Christmas in Shelley

As Mike said in his entry, I spent Christmas with my family in Shelley and Idaho Falls. Mike and I had agreed that I would take the camera so I could get lots of pictures and videos and blog every day I was gone so he could feel a little more like he was there. Unfortunately, one of the first things I realized when I got to my mom's house was that I had left the camera at home. Instead, we had to settle on lots of phone calls and emails to get us through. I don't think I want to do the whole Christmas apart thing again.

The kids and I packed up and left Nampa shortly after Mike left for work on Christmas Eve. I had opted to leave on Monday because we had to sing in our ward's Christmas program on Sunday and I didn't want to drive in the dark. It only took until I got on the highway to realize that this was a mistake. There was a storm. A pretty big one. The highways were snowy and the traffic was bumper to bumper with last day shoppers. It was pretty treacherous nearly all the way out to Mountain Home. Once I got out of the Boise area, the roads were clear. I thought I had beaten the storm, but boy was I wrong! The storm caught up to me again around Fort Hall. By the time I got near Blackfoot, there was about three or four inches of unplowed snow on the highway. It only got worse the closer I got to Shelley. Near white-out conditions slowed highway traffic to around 30-40 mph. I followed a semi figuring they probably had a better view of the road than I did. However, I couldn't see the Shelley exit at all until I was already past it, and had to take another road from an Idaho Falls exit. This too was a mistake. By now, the snow was reaching 8 or 9 inches on unplowed roads, and I couldn't see where the edges of the road were. The car bounced in and out of ruts made by other cars driving equally as blindly as I was. I couldn't slow down or I would have risked getting high centered in the deep snow. Every now and then, I could hear grass or gravel under my tires signaling that I had drifted a bit off the road, but there was little I could do to get away from the old tire ruts. It was that way all the way out to my Mom's house. By the time I got there, I was pretty shaken up and didn't even want to go to my Grandma Sears's house for presents and dinner with extended family that night. The storm didn't let up until we had 10 new inches from that one day of snow. It snowed the whole time I was there. I think the news said we got up around 14 or 16 inches total that week.

We took Mom and Sherwin's Jeep to my grandma's house. I was glad not to be driving, but I was still quite nervous riding in the back seat. As I walked in the door, I was met with applause and cheers of, "There's the brave girl!" Nobody could believe I had been so daring (or stupid) to make that drive alone. We had a great time at Grandma's house. Hyrum got to see his cousin Piper again. They haven't seen each other in a long time, but it was like no time had passed at all. Hyrum gave her a big hug and kiss and they took off hand-in-hand to play together. He also got to play with my cousin's kids... what does that make them? Second cousin? Cousins once removed? I've never been able to figure out that cousin thing... Emily was too shy to let me put her down, but still showed off playing and dancing in my lap.

I was at fault to us getting off to a late start on Christmas morning. Emily hadn't slept well that night, and I got up early when Hyrum woke up. However, after my mom woke up, I dumped Hyrum off on her and tried to catch a little nap since Emily was sleeping. I slept longer than I had meant to and everyone had waited on me for breakfast. I felt pretty bad about that. We had a nice breakfast and were about to start opening our presents when Emily got sick. Very very sick. The poor kid spent the whole morning throwing up, and Mom, Emily, and I went through several changes of clothes in the process. Luckily, Hyrum enjoyed himself enough for both kids. He couldn't stop talking about Christmas and Santa and singing "Jingle Bells" over and over. We spent the rest of the day playing with the kids' new toys. Hyrum especially liked the preschool software my mom had gotten for him. Emily enjoyed playing with her new doll.

Mom had to work a half day on the 26th. When she got home, we went to the Wal*Mart photo studio to get pictures of the kids. I think they turned out pretty cute and can't wait to get them back. I also got to see our old friend and neighbor Dan who is the manager of the optical center there. He showed me pictures of their kids including their newest baby I haven't yet seen in person. I tried to set up a time to go see his wife Carissa and the kids too, but the weather kept me from ever going out that way.

Mom got off early again on the 27th, and we headed out to see my Grandma Sears again. Mom helped her with some stuff on her computer while I tried to program a stubborn universal remote for her. The kids decided to play cute and show off. Emily even got brave enough to let Grandma hold her for a while.

The next day, I went out to visit my high school friend Sandi. She's expecting a baby in April and looked so cute! I'm so excited for her! My kids really loved her husband. Especially Emily who will usually never go to anyone but me. I'm sure they will be incredible parents.

Mom decided that Hyrum needed some mittens for that freezing cold East Idaho weather, and we had gotten some fleece to match his coat at Hancock Fabrics on one of our previous trips to town. So on Saturday, we stayed in and made mittens. Hyrum loved them!

Early Sunday morning, we got a call. Church had been canceled due to snow. Nearly all the country roads were closed until plows could get out. There was even talk on the news about the possibility of closing East bound I-15. I had been looking forward to showing off my kids in their cute Sunday clothes, but it turned out to be a good thing anyhow. I was very sick throwing up all day Sunday. I spent nearly the entire day in bed. After the roads cleared a bit, Mom and Sherwin took the kids on a drive while I slept.

Monday was my birthday! My Grandma Page and Aunt Pat came to visit that afternoon because they knew my car wouldn't have made it through the snow to their house. It was really good to see them. Hyrum was in the mood to show off, but Emily was sleepy and wouldn't play or even leave my lap. Still, she looked cute in her pigtails!

I left for home on Tuesday. It was too bad I couldn't spend the day with my mom since she had it off, but I was afraid of missing a window of opportunity. There was no snow and no wind. Perfect driving conditions! Surely, the drive back would be much less eventful than the drive there. Right?... Well, for some reason, I wasn't paying much attention as I came out of Shelley. I missed the turn to get to I-15, and instead, kept heading down 91. I realized fairly quickly that I either needed to find a crossroad that would get me through to 15 or turn around and head back to the missed turn. After passing a couple of crossroads that ended in dead ends, I realized that you could probably only cross the river from Shelley or Firth. 91 was fairly snowy, and I was still closer to Shelley than to Firth, so I decided I would turn back. I turned down a narrow little country road looking for a driveway to pull into so I could turn around. Well, there weren't any driveways for a while. But there was a one lane bridge which I crossed followed by another intersecting one lane bridge that crossed a small canal. Since there were no cars on the road, I decided to use this little bridge for my three point turn. I pulled over the top of it and backed out the other way. The problem was, the second bridge was on a hill. The incline was so gradual, I hadn't noticed. The car couldn't grip the road well enough to climb the hill. The wheels just spun. I tried to back up a bit to get some momentum to get me over, but it didn't help. Finally, I decided I would have to push the car over the top of the hill. I was worried about it drifting off over the edge of the bridge into the canal, so I stood in the driver side doorway to steer as I pushed. It started out well enough until I lost my grip and the car started rolling backwards. I couldn't stop it. I tried to jump in, but I lost my footing in a bank on the side of the road. Now remember, the snow was really deep. Anyone who has lived in snow areas knows how it works. When it gets cold enough without new snow, the top layer of the snow freezes and forms a crust over the top of the softer drifts of snow. Well, my left foot broke the crust and I sunk in nearly knee deep. Meanwhile, the car kept rolling until I had been knocked face down into the snow by the open door of the car. I was waiting for it to slam into the back of my head, but before that could happen, the car came to a stop in the bank. My left foot was under the front tire. However, the car hadn't broken the crust and had only pushed my foot deeper into the snow rather than running over the top of it. I was easily able to pull it out and drag myself out from under the door. I stood up, shaking. My legs felt like Jell-o as I walked to the nearest house house for help. I knocked. No answer. I started out to the next house, but realized it was too far to walk as my legs were shaking so badly that I fell every few steps. So I went back to the car. Emily was asleep and Hyrum was just singing along to a Tabernacle Choir CD, completely oblivious to the fact that we were stuck. I was literally covered head to toe in snow and quite panicked. Luckily, just as I called Sherwin to tell him how to find me, someone came along in a hay truck. He had a chain with him and everything and was able to pull me out with no trouble at all. I quickly realized how lucky I was. But after the shock, adrenaline, and the numbness of the cold wore off, I realized how sore I was. Upon further inspection, I found bruises on my legs, some nasty scrapes on my forearms, bent up glasses, and for some reason I can't recall, a swollen pinkie. Curiously, the least sore part of me is the foot that was caught under the tire. Good thing I had prayed before leaving. Heavenly Father must have known that I have no health insurance! Thankfully, I can still say that I have never broken a bone.

The rest of the trip was uneventful with nice clear roads. I was so glad to be home again. The house has never looked so good to me. Mike had done some cleaning and organizing while I was gone. He had done quite a lot of work in the garage, taking advantage of the car being gone. Mike and I decided to let the kids open their presents on Christmas, but to wait to exchange our gifts to each other until I got home. I couldn't avoid seeing my presents as soon as I came in. For Christmas, he had gotten me a new computer desk. Sitting on top of it, he had wrapped the screen of a new monitor. I took off the paper to find this:

So maybe he can't spell "birthday" well and his shirt is stained (thank goodness I'm home!) but I still thought it was clever. He also did a great job finding an awesome deal for it on Craigslist.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. As for me, I'm happy to be home again!

One final picture of my mom with the kids.