Change of Plans

Yesterday Jim went to install cabinets, and they weren't delivered yet. So at around 9:00 am Jim called and asked if I wanted to up to Garden Valley to play. Jim's cousin's Jake and Joann live up there, and a few weeks ago they invited everyone up for a sledding/swimming party on President's Day. I was more than excited to find out Jim didn't have to go work, and we could go play as a family. The only problem was, Tralee didn't have any snow pants. So, I remembered I saw some on clearance at Kohl's. As soon as Jim got home, I ran to Kohl's and found a cute snowsuit, and then I ran to Target to pick up some shoes for Tralee. Kohl's had a special going on where all of their clearance was an additional 25% off. Sweet! Then when I got to the register the lady told me if I applied for a Kohl's credit card I could pick a scratch card and get an additional amount off my purchase. I didn't want a credit card, because store card's interest rates are insane. However, the lady told me I didn't have to use the card on my purchase. So, I applied for one and my scratch card gave me an additional 30% off. I was so excited to see that my purchase that could have been over $50 only came to $13!! Now I just have to remember to cut up the Kohl's card when it comes in the mail. I made it back home just in time for Tricia to pick us up. Jim managed to get all of our sledding/swimming stuff together while I was purchasing snow clothes for Tralee. As soon as we packed up the car we were off!!We stopped in Meridian to pick up Aunt Michelle's three boys. Her husband and her were out of town, and we wanted to make sure the boys could come and have fun. I think their babysitters were relived to have three boys off their hands for the afternoon. We were glad to take them. They're good boys! We had fun on the hour and a half trip up. They had a Brite, Standin' Tall tape in the tape player. I loved those tapes/books when I was little. The theme we listened to was "courage." It brought back memories. Jim taught the boys new lyrics to one of the songs. The real song goes something like, "What do you do when somebody's taunting you?" The regular lyrics teach you to have courage to do the right thing. Instead Jim starting singing, "Beat 'em up! Beat 'em up!" Then he would say things like, "You kick them in the teeth, and flush 'em down the toilet!" The boys thought this new version of the song was hilarious and joined in. I think they sang every possible way to beat someone up including: using a baseball bat, gun, stick, and other dangerous objects. However, my favorite lyric was one that Mason made up, when the song said, "What do you do when someone is taunting you?" Mason's reply was, "You push them in the barn and have an animal poop on them!" I couldn't stop laughing for several minutes after that. After listening to the Brite tape three or four times the adults were ready for a break. Then Tricia made the mistake of saying "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." They boys took that as their cue to sing that song all the way to 0! That lasted a good half an hour or so. CRAZY! Tralee fell asleep towards the beginning of the trip with an Oreo in her mouth, and slept through all of the singing and laughing. She woke up right when we arrived at Jake and Joann's.
As soon as we were in Garden Valley we got bundled up in our snow clothes, waited for the rest of the crew to show up (cousin Theresa and her eight kids, Kathy and Nathan, and Krista). Then Jake, Joann, and their two kids, plus a few they were watching showed us up to the sledding spot. Tralee did really great at first. She loved it when I pulled her in the sled, and she tolerated being bundled up really well. I thought she would hate having shoes and mittens on since she's never wore them before. However, she had no qualms at all. She even crawled around and picked up snow, and had a great time. Then I made the mistake of going up the mountain and leaving Tralee with Grandma Tricia, so by the time I sled back down Tralee was screaming her head off. Jim wasn't around because he was helping Jake blow up sledding tubes. Tralee has major separation anxiety. Plus, it didn't help that she was getting tired again. I couldn't calm her down, so I took her to the van and got her to fall back asleep. After she was in slumber land, I carried Tralee back to the hill, layed her in a sled, and had some fun. I did a couple of tube trains with cousins, and went down by myself a few times. Jim brought his snowboard along, so he mostly went off jumps on that. Jim and I also sat in a tube and went down together.
When we were going full speed down the hill this little kid jumped right in front of us with his tube. We think he thought we were some of his family because he smiled and jumped right in front of us. We didn't have time to stop so we were screaming, "WATCH OUT!" The kid didn't listen and we rammed right into his tube. I saw him tumble in the air above us and land back on the tube. Jim said, "STUPID KID!" Then when we made it safely back to the bottom of the hill we turned around to see the kid slowly coming down looking rather sheepish. We asked if he was okay, and his parents said he was. I think he felt dumb because Jim called him stupid. But, what he did was pretty dumb! Who goes right in front of a couple coming FULL speed down the hill? Really! I'm just glad everyone was okay.

All the kids and adults really had a good time. Tralee even woke up from her nap and was ready to try a few runs. We only took her halfway up the hill, and went down in the tube. She smiled, but other than that there was no reaction. She had a ton of fun later on though.
After everyone had their fill of sledding, we changed into swim gear and headed up to the hot-spring pools. There were two pools, one that was just the perfect warm temperature that kids can play in, and another that was HOT for adults. Everyone had a blast swimming in the great outdoors in the middle of winter. Tralee especially loved it! I knew she would, she LOVES being in the water. Some of the kids got a kick out of our camera. They all wanted a picture of themselves under water. After about an hour or so, everyone was hungry, so we changed and head back to Jake and Joann's for dinner.
We had taco soup, chili, cornbread, salad, cake, and brownies to eat. Everyone devoured the food, talked, laughed, played games, and enjoyed each other's company. However, the fun had to come to an end because we had three boys that had school the next day with us. So, we loaded Tralee, Michelle's boys, Jim, Tricia, and myself back in the van and headed home with memories of a fun day running through our heads.

I'm supposed to be doing laundry and cleaning today, but so far I haven't really done anything productive. I also need to run some errands. I better get this posted and start working!

Here are two videos from yesterday. One is of Jim snowboarding, the other one is Tralee and I sledding. Enjoy!