Snow much fun!

What could be better than sunshine & snow? Not much! It's great! We love playing in the snow. Everyday after school I hear "Mom can we play in the snow?" SURE! I bundle up the kids and out we go! One day I decided it would be much more fun to go to a park and play in the snow than just in our yard. So we set off to the Dino-discovery park. Oh man was it F-U-N! It was awesome playing at the park in the snow and it was even more fun to go sledding down the hill!

What a good big brother pulling up his sister in the sled!

Caleb's not so sure about this snow thing!

Hold on tight Mara here we go!

Caleb thought the park was a blast!

Enjoying a relaxing but chilly swing!

Okay- Caleb's ready for a turn down the hill!

Pretty slippery--hold on Mar!

Good balancing Ty-boy!

Are you a little cold Miss Mara?

Two little snow buddies having a fun day together!

Ty never gets cold--he could have played all day long out in the snow!

Our cute little snow angel boy!

Caleb's first snow experience! Pretty fun huh buddy!

Too bad every day couldn't be so much fun! The park was a great place to play in the snow and sled. It made us excited for the warmer months ahead. It will sure be fun to go back in the spring an summer again!

Price is RIGHT!

Lewis Family .....

come on down....

you are the next contestants...

in
PRICE UTAH

Okay, so this isn't a TV game show, but it does feel too good to be true! Our family has adjusted well to the move to Price and we couldn't be happier!

A quick run-down of each member of our family's experience moving to Price:

Nate:
As the newest employee of the Manti-La Sal National Forest Nate loves his new office overlooking the beautiful castle rock country of southern Utah! He is impressed with the organization of the staff. He loves not supervising employees! What could be better than a 3 mile commute to work--sure beets 30 miles!

Erica:
I couldn't be happier if I won a million dollars! My days are busy usually playing taxi service since we are a one car family now I'm driving here and there but I don't mind. I've met some great friends in the ward and excited to get to know many more. I enjoy working out in the mornings with a group of friends from church. I love going to Ty's class and helping out. It's perfect living close to family and being able to see them more often. I soak up the sunshine on a daily basis and love watching the kids play in the snow.

Ty:
Castle Heights Elementary has a new student to FULL day kindergarten: TY LEWIS! Ty loves his new kindergarten class. He might not admit it but he enjoys learning to read and studying at school! He has many new friends and thinks it's pretty cool to take a lunch box to school and sit by his friends at lunch! He also enjoys building snowmen at recess with his buddies! Ty started basketball after school and is a natural! It has been fun to watch him learn new skills. The past week Ty has felt under the weather. Come to find out Ty had strep throat! No fun--it ran through the family. Glad he's feeling better. Ty has many little boys his age in the ward and on our street. He is excited to get to know these friends better and have them come over and play.

Mara:
Our little sweetie is loving the one-on-one time with Mama while Ty's at school! We have fun days together playing with Caleb. We paint, color, play play-dough, go to Wal-Mart, take care of dolly, read stories and so much more! Mara started going to speech last week, she has her own language Maraese which unless you are around her all the time you may not understand her completely! So twice a week we visit Miss Loraine and play games at speech class. I'm grateful to have such a great community for my kids to get the help they need. Miss Mara also loves being in sunbeams! She is so happy to go to Primary and see her new friends!

Caleb:
Our little one-year old boy is a walkin-talkin little munchkin! He tots around the house saying 'mama' and 'dadda'. I love taking him to the store because he makes everyone smile. He waves to everyone he sees. When we get up to the cashier he always says 'hi' by waving his chubby little hands and smiling! Then he waves 'bye-bye' when it's time to go! So cute! He's getting so grown up drinking from a sippy cup and eating 'big people food' as Mara calls it! He's even sleeping through the night-yay!

Our miserable-long-nightmare of a journey!

The movers came and packed everything up in our house. Grandma and Grandpa Lewis (bless their hearts) drove out to help us out. We packed up our U-haul with what we will need in Price and the rest of our things went to storage. We cleaned the house and stopped at the Cheese Factory one last time for a big ice-cream cone!.....

...all of that piece of cake! Went fantastic! Smooth sailing!

What should have been 16 hour drive turned into a 30 hour commute. At times we just wanted to turn around but we couldn't. We had to keep going forward. We wondered if we were really making the right choice, yes! This is what we are to do. Sometimes it's the trials of our faith that make us stronger---or makes us crazy!

Here are a few 'highlights' of our unbelievable, incredibly long, miserable journey home:

snow through Highway 6
slipping & sliding
put chains on
slow going
stay the night in Beaverton (only drove 69 miles!)
more snow
terrible road conditions
pure ice
no snow trucks out
Grandpa's car overheats
stop and wait
Mara wants to turn around and go home
awful traffic
flat tire
fix flat tire in Cascade Locks
Erica feels sick: Sore throat, fever, chills, ear ache, swollen glands, aches and pains
Priesthood blessing
stay the night in Pendleton (217 miles)
wake up early to beat the storm
roads better
storm lapping at our heals
make better time
kids bored
thank goodness for DVD player
rock chip on our van
Erica wants to die--still not feeling well
We finally make it to Tooele to stay the night with Mimi and Papa (588 miles)
Erica goes to the ER
Diagnosis: Strep Throat
We leave the ER at 11:50 just in time to say "Happy New Year" and get in bed


What a way to start the New Year! It has to get better than the way it started! We look forward to an exciting new adventure in Utah.