tree hunting 2016

The day after Thanksgiving we loaded up in the Envoy the first thing in the morning and drove west from our house, not far at all, and found the perfect Christmas tree.

This was our third visit up Nemo Road (2014 and 2015) and apparently the third time is a charm because we found the best tree yet. I love going up there. So close and so beautiful.

We started out on the north side of the road but wasn't convinced by any of the trees we saw. 

So we crossed the road and went into the trees to the south and walked around for a while. 

We posed next to dead trees. 

We posed on top of dead trees.

And we hit trees. 

We walked past trees.

I took pictures of cool trees. Basically, a lot of trees.

We were underwhelmed by the trees to the south so Terry crossed back over the road to compare a tree we had been considering before. He found an even better one while he was gone, and when he showed me just the picture of it on his phone, I knew it was the one. It looked like a tree farm tree! Black Hills spruce trees aren't usually full, much less having branches growing upwards instead of horizontal. As a plus, it was pretty narrow, which is always nice.

Cutting. 

Shivering Snap dog. 

Terry let Samuel saw a little.

But Noah ended up doing most of it. 

I wandered around taking in the pretty view.

So beautiful. I love living here. 

Timber! 

Time to walk back to the Envoy. This was the first year without snow so that made the whole thing easier. 

Walking and more walking. 

This pose has become a tradition. 

As has the lineup on the bridge. 

Closer... 

Butt shot. 

More pretties.

The kids threw rocks into the creek to break the ice while Terry loaded up the tree. 

Splash! 

Lovely creek. 

Four kids in a row. 

This has also become tradition. Noah no longer says it's disgusting, he just accepts it. 

I like it like this. 

Hey, there are our faces. 

turkey trot and Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving morning four out of the six of us ran our first 5k turkey trot. Of course Samuel and Ezra couldn't run and I wasn't sure if I could take a stroller so my dad watched them. Turns out strollers were allowed, but I really wanted to run my best. Prae and Natasha had agreed to stay with Noah and Evie so Terry and I could actually run. It worked out well and we all did great.

Terry really pushed himself and ran each mile faster, all of them around 6:45!! It was so cold outside that his perspiration was actually visibly evaporating through his hat!

I finished in 29 minutes with pace of 9:37, which was great for me. I was beat - lungs were a' burnin!

I forgot what the kids came in at but they did fantastic. I didn't think they'd run much but they were the ones encouraging Natasha and Prae to run more. 

Noah was quite proud of himself for cheering Natasha on, and she was actually really helped by him. Both of them were. I got the sweetest text from Prae later about how great my kids were and Natasha also posted about it on facebook. Awww.

Later we went over to my parent's house.

 I made my seemingly now traditional pecan pie. 

Terry and Evie took their now traditional turkey leg photo. :D

Samuel and Ezra are now old enough to want in on the action.

My uncle Jeff joined us for some amazing food!

Since Nathan and Ana and Stephanie were not here, mom and I prepared the whole feast by ourselves. After my 5k, I was rather tired so thankfully my dad and Terry washed the heaps of dishes. I love this picture. My sister and I spent our entire childhood doing exactly this next to each other.

Mom enjoyed her rest while the guys washed up too. 

first snow 2016

The day after we harvested our carrots, our weirdly warm fall weather finally, sadly, came to an end with the first snowfall. The kids were beyond excited. Noah had actually been worried about global warming until I showed him a video explaining the truth about it.

I much prefer the look of the brown road behind our house when it's covered in snow. It almost looks like it's not there.

We only got a few inches but that didn't stop the kids from staying out until dark.

I hiked up the hill for one last sunset. Not much of one. Ha!

Ezra is another year older and much more able out in the snow.

The following day dawned bright and clear, though windy and cold. The kids were dying to sled so we packed up to try an actual real hill - the one at Meadowbrook Elementary in the neighborhood my grandparents used to live.

Ezra

Samuel and his look of glee.

One, two, three, GO!

Even daddy enjoyed himself.

Noah went down every way he could think of.

It was a beautiful day, though very cold!

I mostly wandered around taking photos. Shadow me.

I walked over to some rocks on the edge of the hill and when I turned around I called to all the kids to wait so I could take a video of them all. I caught the moment when Terry went over a bit of a bowl and sort of dropped his weight inside of it. It compressed his back pretty bad and he yelled out in pain. You can hear the poor guy groaning! A couple chiropractor visits were necessary.

That didn't really stop him from continuing on though.

Finally when we were about to leave I took a turn.

We had to leave when the school kids came out for recess. They were drawn to us and were getting in trouble. There's no school like homeschool!!!

Our piano teacher's daughter, Amanda, had previously told us about "the best hill in Rapid City" across the street from her house. She and her mom had told us how we could come over and sled any time we wanted so that's what we did next.

Headed to the three level hill. It was huge.

Beard-cicles. Well, maybe mustache-cicles.

There wasn't enough snow we we had to sort of push ourselves along like Samuel's doing.

I don't remember why Ezra was crying but it was no big deal. Ha!

See, he was fine.

It was quite the hike to get to the top hill.

Mommy took another turn.

My pretty girl.

All done! We can't wait to go again. Just need more snow...