husband with anyone or anything.  We talked and talked and talked.  And despite twenty four hours in the car on the way to Portland, we didn't run out of things to talk about on the way out.  We listened to a few CDs, but in relation to the hours driving - a small fraction.  We also listened to some talk radio - not much, I am picky, and to NPR news a bunch.  The news usually spurred on other conversations, and the distances between big cities often meant we couldn't help but turn off the static.

Tuesday night we pulled into Carson City for a night of sleep (after nearly running out of gas, but I guess we'll never know how close we were because, gratefully, we didn't - no, I wasn't nervous about watching the gas light come on and then driving miles and miles until the little thing is flashing - again and again...where'd you get that idea?).  

Carson City Tuesday night meant we could do a quick drive by of Lake Tahoe, a mythic place of movies and Dad's college summers, which I had never seen in person.  It is a magnificent lake, but since I didn't realize the camera was close at hand - no pics.  Heavenly ski area, which seemed to have attracted quite the ski crowd walking through town, had a pittance of white stuff on a mountain of green and brown.  Not sure where the skiers were going!?!

When I discovered the camera, I snapped an ever changing topography of mountains to our west.  We followed it in and out of California on our way to Death Valley.

Christmas Vacation

Advent is such a long season, and then Christmas seems so short.  But I am lucky that I have spent 35 Christmas holidays with my family in Portland.  I come from a family of many traditions....many!  And while I miss a lot, it is still fun to spend my Christmas vacations in Portland and enjoy a few.  A newer one (relative to 35 Christmas Eves) is watching Christmas Vacation - one we didn't skip this year.  The newest tradition, though, is the exchange of absurd e-mails among the Vigils.  They are generally hilarious, though not posted frequently enough.  This year's theme centered around getting vehicles stuck in the snow - not something that happened for the Tennessee or Oregon contingencies.  Tom also observed that it would be a good to continue going to Ya Hala for lunch on Christmas Eve - second annual was just as delicious as the first and, Thomas noted, likely more authentic to the first Christmas than ham or prime rib.

On our Christmas vacation, we watched some movies, played some games, drank and ate - though not to excess, went to mass, opened presents, and laughed and visited with family and friends.  Rather than anyone entertaining the post-Christmas Dorsey-Ford gathering, we met up at the Kennedy School for a too short visit accompanied by pints and pub snacks.  It was really fantastic and fantastically short.  But we sure did fill in every minute with something!

Christmas morning we were up and helpful before anyone arrived, thus we got to have the first photo in front of a mound of generosity!

Our first little elf tired after he unwrapped a toy truck with trailer and atv, but he did do a good job passing packages out to everyone.  I don't think he can read, but he did catch on pretty quickly to which ones had his name on them!

If Marty's funny face caught your eye first, look again at my little godson in his GG's lap.  Is that a Christmas smile or what?

Last year Thomas and I made a COLE puzzle for Christmas - he had just turned one.  Since Ollie's birthday is summertime, we decided not to wait until next Christmas.  It was a lot of fun to see his mom's reaction, but really it was fun to see Cole recognize it.  Three of his letters do appear in Oliver's name, and he was quick to pull out the O and E and L.  Really cool!  Oliver also found the colors eye-catching and the pieces to be just the right size for gripping.

Ollie and his godparents/woodcrafters...

Me and my goddaughter Maddie!  We had a fun visit at her house on Friday and got to play some more on Christmas evening.  Thomas was quite occupied all evening with a certain little Monica who thinks he makes a great jungle gym.  I think she has the hots for him, but who am I to blame her?

Oh what a glorious trip!  And despite the hours on the road and the whole year of work on it before hand, I didn't manage to finish a silly blanket for Oliver until Monday night before we left Tuesday morning.  Gratefully, Miki stopped by on her way to work, and I could give it to her myself.  I didn't follow a pattern and thus managed to make the most ridiculously puckered, long and skinny, knitted blanket with a "G" in the middle for Greenlee.  It really is a one of a kind piece - the middle panel, visible below, is flanked on either side by two more panels with a brown stripe in between.  The kindest thing that can be said for it is that the colors are great.  The best use for it...well, I am not sure it really is useful for much.

Travel & Arrival

After Tom and his dad got a road plowed between the car and the highway, we set to work getting ready to leave for Portland on Wednesday morning.  We had planned to leave Wednesday night after Tom got home from work, but he was able to take Wednesday off after having missed the first two days of the week.  I am relieved for this good fortune.

We packed what we could before going to bed and finished the rest Wednesday morning.  By 6:30 am we were on our way.  Thomas drove and drove and drove.  One point of fortune was that our departure now put us in Lakewood for a special treat at Mr. Sushi at the right time for lunch.  We also made an important stop for a new car battery (guess they aren't as reliable after 5 years, and it had died already once) and snow chains, plus another place to look for something on my wishlist.  For all our delays, we got underway as quickly as we could, but not quick enough. 

Just west of Laramie, we could see a white serpent of clouds slithering around the foothills.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a serpent so much as a blanket of blowing snow that extended beyond the Utah border.  Rather than switch driving, Thomas kept his hands on the wheel, and I started using mine to count off Hail Mary's while I prayed decade after decade.  There was more than one occasion that Thomas told me to close my eyes, but I saw enough - getting cut off by an empty cattle truck that blew so much snow up, we weren't sure which way was up was the worst.  The one really humorous moment was driving back down an off ramp after someone took a leak.  There was no on ramp, and we weren't ready to drive down an unknown route in the snow.  It was dark, traffic was light - just wait for the headlights to go past!

We checked into a hotel room in Ogden, Utah around 12:30 am for seven hours before we began again, wandering around for a good cup of coffee and small bite.  After an uneventful morning, we pulled into Boise for lunch and then finally switched driving.  Way to go, Tom!!  I enjoyed the beautiful scenery through eastern Oregon and pulled us into my sister's driveway about 6:30 pm.  YEAH!!  We made it!!

After a long sleep, we started to be a little more social.  We paired off - Tom & Dad working on a grocery list and seafood chowder fro dinner; Mom & I off to celebrate our feast day with lunch, a visit to Cole and Jen, and a visit to Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma Schaller.  Our first day ended with a family bash - Dad's special seafood chowder with almost everyone home (Nick was with his in-laws).  In the theme of dinner, Oliver showed us his swimming legs on the table.