Thanksgiving at the Cabin.....

This year for Thanksgiving my brother Gary invited Howie and I to come up to his cabin. Ashlee and Tyson were going to be spending the day with the Veenendaals and April and Shawn were planning to go to Cedar City with the Barretts. (That was before he announced that he wanted to get a divorce.) So that would leave us all alone for Thanksgiving. We decided to take him up on his offer and go spend the holiday with his cute family.

He has a nice place nestled high in the Uintah Mountains.

It is a peaceful place and when you are there you feel like you are the only people on the entire mountain. This is the same cabin that we visited this summer with Steve's family. I love it!

It is so beautiful and quiet up there. Very pretty scenery!

We ended up taking April up with us because she had just had foot surgery and we thought if she has to be laying around healing.... then she might as well do it in the mountains. We left on Thursday and spent some time visiting and playing games with those that were there that day. It was so relaxing :) :) :) Some of Gary's kids were unable to make it up until late that night so they had their Thanksgiving dinner planned for Friday instead.

Gary was up bright and early Friday morning (I'm talkin' around 5:30 am) and was getting ready for sledding. The sun had NOT even come up yet and everyone was still sound asleep. He told me that this is the VERY BEST time to go down the hill because you can really get some speed going down, due to the COLDNESS of the morning. LET ME TELL YOU....IT WAS COOOOOLLLLLDDDD! And he was NUTS! But as I saw him zooming down the hill it did look like a lot of fun!

When Howie got up for the morning Gary talked him into joining him for a run down the hill. With the additional weight up front on the sled they were REALLY BOOKIN'. You can hear Howie "hootn' and hollerin' all the way down. The video doesn't really show how fast that they were going but it was SERIOUSLY FAST!!! Gary mentioned that they had so much speed that they traveled down the hill farther than he ever has before! He said Steve is the very best sledding partner :) I have never been up to the cabin in the winter so I had no idea how much fun sledding in this area really was. Their own private road with lots of snow! I only wish I could have joined in on the fun.

As soon as everyone woke up they were bundling up and heading outside to join in.

I have never seen so many coats, boots, gloves, and hats in one place before. It's a big job to get this many kids ready for fun in the snow. They came prepared!
Everyone pitched in to bundle the kids up nice and warm...

Even the little babies went out to sled.....

Stacy and Summer all ready to go....

I actually think the adults were more excited to get outside than the kids. April and I couldn't join in but it was sure fun watching them enjoy the GREAT OUTDOORS!

Gary has a great setup there at his cabin. He has thought of EVERYTHING when it comes to entertaining his grandkids. Besides the fun play areas he has for them in the summer (volleyball court-basketball-swings-horseshoes-pingpong ect.) he has TONS of sleds so that they all can be involved and join in the winter fun. I love the look of excitement on Jack's face as he talks to dad about sledding.I had no idea that Gary's Cabin had such a great hill for sledding. I didn't even think to bring up snow gear so Gary let Steve use some extra gloves, hat, and snow pants. Steve's feet looked cold though! He spent most of the morning without even gloves on. BUUUURRRR! Sorry Howie I wasn't prepared. We'll know better for next time!
I loved to watch how the brothers and sisters played so well together.

They LOVE IT out here!
Summer, Autumn and Annie

Little Summer in the winter!
She looks so big with all of her snow clothes on.

Fun with COUSINS.....

I don't get a chance to see these kids very often and I can't believe how much they have all grown. I loved being up there so that I could get to know them a little better. Such cute kids!

Annie (in the pink coat) was all happy and smiling until her eyes met mine. This girl refuses to smile at me or speak to me. She is probably thinking "WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU HERE!" I don't think I heard her say a single word the entire weekend. She just stares at me and has this look on her face like.....Would you get that stupid camera out of my face!!!!

I love their STYLE of sledding! Instead of using just one sled a piece (like most people do) they put several together and the person on the back sled does all the steering. It makes you go SO much faster that way. It just is a little scary for the person up front who has to rely on the one behind him to steer them safely.

Grandpa "Gary" came down with Lucas in the front sled. The look on that little guy's face was that of sheer terror. They were picking up some pretty good speed. As they passed by I heard one of the kids standing nearby watching say, "I am NOT going to do THAT!"

I situated myself down toward the bottom of the hill to get a better view of those who were coming down. WELL.... Matt and Janie just about "TOOK ME OUT!" Who was steering that sled anyway???? LOOK OUT!

The younger kids go much, much slower down the hill because they have no weight to them. Here Kade was trying really hard to get going. Not much luck!

He finally got going but at a VERY SLOW SPEED! I could go sledding if I was moving that slow :) I wouldn't have to worry about hurting my neck!

Kade.....

Loralee gave a big push for Sage and Annie.

WEEEEEEEE......

As the kids were putt-putting down the hill the adults were still taking runs with the double sleds. Matt came in as I was making breakfast and he was covered with snow. Here he is explaining how they BIFFED it BIG TIME!!! He said that he and his son Jack were going down so fast and as they turned the corner near the bottom of the hill, their sled flipped and Jack went FLYING through the air and landed over by the trees. BUUUURRRRRR. I am glad I am inside where it is nice and WARM!!! They were outside for hours playing. I would just sneak out every once in a while to snap some pictures and videos. I had no snow clothes in fact I don't think I even had a winter coat up there with me. Whar was I thinking???

It was so nice to see all of this QUALITY time spent with family

So many smiles and so much laughter....

Bryan.....

Gary was the BIGGESGT kid of all!

I bet he went down that hill 50 times

in the few days we were up there.

What a fun grandpa!
You can tell the kids really enjoy playing with him!!

Caleb is another kid that would have NOTHING to do with me or with my camera. Unlike Annie who just would stare me down with a "Look of death" when I came near, Caleb would not even look at me. He would turn his head to the side and if I went over to that side he would just turn his body so that I could not even see his face. He's another one who I haven't been around much so he is probably uncomfortable around strangers. BUT HE IS A CUTIE! I tried all day to get him to look at me but most of my shots were of the back of his hat!

One thing that is good about this sleighriding hill is that it is EXTREMELY long but not too steep. You get a LONG ride down and the walk up is not so tough.

Janie and her baby Jersey.....

Janie and Matt even decided to take their little baby girl, Jersey down for a ride. I thought they were ABSOLUTELY CRAZY because I had already experienced Matt's "STEERING ABILITY" when he almost crashed into me earlier. He is also the dad that catipulted his son into the snowbank by the trees with his steering skills. I am AFRAID for poor inocent Jersey!!! Well, they do have her all bundled up nice and cozy with her snowsuit so has plenty of padding in case they crash! :)

The sledding continued the following day....

The kids decided to do some sleigh riding down a smaller hill by the side of the cabin. It was great for them!

Bryan and Caleb.....

Cheryl and Cambri.....

Laralee.....

Christine came to join her kids......

This hill was GREAT because the snow was so deep on the side of the cabin that as they slid down, it made a deep track for the sled to slide on.

There were two tracks side by side so they were able to have races to see who would reach the bottom the fastest. I love what one of the boys said in this video as he was going down......"OH YEAH, Now that's what I am talkin about!!! " They were having a ball!

Gary came over to watch his grandkids for a while but I don't think he went down this teeny little hill. It is much too small for HIM! He is into SPEED!!!!

Perfect for the little ones though....

When I was heading back in from taking pictures I found Kathryn washing the windows on the door. HEY...get out there and have some fun!!! Now that I think about it I didn't see her much outside at all. Maybe she is not a "snowbunny" or maybe I just didn't see her.

While the parents played the babies slept.

See my cute baby, April sound asleep!

She was in so much pain from her foot surgery she had just the week before, that all she could do was lay around and sleep. Lots of drugs to help with the pain. Poor girl!

My sweet sister-in-law, Marie and her granddaughter Summer...

Summer awake and ready to play...

With three days up at the cabin I got a lot of pictures and videos of sledding and playing outside. It makes it seem like that is all we did up there. NOT SO.....We had a TON of fun playing in the warm cozy cabin together.

My favorite part was watching the kids interact with each other.

Big smiles.......

Annie enjoyed the whip cream from her crepes....

Looks like her nose did too!

Jersey has a deer in the headlight look.......

Gary and Marie have a lot of toys up at the cabin to keep the kids entertained.

They loved the Fiddlestix (or tinkertoys if you are old like me). If you notice that Summer is NOT happy in this picture. She loves to climb stairs and they have blocked the STEEP stairway area. It is not safe to have her climbing those stairs....It's NOT safe having ME climb those stairs.!!! They are the ones I fell down TWICE the last time we were here visiting with Steve's family. VERY DANGEROUS!!! (OR maybe I am just a huge CLUTZ!)

Jersey was really struggling to be happy without her mom! She would crawl around the cabin and find her and hang on her leg and cry. She is a mommy's girl that's for sure! I was able to calm her down a bit with some of the toys they had there.

Christine and Kade.....

The boys enjoying the Wii System......

Gary and Steve playing the airplane game. Gary was pretty good at it. They were fun to watch because he would get behind Howie's plane and BOMB AWAY!!! He would come out of NO WHERE! The Wii is just as much fun to watch those playing it, as it is to actually be playing the game yourself. Very entertaining. Lots of laughs :)

Creed, who is Matt and Janie's son would play it all by himself when nobody was around. I would find him jumping up and down over in the corner as he played. He loooked like a Mexican Jumping Bean or something. He would get so excited as he played and it was really fun to watch.

Matt came over to challenge him. Here in this video Matt is warning his son...."YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR MY SKILLS!" Creed is pretty good Matt, you better not be too confident there! That little whipper-snapper could teach you a thing or two when it comes to the Wii.

It was funny to watch how QUICKLY Creed was able to CREAM his dad :) Matt was pleading his case saying...."HEY....I WAS JUST GETTING STARTED!!!!!" Poor excuse Matt! (this video didn't download all the way but you can still see how excited Creed was from CREAMING his dad. Hey Matt... Didn't you just BARELY say that he was NO MATCH FOR YOUR SKILLS? :0)

Okay, I have to admit, Matt does have a bit of a disadvantage. He is holding his baby, Jersey as he is trying to "DEFEND HIS HONOR". He sure had to work hard to beat Creed in this sword fight game. It ends up that Matt did win but it was a TOUGH BATTLE :) :) :) Matt is a FUN dad!

The kids playing card games with Grandma.....

Fun board games.....

Howie playing with Cambri.....

This picture is blury but I think she is so stinkin' cute!

BIG BEAUTIFUL EYES!

Her brother Caleb is the one who refused to even look at me the day before. So I had to sneak some pictures of him playing without him knowing.

I had noticed how focused he was on playing with this toy and he had his little tongue hanging out.

I wanted to get a picture of him looking up, but he refused.

His mom was nearby and he just pointed over to me like...."WOULD YOU GET HER OUTTA HERE SO I CAN PLAY IN PEACE?"

His mom told him to smile for me and this is the look I got! It looks like he is thinking...."OKAY, ARE YA HAPPY NOW? HERE LADY, TAKE MY PICTURE ALREADY AND LET ME GET BACK TO PLAYING!"

Gotta love that little tongue :)

Very CUTE boy!

When Christine came up on Thursday her car could not make it up the hill so Saturday all of the guys got together to push it out of the snowdrifts.

I think Bryan thinks it is a sled or something and he's taking it for a ride down to the gate. Hang on tight!!!!

Stacey had to leave early because of that STICKER in her window!

YEP she was heading off to go watch the BYU -UTAH game. In fact most of us were planning to head out Saturday afternoon so that we could make it home in time for the BIG GAME. Can ya tell who she is rooting for?

Gary has a tradition that each time his family gathers together at the cabin they do a little dancing fun with a music CD he has. Maybe they do it when they are at home too, but I just assumed it was a "CABIN" tradition because I saw him do it the last time the Robinson's came up and it was hilarious. My brother is a NUT and the grand kids love it!

Gary started off with the YMCA song.

Next it was time for the HOKEY POKEY....

I love the Hokey Pokey! It always makes me laugh. Of course I needed to get a video of Howie and Gary shaking their bootie! WooooHoooo! SHAKE IT!!!!

This blog post makes it look like I was just taking pictures and videos the whole time throughout our trip to the cabin. NOT SO! I was playing, dancing and acting like a FOOL just like the rest of 'em. I would stop just long enough to snap a few picts or a few seconds of video and then I was back at it. Luckily none of my dancing was caught on tape. NOW THAT WOULD BE SCARY :)

Limbo was next on his agenda....

How low can you go????

We used April's Crutch for the Limbo stick. Some of them are really flexible. I loved their creativity as they tried to figure out how to bend low enough to make it under the crutch.

The adults as well as the kids gave it a try.

Fun times....Fun Memories!

Look at Summer go!

She can barely walk and she is the Limbo Champion.

The last little activity he did was THE BLUE MAN GROUP song. I was TOTALLY BUMMED out because my memory card on my camera was filled up and I wanted to capture it on video. I had seen Gary do it last year and I laughed so hard. It was the first time I actually saw Gary really loosen up and act crazy. He has always been my BIG BROTHER. Very reserved and quiet as far as I knew. I was always the loud, CRAZY one. I love this side of him that I never knew existed.

So this teeny tiny video clip probably does not seem funny to anyone unless you have watched the entire show. I don't even know how to explain it but it REALLY CRACKS ME UP! BIG TIME!!!! This music starts playing and there is some guy speaking (in a very monotone voice) that tells you different "rock concert movements". You follow along and dance to the music. VERY FUN! But as I was starting to tape it, my camera shut off. CRAP!!! Oh well you can see it starts with this simple "head bob" move. Then it progresses from there.

Howie jumped up and drummed along with Gary, as I was frantically trying to find another memory card or delete some unwanted pictures. I don't know why the memory card was full in the first place. IT'S NOT LIKE I TAKE A LOT OF PICTURES OR ANYTHING!!!! ha ha ha :) One day I will have to have Gary do it again so I can get the entire dance on film. SO SO funny!

I love my brother and his family so much. We have really had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with them. It was so nice to see him relaxing and having a great time with his kids and his grandkids.

To my brother Gary and his wife Marie.....Thanks!

Just a side note.....

My mom had told me a week or so before Thanksgiving that Gary was very sick. He had just had some tests done at the doctors and it was NOT good news. I called Gary to find out what was going on and he told me that he had CTCL. A very rare disease that only 5 out of every one million people have. He told me that they don't know much about this disease as far as how you contract it or what causes it.

When I heard the news I was so worried and actually sickened by the idea that my big brother was so ill. I didn't know anything about the disease so I went online and googled it. I actually felt worse after researching it a bit. NOT GOOD NEWS on the internet. But there is hope. He is getting treatments right now and I think he is tolerating them just fine. I think it's a blessing that the doctors caught it quickly.

I hope he doesn't mind that I just announced this on my blog. I don't think it is a secret. Well I hope not. Please pray for him!!! Faith and Prayers of others make MIRACLES happen! I love him with all of my heart and I hate to think about him going through all of this crap!

I think this trip up to the cabin was a great break and a chance to just have some "GOOD OLE FUN!" Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to reflect on all of the blessings I have in my life. FAMILY is way on top of that list.

I really enjoyed our Thanksgiving weekend spent with Howie, April, and Gary's family. Wonderful time spent with those I love and care for deeply. I am so thankful to have a sweet husband who makes me feel so very loved. I have a LOT to be thankful for this year. Even though times have been tough for a lot of family members and friends, LIFE IS GOOD! Those trials are tough but as long as I have my famiy and husband.....WE CAN CONQUER ALL!