Snowed in at the cabin

After church on the Sunday before Thanksgiving Alesia, Nancy, Heidi (with baby Wynn) and I drove up to Nancy's Island Park cabin. It was a bit snowy but not bad. We knew a storm was coming in on Tuesday but we planned to come home Monday afternoon. Well, Monday morning
the roads between Island Park and I.F. closed and they did not open until Wednesday midday so we were strandded at the cabin all that time. We had a great time, and though we did get a lot of snow up there, the storm never got really bad where we were. However, we were very thankful
for showers, laundry facilities and the food at the cabin as we had only gone prepared for one night and one day. We were also very very glad to get home Wednesday afternoon in time for thanksgiving.

We played lots of games including a pingpong tournament and watched lots of videos.
We didn't get dressed until afternoon and we played with baby Wynn a lot. Alesia and Nancy went snowshoeing.
It was so beautiful! The last two pictures are a sunset and a sunrise.
It was so peaceful!

The Gingerbread house begins

While in Vermont with Tammie, I went looking for gingerbread house ideas and this is what I found. It is an old derelict house in the middle of a town called Barre and it just looks neat. I printed out the pictures and David started working out the archetectural drawings this week. That takes a lot longer then many would suppose. We finished them today. We have 47 different pieces and many of those will be cut out twice. We also started making gingerbread today and got 5 batches made. We figure we will need at least 15 batches for this house. I'm already planning the decoration and the yard. Any ideas what would be in the yard of a New England home? And what should we name the dog?

David is a "Friend of 4-H"

Saturday night at the 4-H Recogniztion night, David was awarded the "Friend of 4-H" award. I knew about it a few days earlier when they called to make sure they were spelling his name correctly, but it was a surprise for him. The people in county 4-H call David "Mr. Gwen" because he is always around, helping me and helping the program. The secretaries love him (and I do too). I really enjoy doing 4-H and being so involved, and I absolutely could not do it without all his support and help. He never complains about all the time I spend on 4-H and he sure could if he had a mind to. He is wonderful and I am so grateful that he has always supported and even encouraged my 4-H activities. Thank you David. I love You

Fun in Vermont

Tammie, Abigail and I went to Vermont
together to attend Joanne's wedding. We spent a week there. It was great fun. I had the camera so there aren't many pictures of me. At our last breakfast together the waitress took the picture at left and this one is Abbie in the trunk of our rental car. She was such a good traveler! Bedtime play, at left, was fun every night. Abigail actually warmed up to me a lot. Abbie was fasinated by the dog figurine outside one of the museums we visited. Left to right:
Abbie liked playing in her stroller while waiting in airports. Abbie and Tammie at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, and Tammie inside a Vermont covered bridge. The country was beautiful as can be seen below. That is until the last day when we had to drive through a snowstorm to get back to Burlington for our flight home. I'm not sure Tammie was comfortable with my driving in a storm.
This is Hilldene, the Vermont Mansion of Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, one of several very interesting places we visited. My favorite was the Normon Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts. Our visit with Janeen in New Hampshire was also real nice. I had a really really good time and I'm so glad Tammie and Abbie went with me. Thanks Robert for loaning them to me for a week!

A Vermont Wedding

Joanne, my good friend and past college roommate, married Mark on November 6th.
I was able to go to Vermont to the wedding.
Left - Tammie and little Abbie went with me. Below is Joanne's family the night before the wedding. L to R. Mark, Joanne, Chris (son), Tiffany (future daughter in law), Alan (son in law), and Janet (daughter)
It was such a nice wedding and I wish Joanne and Mark all the happiness in the world!

They love my flowers

In the last few weeks before it got really
cold, I decided to clean out my flower beds for winter. I was amazed how many butterflies and bees were enjoying my flowers out front.

Halloween fun

Trick or Treat. Aren't they a cute bunch of Halloween spooks - a cat, 2 witches, a bat, two tigers and a turtle!


Kyle and family came trick or treating before leaving for Logan and we had fun at "Boo at the Zoo" with Mark and Elden and their families. James, the cute turtle, just went along for the ride.

Todd and Bethany stopped by Saturday and changed
into their costumes here - the killer peacocks. What fun costumes but Todd refused to go outside in it.