"Party over here, Party over there... OOh OOh!"

Noel's 12th birthday get together was a Twisted affair... (hahaha! Love the pun?) Here Espi and Suzannah compete against Asher and Sylvia.

Noel was also part of the action, but it was difficult to keep up with the future yoga gurus, Suzannah and Espi.

We had a photo session, where the most important thing was to get all of Espi's hat into the picture.
The fish cake smiled co-operatively when its turn for glamour shots came around.


Suzannah helped decorate Noel after presents had been opened... she is a cutey birthday package, I'd say, but I may be biased.


Noel's grandparents in Idaho sent Noel some money to buy a winter coat for a present. Here is a picture for them to see how stylish she looks in it. Thanks mom and dad!

"Tea, anyone?"

We have had several soggy tea parties in our dining room as of late. One evening, at a loss for something to entertain Sylvia while I made dinner, I asked Noel to get down her little tea set from her closet and introduce Sylv to the world of tea parties. It was a hit!

When Noel is not available for tea, Asher is a good substitute. I was doing dishes in the kitchen while he was pouring out tea for Sylvia. I laughed when I heard him ask her, in a very proper voice "And what have you been up to lately?"

Many thanks to our friends in Sweden for the tea they sent us!

Home at last - Dec 28 Sunday

After a long night in the hotel, where Asher got the flu... we were excited to climb into the rental van and be on the road.

It was a beautiful, clear, cool morning. We had blue sky and clear roads for the 6 hour drive north. The kids travelled great, and we were happy to be driving instead of flying.

I think a blessing gained from this day was in appreciating the flexibility driving gives you. When we go out for Cheri's wedding next summer, we will drive. :) It was also nice to see how much the kids have matured since we road-tripped this summer, when Sylv was just starting to potty-train. We only had to make one stop. This bodes well for future trips.

Another blessing gained was appreciating the beauty of Wisconsin. All you have to do is drive across flat Illinois to realize that Wisconsin could be worse. It may not be mountains, but it is home.

After 7 days of trying to get here, it feels good to be home. Santa was kept abreast of our travel dilemas, and will be dropping his goods off later this evening. We will open the presents under the tree tomorrow moring, Jan 31...

From this adventure, I learned how much I love my family... extended and immediate. I also thought a lot about what Christmas really is, since it was so fragmented.

Christmas isn't a date on the calendar. It is more a feeling, the feeling you get from sharing a joyful moment with someone. The feeling of seeing amazement in Sylv's eyes at her pink pajamas , or watching Asher be mesmorized by a Christmas poem, or the joy of seeing Sean's parents one extra time.

Merry Christmas... a little late.

PS I still have half my Christmas cards to mail! You will see them come into your mailboxes later this week.

Exploring St. Louis, Dec 27

After a shower, and the best breakfast we've ever eaten, we were all feeling much happier. We didn't have our bags, they had gone back to Denver. But at least I didn't have to pack and unpack them again. I was somewhat grateful to only have our carry-on bags.

We looked at maps of the city and found that St. Louis is supposed to have one of the best zoos in the nation. Near the zoo was also an art museum with Egyptian mummies and a wall sized original of Monet's water lilly painting.

We figured out how to get there using the city transportation, and set off. - It was starting to rain. We took the shuttle to the airport, took the Metro across town, and took a bus for the rest of the trip. The kids thought the metro was cool. - What we didn't know was that the thunderstorm was increasing. It was pelting rain like only storms in the Midwest can do. We found out later there was a tornado warning out. If we had been locals, we would have been sitting in a basement somewhere.

But as it was... I am truly the daughter of my mom. I refused to spend a day in a new city without seeing something of it. - Mom the kids out-voted me on seeing the Lewis and Clark sites! Oh well.. next time we are stranded there, maybe.- (The adventures of this day reminded me of getting stranded with the kids and my mom on the butte in Idaho a couple years ago, and almost having to call the search and rescue to get down.)

When the bus let us off at the stop we found we found the zoo gates were locked. We ran through the storm around the zoo's perimeter until we found the gift shop open. I had Sylvia on my back, and we were running uphill. When we dove inside the doors, it was suddenly silent. We were huffing and puffing, but dozens of people were just standing in the lobbey staring at us like we were aliens. We tried to wring out our clothes as much as possible before entering the building further. We then went into the restrooms, and I had the kids strip down and wring their clothes out over the toilets and get dressed again. We then stood under the hand-dryers until out hair stopped dripping.

We couldn't have been any wetter if we had fallen in a swimming pool. Luckily, it was warm in St. Louis. It was humid and in the 60's. We only had our snow boots and snow coats (which we had left at the motel, because it was soooo hot.)

We tried to see some of the animals when the rain let up. Sean bought us umbrellas, which were soon destroyed by the winds. We went to the primate house, and saw how beautiful the zoo must be if it was not a torrential downpour. It would be a nice place to visit some other season.

Here we are, soggy, in front of some local primates.

Sea lions are my favorite animal, and we happened to pass them in our mad dash back to the gift shop. So, we stopped for a moment to look and get a picture. By this time everyone was getting cold and shivering.


We walked up the hill to the art museum, which turned out to be the most wonderful hour of the day. I loved looking at their wonderful collection of paintings. Sylv fell asleep in my arms, so I could look around as long as I had strength to carry her.

Sean showed us what the different images on the Egyptian coffins meant, since he studied that long ago. It was very fascinating.

The boys looked at the medeival daggers and weaponry before we left. It was a place to rest our weary souls.

I think the blessing of visiting St. Louis was to remind me of the importance of art in our chaotic world. Instead of feeling like I was in survival mode, my soul felt joy for the first time. I am now trying to think how to make art more a part of our busy home life. Last night, I played the piano after the kids went to bed... and it didn't even wake them up. The music was soothing to me after a busy day. I wil remember the relief and blam of the St. Louis art museum for a while to come.

Then it was back to reality. Back into the rain to wait for a bus, to take the metro, to take the airport shuttle. We made it back to the motel, and had mostly dried out. After dinner, and renting Kung-Fu panda in our room, we went to sleep happy, knowing we would be home the next day.

Dec 26- Home? No, St. Louis!!!!!!

After repacking 12 bags with Christmas presents, snow gear, gloves, boots, and snacks for the plane, we get to the Idaho Falls airport. They say that our plane to Denver is again delayed, but it doesn't matter, because in Denver there is a flight later to Madison, so we should be covered no matter what.

We have a pleasant flight to Denver, and get there a half hour after our flight to Madison should have left. We figure we have missed it... but an airport lady looks at our tickets and starts shouting "Run, Run, Run!" As she frantically waves her arms. Running is not too easy when you are an army of 6, carrying bags and a car-seat.

We drop into seats on the plane, and think we are very lucky to be on that plane, instead of the later flight. We will be home early that evening. Here is Sylvia in the plane... before we realized that things were not going to turn out as planned....

The Midwest had a freak warming streak that caused major fog when the warm air sat on top of all the snow they had. This fogged in Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago airports as well as others for miles around. We circled and waited for it to clear, until running out of fuel became an issue. The plane couldn't land at it's back-up airport in Ohio because it was fogged in as well. They finally landed in St. Louis, Missouri.

The problem was that the airport was flooded with other stranded flights. We couldn't taxi in to a gate to unload. Apparently it was illeagal to get off out on the runway. They didn't have any staff in the airport to help with re-booking. They didn't have a fuel contract with the people at the airport.

The baffled pilot spent hours trying to sort the mess out. The corporate head-quarters tried to convince somebody to fuel our plane, but nobody would because they weren't sure who would pay the gas bill. It was on the verge of ridiculous. The piolot said they couldn't take on supplies (like water) because they didn't have a contract with any suppliers there. When the stewardess broke out an emergency box of granola bars, and started rationing out a bottle of water... I started worrying about how stable the kids would be with limited liquids and food. Sean was getting a migraine. We sat in the stuffy plane on the runway close to 3 hours, unsure of what the plan was.

They finally got fueled and said they would fly us back to Denver, and would try to work us in with flights going out the next day. Sean was not sold of the idea of going back West, after we had waited all week to get home. We figured it would again take them 2 days to get us all seats on the same plane. So, we decided to try renting a car, or looking at the train. The pilot taxied over to a corner of the airport where it was leagal to get off, and let off those who wanted to try to find their own way home.

A kind lady on the plane loaned us her cell phone, and I called my parents and Daniel. Daniel came to the rescue and got us a very luxurious hotel room in the Marriot Rennainsance. They had an airport shuttle, and we were glad to have somewhere to make plans from. We found all the cars were taken until Sunday, and there weren't train seats open until Monday. Hundreds of people from dozens of planes had sudenly been dumped into St. Louis to await better travelling weather. We decided to book another night, and reserved a van for Sunday morning.

Unexpected Chistmas in Idaho...

It didn't matter where we opened gifts, because Sylvia's excitement was enough to make it seem like it really was Christmas. She was soooo excited. She is now old enough to understand unwrapping presents, and was amazed by each gift. There were not many, but she loved each one. Here she is modelling new pajamas and a doll from Grandpa and Grandma.

We decided to go in a gift for the boys with my parents. They had such a good time with the Wii at the cabin, (especially Sean) that we found one at a Wal-mart the night before and wrapped it so they would have something to open. It was a hit. They played it all afternoon.

It was a good gift because another snowstorm rolled through Christmas Eve, and all the cars where stuck in the driveway. We couldn't get out until that evening after a few hours of snow shovelling and snow blowing.


Sylvia looked like a Christmas angel in her dress from Grandma. She twirled around and around, making the skirt flare out.

Slyvia took the next couple shots. They are high action shots of Grandpa and Grandma opening presents!

My mom made us a wonderful salmon dinner, and Noel ate half the fish herself! She says she wants to be a salmon fisher and marine biologist when she grows up.


The blessings of this second delay were: sharing Sylvias pure excitement of presents with my parents, and getting to visit more with Daniel and Kaydee. I love their sweet little daughter Addisen. Also, Daniel and Asher got to go head to head on Wii tennis. Asher beat him the first set of games, and Daniel barely beat him the next set. Luckily Kaydee got Daniel a Wii so he can practice up for the re-match.

Our Pre-Christmas stay in Rexburg

Rexburg got a record amount of snow this week... and luckily we had the snow gear packed. We spent the day at my parents, with the kids playing in the snow. It was over knee deep where it hadn't drifted... over the waist where it had.

Noel made a new snow tunnel. She is part snow-mole.


After an exhausting day of getting pulled on a sled, Sylvia just wanted to sit on her snow-throne and lick an icicle.

Mattias kept trying to turn chunks of snow into ice chunks, by soaking them under the outside faucet. This made for very soggy children.

I had time to do some snow messaging... similar to text messaging, but much colder and it burns more calories.

The three shots below, put together, should say "I (Heart) Sean."
Aww... how sweet is that?!




That evening, Sean's parents stopped by and had dinner with us. They were on their way down to Utah from Montana. This was one of the blessings of being delayed the first time. I love spending time with them!! We said good-bye again... and they drove off to the MTC to train for their mission. Had we not been delayed, we wouldn't have gotten to visit again.
Another blessing was getting to go Christmas carolling around to old friends that evening. We brought some of Sean's bullar to people in my old neighbourhood, and carolled. It was heart-warming to see old friends again.
That evening we said good-bye to my sister Lisa, (and Wil and the Christmas Bean Nora) and Daniel's house. Daniel gave Sean a styling Pinnacle jacket and a book about how to budget your finances. We think that was another blessing for being delayed... the book created a very hopful attitude in Sean. We will see what the results are from reading this book over the next few years.


CHRISTMAS EVE: I woke up realizing that our flight would be back after stores closed, and I needed stocking stuffers and Christmas dinner food. I called a good friend in Wisconsin, and she said she would pick it all up for me. We had also been very fortunate to have another friend watching our house and animals for all this time. This trip taught me that reliable friends are a treasure.
After packing up all the snow gear, and 12 bags... (6 carry-ons, and 6 luggage) and getting snacks (again) for everyone... we headed to the airport. After unloading, checking our bags, and doing the whole take-your-shoes-off and get our small army of McMullins through security, they told us that our flight was going to be late, again. We would be stuck in Denver, or we could stay in Idaho. So, we chose to spend Christmas with my family. When we called my mom, she sounded so exhausted from having a wedding and house guests. I felt guilty asking if we could stay a couple more days. The airline booked us for two days out again. We should be home the day after Christmas.

So, that evening we went back to Grandma's and Grandpa's. Sean cooked a ham dinner like the one we had hoped to have at home, we acted out the Nativity story, and did some last minute Christmas shopping so the kids would have something to open the next morning.