The Meeks~ Growing, Learning, Loving: January 2011

Adventure is Out There!

The week after Christmas, my family went up to our cabin near strawberry reservoir to go snowmobiling. We had 2 trail snowmobiles and 2 high powered sport snowmobiles . There was a ton of snow. probably 3-4 feet of fresh powder. We had so much fun! Again I was not great at taking pictures.

Outside the kitchen window.

Outside our bedroom door to the upstairs porch.

Wes made a huge sledding trail and at the end there was a 4 foot drop off right into some nice powder to cushion the fall. We had to dig out our trampoline. It was so covered in snow the middle was sagging all the way to the ground beneath it. It took 5 people almost and hour to dig it out. Of course throwing snow balls at each other distracted us a little.My dad, Sean and Wes were all acting like kids on the snowmobiles, they were going off doing donuts and they never wanted to come inside.

The day we were supposed to leave it snowed all day and they closed the canyon we had to take to get home so had to wait til the next day and that's when our adventure began.

We got up at 6 so we could eat, clean the cabin and head down the 2 mile trail to the parking lot at 7. We packed everything and headed out. It was still snowing and you could not tell where you were. There was no depth because everything was white. A 1/4 mile in we hit 6-8 foot snow drifts that take up the whole trail. Even the high powered snowmobiles kept getting stuck. My mom took my sister and the baby back to the cabin until we could make a path to the car. We tried for 3-4 hours to get through. The men would get through the drifts start making a trail and then hit another patch of drifts again. I mostly watched Calysta and made sure she wasn't getting too cold. With the wind it was -5 degrees. Calysta and I ended walking most of the way. One of the snowmobiles froze and we couldn't start it for a long time.
You would try to ride through a snow drift and the machines would either flip over or sink and it would take 3 people to lift it out of the hole while another pushes snow in the hole so it wont sink again, and then we had to dig out the front. When most of us got to the parking lot we knew we couldn't get my mom, sister and niece out without help. The wind would erase our tracks after 20 min. It was cold and so we got a hold of a sheriff and eventually Wasatch County Search and Rescue (5 men each with their own snowmobiles) They went and got those stuck at the cabin. They got stuck too but they were more experienced at getting out. After an additional 2 hours Sean and the baby made it to the cars that I was keeping warm for them. He was really worried because my sister and mom had tipped 2x holding the baby and by the time he got to the cars she wasn't crying anymore, but it was because she was asleep. She was nice and warm and didn't know anything had happened. The rest were saved, and 7 hours later from first leaving the cabin we left the parking lot, with everyone safe. Wendy's never tasted soo good!

I wrote multiple blogs today so keep reading for the rest of our Christmas story!

Greetings from the Bronx

We got to talk to my brother (serving a mission in NY) for 2 1/2 hours Christmas morning. It was so great! He is just so happy and you can hear the change in him just from the way he talks. It was a great relief to my mom to hear him say he was safe and everything was well. A few days later we got a package from him. Along with pictures, we all got I heart NY shirts

I took this picture of Kelsey. She loves her tongue and she was holding her hand like she was making a sign. I thought it was cute.

I know he has only been out 4 months, but I still can't wait til my brother can be here for Christmas.

Family Photos

We had family pictures taken while my sister was in town. They were done by Wendy G. the same lady who did Wes and I's wedding. I think she did a great job. My brother was gone, but we needed a family picture with Kelsey. So here are some of them.

This is with my brother photo shopped in

A Much Needed Vacation

After a long and hard semester, Wes and I were both in need of a little time off. We had 2 weeks to re-energize, and enjoy ourselves. It started with my sister, brother -in- law and niece coming. I had called picking them up from the airport. I was so excited that I woke up about 5:30 am and could not go back to sleep ( their plane didn't come in til 10:30 and it was late). So we picked them up and went to my parents house to enjoy the holidays. At first Kelsey was overwhelmed by all the excited people in her face but she came around and loved all the attention and toys.

Wes and Calysta decided to build a snow fort, while the girls went shopping for clothes for family pictures we were taking the next day. This is what we came home to...

They dug a hole in the top and made a slide. Calysta was made to try it out and she got stuck. All that was sticking out were her feet at the bottom. I wish I had gotten a picture. It took 5 minutes or so for Wes to finally pull her out. (P.S. I tried really hard to get Wes to wear a coat).

We went to see my G-ma Hardy, she had never seen the baby either. We got to talk with her for a while. One of her horses, who is old, was not doing so well. He was having trouble walking. So my dad, my uncle Craig and Wes went to go see what was going on. The reason I am telling you this is because Wes' has never been an animal person, whereas I grew up always having a dog, and riding horses. It brought hope for me to see him interested in the horses, that maybe one day, he might let me get a dog. Cross your fingers! He even tried pitching some hay.

It was raining hard all day, and that night we found a surprise. The room my sister was staying in was just flooded with water. It was a huge ordeal taking everything out of the room, vacuuming up the water and ripping up the carpet.

The next day was Christmas eve. We spent it with Wes' family in Mapleton. We ate good food and watched our nephews open some presents and played with them.