Wow-Where have I been?

So I was out of the blogging mood for some time but I am making an attempt to come back in full effect. Last real post was Dec. 7th so Ill attempt a quick recap.

December 12th took my last final ever! It was an essay one and it took forever and I wrote too much but I think I did well. Rushed home and continued packing, spent one of my last solo nights with brooke in utah. I have loved having her close in provo and spent so much time together watching TV, cooking, floating the river:), driving, eating with her dining plus:), etc. etc.! Miss her tons!  Jo and Tabitha were both great to come help back and organize my things too. Lance came into town on Friday. We packed our whole house that day and were ready to move Saturday morning! While our house was small we sure had a LOT of crap! 

Weather was great saturday morning as we wrapped up our furniture in a roll of bubble wrap lance brought from costco and just as we left to pick up the"moving truck" (ps thanks so much to Queen for loaning us her sweet truck for the day) it started to snow! and it snowed so hard all day. Lance, Mike H., Ian, Steve (our home teacher), Mike P. and a few guys from our ward were so great to take multiple loads in the freaking snow storm over to our storage unit. As soon as we finished all the big stuff, we sent friends home for lance and I to finish the small stuff. Seriously, right when we started to drive the truck back to Queen, the snow slowed and stopped on our way back to our house. UNBELIEVABLE!

We left early Sunday morning after staying up super late to clean. Fortunately, last minute we found some great girls to rent our house and as far as we know--its still standing. Our drive left a lot to be desired. Once we hit the point of the mountain it started snowing and by Salt Lake it was a blizzard. Ugh! it was bound to be a long day--i took some pics to catalog our journey. 

 

yeah it was pretty at times but really snowy/rainy/icy and scary--considering the windshield fluid thing is broken in my car and we couldn't clean the window. That picture of my dash, though you cant read it, says that it is 6 degrees! a bit too cold for me! Good thing lance is a stellar driver--calm cool and collected in the snow (driving in traffic is another story:)haha). We decided to stop at the Bergeson's for the night to be safe and saved Snowqualmie Pass for the next day when we could drive through in daylight and sunshine plus wanted to see the Bergeson family for a few hours because we knew we wouldn't be there till after Christmas:).

We made it to UP and the Holidays were wonderful. It is great to be together for each other through hard times and through the holidays. We had a lot of snow, esp for WA, and it definatly felt a lot like Christmas. We are really getting old because Lance and I had to wake Cait and Brooke up at like 9  and then wake up my parents to go see what "Santa" had brought us:) Then we headed over to Parker's to check out all their fun new toys. We spent the rest of day playing the new Wii that "Santa" brought the Shaw fam. It was  a lot of fun! We missed the Uffens a ton though and don't really like this new tradition of theirs to stay in Vegas but understand--kinda:) I miss them tons! and miss seeing my girls! We were very blessed for Christmas! 

We headed over to Royal for a quick Christmas with the Bergeson's the 27th-28th. Because of Lance's new work schedule that is all he could have off so it was a good thing we are only a few hours away. We had a lot of fun and everyone was together. The kids all grow up so fast especially when we dont get to see them very often. I was TERRIBLE and didn't take any pics--which is really not characteristic of me! I will need to steal some from my mother in law or sisters in law:) we had fun nonetheless and are anxious to head back for another quick weekend soon!

On the 29th we got to go to the Great Wolf Lodge  (see above pics) an indoor water park/resort to celebrate Caits early 21st birthday! It was so fun and kinda crazy to donn our swim suits when there was snow outside! For new years we made tons of yummy food and had chocolate and cheese fondue. We played Wii and then cards while we watched the ball drop:) we all headed to bed shortly after (such party animals!)

In January was Dane's fun 4th birthday with a football camp party. It was really fun and I made his super cute invites if I do say so myself (with some help from Rach and Amber and their photoshop expertise:) Beck is brave for inviting like 12 little 4 years olds and it was crazy but super fun! Glad I could make it to almost all nieces and nephews birthdays this year Cole's in Aug, Annie's in Sept, and Dane's in Jan  (except paige and luke--but i saw them asap!)

I am currently finishing my 5th week at fieldwork ALREADY! and only have 7 more! Things are going good in WA. I will try to post more frequently:)