Winter Carnival

We drove up to McCall yesterday to check out the Winter Carnival. There are many snow sculptures throughout town and then there are different events in the evening. We didn't stick around for much. Just saw some of the sculptures and headed back home. Some of them were pretty good.

1st place

We decided to go back to the same place we saw that huge herd of deer at last weekend. Hazen was hoping they would have dropped their antlers and wanted to go find some. We drove by the duplex that we lived in when we first moved to Boise. Looks like they had a fire over night or early this morning. The fire truck was still there blocking off part of the street. I think it started in the half we didn't live in but it still destroyed the whole house. Glad we aren't living there any more.

That used to be our bedroom window

He hasn't dropped his antlers yet

End of Freedom

Well, it has only taken 15 months but I have finally found another job! Though I will miss only working 2 days a week, I am very thankful to have gotten this job. I start on Thursday so will be working full time starting next week. I guess it's not so bad though, everyone else works full time. I will manage. Plus Hazen and I still have 3 day weekends together every weekend.

SUN!

So apparently in Boise we have what is called an inversion. The cold air gets trapped below the warm air and we are stuck with fog and dark clouds for weeks at a time. We have had this one for almost two weeks now. Last weekend we headed out of town to get some sun.

I was trying to slide down the hill on my butt except Lucy kept attacking me on the way down

We let Lucy out of the truck to run behind us for awhile to get some exercise. She hated it. She actually stopped and started walking the other way.

Bedroom Floor

We finally finished our bedroom floor. We started it about a week and a half ago. Ripped up the carpet to find a mess of hardwood. Actually it wasn't that bad but the previous owners must have known they were carpeting when they painted and didn't care about the floor. They painted the trim on the wall and didn't tape it off so there is a strip of white paint on the hardwood around the entire room. I think they painted to wall in the closet with a sprayer and didn't have a drop cloth so the paint misted down on the floor. Hazen did a wonderful job sanding it all out and the floor is gorgeous now.

Paint on the floor in the closet

Aubree's Birthday

So for my birthday I had to go back to work after two weeks off. Rough, I know. Afterward we went to a nice dinner at Mai Thai. I love that place. They have the best Thai food. So that was the extent of excitement on my birthday. However, the day before we went for a drive to see Malad Gorge State Park. It's suppose to be beautiful and have a nice falls. I'm sure it would have been if I could see anything through the stinging wind. It was 14 degrees with a wind chill of at least -10. Any exposed skin felt like it was burning off. My eyes kept watering and I couldn't see a thing. I didn't bring gloves and it hurt to take my hands out of my coat to take a picture so I don't have many. And the falls weren't exactly rushing at this time of year. They actually weren't rushing at all. Lucy didn't seem to mind though. She was the only one that had a good time and wondered why we were getting back in the car so soon. Nice drive though, saw hundreds of antelope on the side of the freeway.

Our weekend project now is ripping up the carpet in our bedroom. There are hardwood floors underneath. Whoever painted last must have known they were carpeting so didn't care about the floors. They painted the trim on the wall so there is white paint on the floor all the way around the room. I think they used a sprayer to paint the wall inside the closet without a drop cloth because the whole inside of the closet is covered in misted white paint. Hazen spent most of yesterday sanding the floor. We have moved downstairs for a few days as our bedroom furniture is littered across the whole upstairs. We slept in the "firm/hard" bed last night. It actually wasn't that bad. Back to work on the floors today. Will post pics when we are finished.

Malad Gorge State Park

Deer and Snow Shoeing

I got a new, really nice camera for my birthday (I know, it's not my birthday yet) and we had to try it out. Hazen and I went for a drive yesterday and saw over 100 deer. I tried to play national geographic photographer but not sure I did so good on my first try. We had a lot of fun though. We were pretty boring last night for New Year's Eve. We went to our friend's restaurant for a drink then came back home and watched the Red Bull No Limits motorcycle jump in Las Vegas. Fell asleep just after midnight.

We planned on getting up early this morning to go snow shoeing but apparently if old people stay up past midnight, they don't hear their alarm go off at 7:00. We still went anyways. We drove out by Garden Valley and found a side road that hadn't been plowed. Strapped the shoes on and took off. We took Lucy with us and she loved it. This is the first time we have really got to do this. One attempt last year didn't work out so well (only went about 20 feet). We still only made it about an hour before Hazen's shoe broke. He had an older pair from his parents that has old, brittle leather. The leather strap broke and he went about hip deep in the snow. He was able to get it together so we could make it back to the truck, but wished we could have gone out longer. We will have to get that fixed and try again.

Snuck up on them

By Lucky Peak Reservoir

Showing off the shoes (before they broke)

It might look cold but snow shoeing is hard work. Promptly after this photo my jacket came off.

Hip-Deep in snow trying to fix his shoe